M50 Eng 4L30E Trans RRR - Far More Than I Ever Expected

[93 525 Paul]

This is a long story of my E34. Back in 2006 I started a thread on common oil leak sources.
http://www.bimmernut.com/forum/5-ser...k-sources.html
I didn't have much luck in stemming the tide of multiple leaks. Unfortunately this was a harbinger of the worst kind. I took the E34 from Fresno to SoCal for a Disneyland trip in 2009 and I made a fatal mistake in not regularly checking the oil level.
It went off song on the way back and I feared the worst.

Took it to a shop and they said HG, maybe worse. I said hang tight. Put it in the RV space in my side yard uncertain what I'd do with it and bought an E60. Shared my pain here.
http://www.bimmernut.com/forum/5-ser...t-failure.html

Thought it was a HG so did a bunch of reading, Pelican Parts, etc and convinced myself I could do the HG in my spare time. Deep breath. Dug into it. Horrible realization.
http://www.bimmernut.com/forum/5-ser...n-just-hg.html
1800 views and public discussion that the OP was the killer of this car. Aaaaagh.

I can't believe it. How could I be so stupid? Now I'm way into this car, it's in a zillion pieces. I'm responsible, I can't give it to charity like this. Holy crap! What now?
Well, I guess I need to throw a short block at it.
http://www.bimmernut.com/forum/5-ser...ort-block.html
...and yank the motor
http://www.bimmernut.com/forum/5-ser...50-engine.html

So, so far I've pulled the head all apart (Pelican cam method) cleaned up the very heavy carbon deposits, cleaned the valves spinning them in the lathe took it to a machine shop for flat check, it passed.


Lapped all 24 valves, leaked checked valves. Put solvent in CCs and blew compressed air in the ports.


Some leaked.


Re-lapped leakers, reassembled it.


Set the head aside and pulled the CraigsList shortblock apart. Will do rings and bearings. Got the hots to "freshen up" the tranny so I enlisted the help of a friend and bought an ATSG manual, a TranStar kit and several gallons of Simple Green Max and got busy. 178k miles, tranny probably needs a refresh right? Grubby before photos.



Man there are a lot of parts in a 4L30E. Like 600. The internals looked brand new, the clutches are pristine, the seals a bit hard. Did find a broken belleville spring in the overrun clutch but nothing else. Cleaned it and reassembled in about a week of evenings and a few weekend day sessions. Tedious, particularly since I didn't buy the several hundred dollars of tools, improvising with my lathe, press and assortment of aluminum stock. Made a conical seal installer and the pump alignment tool on the lathe. And tons of time in the parts cleaner. Air checked all the clutch packs, double checked end play, pin bore clearance etc.
Cases (it has a separate overdrive case in front of the main case.)


4L30E is finished! Looking forward to installing it.


Working the shortblock now. Don't like much of the CraigsList shortblock, may only end up using the block and caps and use everything else from mine. The front cover is corroded, the plunger in the oil pump is scored etc...
More updates to come.

[93 525 Paul]

Forgive my omissions. Many thanks to all the folks on here. You are my favorite tech board. Particularly Dave M, Ross, Whiskey Chaser, Ryan Roop, Bill R and any others I should mention.
Emailed pdfs of key info, photo help on the head removal, PMs with "hey dummy, you need to..." info. Big help.

[632 Regal]

Nice job Paul!

[93 525 Paul]

Thanks Regal. Owning a business, having two kids in sports (comp soccer, indoor soccer, basketball, spring soccer, spring baseball, all-star baseball, cross-country, basketball, track) and other activities (dance, piano, boy scouts, girl scouts, theater) makes it hard to make time to do this stuff.
I enjoy it (when things go right) but my wife thinks I'm craaaaaazy. Her dad is an academic and she has all sisters.

So at this point I have both shortblocks pulled all the way down. Will take the replacement version in for hot tanking and a hone.

Also, I put the wrong pic in there for head reassembly. This is what the head looks like. Not all covered in varnish like that pre assembly shot I used, all clean and tidy and reassembled using the gnome condoms (valve stem covers) to keep the seals intact and graphite based assembly lube.



And when I said the frictions in the tranny were fresh, I meant it. They all mic out as new and on this set of smooth frictions, you can see the ink writing on them. The frictions were very lightly scuffed.

[93 525 Paul]

Working the shortblock now. Don't like much of the CraigsList shortblock, may only end up using the block and caps and use everything else from mine. The front cover is corroded, the plunger in the oil pump is scored etc...
More updates to come.

Well, I said that exactly to the day a YEAR ago. I have in that time decided to only use the bare shortblock (block, main caps, crank, rods and pistons) because all my stuff was in better shape. Had the block hot tanked and honed and bought all the rebuild items. Started to do the short block assembly this time last year and baseball season for my son started (coaching) and poof there went every spare moment through summer all stars. Spent fall working on my Lincoln (Klincoln? with leaking sunroof, dying COPs, failing timing chain tensioners etc.) So I'm back in the saddle.
Block all cleaned, painted, ready.

I've installed the crank with new bearing inserts, standard, it (no surprise) mics out as new. I've assembled and installed all the carefully cleaned piston assemblies with spotless ring grooves, nice new ring packs, new bearings.
Here I'm using my printed protractor to tighten the mains and rods to the proper torque angle. 20nm then 50* for the mains and 20nm then 70* for the rods.

Seems backwards, seems like that's a HUGE amount of torque for the rod capscrews to hold. Well, mother Beemer knows best.
Hoping to finish the entire engine assembly this weekend. Kid's not playing baseball this season, golf team and no coaching for me.

[genphreak]

What a great read. Mate you've got it all happening there. When it comes together, it will be glorious in the full Roman sense of the word. Regardless of anyone else knowing! Persistence with practice makes perfect, and that one will be! I love the M50, its got a special character which is all about balance, design and accuracy. I'm going to swap mine to a megasquirt ecu on one of mine one day soon, but it is hard as the stock ECU, MAF, integration to the car, etc. is excellent as it is.

Really good to see a nice build happening too!

[93 525 Paul]

What a great read. Mate you've got it all happening there. When it comes together, it will be glorious in the full Roman sense of the word. Regardless of anyone else knowing! Persistence with practice makes perfect, and that one will be! I love the M50, its got a special character which is all about balance, design and accuracy. I'm going to swap mine to a megasquirt ecu on one of mine one day soon, but it is hard as the stock ECU, MAF, integration to the car, etc. is excellent as it is.

Really good to see a nice build happening too!

Thanks genphreak. There is a certain class and dignity to the M50.
After such a boneheaded move, I felt a duty to get her back up and running.
I'm hoping that lots of attention to detail will pay off on this deal.

Here's the oil pump all cleaned up, man it's a nice piece, beautiful aluminum body, the magnesium cover flat sanded, ready for pre-lube and reassembly.

Here's the short block with the crank, rods, pistons and snazzy freeze plugs.

I didn't shoot a pic but at this time I now have the timing chain, the guide rails, the oil pump and drive chain, the front cover, dampener/pulley all installed.
Hoping to have the pan and head on in the next couple days. Gotta keep it moving.

[whiskychaser]

Its a brave man that takes on an engine and a transmission rebuild at one time:-) I am really impressed with your preparation and how clean everything looks. Great stuff

[93 525 Paul]

Its a brave man that takes on an engine and a transmission rebuild at one time:-) I am really impressed with your preparation and how clean everything looks. Great stuff

Thanks! Brave or dumb, hard to tell the difference sometimes. Plain scary to think of all the little things that could crop up on restart. I started out thinking this was a HG job and I just got sucked further and further into the abyss. At one point I was going to yank the engine and was advised that pulling the engine AND tranny is smarter. Then, the "hey, the tranny is right there, it has 178k on it..." Yikes. On the cleanliness I've gotten more deliberate as I've gotten older. The "Clean room wipes" I learned about on Pelican Parts are a God send. My stainless steel workbench is easy to keep clean and that Simple Green Max works really well. Ziploc bags are really handy too.

Hahhah... more 'M p0rn'! Do shoot more close-ups of all the booty on that sweet piece of black metal... as yo get the time and inclination.
The pump is a nice piece of work. Are you swapping the drive sprocket? I can't see how bad it is but on the M30s I know the sprocket teeth wear sharp too but you have to put in a new chain and both sprockets else they will chew each other to bits in time. They don't cost much and make for good piece of mind.

Yeah, I wish I shot more photos of the tranny build, you never regret having too many photos. The pump photo doesn't show it but the oil pump drive sprocket looked new. Having worked in a bike shop for 7 years and raced karts for 8 years, I know sprocket wear patterns and that sprocket is pristine. Yes, at $33 the pump sprocket isn't much but the low mechanical resistance and precision chain manufacturing have left that sprocket perfect. What kills a sprocket is chain stretch. When the chain stretches it is too long to mesh perfectly with the gear and at it meshes it wears the shoulders off of the gear. I will shoot a pic, but I'm tellin' you, it's remarkable in its condition. Although I lead the league in second-guessing, that one is a slam dunk.

Thanks for your comments.

[93 525 Paul]

Not much progress the last couple days. Didn't recall that there was a gasket between the oil pickup and the pump. Pickup was warped so I flat sanded it on a glass block I use for surfacing and it looks perfect.

Real OEM shows a gasket (#7)

So I guess if the dealer doesn't have it I will make one.

Also, the pump gear pic, it's a bit fuzzy, but you see the teeth are nice and wide shouldered, no wear at all


And a pic of how the pump just gleams sitting on the block. Shot shows front cover and damper installed


By the way, do I HAVE to use the lighter damper that came with the 325 shortblock or can I go with the nicer heavier e34 dampener?