Did you find the broken piece? If you did you dodged a bullet. Plenty of horror stories of that broken tab getting caught in the timing chain casuing teeth jumping leading to catasptrophic engine damage. Also try the Besian oil pump disc. Good time to replace those Vanos bolts with upgraded ones from BMW.

I'm sure this makes me Captain Obvious's twin brother, but when I had my e46 M3, I spent a lot of time on this site, planning for the day when I would have to tackle this. I got out of the car before it needed any VANOS work. You seem beyond "well on your way" though.

DrVanos.com

I guess I'm glad I don't have VANOS.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...5/IMAG0906.jpg

The broken piece was still attached - barely. I installed the Besian oil pump disk, rebuilt solenoid pack, upgraded seals, S62 springs, etc. Along with new pulleys and belts - since everything was already apart. Almost $3k by the time all was said and done, but it's much quieter now. The car has 95k on it, so I should be good to go for another 100k.

^^^for some strange reason, the above picture makes me...ummm...tingly in my nether regions...

random picture
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SUBARU | Forester | Technology
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Shoptalkforums.com • View topic - Oil Control
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Re: Porsche tried many times unsuccessfully to develop a 4-valve technology on . . .
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One more page to 3000!!!!!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1399862826.jpg

Ahh yes I know that fun from this car...

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http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1399870612.jpg

My Mitchell 35mm movie camera
Hand made in USA

Widebody, this link's for you buddy.

How to Resize Photos for E-mail or Web: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

j/k :D

I'm glad I run at 1920x1200. I cringe for those poor folks that are still at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 when one of your giant images pops up.

http://www.inflexwetrust.com/wp-cont...ga_pants_2.png