I have begun the process of head gasket replacement on a 1992 525i with a non-VANOS M50. I am nearly to the point of unbolting and removing the head, but need some help understanding how to lock/time the camshafts. I have improvised a tool to hold the engine at TDC for cylinder 1, but do not have the tool for locking the cams in place. Is there anything that can be substituted in place of the special equipment required for cam timing, or somewhere these tools can be rented, or any method someone knows of for correctly timing the cams?
Head gasket replacement and camshaft timing
- Thread starter Cody318
- Start date
This should help, head Gasket replacement tech article by Pelican Parts
Hey. Sorry about the delay but Ive been quite busy. Got the head and everything back together around new year's. The car started easily enough, but ran very rough during the first start-up. The reason turned out to be that I had neglected to hook up the oxygen sensor but with that taken care of, along with a fuel spray where the line connects to the rail everything seems to be good. I took pretty big risks doing this project with none of the special tools "required," and used the suggestion of making timing marks on the cams at TDC to re-time everything, and zip-tying the timing chains tight to their sprockets in order to prevent anything from getting out of whack. I was lucky to have a second '92 525i to use as a diagram for re-assembly. Its nice to have this big project out of the way (it ended up taking over a month, but I was only able to work on it nights and weekends, and the head machining took about a week)
The head gasket set was about $150 from bavauto, and the head machining ended up at $218 (including valve lapping, milling, pressure test). Head bolts were a seperate cost at $16, so when all is said and done it must have been around $400. Taken to a repair shop this would have easily exceeded $1000.