It's a pretty easy job in an E46 with that engine. Make sure you clean well and torque to spec!
It's a pretty easy job in an E46 with that engine. Make sure you clean well and torque to spec!
Should it be easy? Yes! Did a T45 torx bolt head strip when I looked at it wrong? Also yes! Did I order mechanical tensioner when I needed hydraulic? Third yes!
couldn't get the idler pulley off tonight (stripped), so I pulled the thermostat and water pump. New water pump is in- old one turned okay but it looked like the seal was flattened out and starting to ooze some coolant past.
I pulled tensioner as well, and it looks like I'll have to order a replacement for that before I can get that portion back together.
Edit: I had read online that hydraulic/mechanical were interchangeable so I ordered the kit with mechanical. While working, I couldn't see how. Looking back at the pictures tonight it looks like there's a "bracket " bolted onto the oil filter housing that I can remove and allow the Mechanical tensioner I have to bolt up..
I put most of a can of brake clean and a few rags on it tonight: some of it is starting to look like aluminum again!
tomorrow or next weekend I'll look to tackle the stripped torx bolt, not sure what I'll do yet but my backup option is to try welding a nut on (as awful as that sounds).
No updates, but here's all my junk in one place. Brought home a free playset for the kids, and that required moving some cars around!
Welder out and stripped bolt out tonight. Got the alternator off, which let me pull the oil filter housing!
definitely leaking from there, but I'm wondering if some of the leak isn't also from the vanos hose connection(s), as a lot of the oil looks to be too high to be from the OFH, and the valve cover is dry.
and the old vs new gasket - clear difference in thickness!
It's nice to see that the old water pump might have been an unknown necessary replacement. Also glad to hear that you got the stripped bolt out!
Appreciate the support! Yeah it's nice to hopefully actually prevent failures!
Speaking of which, got the block and housing cleaned up and put back on, along with the thermostat and got all the sensors/ps stuff reconnected. Need to do both radiator hoses, alternator, and then oil change and coolant flush/bleed.
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