What I do when not riding (Mechanical Content)

[PFFOG]

Originally Posted by Bigred455

.........................With using a simple dial caliper I measured the failed #3 and compared it to the good #4, the difference as best I could determine was less than .001." Keep in mind this is a not very accurate method of determination, but I decided to install new bearings and see what happens as the new bearings only cost me $150......................]

Did you use plasti-gauge, when you put it together the first time, I am curious what that showed.

I do miss the days when a rope in a tree could pull an engine in a couple hours.

[Mrmerlin]

nice documentary I hope this rebuild works great after your done.
I would suggest to make sure to clean the oil ways in the crank with atleast 3 cans of brake cleaner.

NOTE the polishing compound can fill the throws and come out when the engine is running thus taking out all of the bearings BTDT.

[tm1100s]

You shouldn't use any type of solvent to clean the crank or cylinder bores as it drives the contamination into the pores or grain of the metal. Under the heat and lubrication that contamination resurfaces and could cause problems. Use a soapy solution, dish soap works good, and a good bore brush for the cylinders and small brushes to clean the oil passages in the crank. Nylon type gun barrel bore brushes work very good for this.

[wswartzwel]

So machinists have been using solvent based lubricants for years.... And Sunnen hones use similar lubricants, solvents.

[tm1100s]

For grinding. Then cleaned for assembly. Or should be.

[pwillikers]

Dee, For three weeks running I've been trying to drag Geo to Austin's world famous Tuesday Bike Night at Doc's Motorworks on South Congress (@7PM for those in the 'hood who might be interested in attending). He has yet to attend. He's become all work and no play.

I will get him out eventually to hang with the hipsters and their CB360s with clubman bars and straight pipes.

[Bigred455]

TM1100S, Not that I am the authority on S54 failures but I have yet to see one fail on the #1 cylinder like that, all the ones I have seen are cyl #3 or 4., very interesting, thanks for posting.

Richard, no I did not plastigauge the original bearing. Between the working condition of the rod still in the block with it dangling above my head (still in the car too) and oil still on the components I did not think the plastigauge would provide accurate results. And speaking of time, I can have this engine on the ground in a couple of hours and frankly many of the BMW engines for that matter. The early 2000s E46 chassis I can do an engine start to finish including switching all components in a day. Not bragging just saying while there are now different ways of doing things they are necessarily harder. Now if you wanna swap a 2012 750i Turbo V8, you better give yourself a couple of days, haha, but I know I'm not telling you anything you don't already know

Haha Pauly I know all work and no play. But I've got some things in the works that you might appreciate, i.e. we won't be working on projects at your place anymore, lol.

[tm1100s]

Originally Posted by Bigred455

TM1100S, Not that I am the authority on S54 failures but I have yet to see one fail on the #1 cylinder like that, all the ones I have seen are cyl #3 or 4., very interesting, thanks for posting.

Pics just posted for entertainment purposes. About $5-7 thousands worth.

[1100s nut]

TM1100s, what is the story on your engine? Track days, redline, just curious.

[tm1100s]

Originally Posted by 1100s nut

TM1100s, what is the story on your engine? Track days, redline, just curious.

Belongs to a local doctor who raced it, in STU class I think.

[Bigred455]

Everything is back from the machine shop. The cylinder head got a full rebuild including valve job and seals, resurface, pressure checked for leaks and the valve springs were checked for weakness. The block got decked and a light hone. The crank was able to be polished and the bad rod journal cleaned up at 0.0001" under spec of the other journals. The pistons were checked for roundness and are good to go so we will reuse them.

On the subject of rods, I needed 1 rod. The rod cap is separated from the rod be "fracture" method, meaning the cap is literally broken, this creates a more positive engagement ensuring the big end stays perfectly in alignment on reassembly. Unfortunately that means the rod cannot be resized, so the spun bearing rod is essentially now a paper weight. BMW specs these rods in sets matched by weight and will not sell just one rod seperately. So there are a couple of options: 1 used rod, A full BMW set or an aftermarket set. A New set of rods is well over $2000 and is not in the budget, Good aftermarket rods are well over $1000. So that leaves us with a used rod. Unfortunately It is extremely rare to find a good 6 rod set, usually you can find sets of 6 with 1 being bad. Also for this engine there are two rod designs and they are not interchangeable. I decided to buy a set of 6 with 1 bad, thinking I would take the best 6 rods and then have them balanced to eachother. While in the process of doing this I located a good full set of the new design, and purchased those as well. So, now I have my original 6 (1 bad), an early design set of 6 (1 bad) and a set of new design (all good). ARP offers replacement rod bolts for the new style rods so thats what we ended up with, new style rods with ARP rod bolts.




Checking Main clearances








End Play






Rings

[Bigred455]

Rods






Disassembly and Cleaning Oil Pump




Oil Filter Housing, Timing cover, Oil Pump, Frt and Rear crank seals




Starting Assembly, Crank in.




Rods and Pistons




Oil Pump on

[Bigred455]

Shortblock complete





Timing Chain, Chain Guides and Frt cover

[1100s nut]

George, what is the teethed ring on the aft end of the crank...is it part of the crank position indicator? Thanks for the updates....cool stuff.

Lane

[wswartzwel]

Glad you had the crank fixed... in an earlier post you said it looked good after having a bearing welded to it.

[Bigred455]

Lane, yes that is the reluctor wheel for the crank sensor.

Bill, sorry if I mistyped earlier, the bearing was not actually welded to either part. It had spun and left the crank discolored but not scored enough to catch your fingernail. The other problem is that sometimes the extra clearance will allow the rod to hammer the crank, causing it to bend. Luckily most of my discoloration was bearing material transfered to the surface and the crank was still true and straight.

[Mrmerlin]

thanks for updating this assembly blog,
I am going to guess that you spent some time cleaning the crank oil ways.
Goodluck with your build

[Bigred455]

I have been meaning to update this now for awhile and finally am going through my last photos. The car has been up and running now for a few months and I think we have 2500-3000 miles on it without a single hiccup.

Back to assembly:

Timing chain, guides and cover installed




The Cylinder head is now on and onto assembly of Valve train. First the Rocker arms are mounted to a shaft one for the Intake and one for the Exhaust.






The rocker shafts slide in through the front of the engine.




With the rockers on the shafts Now we will install the valve shims. On this engine the valve lash is set with shims of varying thicknesses in 0.04mm increments. Checking and adjusting the valve lash is part of this engines Insp 1 and 2 services (roughly every 25-30k). I recorded the shims on disassembly with the thought that if I reinstalled them they would be close baseline for adjustment. This worked pretty well and most were close to the original shim.





Then the Camshafts go in.

[Bigred455]

Then the Cam gears






Rebuilding the Vanos Unit. Vanos is BMW's variable valve timing moniker. There is a company that makes a seal kit, so i disassembled to ensure it was free of metal debris and seals were not damaged. There is a filter at the oil inlet area and it seemed to prevent any debris from entering the Vanos unit.






Vanos unit Installed and setting the cam timing. You can see the pin in the crankshaft balancer that sets the crank at TDCC for cyl#1. And then on the camshafts there is a bridge looking tool that has pins that drop into the camshafts that lock them in this position as well.

[Bigred455]

Valve Cover installed




And Installing the Oil Pan, always install the pan last if possible, just in case you drop something down the oil drain back passages or timing chain area. Luckily I've never done that. hahaha






Car is back in the shop and on the lift




Subframe back out of the car and Engine installed on it.




Going back up!