My cam cover will be lifted 2morrow in order to sort out the sudden light ticking. Just found out that the boss man wants me to sweat tomorrow, so I leave my trusted old mechanic Jos to do the job. He is very experienced on both racing and road cars.
But all help is welcome
Will have valve clearances first checked first, but how can one determine that the chain tensioner is broke? Back in the days when we worked together I cant recall either him or me working on M engines ( lotus lotus lotus lotus+cooper climax = hands full) so can you lend me some info from this powerful omnipotent M5 community? Would appr quic reply ( as always from you all) for the work commences in the morning, will drop her of at the shop tonight so the engine wil be cold.
Anything else that needs checking whem cover is off?
How does my mechanic determine if the tensioner is broke? Don;t even know where it is, bottom or top distribution?
My cam cover will be lifted 2morrow in order to sort out the sudden light ticking. Just found out that the boss man wants me to sweat tomorrow, so I leave my trusted old mechanic Jos to do the job. He is very experienced on both racing and road cars.
But all help is welcome
Will have valve clearances first checked first, but how can one determine that the chain tensioner is broke? Back in the days when we worked together I cant recall either him or me working on M engines ( lotus lotus lotus lotus+cooper climax = hands full) so can you lend me some info from this powerful omnipotent M5 community? Would appr quic reply ( as always from you all) for the work commences in the morning, will drop her of at the shop tonight so the engine wil be cold.
Anything else that needs checking whem cover is off?
How does my mechanic determine if the tensioner is broke? Don;t even know where it is, bottom or top distribution?
My cam cover will be lifted 2morrow in order to sort out the sudden light ticking. Just found out that the boss man wants me to sweat tomorrow, so I leave my trusted old mechanic Jos to do the job. He is very experienced on both racing and road cars.
But all help is welcome
Will have valve clearances first checked first, but how can one determine that the chain tensioner is broke? Back in the days when we worked together I cant recall either him or me working on M engines ( lotus lotus lotus lotus+cooper climax = hands full) so can you lend me some info from this powerful omnipotent M5 community? Would appr quic reply ( as always from you all) for the work commences in the morning, will drop her of at the shop tonight so the engine wil be cold.
Anything else that needs checking whem cover is off?
How does my mechanic determine if the tensioner is broke? Don;t even know where it is, bottom or top distribution?
Hi
To have a failure on the chain tensioner is fully possible. and even propable on a 15 year old car. If yours is original, I would STRONGLY suggest that you change it ASAP for a E36 M3 3.2 tensioner (-96 and onwards, the earlier M3 had the same tensioner as E34 M5) , whether it`s broken or not, to avoid problems. cost is ca 80eur.
Part numbers and technical info is on the links provided by yewcorner.
what are the downsides (if any) to upgrading the chain tensioner to the S50B32 one in a S38B36 engine? also the advantages? better/later design, less resistant to change in tension with age?
If the chain is slightly stretched or sprockets are worn, (BMW will tell you this does not happen) or the tensioner is not working efficiently then there will be lateral movement in the chain. You well need a new chain/sprockets, what mileage have you done? If you do replace the chain its well worth changing the tensioner and all assocaited sprockets you can find.
Sebring NL said:
oke sorry overlooked article.
Valve clearance was ok. search continues. Doesn't seem to be loud enough for chain tension
Symptoms are mainly noisy/rattling. However I think the main consideration is that an inexperienced technincian may adjust the timing (retard) to offset any timing issues with the slackness of the chain/worn sprockets, this in turn allows your engine to run lean and then you have overheating problems which in my case manifested itself as two burnt out pistons (ouch!). Admittedly I was giving the Beast some thrux (167mph on the racetrack of course!).
I think in this case you need to get professional consideration on the status of your engine, a little preventitive work although costly is no where near as costly as a blown engine scenario. And given your km's this maybe a good time to refresh some of the components.
Hope that helps
Sebring NL said:
cars got about 230.000 km on
When chain is worn what ere symptoms? Guess it will be expensive / difficult?
If you`ve got 230000 kms on it, I would definately change the Chain tensioner!!!!
The original tensioner is partly spring- and partly oil pressure-loaded. There is a membrane in the tensioner that fails and that means that the oilpressure in the tensioner doesn`t buid up as meant. So the tensioner won`t work optimally it isn`t designed to be only spring loaded.
With fully functioning tensioner it isn`t so critical if the chain is a bit worn(normal wear)
Illjah:
The newer model is solely spring loaded and doesn`t have this problem.
There is no downsides of the conversion that I know of, as said the earlier M3 (pre 96) also use the old type of tensioner so these are fully compatible.
In practise you can`t notice any diffrence as such but you`ll sleep better.
I had my tensioner fail in last april, the result was 6000eur reparation (and that without having valves and pistons colliding. My car had gone 188000kms at that point. No warning at all in advance.
The S50B32 tensioner also works on oil pressure. However, it's spring is stiffer in order to increase the safety margin. Normally, the spring is only needed to compensate for vibrations with a a low frequency and a large amplitude. These occur mostly directly after the starter engine rotates the cranckshaft and engine speeds with a high dv/dt. The oil pressure is required to compensate for high frequnecy vibrations with lower amplitude for which the spring constant simply is to high (resonance frequency too low).
Wouter,
Replace the timing chain tensioner. It's only 70 or 80 Euro's, but it saves a whole lot of trouble. If you want to do some preventive maintenance, be prepared to replace the chain, chain guides and sprockets. But thus usually only is necessary after the chain becomes audible and a new tensioner doesn't help.
The S50B32 tensioner also works on oil pressure. However, it's spring is stiffer in order to increase the safety margin. Normally, the spring is only needed to compensate for vibrations with a a low frequency and a large amplitude. These occur mostly directly after the starter engine rotates the cranckshaft and engine speeds with a high dv/dt. The oil pressure is required to compensate for high frequnecy vibrations with lower amplitude for which the spring constant simply is to high (resonance frequency too low).
Wouter,
Replace the timing chain tensioner. It's only 70 or 80 Euro's, but it saves a whole lot of trouble. If you want to do some preventive maintenance, be prepared to replace the chain, chain guides and sprockets. But thus usually only is necessary after the chain becomes audible and a new tensioner doesn't help.
According to that link, it looks like on the Euro M5's the timing can retard by one notch when replacing the tensioner with that M3 one, surely not worth the risk of that and loss of performance or is this unlikely to happen?
According to that link, it looks like on the Euro M5's the timing can retard by one notch when replacing the tensioner with that M3 one, surely not worth the risk of that and loss of performance or is this unlikely to happen?
I had no problems when doing mine,but be sure NOT to move the engine when there is no tensioner fitted!
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