Vanos seal - Set to Assembly Position - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

REKIII · 14th January 2009, 19:10

My car is at a friends shop and I gave them a set of Valve cover gaskets to replace. When they had it torn apart, they noticed one of the vanos seals are leaking.

The procedure for fixing this says to 'Set the car to assembly position, or the vanos will not come off' Well, it seems you have to run the car to put it in this positions and the car is already torn down.

Is there a way around this? If not, what is the procedure to set it to the assembly position?

Any help is apreciated. The car is sitting torn down as I type.

Thanks!

Bob

Nabio · 14th January 2009, 20:32

By assembly position do you mean when cylinder 1 is at top dead center? Can't you just rotate the crank until this point? I know there's a tool that fits through the harmonic dampener to keep the crank at this point for VANOS assembly.

REKIII · 14th January 2009, 21:32

I don't think that is what that means. I assumed it was soemthing inside the Vanos units.

Thunderbird · 14th January 2009, 22:07

You need the Factory GT1 to shut the engine down in assembly mode. I think an autologic diagnostic tool will do this as well. This allows the cams to be put in correct position for removal of the VANOS

NO you will not be able to do it manualy. You may get it off but it will never go back on correctly

nightkrawler · 15th January 2009, 03:16

i cant say 100% for "assembly mode" as i've never had a head off an s62, but i've have one off an m52 and just did a head gasket on a e60 n52. before the vanos can be removed, cyl #1 needs to be all the way up on the compression stroke(TDC), pin must be inserted to lock the flywheel, and the cams need to be locked also. there is a special tool/jig needed for this. it slips over the cams and bolts to the head to hold them in place during dissassembly. i'll check the repair instructions to be sure.

nightkrawler · 15th January 2009, 03:24

sorry dude, looks like you're sol. the "assembly position" is indeed different than what i was thinking. it must be done with a dis/gt1 while the car is running.

REKIII · 15th January 2009, 04:22

Well, Looks like the search for a new motor is underway then.

There was one in the last roundel, I'll see if he still has it, hopefully it's not too far away.

Thanks for the help and input.

Bob

Nabio · 15th January 2009, 05:01

I'm pretty sure that sonnyroy and phillym5 both disabled their VANOS units w/o the aid of a GT1 (at least as far as I recall their writeups in those respective threads) but they did the BMW special tools. I could be wrong. I encourage you to read sonnyroys engine rebuild thread, he posted some great TIS procedures and advice in there.

nightkrawler · 16th January 2009, 01:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by REKIII

Well, Looks like the search for a new motor is underway then.

There was one in the last roundel, I'll see if he still has it, hopefully it's not too far away.

Thanks for the help and input.

Bob

someone was selling one on this board. also, i know a guy in washington state that deals with wrecked m5's. i think he has an engine on ebay now for around $9k.

REKIII · 16th January 2009, 05:25

I'm watching a couple of the ebay ones. I also called some car dealers I know to see if smashed ones come up for auction.