S54 Engine Build Diary

[F1Dryvr]

So you’ve done your rod bearings, the vanos lockdown, you set your own alignment, Subframe repaired, yada yada…..youre invincible right? You can do anything with this car right? You have amassed all the extra special tools, you have the torque spec thread memorized. Rebuilding the S54 may be your next project!!!

I wanted to add this to the forum, since currently it is lacking(it may be all that’s left lacking). Several members ive read in the past few months have been doing this and all have promised a post about it but ive not seen it yet. So maybe ill be the first!!! The reason no one has posted a diary or journal is that there is so much to describe, so much information and so many steps. Im sure to leave out quite a bit. I could write a 50 page book on this if not 100. So with this I hope some folks find it useful if they want to embark on this MAJOR project.

Now before I get going, I don’t recommend doing this!!!! I don’t recommend doing it how I did it or even suggest ive done anything that follows here correctly or the best possible way!!! This is only what I did and how I did it. There is quite possibly some steps I didn’t do that should have, very certainly somethings I wish id done differently or better, so this is not perfect. The hope is that ive learned a lot and my end result is a well running, reliable rebuilt S54. Ill take whatever power it gives, even if its less than stock lol. Feel free to add feedback, ive enjoyed learning about this process but always appreciate the knowledge here on the forum.

At this point ill list some parts and tools which you may not need all of this or you might choose to replace more items....this is just what i did, not taking the time to list part numbers, i detail how i found it all ahead.:

Special Tools Needed:

Cam Alignment Bridge
Rear Main Seal Tool(handle not needed)(saves $40 on the RMS Kit)
Ring File(borrowed)
Hoist(borrowed)
Crankshaft axial play dial(borrowed)--see TIS Crankshaft R/R
Stand, bolts for stand M12
11mm, 12mm, 1/2 in 12 point socket, for arp main and head fasteners and rod bolts.
Evaporust - Really good stuff!!!
Oil Squirter can
Brake cleaner(lots)
Wypall towels
Mineral Spirits or laquer thinner
Assembly Lube I used CLevite.
Break In Oil(Driven 15w50) It took 9L!
Gasket maker
Red and blue Loctite.
Micrometers(several for piston/crank journal sizes)
Bore gauge
Stretch gauge
Piston Ring Compressor
Ring spreader

Parts:

Pistons, Pins, Rods, Rings, Clips, CP/Carillo
Rod Bearings Clevite
Main Bearings King
ARP Head Studs
ARP Main Studs
Numerous Crush washers/orings: Oil filter housing, power steering, Vanos oil line, Cam Thrust bearing green o-ring, coolant pipe orings 3, cam pos sensor oring(2) Crank pos Sensor oring Fuel Line oring, Fuel injector rail orings 12, new cpv viton, lifetime water system oring upgrades(Wolfn8r). Dipstick o ring oil pan return crush. Intake manifold gaskets.
Gaskets: Head, oil pan(3), timing cover(2), vanos, water pump. Reused Valve cover gaskets and grommets etc..
Front main Seal(suggest purchasing at least 2), Rear main seal.
Flywheel bolts(8)
guibo(bolts if you must) it was time for mine, probably time for CSB too....
Belhousing metal gasket, probably not necessary, mine got mangled disassembling
Vibration damper bolts(4)
Plugs and Coils(only if its time)
Chain Tensioners(4) Timing chain top guide behind vanos
Fuel Injectors or service(optional)
Head Service(Lang stage 3) planed .003, new valve guides, seals, valves, springs
Crankshaft rod bearing journal widening, 3 bolts for sensor wheel, dowel for flywheel, pilot bearing.
Accusump/Accumulator for engine preoiling, and associated plumbing
O2 sensor(stuck in header)
Timing chain
Oil Chain
Oil Filters x 3
Lots of oil for oil changes during break in
PS Fluid
Coolant
Trans: Solid Pivot Pin, Spring, Throwout Bearing.

Block work:

Torqueplate bore/hone and plateau hone to 87.25mm
Deck surface block .005(not sure this much was necessary but its what he did and I cant put it back)
Clean and paint block

Hot tank: Oil Pan, Valve Cover, Timing Cover, oil filter housing--clean but looked like crap after so....
Painting w/ Engine Paint: valve cover, Oil filter housing/cap, Timing cover, Water pipe, Oil Pan, Tstat Housing.

[F1Dryvr]

Im like a lot of guys on here and learned to work on the M from this forum, out of necessity(I couldn’t afford the maintenance when I bought it) So 12 years later, zillions in mods, priceless good times in the car on and off the track(155000miles) and I found some low compression on cylinder 5. Coolant was black, plug #5 was corroded and rusty where the others were normal. I assumed head gasket, since I did have an overheat incident at the last track event, and the other cylinders were way down on compression, so I went in search of costs and whats involved with a rebuild. My options seemed to be to take it somewhere, pay some money and hope for the best, my money going towards experience etc but I felt that was like a guessing game. No one anywhere nearby that I know of knows anything about BMW engines, its all V8s or turbo 4s. Im sure theres someone in south FL but I just envisioned huge build costs and not knowing what would be going on inside the engine, and zero recourse if it went bad. So with this in mind, I thought well, no one will be as meticulous as me assembling this. No random tech dropping cigarette ashes inside… Noone will check and triple check and do all the steps exact and torque every fastener and mark and document etc etc etc. So I made my choice. It was probably an arrogant one.
Here is where I suggest maybe going and buying a cayman gt4, Men in black mind erase your time and $ invested in this car and go enjoy life!!! I think from decision to final install was approximately 5 months. It was nearly a month with shipping times and turn around time on the head from FL to California. Block work was about 2 weeks and my own prep(clean and check machine shop) was almost a full week as well.

Turns out theres actually some decent info on this engine. Theres some 4 part youtube videos “JEZEBEL” and SABA Motorsport” which do a pretty good job showing whats involved. Saba is in Spanish but can be adequately translated. Also a 4 part“horsepower freaks 1000hp M3” is a good source. As well as the TIS documents for cam replacement, cylinder head removal, throttle body R and R, crankshaft replacement. A few NAM3 threads popped up during my research, the stroker motor thread which had great info, and a few others.

Here are some of the links i used. Some of the youtubes have multi part episodes so check them all out some are pretty fun to watch even if you dont plan on doing this!

https://www.enginelabs.com/engine-tech/engine/building-a-bulletproof-bmw-s54-m3-engine-with-michael-essa/

https://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/threads/head-gasket-complete-diy-guide-e46-m3.205525/

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/main-forum/e46-2001-2006/1339-s54-vanos-info-thread

beisansystems diys

realoem.com

http://www.rfdm.com/Daniel/MRoadster/BMWDocs/TIS/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4thqIQOO88

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jXSmimxHVE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Doa-0M2flg

https://dsportmag.com/the-tech/education/quick-tech-performance-engine-break-in-the-right-way/

https://theshopmag.com/features/engine-pre-oiling/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZv4NioeTLs&t=377s

[F1Dryvr]

My goal with the build was not power. I use the car on track only, but the last thing I need is all motor power at the expense of reliability or continued problems, added hassles. No more cans of worms than ive already opened which I believe is most of them. I chose not to stroke or do any change in compression. The hope is that with the build, if I get it right will be a fully bullet proofed engine. Stronger yet lighter internals. Rod bearing issue mitigated. Balancing etc. The bore will be increased to 87.25mm which I think translated to 20ish extra cc of displacement. Stock compression ratio; maybe slightly higher due to the deck and head surfacing, and if I do a good job, a more robust ring seal which all should translate to some more NA HP over stock. Ive read that our ring seal/degree of blow by is not great on our cars, especially with higher mileage. The factory does not torque plate the block nor do they plateau hone, and the bores have a bit of taper(all bad for ring seal) The CP Pistons have valve reliefs and at stock compression ratio can accept the 288/280 stock lift cams in the future. I was told that these pistons have a fudge factor of about .015 for the valve clearance. In the end I had .008 taken during surfacing so I should be ok. .007, now that I know what that looks like, is definitely not very much though!

Next I went to realoem.com, and studied all the engine diagrams. Basically purchased all gaskets, seals, orings and crush washers, and replacement required bolts. (expensive stuff aside: hg, opg, plugs/coils/injectors……this can all be had for around 150-200bucks) I bought nothing genuine bmw unless I had to. Lang recommended some other parts such as all the timing stuff(chains and all tensioners(about another $250)

Next was time to pull it out of the car which was pretty straight forward. Id done it before and this time I was able to do it in about an hour and on the stand w some help from a friend after everything was disconnected. Nothing even spilled this time!!! Key to making this less painful is getting a good COG on the chains(I used 2 doubled up 1000lb working load ratchet straps) Ratchet straps can be slid around where chains have to be taken off and adjusted. This allowed Engine and trans to be pulled straight out and the front subframe only lowered down the bolts instead of removing and the trans and oil pan did not sag.

Next was disassembly. I used the TIS and a DIY I found for cam removal which is a critical step. You can snap them if you remove them incorrectly so check into this. Cam caps are stamp labeled. Snap a pic of orientation and remember the german E/A notation. Put a big cardboard box(flattened) under your stand; oil and fluid is just going to get everywhere. Labeled sandwich baggies helped keep bolts together with parts. Lots of labels to keep track. I only lost one bolt which I had to order. Then a day after I ordered it, I found it. So patting myself for that. This is an enormous amount of parts once the pistons and mains and everything comes off. 3-3x6 tables full of parts and still have stuff on the floor. It’s a good idea to photograph as you disassemble, I took nearly a hundred. For instance the main caps have numbers and orientation is important. So to keep the mains where theyre supposed to be take a photo showing the numbers and position on the block. I do not understand the main cap numbers at all and i think 2 of them had the same number, so keep them in proper order as well. Youll come back to them weeks or months later so lay them on a towel and label the position or some method so they dont get mixed up. Other good photo ops are inside the timing cover, and inside the valve cover, cams/sprockets etc.

Once it was disassembled, I found no evidence of a blown head gasket. Oh well.

By now parts are orderd. CP/Carillo Rods and Pistons, ARP main and head studs. And a lange stage 3 head treatment and rod bearing journal widening service. Supposedly this saves the “balancing and blueprinting” step and reasonable hope of improved rod bearing support. Stronger parts, wider bearings, and apparently 1.8 lb rotating mass weight savings. OE Piston, rings, rod, cap, bolts, pin and a trace amount of oil was 0.3lb heavier than the CP collection of the same parts. I think out the door the CP set up are actually slightly cheaper than BMW too. Lang supposedly pre-balances the pistons, rods, and clearances the rod bearings for the modified crank and mails it all to you. So this is some prep steps which I did not do. One critical point of the build where I “assumed”

I went with the stage 3 head service and he told me he took .003 off the mating surface which is apparently just a cleaning and not suggestive that I warped anything on the head. I needed all 24 valve guides which bumped the cost up another 500$. This is apparently the usual if your engine is high mileage so be prepared for that if going with his head service. Came back shiny and clean and new valves in it. It was a damn shame to put the old gross stock cams back in it. (ill get them eventually) He also ground out the intake pockets for me. Im hoping that will take me over the line of 400rwhp. Kidding. I must say he was quite helpful and responsive to emails and questions as i went through the build.

Another note on Lang Services: The rod bearing journal widening you get back a crank only(not yours). You need to remove and save your impulse sending wheel and get the new bolts for it. Also remove and save your front timing chain sprocket and bolt. Lastly youll need a new pilot bearing for the crank as well as the dowel for the flywheel.

[F1Dryvr]

The block was a big question mark. I found a place in Orlando to have it cleaned painted, decked, bored and honed. Also took some parts for hot tanking. I was nervous as hell. Some places cant do straight 6’s. The guy barely talked, cigarette hanging off the lip, and he took my block into a dirty warehouse and called me a few days later. I had to give him my pistons, and there was nothing I could see in that shop that were anywhere near that shiny. Im sure having them in his shop improved the lighting. I was so scared. He had rave reviews though, and I got my stuff back ahead of schedule and $300 less than the quoted price. The pistons come with detailed stepwise boring and honing instructions. There’s quite a bit of metallurgy and physics going on with bores, hones and crosshatch patterns R values and angles which I learned can be very specific to piston ring material. I know nothing about it, and I have no idea whether he paid attention to those guidelines from CP. I know that if I asked him if he did it it would be insulting. So I got what I got. It did look beautiful in those cylinders. Extremely smooth. Every surface edge on the deck whether it’s the piston, water jacket bolt hole would cut you. Its helpful if you’ve done your research on what you need for block work. Know ahead of time what you need. Im not sure what is standard at machine shops but they should be able to get a good bore without taper to the cylinders(our block comes with quite a bit of taper from the factory apparently), Torque plate boring/honing is important(not done at the factory) and finish the hone with a “plateau” treatment, called plateau brushing, honing, several different names. This apparently helps with ring seal and is an upgrade from a factory cylinder bore.

So now its all back home and its time for home cleaning. Put it back on the stand and into the spare bedroom, er, engine build room. Most are amazed that i did this in my spare bedroom but honestly i live near the beach and the salinity in the air is terrible on metal where i live. Also i have a smaller garage and the lawn guys blowing stuff around all the stuff finds its way in after a while. So i put the block on the stand and rolled it into the bedroom on alternating cardboard boxes. The room had an area where i laid down a large are of flattened boxes and newspaper underneath. I set up a table for parts which was quickly over full. The hood was on the bed, lol. Air compressor was brought in to blow away debris, use this almost every step of the build. Power tools and the whole nine yards. Cleaning the bores and deck and anywhere you can reach. Then blow compressed air again. I bought “wypall” towels which are relatively low lint, and strong and reuseable and 40 bucks. They still made lint though so im not sure if theres something better out there. Rags are no good. Blue shop towels are no good. Maybe silk sheets idk. Clean blow, clean blow, until your towel stays white. You need a set of long brushes to get into the oil feeds in the block, brake cleaner, brush, compressed air, repeat until clean, otherwise if your machine shop didn’t do that all that crud goes all over your new pistons cams crank everything. They make an engine block brush set, but I used some that I had for cleaning drink bottle straws.

I should say that almost every step I went and you-tubed or searched as much as I could think of. Including engine block prep and cleaning. Prep for cylinder head/gasket install. TIS for crank install. Best this best that. Over and over almost every step. No matter how meticulous how detail oriented, you can go past points of no return, or points you don’t want to return as it makes for much more work/cost(rebuying gaskets bearings, etc) if you forget something. Sometimes you go past a step and say “is what it is” and this causes stress. You realize at several points during the build that yeah, that may be compromised that way, but going back and redoing usually complicates things.

Next was not much fun but I believe very necessary. Basically, rechecking the machine shop work. Requires tools no one has but luckily adequate ones can be had on amazon for relatively cheap. Needed here are micrometers and a bore gauge. 1^st set the Piston sized Mic to 87.25 exactly or whatever your pistons said your bore has to be. Then set up the bore gauge to match it from inside and zero the needle. Use the smallest pin that fits your bore and compresses. Now you test your cylinders in 3 planes(x, y, and z) all the way down. Turns out quiet machine shop man is a sleeper. Most measurements were dead nuts on zero(meaning exactly 87.25mm and either zero thousandths of an inch out and only a few measurements came back .0002 out. So I was excited about this. I was not excited that the bore gauge left marks in my cylinders. Not palpable, and im told not to worry about this. The rings did it too during ring filing. But essentially very little if any taper. I think one video I saw showed our block can have .004 of taper. *After the build I realized that this step would be one where you may consider checking the machine shop work with the torque plate on for the most accurate measurements.

Next is more cleaning. This time it’s the main line. Blow, brake cleaner, mineral spirits blow repeat. Care to keep main cap mating surfaces exquisitely clean and dry. Do it till your rag is still white.

A few pics:

[F1Dryvr]

Fun step: Oil squirters. Loctite for peace of mind. 10NM and done w/ that.

One of very few product recommendations: EVAPORUST. It’s a hot tank in your old Tupperware. Just drop oil stained rusty, rotten metal parts, screws nuts bolts washers in there and it comes out new. 10 bucks on amazon. Leave it for a week in your hot garage and its gone off to better things like killing the ozone layer and nothing to dispose of. Got rid of all the oil stains from the oil squirters, bolts, cam/vanos cam gears sprockets, cam caps, main caps, etc. Turned my almost black oil pump into one that looked brand new with little to no scrubbing. Its fantastic stuff.

Now its on to clearance check the main line. I wanted to do this bc I was getting aftermarket bearings and a modified crank. I had no idea what mains would be doing. Although lang said the mains “SHOULD” have .002 clearances. I hate when people say should. I went w/ King mains on Langs rec. OE are twice as much $. The Kings have a bit of tech to em. Maybe its marketing. I really don’t know. They are visibly different from OE, but only advantage gained here is $200bucks savings im sure. At least 10RWHP. Kidding. While folks have said our mains are pretty stout as oe, mine had some significant wear and the thrust had palpable scratches. Hopefully ill get some extra protection from the kings... i did not wpc coat them. I think king makes a "coated" version in the same size but i didnt get that.

So installed the ARP main studs. Yes I put a quarter turn on them after hand snug. Seems all the install videos show that. Use the ARP lube. Put the mains in and torqued to 60ft lb. Out comes the bore gauge again. Mic the main journals on the crank, then set your bore gauge to zero on the preset mic. Do this for each journal/main bearing position. Since I have a cheapy it wasn’t probably the best measurements after the 3^rd shell. The bore gauge just doesn’t clear the block. They make a long Sunnen bore gauge for $300…….. Each main journal mic’d at the same value, it just slides over the journal with some resistance, but doesn’t fall past it. Exception is Main #1. It repeatedly was .003 of clearance where all the other mains were .002. Choice here to order new bearing to make it the same, or leave it. My dad said loose is fast, so……According to the HP Freaks guy(youtube vid), this added clearance is on old cranks due to the timing chain/oil chain “pulling” on the crank and wearing that journal. Another step I chose to do I don’t recommend, after doing the engine shop method of checking main bearing clearances with a mic and boreguage, I decided to recheck the main clearances on the crank installed w/ plastigauge(backyard/home garage) method. This I believe overestimated the clearances, I got .003 or more on almost all. So that was a waste of time and I later learned that yeah, no professional engine builder uses plastigauge….

By this time its been a day of torqueing main bearings. I think in the end I did torque them about 6 times. Good thing the ARPs can hang. Then a couple days later I realized that after final crank install some curse words were heard 2 blocks away as I realized I forgot to install the oil pump tube mounts. They are different so don’t mix them up. Take photos of their position when you remove them. Then louder and more profane curse words came when I found the crank lobes did not clear the mounts after I did install the mounts……, somehow the addition of the 7^th time torqueing the #5 main cap twisted the mount and bent it into the path of the crank lobe. Off it came again and some vice and plier work had it back to “spec”. Hopefully the crank and that mount stays put after all that. I checked the axial crank motion with the magnetic tool and it came w/in spec. Not sure what to do if this falls out, but im not going to think about that anymore.

Second Product recommendation: Harbor freight 4.99 oil squirter can. I put my break in oil in the Squirter can. I used clevite assembly lube on the running surfaces for assembly. I filled any oil holes pre assembly with the break in oil from the can. You can fill the main holes, the holes on the crank, cam lobes, cam journal oil holes, etc. The theme of engine building is always thinking about oil. Engines are addicted to oil…..

[F1Dryvr]

So crank installed…whats next? Yes, more cleaning. Clean the bores again. See above. Apparently ATF is a recommended cleaner. ATF is full of detergents and picks up debris and can cut the slight rust layer that happens in a few days of freshly bored cylinders. So I used that followed by brake cleaner followed by dry followed by air. There may be a better way…

Super Critical Step: Ring Filing--You need a ring filer. Don’t try to file with hand files, Luckily a friend had one. These are tricky. This is one step I wish I had experience with. The first 6(12) rings I filed in my life could determine whether this engine grenades after a few minutes of first start up. Too tight and the engine is gone. Its worth spending time here. Its worth having precsision measuring devices here. I had my 10 yo feeler gauges from probably the cheapest place I could find when doing my first valve adjustment years ago!!! So figure out which ring is which, CP includes good instruction, watch some youtube. Then pop em in the cylinder, square it with the piston, or micrometer. A piston with a ring on it worked well…. Then get the gap. CP gives you a formula….works out to .017 for top, .021-.025 for 2^nd for my bore size and use. The 3 recommendations for gaps are for street, "performance/race", and turbo. For my use (performance race) allows some wiggle room. Again, too tight is bad. Too loose is bad but can be lived with. The oil rings do not get filed, but i did check the tolerance and all were ok. Then grind, clean, check, grind, clean, check, etc. over is ok, under is not. So 1^st ring, checking gap……CRUNCH!!! 1^st ring broken, by the feeler gauge!!! Careful here. Extreeeeeeemely easy to break these even though they are harder than the cylinder wall, they are a layered construction and I think it separates if stressed in planes that they aren’t designed to handle. Carefully finish the rest. Then I decided to recheck them all. Found out I completely forgot to file one!!!! It needed .010 ground off and that was definitely way too tight and possibly would have ruined this time and energy and cost had I left it. Document your work so you dont miss these type of things. This step id say go through and do it and come back another day and just recheck everything. So I rechecked again and another seemed to need a couple thousandths again. Hopefully the several rechecks saved me. New ring came in the mail and I ground it to spec. Checked a third time and I again needed to take a couple thousandths off. I think temperature may play a factor here. This is a really critical step. Check double check and triple check orientation(top and bottom) of the rings its specific and crucial when installing on the piston. Its just easy to get this wrong if not paying close attention and the results could be catastrophic. Use a ring spreader and careful this step as the spreader can and will snap the rings as well.

you can see the chipped ring on the bottom of the ring pic if u zoom in

Now it gets a little quicker. Parts start going together. Build the pistons. Wrist pin, fill the holes with oil. Assembly lube on the wrist pin. I did have the wrist pins WPC coated(easy and cheap enough) Oil the rings. The C Clips are a bitch. Couldn’t do it w/o scratching the piston. Shouldnt cause a problem but it’s a cringe moment. Another time to search for videos on the clip step. I didnt find them helpful as this set is extremely difficult to seat. Eventually i got a method to do it with a lot of trial error curse words and some super sore fingers.

[F1Dryvr]

Piston Install. Buy the tapered sleeve for your bore. Youre not going to do this again hopefully so spend the money on the sleeve. You can get 87.25 sleeve or specific to your bore and just drop em in. The harbor freight thing is 10 bucks but the rings pop out of it just before going into the bore and tightengin it down moves the rings, probably scratches the piston etc. It just makes each piston install a job…and the tapered sleeve will make it a quick step and no scratching pistons or worry of twisting rings. And look into “ring clocking” CP had a diagram which I followed, so its straight forward. Maybe some racing shops do some tweaks to this but I followed the CP diagram on where to leave the ring gaps. As long as they are not in the same vertical position on the piston I think its ok. Different schools of thought exist on oil coating the block or not. I think most put some, I did a very small amount on the bores. You should lightly oil the ring compressor.

I did not use crank protection inserts, Long plastic tubes that center the rod such that installing the piston/rod guides it so it doesnt smash the crank.....I just carefully got the pistons just in the bore then turned the engine on the side and extreeeeemly slowly pulled the rods down to the rod journals. Assembly lube on the bearings. Filled the crank holes w/ break in oil. CP Rods come w/ caps fully torqued down….vice and breaker bar needed!!! But they are pre-lubed w the arp lube. I bought the ARP stretch gauge. Carrillo sells theirs for 80$ which is half the price of arps price on amazon. Wish id seen this. … Anyway the recommended way is the stretch gauge and its easy enough if not a bit more time consuming than a regular torque procedure. Keep the cap and rod mating surfaces clean and dry before torqueing. Looking down at the pistons, one time with the ring compressor piston installer, the rings got totally twisted. You can see the top ring gap if you look closely. I decided to pull this piston out and re do it. It was like 80 degrees from where it was supposed to be so I redid it. Another reason to get the tapered sleeve piston installer instead of the HF.

Lastly, I repeat, I did not clearance check the rod bearings because supposedly this was done by lang prior to shipping to me. They modify the crank, then order the bearings, balance the parts, clearance the rod bearings to the crank and send em. Usually one would check rod bearing clearances prior to install using more special tools for rod bearing measurements, or….plastigauge.

Now it becomes very quick. Oil pump cleaned(looks brand new after the evaporust treatment), rebuilt, preoiled and installed. Blue Loctite on the bolts, oil pump sprocket nut super-duper loctited w/ Red.….One place in my “bulletproofed” engine I did not bullet proof….$250 bucks gets you a bulletproofed oil pump shaft and bolt system from VAC. Ive had no problems despite 2 previous reinstalls of this sprocket and same nut w/ Loctite, but that’s an added option/cost.

Took some time and painted gunmetal the timing case cover, oil pan, and valve cover, Water Pipe, Oil filter housing and Tstat Housing. The aluminum just looked too ragged despite the hot tank cleaning.

[F1Dryvr]

Timing chain guides(replaced new) go on quickly. Oil chain, timing chain. Replaced orings on timing chain guide dowel(inside timing case) They were just solid and crumbled off so it was time to replace them. Timing cover and gasket installed and torqued. *****Stupid step, I want to shoot myself in the face: There is a “T” here in the gaskets btw the head gasket, block, and timing cover/gaskets. Need to pre apply a gasket sealer “dreibond” or Permatex. I chose not to for some stupid reason and then installed the head and torqued it. So I had to pull the timing cover put what I could where I could and hope for the best. I got 85% of the under the head part, and a good dose in the corner under the gasket between the block and timing cover gasket. TIS recommends to put drei bond or something here. Don’t be like me, put it on before putting the head on and torqueing and just on the front section near the timing cover, above and below,not anything under or between a head bolt.

The head still had little metal shavings stuck to the valves and all over really. Meticulous cleaning/compressed air before installing.

Prelim install the vibration damper now. It fits on the dowell and then install the TDC pin bracket and then set the damper and pistons at tdc with the pin.

Head Gasket on, ARP head studs lubed and installed. Yes, quarter turn after hand tight. The timing chain guides and the chain need to be pulled thru the cylinder head, it’s a good idea to 2 person the cyl head install. However I was able to do it by zip tying the 2 chain guides to each other tightly and resting the chain between them. Then lowering the head on the studs. Then pulling the zip tie. The head is heavy, ~55lb but it wasn’t too bad this way with the guides zip tied. Please, put the Permatex or drei bond on the timing cover side, top and bottom before lowering the head on the head gasket…..OK Lube the ARP Washers and nuts and 3 step torque to 105ft lb. It would make sense to final torque the timing cover with the gasket sealer on. 10nm. The oil strainer grates in the bottom of the head on the exhaust side were removed but crumbled on attempting to reinstall. So I had to replace those too. Engine builder trick i learned after the fact....it was suggested to me after all was said and done that you can torque the head nuts down initially and come back a day later losen a half turn and retorque which supposedly yields an extra half turn if you were to mark the nut. Not sure the value in this but it probably amounts to some extra clamping force which is the name of the game with the head gasket.

Install the Beisan Top chain guide. Clean, blow, clean, blow cam bearings in the head. Prelube oil holes. CLevite assembly lube cam journals. Place a new thick green Oring in Cam thrust bearing part. Then I installed the Shims under the rocker arms(much easier now) and put the retaining clips on. I had made a labeled template before with scotch tape and a piece of paper and just put them back in their spots. To be clearanced and adjusted later. Installed rocker arm retainer clips. Clevite assembly lube top of rocker arms. Installed intake cam(can be identified by the impulse sending wheel at the back; less teeth): In retarded position, lobe 1 pointing inward, lobe 3 straight down on the rocker arm. It doesn’t sit right at this point, but put the assembly lubed cap on #3 and slowly tighten, clean and dry mating surfaces, quarter turns each nut until its about halfway home. Then add the rest of the lubed caps and finger tighten the nuts only. Quarter turns. Quarter turns. Quarter turns. Eventually its all down and snug, repeat for Exhaust cam(more teeth on impulse wheel), Lobe 1 pointed inward, lobe 2 pointed straight down. Tighten #2 cap quarter turns and finger tight the rest of the caps as you go. E is intake, A is exhaust. Ze Germans. Follow TIS or the DIYs for cam install. Torque cam cap nuts to spec 14nm. At this point I could tell the cams were very close to being in correct timing with the engine at TDC. There was no risk of valves hitting pistons bc only lobe 3 intake and 2 exhaust had any significant valve motion and I could see through the spark plug hole that those pistons were far away. Use cam alignment tool to set intake and exhaust cams to proper timed position.

[F1Dryvr]

Now for the Sprockets, Cam Gears, Hubs, Splined Shafts. Install chain over the sprockets intake first then exhaust(It didn’t seem to want to go if I did it the reverse order), and hold the thrust washer behind it. IF you removed this part for cleaning, the chamfered inner edge points to the rear or points toward the camshaft. Put the splined hubs on and install the bolts. Install Chain tensioner w/ new crush washer. Find Sweet tooth of the splined shafts, and make sure you install them so that you have full range of motion of the hub/splined shaft. Follow Vanos install and timing procedure using cam alignment bridge and pin. New vanos/head gasket w/ Permatex here. Install Vanos, solenoid, oil line. Install Valve Cover/Gasket/Plug gasket washers.

Install Crank, intake, and exhaust cam position sensors w/ new orings.

When it came time to set valve clearances, Most of them were way out. On the Lang stage 3 head with all new valves and new everything, I replaced my shims in their original position for assembly. Upon checking the clearances, at least 60% needed adjustment and some a lot of adjustment. They all seemed to want the 2.32 or 2.36 size though and I ran out and had to order more in this size. Lang recommended OE clearance values to start and suggested they probably will not need further adjustment. I plan on checking at 3k miles and if clearances remain the same im probably not going ot check again till I get new cams. I left them all on the looser side….012 or .013 for exhaust, .008 or .009 for intake. I adjusted all the spring clips to remove play so there might be less rattling going on. Were basically done at this point.

Install oil filter housing with new gasket. Consider oil diverter valve. My ODV was free floating when I disassembled. The circlip was unseated and the “hat” was too big for the recess in the ODV. Not sure what happened here, but it’s a bimmerworld part and im going to be trying the VAC motorsports part. Ive had almost no luck with BW in house parts. The vac part ended up fitting perfectly, and the circlip made into its proper seat and about 1mm of play of the “hat” between the diverter and the circlip. The BW one does not work/fit.

At this point its an option to do a preliminary “pre oiling” I purchased an Accumulator/Accusump from moroso, theres other options available. If you track it can provide oil in low oil pressure situations if u install and plumb it, but this seems a crucial engine build step to do a pre oiling. I chose to do a preliminary pre oil, obviously by oiling parts as they were installed, but just before final install of the oil pan. This gets messy so put towels or something down because oil will drip all over. First figure out the plumbing. I had a -4an line to the back of the oil filter housing to run an oil pressure gauge. ½ npt /-6an, -6an/-4an adapter fitting connected me to the oil filter housing via a distribution block. Again theres probably a better way. You could also figure out what the threads are, get an adapter and go right into the OFH at the oil press light or the fitting next to it. I had to cap my -10AN Oil cooler line fittings. Now use compressed air to pressureize the sump, and open the valve and this should run oil through all the channels. Turn the crank (assuming you’ve locked in the cam timing) while the oil is flowing and watch for oil dripping from the crank area and look for oil being pumped up into the top of the cylinder head around the cams. This is a preliminary step and could be skipped until just before firing. This prelim step would be to confirm the pre oiler flow while the pan and valve cover are off and to verify its doing what you want it to. This step is to be repeated just before the first firing of the engine. This is definitely a mess with the oil pan off so you can elect to install that to catch oil or put down some buckets and rags....i wanted to see where the oil was going and it went all the way up to the cams and back down.

Front Main Seal. I broke the first one. Edit: and the second. The third time was a charm. Various diy’s on this. There was a thread in the main e46 forum where I discovered the solo cup method. The install shim does not work for this purpose, it might work if you pre press the FMS into the timing cover and then install, but then your dealing with that and Permatex at the head gasket, and the timing cover gaskets etc. and if you mangle it this way (easilly possible) your screwed. The solo cup allows the seal to slide over the front of the crank and then I belive a 42mm socket (front wheel bearing) will drive it into the timing housing.

Rear Main seal requires a tool for 60$ to tap the new seal into the housing.....or buy the pre installed seal and bracket for 115$ The tool was easy enough to tap in the new rear seal so it’s a savings of $30-40. The tool is hard to find though.

Install new pilot bearing in crank. New Dowel for the Flywheel. Install with new flywheel bolts. Use a clutch alignment pin to install clutch.

[F1Dryvr]

Consider some transmission love “while youre in there”. New solid pivot pin, throwout bearing, and clip. Consider new seals. My pivot pin didn’t fit well and im not sure but im willing to bet its another improperly sized bimmerworld part. I hammered and hammered and hammered even tried scotch brighting to see if I could get it all the way in. In the end I gave up and it had 1-2mm of space before seating. Knowing it aint coming out, Ive left it like this. This particular pin had a taper to it and I think that’s why. I saw another one not at BW that was not tapered according to the photo and id bet that one fits fine. I think it was ECS. If its time for a new clutch, obviously nows the time. Misadventure note: I did install the transmission, followed by putting the engine back in the engine bay, mounted and had a couple hours of reassembly, only to discover while cleaning that I had a brand new pivot pin spring clip waiting to be installed. At this point, yes I repulled the engine to reinstall this new 2$ part. Cost me about 4 hours…..

Install Front Middle and Rear Knock Sensors.
Install H2O Drain plug w/ new crush washer
Replace CPV Oring w/ Viton, while youre in there

New Oil pan gasket. Install Oil Pan, use Permatex or drei bond at “T” point at front near timing cover rear of engine and Rear main seal area. Install Oil Pan, strainer gasket and oil level sensor gasket.

New gaskets and sealant for cylinder head water pipe, Add black water line and new oring. Install water pump with new gasket. Install front black water line with new oring. I used the upgraded water line seals/orings from wolfn8r. I added a VAC motorsports water temp sensor pipe so I can run a numerical gauge. Replaces the small intermediate water pipe off the Tstat housing.

New Gaskets for ITB’s, Exhaust headers. Clean ITBs thoroughly. Theres not really a good way to do this and they are nasty and filled with gunk. Taking the assembly apart is a whole can of worms that I didn’t want to get into. Install the ITB rail and torque to specs. Much easier on the stand. Install the throttle actuator.

I replaced all the orings for the fuel rail tubes, the fuel line and purchased new injectors. I wanted to have them serviced but what cost me I think $40 total 3 or 4 years ago now costs $120. So I went with new($240). I also got new plugs and coils. Plugs were not too old but one was corroded badly. Coils were >8 years so it was time. Another crucial factor to think about here is first start up. You have to stack the cards in your favor here to get the first start up to go off perfectly, no stalling, hiccupping, gurgling, misfiring. I read a recommendation to make a set up to test each coil and plug spark…..seemed excessive. You want a smooth start and run for ~15 minutes. SO having a solid fuel prep system in place with fresh high grade gas is important. If your components are relatively new or if you trust the system, you may not need all this extra expense(>$500 for coils injectors and plugs). This is all about getting the rings to seal to the cylinders.

[F1Dryvr]

Mounted the oil pan and new gasket with some Permatex at the front and rear joints top and bottom. Torqued it and then took outside to mount the flywheel, new bolts, clutch and trans. Don’t forget to put a new pilot bearing in the crank.

Install new pilot bearing in crank. Mine didn’t take much to press in, and it actually came loose when I had to pull the trans back off. Im not sure why it was so loose in there…Get a New Dowel for the crank to mount the Flywheel, mark this position also when you remove the dowell. I think its the only oversized but mark to be sure. Install with new flywheel bolts. Use a clutch alignment pin to install clutch. My clutch had 155000 miles on it. The last 30k have been all track. It wasn’t even halfway worn.

That’s about it on the build steps. The rest involved reassembly after installing the engine. Im surprised at how easy it is to reassemble everything. Its very straight forward. The o2 sensors might get confusing, but being smart when disassembling and labeling them and taking photos helps a lot. Installing and torquing o2 sensors/egt sensors ot the headers(or your section 1) prior to final mounting and install makes this easier.

[F1Dryvr]

When all was back together its quite the pucker moment turning the key that first time. I added fresh 93 octane. Hooked up the pre oiler and ran 1.5 quarts through the system. There is a way to do this so its actually oiling while you start, so you essentially have an oil pump pumping without the engine tunring, but I just pumped it in, reinstalled the airbox then started it up~20 mins after the preoil..... I added a CSF oil cooler to my setup and im guessing that thing holds some extra oil. I used 10 full liters of break in oil “Driven 15w 50 Break in Oil” It has to have the zddp additive. She started almost as if she was being driven every day. Fired like i never took it apart and off she went!!! Then it was quite nerve racking as you are supposed to vary the rpms. SO I couldn’t really get out and look for catastrophic leaks or other failures. I ran for 15 mins to warm up. Varying engine rpm. Youre not supposed to have it idle. There wasn’t any smoke smells fires explosions etc. A bit rough while revving for the first couple minutes which then smoothed out completely. At this point I shut it off and checked for leaks and checked fluids. Also opened the filter to look for metal which i didnt see. Just a few specs of dirty debris...

Next I arranged to do a dyno break in. So I trailered it to the shop and did some graded runs to 4500, more to 6000, then a few more to 7500. Some smoke came during the 6000rpm runs but then cleared and never returned. One overheat moment during the high rpm runs that corrected quickly and I was told I had a coolant air pocket. Finally the moment of truth, a power pull!!! Definitely held my junk during this…..ive never done any dyno work before, and my last view of one was of a famous video circulated recently of a 1600hp turbo diesel going full Hiroshima on a dyno run. Probably built by someone who was paid a lot of money for their experience building high hp engines, and I did mine by watching youtube…..

But she held together. Came back at 50hp over stock RWHP 327…with our roughly 18% driveline loss works out to 394 at the crank. Only bolt on power mods were a race tune and ss v1, section one and bw 3.5 from there back back, underdrive pulleys. Im not sure how good or bad this is but ill take it as long as this engine stays reliable.

[F1Dryvr]

If someone tells me how i can post the dyno video. I have to say it sounds nasty. A Very very good nasty!

[e46mpwrd]

Half way through, great thread. Thank you taking the time and posting your build in great detail.
I am not sure how to post videos but I would say post the dyno chart and numbers in the Dyno thread along with your mods list.
Thanks again for posting this!

[robgill]

Nice write up, great to this type of content back into the forum. We lost a lot of engine build threads when m3forum disappeared.

I had a very similar experience with my first S54 build. Lang was an awesome resource for me as well. I wouldn't stress too much about your leakdown #'s, they should improve over time. Also what matters is the power you're making the amount of oil it burns. Looks like your motor is doing well on both of those so just go drive it!