Anyone in Australia got a BMW crankshaft nut?

[genphreak]

Hey friends,

Am doing the head on my M30 at a friend's place... (aren't we lucky to have good friends... I live in the city and have no way of doing open-heart surgery on my car)

As I'd given the job too much forethought, we're replacing the timing chain components as well, which involves going a little deeper than your usual valvetrain and gasket replacement: To get to the timing chain we had to remove the lower timing chain cover- which meant the harmonic balancer had to be removed too.

WOW! Had Gunter got that on well- my engine has never been apart before (in 17 years and 245,000 km) and that nut was on so well a 3' bar with 2 guys hanging off it couldn't budge it. And yes we were turning it the right way... it was simply locked on solid. We were worried about cracking the cylinder/gudgeon pin which we had jammed with a block of wood secured against and a lump of steel section (drilled and bolted to the block via two of the old head bolts screwed in), stopping the engine from turning as we tried to loosen the bolt.

So after breaking the Sidchrome 1/2" socket bar we bit the bullet and agreed to cut the bolt off the crank... that meant grinding its top and bottom faces completely off, ie right down to the crankshaft's thread... and it still wouldn't budge... a few hours later we eventually got it, but it was literally a days work on one bolt.

Anyway, we're now getting it back together, but that nut is toast (they are beautifully made hardened steel, but barbarically removed...) so if anyone in Sydney has a crank nut hanging around we'd be most appreciative...

It takes a 36mm socket, is probably and M20 fine thread... just hoping we don't have to wait till Tuesday to get it back on the road! It's going so well (apart from that bolt!)

GP

[genphreak]

I guess not...

Car will remain off the road until I can get to the stealer I guess....

[genphreak]

It was a very nice nut though... perhaps it was designed not to come off.. (joking)

[632 Regal]

I read that those things are cranked on to something like 300 foot pounds, thats about 600000nm or whatever you go by over there. You really need at least a 3/4 drive breaker bar witn a 6 foot pipe to loosen them, no clue what your gonna do to get it tight enough but if you dont you can snap the crank snub off when it loosens on you while running.

[genphreak]

I read that those things are cranked on to something like 300 foot pounds, thats about 600000nm or whatever you go by over there. You really need at least a 3/4 drive breaker bar witn a 6 foot pipe to loosen them, no clue what your gonna do to get it tight enough but if you dont you can snap the crank snub off when it loosens on you while running.

You're not wrong... I'll just tighten it as much as I can against the compression and then do a few checks over the next few months. I wonder how they get them off at the wrecking yards (must ask)...

Thanks for the interest... the engine ran last night, but the thermosat didn't open, so the head heated up (but only to Normal operating temp) before I shut it down. On the initial valve adjustment it ran beautifully, I had replaced almost every moving part, hose and clip. I love my stealer- they have every last bit, even though the car is 16 years old... and anything I can't afford I just buy aftermarket... not sure about that wretched OEM thermostat, it was an 80 degree jobbie (same as std) but perhaps I got it round the wrong way... am more inclined to believe it's just faulty- I put it the right way round I am sure! If it is ok but didn't open there must be one helluvan airlock, and we were bleeding it like ...

More as it happens...

GP

[genphreak]

not sure about that wretched OEM thermostat, it was an 80 degree jobbie (same as std) but perhaps I got it round the wrong way... am more inclined to believe it's just faulty- I put it the right way round I am sure! If it is ok but didn't open there must be one helluvan airlock, and we were bleeding it like ...

More as it happens...

GP

Finally... more to report...

Doing a head on an M30 is a bit trickier than it sounds and looks online. After putting the head on, we found the cam was out about 130 degrees (!) as the machine shop had not positioned it at TDC for Cylinder 1, as one might hope they would since they did a full stripdown and replaced the valvetrain. My fault for not checking it off the car of course, we just figured we'd do it once it was mounted but before we put the timing chain on. We were just a bit tired by then though.

Anyway, we managed to turn the engine back by hand and connect the cam to bring it forward- but it took some consideration of the valve positions to be reasonably sure we weren't going to hit a valve with all the cylinders so much out of sync with them.

Anyway, it worked (an experienced friend is worth the earth!), the chain went back on on the right tooth and we did a few revolution tests to make sure nothing hit. Then we filled her with coolant, bled air, and then bled again... fired her up... and she idled beautifully in a matter of seconds yay!

Only problem was it then got a bit hot - due to that thermostat. The engine certainly seemed to get very hot idling for 10 mins without the thermostat opening. We watched the output hose and lower radiator for signs of warming but there was none. By this time the engine was at operating temperature for sure and was just starting to budge past half way on the gauge... (!). Not wishing to risk warping the head, we shut down and investigated;

The thermostat was the right way round and faced up, but had no bleed hole as some do to make bleeding the cooling system of air easier. We put one in, filled and bled air again- started her up but she still seemed to get too hot without any flow through the thermostat.

Perhaps we were being paranoid, however we didn't want to risk wrecking all our work...so we had to investigate.

Next step was a test; We removed the thermostat altogether. On the maiden voyage everything went fine except the temp gauge drops from half way to 1/3 warm when maintaining a constant speed for a little while.

This was a German OEM t'stat... Wahler or something like that.. I'm going to put it in a saucepan on the stove; see if it opens automatically below boiling point.

Does anyone know if 80 degree C thermostats can be weird/jam up/be unreliable? It looks ok in the hand and is not jammed in any way. This is weirdingme out. Perhaps its the wrong thermostat...

GP

PS Am lucky for another reason though. The machine shop had put the oil sprayer bar in facing the wrong way. That would have been easy to miss, especially if the cam had lined up out of the box. Not having the oil sprayers positioned correctly over the valvetrain would have seen early failiure of the camshaft. (And like a few other things on this BeEmTrouble-U, it requires other work to be done first, like can't do that without removing the head boltsor the radiator, fans, front cover, water pump and timing chain...