heinzboehmer's 2002 Topaz 6MT Coupe

[bigjae46]

I just use the crank lock timing pin and break the 4 bolts loose.

[bmwfnatic]

Cut the remaining ends of the E86 braces to size, installed in their final position along with the 3D printed strut tower brackets, then took a couple scans.




I think I have all I need to finish the design now. Just need to get lost in CAD land for a bit.

Unfortunately, not all good news. When I was putting things back together, I noticed this:



I think the leak is coming from the front main seal. There's grime all over the front of the engine, but no drips from above:



The seal that's on there now is an Autozone special, since last time I did the job, I only had one seal on hand and destroyed it when trying to install. Learned my lesson and ordered four from FCP this time.

In preparation for the install, I printed out cobra's tool (thanks!) and then remembered that the BMW crankshaft holder tool is impossible to find for sale. I found a replica on eBay for $120, but it's all the way across the country and will take forever to arrive. Instead of buying that, I decided to just make my own, using the pictures from TIS as a reference:




Scanned the engine and came up with this:


Having SendCutSend make it out of 304 SS was like $3 more than mild steel, so I opted for that. Ended up being right around $20 out the door, nice.

Since I had the engine bay disassembled, I decided to swap out the AC pulley. I forget who posted this, but someone mentioned one of the E92 M3 pulleys (11287549557) bolts right in. Only "modification" necessary is to screw the bolt out of the backing plate:




More updates to come once I get the seal installed and the bracket design finalized.

I bought the tool for like 40 bucks last year I think?

Edit: 83300493843

[heinzboehmer]

I just use the crank lock timing pin and break the 4 bolts loose.

Yeah that is an option, but I've always been worried about cracking the timing chain cover by doing that. Especially when torquing the new bolts.

I bought the tool for like 40 bucks last year I think?

Edit: 83300493843

Okay well, turns out this tool wasn't as hard to find as I thought. Thanks for that info.

Looks like there's no stock of them in the US, so at least the laser cut part will get to me sooner.