William's 330Ci ZHP Maintenance and Project Thread

[Whammy]

Mileage: 58,552 miles

This weekend I tackled my leaking valve cover gasket (VCG) and while I was in there I replaced my VANOS seals and VANOS oil line. The repair itself wasn't particularly difficult, but it was time consuming as I took my time and ran into a few hiccups. I used the following guides and videos to assist in the VCG and VANOS:

Valve cover gasket:

• http://www.beisansystems.com/procedu..._procedure.htm
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR_krqKVAAo
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWgMrJcww_Y

VANOS seals:

• http://www.beisansystems.com/procedu..._procedure.htm
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eUVF6OLFFg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2-tsoSONf4

VANOS oil line:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JauxplR_iKc

Parts purchased (part number, brand):

• VANOS seals repair kit (#BS001, Beisan Systems)
• VANOS gasket (11361433817, BMW)
• Valve cover gasket kit from FCP Euro (11120030496KT, elring [OEM]) - includes the valve cover gasket (11120030496), valve cover gasket gromet (11121437395, x15), valve cover washer (11127838077, 15x), and valve cover oil fill gasket ring
• VANOS unit fit bolt (11361748745, BMW) - unused
• VANOS oil line (11361705532, Rein [OEM]) - includes four crush washers.
• RTV silicone gasket maker (82194, Permatex)

Comments/pictures :
Getting the car backed up and ready for repairs. The garage does not have great lighting inside so I make do with sunlight for most things.



I managed to snap two of the tabs on the plastic engine caps (11121726089), so I'll need to replace those.

The first issue I encountered was that the VCG would not budge from the engine head. It would not budge. I then quickly discovered that the putty knife was nowhere to be found, so I had to make a quick run to the hardware store to get one so I could separate the gasket from the head. It was a tough battle, and I realized why: once I got the gasket off, the gasket's rubber had fused with the metal. The VCG's rubber was incredibly brittle and left hardened chunks all over the place (see next picture). I fished around and found some pieces of the VCG that had snapped off and fallen into the area below the spark plug holes the cams.



I ended up using a shop vac jerry rigged with some narrow caliber tubing to see if I could suck up any plastic lost to where my fingers couldn't go. I didn't pick up any bits with the vacuum, but I think the engine will be fine. My only fear is that some chunk will clog up an oil return hole somewhere, so fingers crossed that doesn't happen.

To clean up the head I gently used a combination of my putty knife, trim removal tools, my fingernails, microfiber towels, and brake cleaner to get most of the old VCG off of the head. It was tedious work to say the least and took up a significant amount of time.

Once I had that cleaned up I removed the VANOS unit which wasn't too bad. I had purchased a spare "VANOS unit fit bolt," (the one that is counter threaded) because the Beisan guide said it was easy to strip, but I had no problems there. I placed down a lot of plastic bags and towels over my belts and basically anything below the VANOS unit, so no oil spilled on that area.

Once the VANOS was out I set about replacing the seals.



Once I the VANOS unit disassembled, it was apparent that my seals were in need of replacement. There was significant play between both the piston and the VANOS unit intake/exhaust cylinders and the piston and the VANOS cover cylinders. I removed the old seals, taking care not to nick the piston with the knife which was not an easy task, especially for the second underlying o-ring. It was cold out so I had to heat up the outer teflon rings in some warm water before installing them. I found the smaller teflon rings more difficult to install without messing up the shape compared to the larger rings, but they were compressed to their proper shape via Beisan's fitting procedure.

One annoying aspect was that Beisan listed several additional parts you might consider replacing when performing the VANOS seals replacement, but did not list the VANOS cover gaskets, the ones that go between the VANOS unit and the intake/exhaust VANOS covers. I'm not sure they have individual part numbers or not, but other replacement kits (e.g. this kit from Amazon) do include those gaskets. I had to make do with reusing my old ones.

Reassembly and reinstallation of the VANOS was easy enough. I cleaned up the unit and the mating surfaces as best I could with brake cleaner and some towels. Next I replaced the VANOS oil line that looked to be in perfectly good shape but I was advised to do it while I was in there. It was simple enough to do, just there was no room to torque it down to spec so I just went by what felt right, plus there were crush washers on both sides of the banjo bolt so I felt safe giving it some love.



I removed the old VCG (so brittle!) from the valve cover, cleaned up the valve cover a bit, and installed the new VCG (so bendy!). I placed a small layer of RTV sealant (linked above) where the VANOS met the head and on all the corners of the half moon areas of the head, front and rear, and let it cure for a few minutes. Next I reinstalled the valve cover, taking time to torque down the bolts in a cross-star sort of pattern, using new rubber grommets and washers in the process.

The rest was just reassembly.

IMPRESSION:
The break in period is approximately 200 miles, but even with my short drive this evening the engine was much smoother when it first started up/was cold (my car would sometimes bog down or judder when it's really cold and at low RPM), and had noticeably increased low-end torque. It's not like I have suddenly 30 ft-lbs more torque, but enough to be noticeable. I had to drive my father's ZHP down to the hardware store for the putty knife, and I noticed that his car had more low-end torque than mine. Now my car feels like it has the same, if not more low-end torque than his car.

EDIT: After ~40 miles since the replacement I have noticed that I have to use less throttle input to get the car going, which I attribute to more low-end torque. The car was also approximately have a quart low on oil, which I topped off.

So overall, I needed to replace the VCG because it was leaking, but I am very pleased with the VANOS seals replacement so far.

I'm jealous you did the vanos. I've wanted to do it but felt a bit scared to mess with it.

[ELCID86]

Black walls, and a single bulb from the opener? Dude how do you get anything done?

It’s a black light.

[BMWCurves]

Pretty much. Throw on some "S.O.S." and get busy.

Excellent update and great work going on in here.

Sent from my S8+

Thanks, Dane!

I'm jealous you did the vanos. I've wanted to do it but felt a bit scared to mess with it.

It’s a black light.

[Cadeez]

Glad to hear the Vanos went well! I was wondering how long it was going to take you to finally do it, guess I'm next up... I did it on my old ZHP, and all in all it went well but the VCG never sealed right after that. I had a little seepage from one of the lobes on the front. Not sure if I didn't torque it down enough or if I didn't use enough RTV. Did you use any RTV sealant on the front where the two Vanos lobes are? Sorry if you explained that in your DIY, I didn't scrub it super close.

[BMWCurves]

Glad to hear the Vanos went well! I was wondering how long it was going to take you to finally do it, guess I'm next up... I did it on my old ZHP, and all in all it went well but the VCG never sealed right after that. I had a little seepage from one of the lobes on the front. Not sure if I didn't torque it down enough or if I didn't use enough RTV. Did you use any RTV sealant on the front where the two Vanos lobes are? Sorry if you explained that in your DIY, I didn't scrub it super close.

I put a thin layer of RTV where the VANOS unit mates against the head, on the corner of each half-moon portion of the VANOS unit, and on the same on the rear half moon parts of the head, like this pic from Beisan's DIY:

[Cadeez]

I put a thin layer of RTV where the VANOS unit mates against the head, on the corner of each half-moon portion of the VANOS unit, and on the same on the rear half moon parts of the head, like this pic from Beisan's DIY:

That's what I did as well, maybe my VC got warped when I took it off, who knows. But that's the main thing holding me back form doing it, this car is as dry as a bone, I'd be so pissed if I did the Vanos and introduced a leak into my pristine engine bay.

[BMWCurves]

That's what I did as well, maybe my VC got warped when I took it off, who knows. But that's the main thing holding me back form doing it, this car is as dry as a bone, I'd be so pissed if I did the Vanos and introduced a leak into my pristine engine bay.

I had the same feeling except mine was leaking. I don't really enjoy fiddling around in my engine because I am not experienced with engine internals. That said, I'm glad I did purely because the VCG was so brittle that it needed replacement regardless that it was failing. It left so much junk on the head and around the spark plug holes. I can only imagine how much worse it would be with a few more years of heat cycling and drying out.

But now the low-end torque is definitely improved, as is engine vibration during cold starts.

[Sockethead]

Just think of what your oil pan gasket is going to be like...

[slater]

Just think of what your oil pan gasket is going to be like...

haha... but at least it's [mostly] metal.

[BMWCurves]

Mileage: 58,915 miles

Not much of an update, but I checked the little fins above the exhaust manifold and they're clean as when I wiped them down after I replaced the VANOS seals and VCG. It seems it was a successful job. A quick check of my dipstick says the oil level is holding steady as well

My car is filthy, but there's not a whole lot I can do about that since I park outside now. I'll wash it soon and apply some RainX while I'm at it that I purchased today. I've never used it, but now's as good a time as any.

Still to do:

• R&R engine mounts with M3 engine mounts (in stock)
• R&R side markers (to be purchased)
• Decide on purchasing the Xtrons head unit that BP reviewed
• Make an appointment in the spring to have a CQuartz ceramic coating applied to the car after paint correction.

There are other things to consider as well such as M3 front/330Cic rear sway bars and M3 gauge cluster, but they're on the back burner.

As a complete aside, my father's possibly going to pick up a mid-90s Jeep w/ a manual transmission as a winter beater so he can store his ZHP. Might be going up to Seattle this weekend to pick it up if the PPI comes back clean.