p1519 diagnosis

[m3f_circuit_icon]

Just picked up a '97. The PO had replaced the head gasket on it since the OE one failed between cylinders 5 and 6.


The facts:

1. It has a p1519 CEL that comes and goes.
2. Before I bought the car, I ran a compression test on it. 200psi in all 6. I'm used to lower compression turbo motors with cams that usually clock in at around 150, but 200 still seemed suspicisouly high. What psi should a compression test yield?
3. VANOS doesn't seem to make any funny noises.
4. He replaced the VANOS solenoid with a used one and it didn't fix the issue.

When he told me that he did the HG on it and that he had that CEL, I suspected that he didn't re-time the motor properly, especially combined with the fact that the compression was so high.


He swore that the motor was timed correctly, and he did use the pin and the cam blocks. He even gave me the tool for it. I think that he really believes he did it correctly, but he may have made a mistake unknowingly.


He himself purchased the car with the HG already blown, so he doesn't know whether or not it had the CEL before the HG swap or not.


I found this thread in my searches and it seems that mis-timing the motor can be the culprit:

http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=395336


More questions:

1. What else should I look at before I look into the timing?
2. If I must re-time the motor, how big of a job is it?
3. The car has 164k on it. I'm going to assume it's the OE chain. Should it be replaced now?
4. If I decide to replace the chain, what else needs to be replaced? Guides? Tensioner?

[m3f_circuit_icon]

Bueller...

[m3f_Nate325]

Google is your friend.


http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...14#post5090714


http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...1#post16764361


And no, people don't always time the motors correctly because the guides out there aren't all that accurate.



http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...7#post26789257