R&R cylinder heads of M62TU engine in the car (BMW E39 540i)

[BimmerBreaker]

If you struggle so much to even remove the head in the first place how do you hope to install it without damaging the mating surfaces?

Just remove the motor. Once you do it you'll realize how easy it was. You'll spend way more work doing this the hard way with it in the car than if you just removed it

[seabass07]

Is it really that much harder on the passenger side? Getting the head off on the driver's side was easy. Unbolt the mount and jack the engine up and there's plenty of room to remove exhaust manifold bolts. Although I already had everything off for the timing chain job.

A trick for bolting the exhaust manifold back up... Lower the engine back on the mount and contort your hands in the gap to hand tighten the nuts. Everything will line up nicely with the engine down. Then jack the engine back up with the manifold hand tightened and torque the nuts.

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You figured it out??? All the questions you’ve been asking, the obvious answers being given, you’re getting all kinds of spoon feedings, suddenly, you figured it all out…. Jeezuz, who do you think you are? Joe Brandon?

You know, you could have just not posted this. All you had to do was grab a beer a chill tf out.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Is it really that much harder on the passenger side? Getting the head off on the driver's side was easy. Unbolt the mount and jack the engine up and there's plenty of room to remove exhaust manifold bolts. Although I already had everything off for the timing chain job.

A trick for bolting the exhaust manifold back up... Lower the engine back on the mount and contort your hands in the gap to hand tighten the nuts. Everything will line up nicely with the engine down. Then jack the engine back up with the manifold hand tightened and torque the nuts.

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You know, you could have just not posted this. All you had to do was grab a beer a chill tf out.

Well Seabass, if you knew the whole story, you would understand. This goes way beyond, outside this thread. Our good pal, the Chedster has been known to pass some real sketchy info to many others on these pages. I’ll just leave it at that. You be the judge. Do some searches, maybe you will see what I’m talking about, and understand why.

[Chedley]

@Seabass07 ---> Thanks for the tips , well noted. FYI, I did remove the heads on the passenger side. It is the drivers side that is giving me headaches. It is still connected to the front lower timing cover by some screw, and I do not want to break additional thing.

Anyway, I moved now to remove the front lower timing cover.

[JimLev]

Sure you have all 10 head bolts out?
It could be getting stuck on an alignment pin or maybe the head gasket is stuck??

[Chedley]

My damper used bolts, not torx.
For the dipstick, have you removed 13 and 14? They are on the pass side of the upper oil pan.

Forgot the link….
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=11_1656

Thanks for the info.

Well, today I removed that screw 13 and horseshoe 14 -- man they were really hidden, and submerged in dirt and gunk accumulated over 20+ years, so it was a bit hard to find them. And the dipstick came out sliding.

The vibration damper on my car uses Torx-45 bolts. Removed them and will be replaced by regular 10 mm hex bolts.

Now to the front lower timing cover : How many bolts does that thing has ? I loosened 9 x 10 mm bolts, and 3 X13 mm bolts. So I loosened a total of 12 bolts- But have not pulled the cover yet. I am wondering if there are any additional hidden bolts holding it, or sealing it to the upper oil pan ??
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=11_7547
Will tackle it tomorrow in daylight -- I do not have good lighting in my garage at night!!.

About the head on the driver side: Yes, all 10 bolts and washers are out of the head on the drivers side. Maybe its head gasket is stuck. But Where/which alignment pin are you alluding to ? and how to release it ??

[JimLev]

Don’t forget to get these from inside the lower oil pan.
Hope you have a crank holder to keep the crank from turning when you remove the crank flange 27mm bolt so you don’t bend the crank lock pin.

4220D8F8-0331-4168-8633-FD511675C3E2.jpeg

[Chedley]

OK..Makes sense..so to remove the lower timing cover, those 6 bolts have to come out from under the oil pan.

Is the crank holder included in the timing tools kit , or should I find or make one ?? I have not inserted any lock pin yet...,

[JimLev]

Yup remove the 6 hex head bolts.
There are dowel pins on the lower portion of the block that align the lower timing cover. The cover can be hard to pull straight out. I get under the car and use a big screwdriver and hammer down low on the lower edge of the cover to tap each side to remove it.
You’ll need to get a 2-3’ piece of angle iron and make a crank holder.
The flange bolt is torqued to 300 ft-lbs.

[seagreen323i]

I just used 6th gear and the brakes. That's how I loosened and torqued mine. I will make my life 10 times harder before I crack and buy ANOTHER specialty tool. I already got a special tool and it's between my ears. Emphasis on the special part

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

[JimLev]

Chedley has an automatic. Do you think the parking pawl and the brakes will hold it?
Might be risky.

[wagons ho]

Automatic, so no mechanical connection to anything. Converter is not hooked up if not running.
Needs to make a hub holder to crack it loose.

Here's mine. Angle iron just wasn't enough to hold them.20221020_153056.jpg

[JimLev]

Doh, forgot about that, thanks Wagons.

[Chedley]

Here is the hub holder I will be using, courtesy of a member of bimmerforums-e39.
Locking-tool.jpg
Also, I finally got that drivers side head out. The head gasket and the pins were stuck, and as the engine was unbalanced because I have removed the right head, and the front of the car is on jackstands....It needed some persuasion with a pry bar.
It is much better shape than the bank-1 side, relatively clean, and surely has no sign of bent valves.
Head-bank-2.JPG

The lower timing cover is still holding -- I unscrewed a total of 19 bolts, including 6 bolts from under the oil pan.

[JimLev]

Your going to take the heads to a machine shop, right?

[Chedley]

Yes, definitely, for cleaning, resurfacing and checking the valves anyway...and removing one stuck spark plug.
2-heads-out.jpg
I will clean up the top of the cylinders myself this week-end, with the rest of the engine after removing the lower timing cover.

[R Shaffner]

Chedley, I want to confirm something. Above you showed a pic of the crank tool you "will be using," and then you said the lower cam cover wouldn't budge. You know you have to use the tool to loosen and remove the Jesus bolt, and remove the balancer hub, before removing the LTC, right?

[JimLev]

Chedley, you need to have the shop do a valve job on those heads.
Pretty sure a while ago you said one bank failed the leak down test.

Here's a couple of things for you to check. These control oil flow.

In the top corner of each bank pull out this check valve and make sure it's clean.
BlockCV_2.JPG

Then in the front of the heads make sure these are clean. (Also remove them before you bring the heads to the shop so they don’t lose them)
Cam_21b.JPG

[Chedley]

@JimLev--> I see the check valves and fat O-ring in the front of the heads, and am removing them before taking the heads to the machine shop. But I see no check valve in the top corner of the bank (in your first pic above). Am I missing something.

@R.Shaffner --> I have removed the vibration damper, but have not touched the hub holder or the Jesus bolt yet.

[JimLev]

See #7, this link is for my ‘00 540. The check valve prevents the oil in the heads from draining back when the engine is shut off.
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=11_1525

Just looked at my block again and this pic doesn’t show the check valve.
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=11_7487

The engine in the pic above is a ‘99.

Very interesting, I just looked up your ‘01 540. There are pics of 2 blocks.
This one has the CV. Looks like it’s inside of the alignment pin.
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=11_1525


And this one doesn’t show the CV, however it is listed in the parts list, same p/n too.
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=11_7487

Chedley, do you have a hole in the block where a check valve could go?

Wagons, what do you have to add, you must have stripped more tu engines than me.

[wagons ho]

I've never seen a m62 variant without a check valve.

CV won't be in the dowel location as the head bolt goes through it.

The rubber sleeve can stick to the head gasket on removal, and get lost.

And chedley, do not scrape the block surface!!!
Lacquer thinner or solvent only to remove the gasket black residue.
Any nicks in block deck will prevent MLS head gasket from floating on expansion and contraction.
Yes, the gasket moves even when clamped.
20ft lbs plus 80° twice is only 62 ft lbs of final torque. Gasket requires aluminum block expansion to reach operating torque load.

( This is why ARP head studs don't work on bmw all aluminum motors.
That comment is for those who care, of no use to cheds repair )

[Chedley]

Wagons Ho, thanks for the tips. So, I should use only solvent or lacquer thinner to clean the head surface.

....
Chedley, do you have a hole in the block where a check valve could go?
.....

No, there are no holes. But there are 4 small wells -about 1/2 inch deep- on the 4 corners of each head.

corner-head.jpg

Also, that fat green O-ring is only on the head of bank-1 (passenger side). Do I have to replace it ?

And it looks like the power steering pump has to come out too, to allow the removal of the front lower timing cover....What a joy ? I might as well replace it too, or at least clean service it.

[R Shaffner]

Wagons Ho, thanks for the tips. So, I should use only solvent or lacquer thinner to clean the head surface.


No, there are no holes. But there are 4 small wells -about 1/2 inch deep- on the 4 corners of each head.

corner-head.jpg

Also, that fat green O-ring is only on the head of bank-1 (passenger side). Do I have to replace it ?

And it looks like the power steering pump has to come out too, to allow the removal of the front lower timing cover....What a joy ? I might as well replace it too, or at least clean service it.

Might be wrong, but I think you can just loosen the PS pump and let it hang out of the way.

[JimLev]

You can let the PS pump hang. If it’s working OK you don’t need to replace it.
If the green o-ring is proud of the surface you can re-use it if you want.
The oriface behind that o-ring is the source of oil for the famous “chain tensioner”, which is why it’s only on bank 1.

Again, post bigger pics. How about a pic of the block where the check valve is suppose to be?

[Chedley]

So here is the front of bank-2 (driver side) bloc, you can see a hole where that check valve is supposed to be ?! But no such hole on bank-1 (passenger side).

Front -bank-2-bloc.JPG

Now to the fun part --

Chedley, I want to confirm something. Above you showed a pic of the crank tool you "will be using," and then you said the lower cam cover wouldn't budge. You know you have to use the tool to loosen and remove the Jesus bolt, and remove the balancer hub, before removing the LTC, right?

@R.Shaffner --> Yes I got it. Thanks. But other than using that tool to counter hold the unscrewing of the Jesus bolt, what would use to remove the Jesus bolt : a high powered impact gun, or a big breaker bar, or... ?

Also, it looks like that I have to remove or at least detach the transmission oil cooler from the water-cooled alternator case, that is part of the LTC (lower timing cover). How best to tackle that ??
After removing all the 19 bolts on the LTC -- (alternator, water pump and power steering pump bolts not included, but removed) the LTC comes out an inch or so, but it is blocked by the Jesus bolt, and the transmission oil cooler.