E46 VANOS Rebuild Options

[4bangerfury]

Seems like tradition. Attempt to fix one thing, find a worse problem lurking. Changing the valve cover gasket in the E46, luckily I noticed this at the front of the engine:


No idea how long it's been like that, surprised it hasn't grenaded itself with one of the bolts sitting in the bottom of the head and the rest way too close to the upper timing chain. I was looking at this kit (https://www.ecstuning.com/b-race-ger.../rgdvnsdk~rgm/) as well as some replacement hardware and an upper timing chain. Probably adding lower timing chain and all the front case seals while i'm in there.

Is that a good kit for the VANOS rebuild, or should I stick to OEM?

[TobyB]

Get the Besian parts. ECS sux, Raj was a good guy, by all accounts.

https://www.e46fanatics.com

And then stuff that M54 into an E30 and come over to the dark side with us.

t

[4bangerfury]

Get the Besian parts. ECS sux, Raj was a good guy, by all accounts.

https://www.e46fanatics.com

And then stuff that M54 into an E30 and come over to the dark side with us.

t

Will check out the Besian option.

The dark side will have to wait a bit longer, but there's an M54B30 long block in the garage waiting for a rebuild and an E30 waiting for a new engine.

Also, have some more pics of where the screws ended up:

[TobyB]

Damn.

That could... have been a lot worse.
I've only had a few M54s apart, and the VANOS bolts were still tight.
Is it possible that someone had been in there before?

t

[4bangerfury]

It's very possible someone's been in there before, because it was me about 4 years ago. Cover plate bolts were torqued according to these instructions:


Doesn't say to use loctite, but it probably can't hurt this time around. Maybe an excuse for a torque wrench upgrade as well...