MyE28.com

I now have 21,500 miles on the motor. Almost everything on the motor (sensors, belts, etc...) were new when installed. Since new I've performed the following maintenance:

• Oil, Oil Filter, Air Filter change (twice)
• Flushed coolant
• Adjusted Valves
• Replaced oil pressure switch

I'm due to change the oil and my yellow/red inspection lights are on and i'm generally in the "Inspection II" interval range. I keep detailed track of everything I do to this car, and I can tell you precisely when just about every part was replaced.

When I do the oil service sometime in January I'll run down the Inspection II list and do all the inspecting required.

But JUST FOR THE ENGINE, what should I proactively replace at this point in time/mileage?

Inspection II says "replace plugs". But my plugs look fine. Should I really bother replacing them?

What else?

If it were my motor, I'd do the following:

- Check the plugs (sounds like you have) - no need to prophylactically replace
- Check the valve clearances
- Change the oil
- Check/change the coolant (I do this on new-ish motors just to make sure there's no garbage in there from the cleaning/reassembly process)
- Drive the crap out of it

athayer187 wrote:If it were my motor, I'd do the following:

- Check the plugs (sounds like you have) - no need to prophylactically replace
- Check the valve clearances
- Change the oil
- Check/change the coolant (I do this on new-ish motors just to make sure there's no garbage in there from the cleaning/reassembly process)
- Drive the crap out of it

All of these have been done (esp. the last). Thanks.

Hi Charlie - I sent you an email but realize I didn't give you my address (tj85e28@gmail.com). My question has to do with the guide rail (driver's side). I'm in the middle of replacing my head and so have the upper timing cover off. Peering down the cover it appears my rail is intact however it appears loose -- about 1/8" of play front to back and slightly more than that side to side. Did the guides you removed from any of your donor engines appear loose? Did the new one you installed fit snug? I'm wondering if over time the mounting holes become larger thru vibration and so appear loose with the accumulation of miles. I welcome anyone's feedback...

tjsbrick wrote:Hi Charlie - I sent you an email but realize I didn't give you my address (tj85e28@gmail.com). My question has to do with the guide rail (driver's side). I'm in the middle of replacing my head and so have the upper timing cover off. Peering down the cover it appears my rail is intact however it appears loose -- about 1/8" of play front to back and slightly more than that side to side. Did the guides you removed from any of your donor engines appear loose? Did the new one you installed fit snug? I'm wondering if over time the mounting holes become larger thru vibration and so appear loose with the accumulation of miles. I welcome anyone's feedback...

I don't recall how much play mine had, nor do I know how much there's supposed to be. Sorry!

I use that oil ^^ in three BMW's and my runabout. Nice to see it is good shape after 7,000+ mile ODI.

cek wrote:I know this is a TOTAL noob question, but I just want to be damn sure.

The crank is at TDC when the dowel is at the top?

The camshaft is at TDC when the dowel is at 7pm?

I’m rebuilding my engine now. Did you get an answer to your question? From my research, it looks right. But I also want to make sure before in bolt everything down.
Thanks

Smileyboy wrote:I’m rebuilding my engine now. Did you get an answer to your question? From my research, it looks right. But I also want to make sure before in bolt everything down.
Thanks

Nope. Crank dowel pin is at 11 o'clock and bolt holes are at 12 & 6 o'clock.

demetk wrote:

Smileyboy wrote:I’m rebuilding my engine now. Did you get an answer to your question? From my research, it looks right. But I also want to make sure before in bolt everything down.
Thanks

Nope. Crank dowel pin is at 11 o'clock and bolt holes are at 12 & 6 o'clock.

Camshaft bolt holes?

Got it. Thx for the help!

cek wrote:Heh. Now assembly can finally begin. Will get started sometime next week...

I never posted this to this thread, but was reminded recently that lots of folks don't realize that what I did here is actually not a great idea.

Specifically, I zinc plated pretty much everything I took off the donor motors. Even nuts and bolts that were not previously CAD plated by the factory.

The plating process (chrome, zinc, CAD, it doesn't really matter) has a negative metallurgical effect, especially on hardened steel (like crank hubs and all those nuts and bolts that were black from the factory).

For most of what I had plated above it's not a big issue because the torque values are relatively low and the original fastener was not hardened. But subsequent to this I've taken a more cautious approach. Given what I spent on this build, I would have been better off buying new fasteners. The motor is still running like at top at ~25k miles but I still worry regularly that it's going to esplode on me because I was much more stupid back then than I am now.

See this for more info:


https://www.bing.com/images/search?view ... ist=0&vt=0

so i guess baking them at 400f for a time fixed this yes?

That oil report is pretty amazing my maxima has slightly elevated bearing wear on pensoil platinum so
they recommend i change it every 4,500k even though the oil can go much higher.

m30 is a great motor.

Beyond that, the official BMW factory torque spec guide cautions about lowering torque specs on hardware that has been plated. Everyone should be aware of this, especially people building engines and plating critical components, like crank hubs for example.

I just spent the past few hrs studying every page of this thread top to bottom. Simply amazing documentation. Thanks for taking the time to post and share this with the community!

Another oil analysis. At 26,142 miles (3,703 miles on this change.)