SO I put a cylinder head on the 535i over the past couple days. Was just buttoning it all up after a day of putting shit back on the car (always takes longer putting it back together than taking it apart) when I noticed one of the studs for the valve cover was missing. Front, upper one, to be exact. So I get two 10mm nuts, run them onto a stud on the old head and remove the stud. Take it to the new head, one the engine, torqued down, etc, and install the stud.
In taking the top nut off the stud, it slips and drops down the timing chain cover. I invented new expletives Sunday night. Probably should have gone to church that morning. It was bad.
So I get whatever else I can done on the car, exhaust, cooling system, etc together and go home, utterly pissed I hadn't had the foresight to put a rag over the timing cover, as I did when I had the head off.
So I got myself prepared to drop the oil pan, and do the front crank seal, etc while it was all apart. In a vain attempt to get the nut, I pulled the oil level sensor and poked around with a magnet to no avail. So I took a rubber mallet and knocked around on the pan to see if I could hear it in there....nothing.
I don't know why, but I went back topside and got my light and looked into the timing cover. Couldn't see it. Then I took the chain tensioner out and the oil around it drained out of the hole.
OH MY FUCK I AM THE LUCKIEST MAN ALIVE!
That little nut was sitting right there, under the tensioner, in a shallow pool of old oil.
I didn't have a magnet small enough to get down there, so I took a small steel rod, basically what is used in a filing cabinet, and magnetized the end of it. Reached down in there and carefully plucked the nut from the edge of the abyss. You could have heard a pin drop on the dirt floor behind me.
So, got that out, slammed it all together, went to start it annnnd...
....I left the fucking keys at home.
Moral of the story?
ANYTIME you're doing ANYTHING with the valve cover off, cover that hole where the timing chain is.
Also, leave the key to the cars on your lift in the car. Don't take them home.
TLDR: Dropped my nut into a large hole, but got it back with a sharp steel rod I rubbed all over a magnet.
In taking the top nut off the stud, it slips and drops down the timing chain cover. I invented new expletives Sunday night. Probably should have gone to church that morning. It was bad.
So I get whatever else I can done on the car, exhaust, cooling system, etc together and go home, utterly pissed I hadn't had the foresight to put a rag over the timing cover, as I did when I had the head off.
So I got myself prepared to drop the oil pan, and do the front crank seal, etc while it was all apart. In a vain attempt to get the nut, I pulled the oil level sensor and poked around with a magnet to no avail. So I took a rubber mallet and knocked around on the pan to see if I could hear it in there....nothing.
I don't know why, but I went back topside and got my light and looked into the timing cover. Couldn't see it. Then I took the chain tensioner out and the oil around it drained out of the hole.
OH MY FUCK I AM THE LUCKIEST MAN ALIVE!
That little nut was sitting right there, under the tensioner, in a shallow pool of old oil.
I didn't have a magnet small enough to get down there, so I took a small steel rod, basically what is used in a filing cabinet, and magnetized the end of it. Reached down in there and carefully plucked the nut from the edge of the abyss. You could have heard a pin drop on the dirt floor behind me.
So, got that out, slammed it all together, went to start it annnnd...
....I left the fucking keys at home.
Moral of the story?
ANYTIME you're doing ANYTHING with the valve cover off, cover that hole where the timing chain is.
Also, leave the key to the cars on your lift in the car. Don't take them home.
TLDR: Dropped my nut into a large hole, but got it back with a sharp steel rod I rubbed all over a magnet.
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