Cylinder head work

[Car Addict]

Alright I am planning on doing some work on the head this spring, and am wondering about how I am going to remove the camshafts.

I ask because when I first got the car I replaced some of the hydraulic lifters that were blown and ticking like a bastard. Back then, I had a friend who worked at BMW and borrowed the special $1400 tool for the weekend so even pressure could be applied. Unfortunately, my friend has since moved, and now I am looking at replacing the rest of the lifters and some other parts.

Spark notes
How do you remove M42 camshafts without special tool 11 3 260 and without snapping the camshafts?

I am also upgrading a lot of my bushing to Powerflex polyurethane. Any bushings that would be better if they were replaced with new rubber bushings rather than urethane? This car is my DD in the summer and is driven "spirited" and Auto-x'd every once in a while.

[Dj Buttchug]

I removed mine without that tool and had no issues at all. Just remove the cam retainers slowly and in such an order that does not cause stress on one end of the cam.

[Massimo]

My procedure.

1: Lock Fly Wheel.
2: Remove Cam Cover
3: Remove Chain Tensioner.
4: Mark position of Cam gears on cams.
5: Zip tie and Remove cam gears
6: undo nuts at a quater turn at a time

Basicaly if you loosen the nuts a quater turn at a time not one at a time you can take the cam out with out breaking it.

[rjcaptsean]

That will work, but it will take forever.

1) Rotate one cam so that the lobes for the number one (front) cylinder are pointing down and compressing those lifters. At that point you will notice that the other three cylinder lobes are not touching the lifters. They are "unloaded", meaning that there is no pressure on them.

2) Get something to hold the cam in this position so it doesn't slip off of the first lifters. A crescent wrench held by a partner or even yourself can accomplish this.

3) You can then remove all of the nuts normally, EXCEPT the nuts on the carrier in between the lobes for cylinder 1. So the back three caps and the cap directly behind the cam gear.

4) This leaves the cap between the lobes for cyl 1 which you then remove by turning each 1/4 turn at a time. You will slowly back them off and they will be under pressure and not come off until they almost run out of threads.

5) To reinstall, reverse this procedure, although you may have to remove the first two lifters and push the middle of them in so that you have a little room to play with to get the nuts started.

There is a great write up in the Pelican Parts book regarding the M50 cams and it is the same principle for the M42.