Beisan S54 Exhaust Sprocket Hub Solution

[mrgizmo04]

Is there anyway of knowing if I have an early enough M3 to fall into that category of having the “better” hub. I have an 01 with a November build date. I still want to do my Vanos as preventative maintenance but I’ve been going back and forth between subframe and Vanos. If there is a way to tell if I have the “better” hub it would help in my decision and maybe put off the Vanos till after subframe reinforcement. Any help would be appreciated

If by "better hub" you mean the one being discussed in this thread, you most definitely don't have it in your car. This hub was only developed in the past year or so. That said, depending on when you bought your car, previous owner might have done some VANOS work and used another solution like Turbotoy, or a cryo hub. You only need the hub if at least one of your tabs is broken, otherwise you can reuse your hub if both tabs are intact. You SHOULD replace the oil pump disc with redrilled holes as that is the real solution to the tab breaking problem.

I would do VANOS before subframe unless your subframe is separated and falling off the car.

[jpiazzam3]

If by "better hub" you mean the one being discussed in this thread, you most definitely don't have it in your car. This hub was only developed in the past year or so. That said, depending on when you bought your car, previous owner might have done some VANOS work and used another solution like Turbotoy, or a cryo hub. You only need the hub if at least one of your tabs is broken, otherwise you can reuse your hub if both tabs are intact. You SHOULD replace the oil pump disc with redrilled holes as that is the real solution to the tab breaking problem.

I would do VANOS before subframe unless your subframe is separated and falling off the car.

I was quoting this part of the original post by Raj ”A small number of early production S54 engines have an initial version of the BMW exhaust hub (pic left hub).
BMW redesigned the original exhaust hub, and the new version (pic right hub) is the one found on most S54 engines and is provided as a BMW part.
The primary difference between the BMW original hub version and the BMW new version is the thickness and taper of the hub wall and wall base curve.
BMW increased the taper (angle) of the hub wall, thus thinning it, and deepened the wall base curve (scoop), thus also thinning it. These changes were likely made to ease the release of the hub from the forging die it’s formed in.” I was wondering if my motor is considered early enough

[Tbonem3]

It doesn't matter. If your stock hub is fine, be it the early one or later one, just get the besian pump disc. If your tab(s) ARE broken, whether an earlier or later hub, get this new besian hub (and disc).

[mrgizmo04]

I was wondering if my motor is considered early enough

Yeah, what T said, they all break, real cause being the oversized holes in the oil pump disc.

[jpiazzam3]

So there’s no way of knowing???

[r4dr]

So there’s no way of knowing???

You can open your valve cover and look.

[mrgizmo04]

So there’s no way of knowing???

Per above comment, you can pop the valve cover off and look to see if your tab(s) broke off, but that is already a bit late. Broken tabs don't always neatly sit in the oil pump orifice waiting for you to discover them, some dislodge themselves and blow holes in the valve cover by being flung by rotating engine, some get wedged in between the sprocket and chain blowing engines, some fall gracefully into the oil pan.

Are you feeling lucky?

[jpiazzam3]

Guys I really appreciate the comments. And my Vanos is a top priority for me. I know it needs to be addressed. But can anyone answer my original question. Is their a Vin number or a build date when BMW switch their hub making process

[terra]

Guys I really appreciate the comments. And my Vanos is a top priority for me. I know it needs to be addressed. But can anyone answer my original question. Is their a Vin number or a build date when BMW switch their hub making process

I’m sure there is but only bmw knows what the exact cutoff is. Either way it doesn’t buy you that much extra time, so just order the disc and get down to it.

[Maxima SE]

Excellent product at an affordable price. Wish it was around when I bought a new hub from BMW about 5 years ago for twice the price of this. Thank you for everything you've done for this platform.

[sapote]

[
The Beisan exhaust hub is a replica of the BMW exhaust hub, but incorporates a thicker wall and tabs
The Beisan hub tabs are the same width as the BMW hub tabs. Thus the Beisan hub tabs fit the Beisan oil pump disk with smaller holes.

The Beisan exhaust hub should always be installed with a new Beisan oil pump disk.
Used oil pump disks have indentations in the holes sides from embedding exhaust hub tabs. Due to the increased width of the Beisan hub tabs, new non-indented disk holes are best for allowing proper tab matting and embedding in the disk hole sides.

I'm confused:
1. a thicker wall and tabs
2. The Beisan hub tabs are the same width as the BMW hub tabs.
3.increased width of the Beisan hub tabs

In (2) he said the tabs have the same width, but in (3) he said the tab width was increased. Can someone verify that the tabs have thicker wall, or wider width?

[DJAM3]

They're made to work with the Beisan oil pump disc so the tabs are slightly thicker but not wider.

[sapote]

They're made to work with the Beisan oil pump disc so the tabs are slightly thicker but not wider.

This brings up more confusion.
1. Do Beisan new disks have smaller holes than OEM disk? I assume so as people bought them to fix the loose OEM holes.

2. He said the new hub works with OEM new disk which has the larger holes. This means the new hub has larger tabs to reduce the hole clearance, and this means his hub with larger tabs won't fit his small holes disk.

[karter16]

This brings up more confusion.
1. Do Beisan new disks have smaller holes than OEM disk? I assume so as people bought then to fix the loose OEM holes.

2. He said the new hub works with OEM new disk which has the larger holes. This means the new hub has larger tabs to reduce the hole clearance, and this means his hub with larger tabs won't fit his small holes disk.

I don't see how Rajaie could have been much clearer in his posts in this thread:

The Beisan exhaust hub tabs are thicker than the BMW hub tabs to improve strength.
The Beisan hub tabs are the same width as the BMW hub tabs. Thus the Beisan hub tabs fit the Beisan oil pump disk with smaller holes.

The Beisan exhaust hub should always be installed with a new Beisan oil pump disk.

Although the Beisan hub tabs are thicker and thus look and are bigger, they are the same width as the BMW hub tabs, and thus fit the Beisan disk with smaller holes.

If your hub tabs are not broken, there is no need to replace your hub. Once you install the Beisan oil pump disk with smaller holes, there is a 7 year 100% statistic that you will not experience a broken tab.
But if you insist on installing a new hub, you are correct that the Beisan hub, although with thicker tabs, does not have wider tabs, and will not remove the play with the OE disk large holes, and there will be hitting and possible rattling.

In my opinion, you should always install a new hub with a disk with new holes. This is needed to allow the hub tabs to mate and embed evenly into the new disk holes.

[sapote]

OK, so Beisan new hubs don't have larger tabs to reduce clearance on the stock disk holes. It is very much the same result - tab to hole clearance - as stock hub on stock disk.
IOW, don't use Beisan hub on stock disk to reduce the holes clearance. Use VAC hub in this case.