New Owner, Would Love Advice

[TR_Beastmode]

Rod bearings is quite the under taking for a relatively new enthusiast. You will have to purchase a lot of tooling. The glitter in the oil does not give me a good feeling.

I'm going through now taking inventory of everything I'd need tool wise. I have quite a bit of it already, just a few things I'm missing really. Im gonna add everything up and see how much missing tools + parts will cost and go from there.

[1000hp]

Thanks for the tips guys! I found the rod bearings DIY guide on reddit, the one with like 300 steps and pictures. Would it be a bad idea to try to do it myself?

Not sure which one you're looking at, but the one that's linked to in the DIY section here has a lot of extra steps.
You don't need to remove the subframe completely, and you don't need to remove the oil pump.

The rod bearings are probably the most basic of the big three. Buy a *good* torque wrench that measures angle. You can use a torque angle gauge, but the digital wrench makes it much less fiddly.

The vanos isn't too bad, either, and Beisan provides great instructions.

If you can't weld, the subframe job is not a good time to learn. It's all overhead, on thin steel, and if you burn a hole through it you'll create more work for yourself or someone else in fixing it. Just pay someone for that one. It's also the least enjoyable of the three, in my opinion.

[jayjaya29]

I highly recommend a mechanical angle gauge. If you do decide to go digital, make sure it comes with a calibration (for the angle feature, not just the torque). Long story short but a brand new Husky digital torque wrench was way out of calibration (for the angle feature, the torque was spot on) and now I'm $15k in the hole with all the stuff it under angled.

[TR_Beastmode]

Not sure which one you're looking at, but the one that's linked to in the DIY section here has a lot of extra steps.
You don't need to remove the subframe completely, and you don't need to remove the oil pump.

The rod bearings are probably the most basic of the big three. Buy a *good* torque wrench that measures angle. You can use a torque angle gauge, but the digital wrench makes it much less fiddly.

The vanos isn't too bad, either, and Beisan provides great instructions.

If you can't weld, the subframe job is not a good time to learn. It's all overhead, on thin steel, and if you burn a hole through it you'll create more work for yourself or someone else in fixing it. Just pay someone for that one. It's also the least enjoyable of the three, in my opinion.

Yeah the guide I'm looking at is the one where they remove the oil pump. I was planning on just skipping the steps I don't need to do. I've watched some videos where they do the job without dropping the whole subframe so I'll refer to those for that part of the process. I'll tackle the Vanos after the bearings, and yeah def not doing the welding job myself lol

[TR_Beastmode]

I highly recommend a mechanical angle gauge. If you do decide to go digital, make sure it comes with a calibration (for the angle feature, not just the torque). Long story short but a brand new Husky digital torque wrench was way out of calibration (for the angle feature, the torque was spot on) and now I'm $15k in the hole with all the stuff it under angled.

Man, that's a deep hole. I was gonna go with the mechanical gauge anyways but definitely will now lol

[nahvkolaj]

If you don’t know how to weld and you live in an area where it’s hard to find a good welder (like I do), the Practical Performance Vince Skins and Vince Bar are an expensive but more approachable avenue for both a top-side and bottom-side rear subframe mount reinforcement. They are designed to be installed with rivets and structural adhesive (epoxy). I installed both on my car and while it was a lot of work, it’s hard to mess up and pretty rewarding to finish. In addition to the actual reinforcements, you’ll need a good riveter, some gear to apply the adhesive, a grinder, and the will to cut into your new baby.

[TR_Beastmode]

If you don’t know how to weld and you live in an area where it’s hard to find a good welder (like I do), the Practical Performance Vince Skins and Vince Bar are an expensive but more approachable avenue for both a top-side and bottom-side rear subframe mount reinforcement. They are designed to be installed with rivets and structural adhesive (epoxy). I installed both on my car and while it was a lot of work, it’s hard to mess up and pretty rewarding to finish. In addition to the actual reinforcements, you’ll need a good riveter, some gear to apply the adhesive, a grinder, and the will to cut into your new baby.

There are a lot of welders around me here in Texas so I'm sure I can find somebody who can do it. Hopefully anyway. I'm also only a few hours away from Dallas and I know for certain there are specialty shops there if I need to take a trip.

[1000hp]

I highly recommend a mechanical angle gauge. If you do decide to go digital, make sure it comes with a calibration (for the angle feature, not just the torque). Long story short but a brand new Husky digital torque wrench was way out of calibration (for the angle feature, the torque was spot on) and now I'm $15k in the hole with all the stuff it under angled.

I have a Snap-On TechAngle. Expensive but precise and accurate. And much easier for this job, in my opinion. I'm working on my back on a creeper for anything under the car. Laying on my back and fiddling around with a mechanical angle gauge, while trying to keep a smallish e-torx socket on the bolt, and pulling 105 degrees of angle, 18 times in a row, would have made for a lot more struggle and less certainty with the angle. The TechAngle made it an easy job and left no doubt.

[TR_Beastmode]

I have a Snap-On TechAngle. Expensive but precise and accurate. And much easier for this job, in my opinion. I'm working on my back on a creeper for anything under the car. Laying on my back and fiddling around with a mechanical angle gauge, while trying to keep a smallish e-torx socket on the bolt, and pulling 105 degrees of angle, 18 times in a row, would have made for a lot more struggle and less certainty with the angle. The TechAngle made it an easy job and left no doubt.

I’ll look into that one. My manufacture date is December ‘01 so I think I have the M11 bolts that are way easier to torque. Which brings up a question: should I replace those? I’ve read that you re use them but i dont know how many times you can do that

[1000hp]

I’ll look into that one. My manufacture date is December ‘01 so I think I have the M11 bolts that are way easier to torque. Which brings up a question: should I replace those? I’ve read that you re use them but i dont know how many times you can do that

They still require angle. Just less angle than the M10 bolts do.

[jayjaya29]

I have a Snap-On TechAngle. Expensive but precise and accurate. And much easier for this job, in my opinion. I'm working on my back on a creeper for anything under the car. Laying on my back and fiddling around with a mechanical angle gauge, while trying to keep a smallish e-torx socket on the bolt, and pulling 105 degrees of angle, 18 times in a row, would have made for a lot more struggle and less certainty with the angle. The TechAngle made it an easy job and left no doubt.

I would love to have a techangle but for a home gamer like me it didn't make sense at the time when I bought the husky.

[Cubieman]

They still require angle. Just less angle than the M10 bolts do.

Quick question, and I have asked this before and just always curious, did you use the 3/8" or 1/2" for the RB job? I have done a RB job on an M3 other than mine and used the 1/2", it felt *to me* that using the 3/8" might be require some real...effort.

[ATB88]

I’ll look into that one. My manufacture date is December ‘01 so I think I have the M11 bolts that are way easier to torque. Which brings up a question: should I replace those? I’ve read that you re use them but i dont know how many times you can do that

I also have M11s and did this job back in July. Through all the research I did about whether or not to replace them, I decided not to. If you don't already know: the early M11 bolts are matched to the caps and are designed to be re-used and must be reused in the exact same hole of each cap that they came in. The only replacement option is aftermarket ARP rod bolts. Through reading, I've heard reports of using ARP rod bolts causing slightly ovaled rod bores. On the other hand, I have heard of zero instances where re-using the original M11 bolts have caused any issues or failures down the road. My overall conclusion is that I've seen zero evidence that re-using the M11 bolts as BMW intended is a bad thing (even if some people "don't feel right" about re-using rod bolts), but have seen (admittedly anecdotal) evidence that using the aftermarket bolts have caused issues that could theoretically lead to something bad further down the road. That said I don't know if I ever saw any evidence of a failure being caused by use of ARP bolts, just these reports of people having measured bores slightly out of round after using them.

If you do things properly it is highly unlikely that you'll run into an issue using either the original M11 bolts or the ARPs, and at the end of the day it's all down to personal preference and what makes you feel the most comfortable. Because of the above, I felt best about re-using the OE BMW M11s matched to my rod caps and that's what I did. That said, I actually did have a spare set of ARP bolts on hand during the job just in case something went wrong re-installing the M11s. Say, if I accidentally mixed up the bolts and no longer felt confident that I know which bolt needs to go where, or in case I accidentally overtorqued one and felt like I couldn't trust it anymore. Thankfully everything went smoothly on install and it didn't come to that and I was able to return the ARPs.

[1000hp]

Quick question, and I have asked this before and just always curious, did you use the 3/8" or 1/2" for the RB job? I have done a RB job on an M3 other than mine and used the 1/2", it felt *to me* that using the 3/8" might be require some real...effort.

I like the 1/2". It takes enough effort that it's worth using the long one for this job, IMO. Even with the long bar it hurt my old ass shoulder a little 😆

The less struggle the better. As I mentioned earlier, tightening some of the rod bolts requires care to keep the socket on straight while you're cranking them down...at least in the crank positions that made sense for me while laying under the car. The easier it is to turn the wrench, the less likely you are to slip and round off a bolt.

I also do enough head bolts on various cars (not this one) that it's worth having the big one.

[jayjaya29]

Quick question, and I have asked this before and just always curious, did you use the 3/8" or 1/2" for the RB job? I have done a RB job on an M3 other than mine and used the 1/2", it felt *to me* that using the 3/8" might be require some real...effort.

1/2" is the way to go. I did a RB job with M10s with a 3/8ths and it was a struggle and I hurt my back doing it.