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:
VANOS seals:
VANOS oil line:
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.
https://i.imgur.com/MUxleTn.jpg
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.
https://i.imgur.com/RRSMrOg.jpg
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.
https://i.imgur.com/S5hG04u.jpg
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.
https://i.imgur.com/zkutRcc.jpg
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.
Mileage: 58,552 miles