First time valve adjustment

[phillye30fanboy]

Doing my first valve adjustment (of my soon to be life long relationship) with my 1988 325 super eta. Curious as to how to turn the camshaft, one article said to jack up on of the rear wheels and turn it and the camshaft should turn?? Tried that, NOPE!

Help would be appreciated ASAP. Preferably layman's terms.
That stupid fan being so close doesn't help either, I took the cover of the area where the spark plug boot connect to, spark plugs are removed as well.





Thanks
Dan

[uuc328]

try a different gear
are you sure the parking brake isn't set?

[phillye30fanboy]

Automatic, and tried all gears. Absolutely positive the parking brake is not set.

Idk where this 22mm crankshaft bolt is.... :(

[uuc328]

center of the crank pulley
remove the fan clutch and you'll see it

[dnguyen1963]

You cannot move the rear wheel of an automatic. Remove the fan shroud and fan. There is only one 22 mm nut in that area. You cannot miss it.

[phillye30fanboy]

Removing this fan looks like hell from what I've looked at DIY wise online.

[uuc328]

the fan has reverse threads
ive use thin bike wrench, it's 32mm IIRC
1 1/4 should also work

[SmokeE30]

Removing the fan is not that hard just most people don't have a 32mm wrech laying around, the pliers in the factory tool kit are sized perfectly to do this but you can getuxh more leverage with a longer wrench

[jlevie]

It isn't necessary to remove the fan to turn the crank via the crank bolt. You can reach the crank bolt from the bottom.

[mcr_driver]

This ^

Means you have to jack up the car but meh. But it looks like you want to pull the fan clutch off anyways and replace some things in front of the engine as well...

Good luck and your best bet is to look at a few youtube video's to get a good idea of how it's done. Did that for my first valve job and it went smoothly.

[e30construction]

go from the bottem..much easier..all u gotta take off is the splash cover and u dont even have to jack the car up

[iwantspeed]

The big bolt on the front of the engine is what everyone here is trying to describe and it can be reached from below.
if turning it seems to diffcult you can remove the spark plugs. although i have never have needed to do this.

[FLG]

Also might want to get that coolant tube checked out, looks to be badly rusted and possibly have a hole in it?

[phillye30fanboy]

Also might want to get that coolant tube checked out, looks to be badly rusted and possibly have a hole in it?

Thanks for pointing that out to me, I might hold off on the valve adjustment for a little and go full out and do a timing belt/water pump replacement w/ valve adjustment and had the intention of replacing my coolant holes and everything.

[sweet6e30]

just make sure that the eccentric and valve you are adjusting has the cam loab pointing down, remember the engine sits at a tilt so make sure the loab follows the plum line of the block. turn the crank to position the cam loeb one valve at a time making your way to the rear of the head. use your feeler guage and adjust as per spec.