Head Gasket Replacement

[walt]

How may shop hours to replace the head gasket on a 94 525?

Also, would you recommend anyone tackle this job themselves provided he had some degree of engine experience. What special tools would be required?

Thanks, Walt

[632 Regal]

make sure, if you or anyone else does it, the head bolt holes are completely clean of oil.

[Dave M]

How may shop hours to replace the head gasket on a 94 525?

Also, would you recommend anyone tackle this job themselves provided he had some degree of engine experience. What special tools would be required?

Thanks, Walt

Not sure how many shop hours, but the bill can get up over $500 easy. I'm in the midst of a job that required me to remove the head and from my experience, I would recomend trying yourself.

There is nothing difficult about the job, but removing the intake manifold may be a head scratcher if you haven't done it before. There's a lot of $hit down there that needs labelling and/or stickies to make sure you connect evrything back together correctly. Bentley manual does an OK job explaining, but there are things like the fuel injector rail that kinda suck. You just have to struggle through it.

As for tools, I the only specialty tool I bought was an inexpensive cam locking tool ($45, shipped from Colorado)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/dave_macisaac/Bimmer/Misc/camtool1.jpg

and a set of external torx sockets (E8 to E16). These are also good for the tranny etc.

I used two safety pins to hold the chain tensioner down

All you need is time, a bit of patience, a bentleys, us, beer, patience ,the archives and beer.

I'll be posting pics of my project including improvised tools and such. If you can wait that long :)

Go for it,

Dave M