Good work, find any chain slop or other problems while you were in there?
Good work, find any chain slop or other problems while you were in there?
In reply to Billy_Bottle_Caps:
I found a Behr radiator dated 2013, a made in china overflow bottle, a lower rad hose with the part tag still affixed, and a water pump with metal impeller. 
I also found the coolant tubes RTV'd to the water pump, so they pulled out of the engine when I removed the pump. :-(
As far as the chains go, I compared the length of the old chain vs new: the difference was less than 2 mm per 500 mm. Then I checked the entire length of the old chain for burrs by pulling it through my thumb and index finger. no burrs. I looked at the crank gear and it seems like the teeth are kind of pointy, so I decided to run the old chain since it's match-worn to the existing gears. I might hate myself later, but I've heard that the chains are quite robust so I think it's a low risk choice.
Hmmm, the pix looked great on my phone but a couple of them are rotated when viewing on desktop. weird.
You made that look so easy! A verified completed timing chain guide job was the selling point for me on buying our E38.
In reply to Strike_Zero:
It was not difficult, really, but you're looking at the fruit of about 24 hours of labor. I spent a lot of time cleaning along the way, and had to endure the scorn of a coworker who is a former flat-rate tech. "Rip that berkeleyer apart, slap that bitch back together, and pressure wash it when it's done!" was his advice. I think I've got another 4-6 hours to go. I also think the next one will take about 6 hours less.
She's alive! And she's quiet! I have a small coolant leak where the upper rad hose meets the water pump. Gonna replace the hose. Also have a little bit of belt squeal at start-up, so I need to look up how to set belt preload without the BMW tool (I assume there is a BMW tool, and I assume there is a workaround).
I would starve as a flat rate tech. I've got about 40 hours in it so far, and someone told me dealer book is 35 hours. :-(
Well done ! That is a ton of time though.
In reply to Billy_Bottle_Caps:
Two solid weekends of my life. :-(
So, I'm killing time in the airport and realized I owe you some details of the reassembly.
With the crank pinned at #1 TDC and the cams blocked in place, the old chain is removed so the old guides can be removed. Then the new guides are bolted in place and the chain is reinstalled. With the chain in place, the new tensioner is installed and takes all the slack out of the passenger side of the chain. But, since there is a little bit of chain stretch and a little bit of gear tooth wear, there is slack in the driver's side of the chain, and this is bad. But do not fear, for the Germans, being German, have thought of this and slotted the holes in the intake cam gears. Loosen all six bolts in each intake cam gear, and the force from the tensioner rotates both cam gears CCW so all slack is pulled to the passenger side. Tighten the cam gear bolts, and all is good.
I spent a bunch of time cleaning all the old parts that are going back on. I don't mind wearing gloves to take something apart, but I try to get everything clean enough that gloves are not required for assembly.
With that done, the first challenge was figuring out exactly how to get the coolant tubes inserted in the crossover at the back of the engine. Turns out it's not so hard, just smear a little grease on the tip and it slides right in.
Then I installed the water pump. Took a bit of fiddling to get both coolant tubes and the alignment sleeve/dowel and the gasket lined up, but I made it work. . Sorry, no pic, didn't have enough hands.
Then I removed the water pump because it blocks access to one of the bolts for the driver's side upper timing cover. I was so anxious about the water pump install that I skipped the timing cover step. 
.
No more pix until the almost-finished product. The OE valve cover paint was badly blistered and flaking off, so I wire-wheeled it all off and shot the VCs with some VHT black wrinkle paint, which is a decent match for the finish of the coil covers.
And as a courtesy to some future owner, I used a red paint pen to write on the passenger side upper timing cover: date, mileage, and parts replaced.
But I'm a dumb-ass, so I can't install the coil covers until my new gaskets arrive, because after telling myself several times "don't throw those away, they are totally reusable." I did what? Say it with me: Threw them away!
And with that, she's all together and in daily driver mode as I figure out what else to fix before the for sale ads go up. She's been named "Anna Nicole Smith" because she's big and sexy, with a few bumps and bruises, past her prime but still DTF. But you gotta be willing to roll the dice. ;-)
AngryCorvair wrote: "...just smear a little grease on the tip and it slides right in."
Quoted for posterity. 
Nice work on the repair. What's next on the list?
In reply to Mezzanine:
Yesterday Anna threw a CEL for P0308. Since she's coil-on-plug, I did a double swap: plug swap with #6, coil swap with #7. Naturally, the fault didn't repeat, so for now it appears to have been a stack-up of two components plus whatever contribution from the operating conditions.
She runs and drives really well, so it's down to detailing and a couple small electrical fixes. The power sunshade in the back glass doesn't work, and the rear windows only open when the door key is held in unlock, so I'm swapping out the master switch assembly in the driver's door.
Good news / bad news. First the good: turns out the rear windows do go up and down on their individual switches, but they don't respond to the switches in the driver's door. Oh well.
Now the bad: after dropping my daughter at school yesterday, this happened:
Fortunately I was only a mile from home so no permanent damage was done. After some careful sleuthing around, I found this:
That's a heater hose on the back of the engine doing its best impersonation of a Venus Fly Trap. I don't think even Blue Devil is gonna be much help.
So I went to realoem.com and got part numbers for all the heater hoses, and found the best prices on all of them at FCPEuro.com. For $71 with shipping, I'm getting all four heater hoses plus the upper rad hose and the expansion tank hose, plus the rubber mounts for the oil filter housing. Parts should be here Thursday.
In other news, I scored the missing piece of trim for below the right side headlight and a passenger side hood latch from a local parts car. And my instrument cluster ribbon cable and replacement bulbs came in, so I have all I need to take a DIY swing at fixing my dead pixel issue. I will document that process in another post.
I found a link to a program someone setup that searchs all of the major bmw parts people for a bmw part number and returns what the price for each is.
Had no idea it existed prior. http://www.bmwpnpc.com/about/
That should help you out some.
I'd be careful with that motor. The 6 cylinders are notorious for warping the head the moment you see steam coming out the hood...
still on track for a sale? after the work/parts/ER trip can you still turn a profit?
best looking 7 series ever. Now I'm searching CList.
In reply to onemanarmy:
Don't search CL, you already know where to find the best one out there! ;-) Canton MI 48187
Parts are here, so tonight I will replace hoses and bleed cooling system, then I will DD it next week while I finish cleaning, replace the IP ribbon cable, etc. my goal is to list next Friday.
Heater hose replacement wasn't too bad, but after doing everything in the shop at work for the last 1.5 years, I didn't really enjoy working in my own garage. :-(.
There are four hoses in the heater system. The exploded hose was the supply from engine to control valve. Then, because dual zone, there are two hoses from control valve to heater core inlets. The heater core halves share an outlet, so the last hose is from heater core outlet back to engine. I purchased all four molded hoses, plus upper rad hose and expansion tank hose, for about $65 shipped from FCP Euro.
Above you can see the control valve (one outlet already disconnected) as well as the three connections at the firewall. I started with this hose because it's basically the first layer of the onion, so removing it gave me access to the next one. It was very swollen and much more squishy than the replacement, and probably wouldn't have lived much longer.
That's what the inside of a really old heater hose looks like. She blowed up good.
The rest of the job was just peeling back the onion, although I did have to use a mirror to see the connections at the back of the engine.
After replacing all the hoses I refilled the system with 50/50, bled the air out, and verified leak-free operation. I'm still DD'ing her to shake out the bugs. I've put close to 1k miles on her since doing the timing job, and she hasn't used a drop of oil. Still running great, and on our pretty warm Sunday I learned that the A/C blows cold.
Next up: low-buck wheel restoration.
This car has the desirable staggered 18" M-Parallel wheels from a 740i Sport package car, but the two on the rear have seen better days. I don't know what they were exposed to, but the clearcoat is compromised in several areas and there is black aluminum oxide and minor pitting in some of these areas. Here is one such area:
The Google told me that vinegar is good for removing oxidation from aluminum, so I used vinegar and a variety of papers from 60- up to 800-grit to wet-sand the bad areas. For my effort, I was rewarded with this:
So I made my way around the lower half of the rim using the same process until all bad spots were done. Then I hit it with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, Polish, and Wax, and it came out like this:
One of these days I will finish this rim, then probably shoot it with a satin clear for protection. Im afraid that gloss clear will be too blingy, and not very OE. This is really the last big thing before she goes up for sale.
Our more eagle-eyed readers might have noticed in the steamy shot above that there's a piece of body-colored trim missing from below the passenger side headlights. Not any more! Found a guy parting out a silver '97 so grabbed this and the hood latch and another piece for $30 shipped.
Great tips on the wheels. Thanks for the write up.
I love these cars. I just don't want to upkeep one, though I could at this point.
The valve covers on the motor seem to enjoy leaking at regular intervals, though the cooling system is also problematic. The valley pan gasket likes to leak and of course all plastic parts on the system like to decay. Once you get any air in there the water pump blows up pretty quickly.
I'm assuming you swapped out the plugs and boots when you did the valve cover gasket?
Valve cover gaskets are pretty easy to change on this car. IDK about their longevity yet, and don't plan to keep it long enough to learn about it. ;-)
I don't know about the valley pan either, seems like it's a "while you're in there" item but this is my first M62 so I could be wrong. Mine is not leaking.
Cooling system plastic appears to be a consumable item on BMWs and not limited to these cars or this engine family. Water pump felt good and is a newer part with metal impeller.
Plugs and boots looked fine so I did not replace them. It is a trivial exercise on this car, which leaves the new owner with an easy opportunity to earn sweat equity.
So, you buying or what?
Good progress, I'm sure your heart skipped a small beat when that steam started coming out. How much more do you have to take care of on it before it's ready to put up for sale?
AngryCorvair wrote: Valve cover gaskets are pretty easy to change on this car.
Relative to a Miata or other German cars? Cause it usually takes a day to swap them IIRC.
Harvey wrote:AngryCorvair wrote: Valve cover gaskets are pretty easy to change on this car.Relative to a Miata or other German cars? Cause it usually takes a day to swap them IIRC.
If it takes a day, you're doing it wrong.
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