Category: BMW 335i

BMW N55 Engine Rebuild Project Part 10 – BMW Crank, No Start Troubleshooting

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Has this been the longest project ever or is this just how YouTube driven projects go? Welcome back to the last video in the BMW N55 engine rebuild series. This BMW 335i N55 project has been one of the most fun for me, but also one of the more frustrating projects I have ever done. In this video, I will show you what else I did after installing the engine, there are plenty of things to do while doing a swap on a car this age. I will also go through the steps I took and all of the things I tried to get it started when it would crank forever, but not start. This crank, but no start condition took a lot of my time and you will never guess what it was.. I felt a little dumb after figuring it out. At the very least, there will be some kind of conclusion by the end of the video, but before we get there, let me remind you what happened in the last video.

After rebuilding the engine, I installed the high-pressure fuel pump, oil filter housing and of course the VANOS solenoids. Then I ran the fuel lines to the fuel pump as well as to the injectors and on the other side I installed the new exhaust manifold with the turbocharger. At the front side of the engine, I installed all of the pulleys, the vibration damper and then I ran the wiring looms. After doing the rest of the small parts, the engine was ready to be put into the car and connected to the transmissions. Of course, there is a lot more to it, but I was able to try starting it at that point. If you’d like to see details, check out the previous video in this playlist.

Now, before we move on, don’t forget to hit that like button to support the channel and subscribe if you’d like to see more from me!

Right after installing the engine and the rest of the necessities, I scanned the car for codes and deleted anything that was in the history. Then I turned on the ignition to see what would happen. I heard the fuel pump come on and the water pump started pumping and building up pressure as well. These were good signs! Prior to this, there were no signs of life coming from the engine and the fix for that was a ground wire that wasn’t making good contact. Now I was able to scan the DME and the rest of the modules and I was sure the engine would start. I’ve connected my other car for some power annnnnd this is all I got in return. (Play starting click 7077). The engine would crank for as long as you had battery power, but would not start.

This is where I started to think really, really hard as to what could be causing this engine not to start. Sure, I still didn’t have the exhaust or axles or some of the sensors installed, but the engine SHOULD HAVE STARTED now!

From my basic understanding the engine needs 4 things to start: air, fuel, spark and compression. So, I started checking one at a time from the easiest to the hardest. I knew the engine was getting air since there was no obstructions or even air filter installed at this stage. This wasn’t the problem. I then checked the spark. I pulled one of the sparkplugs out and cranked the engine. It was nice and bright, so now I was certain that the spark was not the issue, but what about the fuel? Is the engine getting proper fuel? I was expecting the low pressure fuel pump to turn on each time I was about to start the car as it seems to be that way on my Z4 and it’s the same platform. However, it did not. I was worried the fuel wasn’t getting to the fuel rail. So. I grabbed my ThinkTool Scanner and looked at the data stream for the rail pressure. I had a perfect 12 mPa or about 1750psi of pressure. That’s definitely plenty to make the engine go. To triple check that it wasn’t a fuel issue, I connected a cheap-o oscilloscope to the injector to see that it was getting a signal to fire.. which it was. Now the only thing that was left was compression. Unfortunately, I don’t have compression readings on video but all 6 cylinders were at about 180 PSI, which is just fine for this engine and would not be a cause for the engine not to start.

But of course, with modern engines, even if you have all that you need, your engine still may not start if the computer tells it not to. Or at least that was my thought at the time. I connected any and all sensors that I could find, cleared the codes and tried again. At this time the only code that was present on the car was A738: JBE Power Supply Interrupted. My next mission was to figure out what this code was about and how to fix it. Since I had no other codes, I was certain this would be the solution to my no start issue. As the first step, I bought a used JBE module off eBay and swapped it out. The job is fairly easy, but you do have to remove half of the interior on the passenger side to get to the module. After 30 minutes, I was ready to give it another go.. but unfortunately, it made no difference in my case. The code remained active.

At the same time, I noticed that the car would no longer lock using the button on the inside or even from the key fob. This had to be the issue as the key communication is vital to the engine starting.

Electronics are definitely not my strongest skill set when it comes to cars, but with a help of a few friends online, I tracked many wires, checked resistance on certain wires, replaced fuses and relays, but the JBE code remained active. In the last-ditch effort, I bought the entire fuse box online to see if it would make any difference. Replacing the fuse box didn’t take too much time as I’ve already had good access, but the main power wire that came in did give me some trouble. I knew these are a common failure point on these cars, so it was important not to damage anything. Fifteen minutes later, the new fuse box was in! I erased the codes one more time and guess what?? The JBE Code was gone! I was ecstatic and 100% expecting the engine to fire up.. but guess what? Now I had ZERO codes and the same no start condition I’ve been dealing with for weeks now.

My engine had everything it would need, so what else could it be? I know the computer needs to know position of the engine when it’s cranking in order to have it timed properly, so I decided to check the crankshaft sensor. I removed the starter and tested to make 5 volts were getting to the sensor. All was good there. Since I was running out of options and wanted to rule out as many things as possible, I ordered a used one online for a few bucks and replaced it and as you guessed it, nothing changed.

I then replaced the camshaft sensors, using the old ones I had from the original engine and even swapped out the VANOS solenoids in case they went bad somehow and even updated the DME, JBE, CAS and other modules to the latest firmware. All to no avail.

Since the engine wouldn’t start at this point, I figured I’d get busy with finishing the rest of the items on my list and hoping that at some point the solution will come to me or someone will give me a suggestion I can try. The first item for me was re-attaching the rest of the exhaust. When I initially removed it while removing the engine, I had to cut off the bolts as they were rusted on and wouldn’t come off any other way. That meant removing them from the catalytic converter, getting new downpipe exhaust gaskets and a set of new bolts. It all came together rather nicely after that. After re-hanging the rest of the exhaust and tightening the enforcement plates, it was ready to roar.. well once it starts.

Of course, in order for the car to move or even be lowered from the jack stands, I needed to put the front axles back in. I have a video on how to remove these and as they say, the installation is just the opposite of removal. Only catch here is to use new seals and of course a new axle nut. Once both of the axles were in, I could fill the front differential with gear oil.

Many of you suggested installing an aftermarket charge pipe, so I got a VRSF kit. I swapped the sensor and got it in place. It’s an easy upgrade and seemed to be made of quality material, definitely a better quality over the OEM charge pipe that cracks after a couple of installs or removals not to mention it looks much better.

While working on all of these items and thinking back to all of the suggestions and help I got from wonderful BMW enthusiasts online, I went over the possibilities in my head over and over again. What could possibly make the engine not start when it clearly has everything it needs. 

The only logical explanation at this point was that the engine wasn’t timed properly. BUT HOW? I have reviewed the video I have made on replacing the timing chain and it was done correctly, everything lined up and the engine was in Top Dead Center.. or was it? Let’s investigate.

I couldn’t think of any way to actually test this so I went to work taking off the valve cover and everything that was in the way. The entire process took me about an hour and a half total and that was mostly because I could get the gasket to stay in place when reassembly. I’m moving ahead of myself here, but after taking off the valve cover here is what I found. VIDEO I got to work making sure the timing was perfect this time and still wondering how could I mess up this bad. I have re-watched my video on the timing chain replacement and you can clearly see that the timing was done correctly. Then I remembered that last minute I decided to replace the chain components for new ones and that’s when I must have rotated  has cost me hours and hours of troubleshooting, but I don’t blame myself too much as I learned a ton as to what makes the engine go and what it needs to start. Would I have been happier if it started a couple months ago when I first installed it? Absolutely, but, at the end, the engine is now running and I can’t be happier! There are many other things I want to do on this car once the budget allows, so stay tuned!

Well guys, this might be the longest video I have ever done and if you stuck to the very end, thank you! Let me know in the comments what mistakes you’ve done doing big projects like this and how did you figure it out. I’m curious to know and maybe it’ll make me feel just a little better about this one. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next one!

BMW N55 Engine Rebuild Project Part 9 – Engine Install and Assembly

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It has been over a month and if you are following my BMW N55 Engine rebuild project, you might be wondering what the heck happened and why haven’t I posted a video on the rest of the assembly, install of the engine and of course the engine running! This isn’t because I haven’t been working on it or the lack of trying, but mostly because I ran into a very major, what I assume to be electrical issue that I am not equipped or knowledgeable enough to fix. I wanted my last video in the rebuild series to be where I start the engine at the very end, but unfortunately, it will not be this video. The video where I explain what I have tried and my results is coming up shortly, but in this video, I will go over the remaining assembly and installation of the engine.

But before I continue, check out the BMW N55 engine rebuild playlist from the beginning if this is your first video here and hit that like button for the YouTube algorithm to help out the channel, it’s free!

In the last couple videos in this series, I installed the front and rear crankshaft seals, the valve and oil pan gaskets and the injectors. Now, of course there is still plenty left to do at this point, so I installed the high-pressure fuel pump. I’ve decided not a get a new one and reused the one that came on the original engine. Of course, I got a new O ring installed on it to make sure there were no leaks in the future. With the fuel pump installed, I could then install the oil filter housing, once again, renewing the gaskets as this is a very common spot for oil to leak from on these engines. I then torqued the bolts to spec as I mention in the video.

Some of you will no doubt comment below asking why haven’t I replaced this or that or upgraded certain parts and it’s an easy guess , it all comes to down to cost. Just like with any other project, there is a budget limitation and I have set myself a limited budget for the engine and car. If you don’t like the sound of that, don’t worry! I’ll be looking for my next project in a few short months and I’ll be modifying and upgrading at the same time of the rebuild on that one. Or least that’s my plan. This project was proving to myself that I can rebuild an engine without anyone’s help. Anyway, as you can see, I have also reused the VANOS solenoid. These tested just fine and I gave them a good clean right before installing.

At this point, things started moving a little faster. I installed the high-pressure fuel lines from the fuel pump to the injectors. You want to use a crowfoot wrenches to torque these down and prevent fuel leaks in the future.

With this side of the engine looking a little more complete, it was time to switch to the other side and install the exhaust manifold with the turbocharger.

I scraped remnants of the old gaskets out, cleaned the area and then installed them one by one. They should fit on there snuggly and will be crushed when the assembly is installed and torqued down. The O rings on the oil lines are a quick swap for a set of new ones and it’s time to marry it to the engine. I suggest angling the engine a little more or have someone help you as it can be a little awkward to get it in there and put the first couple bolts in at the same time. A cordless drill makes a quick work of getting the flange nuts finger tight and then it’s time for the torque wrench to get these up to spec. It’s important not to retighten them after the first or second round and follow the procedure exactly if you don’t want to have exhaust leaks in the future. Off camera, I also attached and torqued down the turbo oil lines as well as the bracket below the turbo housing itself and after some more plumbing, this side of the engine is done for now.

I then switched to the front of the engine and the first item on my list was to switch over the belt tensioner from the old block to the newly built engine. This is one of those items I didn’t really think about at the time of building the engine, but I would definitely recommend switching out the idler pulley for a new one. This might be a future DIY I will tackle with the engine in the car. In the meantime, I install the vibration damper, which now I have learned would have benefited from a front crank seal guard plate, you live and you learn! If any of you think of doing something like this at home, it’s honestly worth it just for the amount of engine knowledge you will get in the return, not to mention the patience! Anyway, I drop the front differential in place and torque it to spec. Next on the list is the water pump, this sucker just goes in and with a help of a couple bolts it’s in place.

Most of the big items are now installed, so I install the engine support that will attach to the engine mount and then the heatshield above the exhaust manifold that holds the vacuum regulator. I then position the spark plug and injector wires in their place, torque down the spark plugs and then install the ignition coils. The top of the engine is pretty much done at this stage and I can proceed to installing the wiring loom on the front of the engine. There are lots of small little wires going everywhere here, but luckily, they all seem to just be long enough to plug into the sensor or part that it’s supposed to. The plugs are different between them most of the time as well. One important item here is to not forget the ground wire on the bottom left corner of the engine. The same goes for the intake side of the engine, the bird nest of wires slides onto the engine and then I start sorting them out and plugging in what I can. The rest will be plugged in once the ECU and the rest of the intake sensors are close by.

Look at this beauty now! It’s starting to look more and more like a real engine and at this point I’m getting really excited to get this finished and put it back in the car, but before I get too excited, we still have to install a couple of parts. If you are wondering why am I struggling with this on the engine hoist, well.. it was impossible to do while on the engine stand as the engine stand was in the way of the bolts for the flywheel and I couldn’t think of any other way of doing this at the time.

And now for one of my favorite shots of this video, I love how after weeks of working on this engine and replacing most of the parts on the inside, it slides into the engine bay and is ready to be connected to its life lines. One of the struggles I had here is getting the AC compressor to go around the engine. I chose not to disconnect it as I don’t’ have the equipment to draw off the refrigerant in the system and having to call someone in sounded like a hassle.

THE END:

Well, this part was filmed over a month ago and OH how I wish it went to plan. The engine was supposed to fire up at that point and after some finishing touches, I would be enjoying my BMW 335i and all the work I have put into it. Unfortunately, it did not go to plan from this point on and the engine wouldn’t start. It would crank for as long as the battery would allow, but would not fire or even sputter. With that in mind, it’s time to end this video as it’s already far longer than I wanted it to be, but I wanted to show each step. Subscribe to the channel to stay tuned and to find out what I have tried so far to get the engine started. The list is long and I think you will find it interesting where my head was going troubleshooting this engine. That’s all for now, thank you so much for watching and I will see you in the next one!

BMW N55 Engine Rebuild Project Part 8 – Front Crankshaft Seal DIY (No Special Tools)

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Hey guys and welcome back to the SimpleCarGuy channel. I’m still working on my BMW N55 engine rebuild and as one of the last steps, I’m installing a brand new front crankshaft seal. Just like with the rear crankshaft seal, I will not be using any special tools for this job as I think it’s doable with the stuff you already have in the garage. Of course, if you do these often or aren’t sure of my technique, buy the correct tools for the job. However, if you’d like to see my DIY method, this is the video for you! If you’re interested in the rebuild project, check out the link in the description to start from the beginning and don’t forget to give this video a like to support my channel. Now to the job at hand.

If you are doing this with the engine still in the car, you will of course have to remove some parts to get to the seal. Luckily, it’s not nearly as bad as the rear seal. To start with, you’ll remove the underbody protection panel and most of the air ducts that’s in the way on the top of the engine by the radiator and with enough space remove the radiator fan as well. Your transmission oil cooler might be in the way, but you don’t have to remove it. It can be moved to the side. With a lot more space, you can now remove the serpentine belt that’s wrapped around the vibration damper. Now, to remove the 8 screws holding it to the crankshaft, you will need to secure the crankshaft in place or it will move as you try to loosen the bolts. You can get a simple stopper tool for a few bucks and block the crankshaft from moving at the flywheel and release the screws.

Now that you finally have access to the front crankshaft seal, you’ll have to remove it. This can be a little tricky without the special tool, but whatever you do, do not release the main bolt unless you want to be timing the engine as well. The way I removed my seal was by screwing a thin screw into the seal and then pulling it out with a hammer by leveraging it against the engine block. It popped out without much hesitation.

Finally, we are at the install stage and the first step, as always is to really clean the area as well as you can. A good degreaser will help you get rid of any oil on the engine block and insure a good seal. Once everything is clean, the seal can be installed. Once again, you can use the fancy install tool, but I will use what I have.

To install the seal, I use the little plastic cone that it came with and my old seal to get it seated on the crankshaft. No force is really needed here, it should go in easily and once you start feeling a little bit of resistance, grab a mallet and tap it in place. Check that the inner seal is seated properly and not bent over itself as well as the little groves lined up with the seam on the block and then go to town with your mallet. You don’t want to hit it hard, so slow and steady wins the race here. As long as it’s going in evenly, we are getting it done. You also don’t want to hit the seal directly and use the old seal to distribute the weight, this is very important to avoid damage to the new seal. After some time, it will start to feel like it’s not moving anymore and as long as it looks to be in the right stop, you are done with this part.  

The next step is to use a liquid sealing compound to avoid any leaks in the future. There are two different sealants you can use, the one I showed you at the beginning of the video and one I will show you in just a few seconds. Whichever one you use; you will need a primer for good adhesion.

After everything is cured, re-assemble the car and have many more happy miles without an oil leak at the front crankshaft seal. Anyway, thank you guys so much for watching, leave me a comment down letting me know how hard or easy this was for you, subscribe to the channel if it’s your first time watching and I’ll see you in the next one video when we finish the engine and put it back in the car.

BMW N55 Engine Rebuild Project Part 7 – BMW N55 Injector Install and Teflon Rings DIY

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Hey guys and welcome back to the SimpleCarGuy Channel. Today we are installing injectors on my BMW N55 engine with an early production date. The reason I mention this is because the process is different on newer engines and if you’d like to see what that process is like, check out my video on the BMW N20 injector replacement as it’s exactly the same. In this video, the injectors are already removed from the vehicle, so once again, if you need those steps, check out the N20 video in the description. Now, let’s go to the garage, get the injectors prepared, installed and at the same time hit that like button for the YouTube Algorithms.

Now we are going to replace the decoupling elements and the Teflon rings on my used injectors. These must be replaced or you will have issues in the future such as lose of compression or fuel blowby. The decoupling elements simply pop off with a flat head screwdriver and a new ones can pop back in once we do the seals and clean the area.

Next we remove the Teflon ring seal by carefully cutting it with a razor blade or a box cutter and peeling it off the injector. You don’t want to cut into the injector, so be careful here. With those out of the way, we can wipe the injector with a clean paper towel and pop the new decoupling elements in place. The round part of the element faces the nozzle of the injector. For the next steps you are supposed to use a few special tools, but I do it my own way. You can find the proper tools in the description if you’d rather use those.

This really does work well, you just have to find the correct diameter plastic pieces or cut them down to size.

I have a video on how to adjust the compensation on the injectors from a couple of years ago, so check that out if you need steps. With that, thanks for watching, I hope you found the video useful and I’ll see you in the next one!

BMW N55 Engine Rebuild Project Part 6 – Valve Cover Gasket & Oil Pan Gasket

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Hello and welcome back to Part 6 of my BMW N55 engine rebuild project that I have been working on for a few weeks now. By the end of this video, this engine is finally starting to look like a real engine and not just a pile of parts around a block. I can almost hear this engine start up for the first time and purrrr with all its new parts, or at least I hope it will! In today’s video I’m replacing the valve cover gasket and installing the valve cover itself as well as replacing the oil pan gasket and installing a new-to-me oil pan. More on that later.

If you’d like this project to succeed, don’t forget to hit that like button for me and of course the YouTube algorithm. Now, back to the project!

I won’t be going into details on how to get to this stage as I’ve shown the steps in my engine removal video. I suggest you watch that video for more details on which parts to remove to get to the valve cover. Basically, you’ll remove the intake housing, fan cowl and move the coolant expansion tank to the side. No need to disconnect it. Then remove the air duct that feeds the turbocharger and now most of the stuff is now out of the way, so you’ll just have to remove the gas pressure lines after disconnecting the battery; of course, and any vacuum and electrical connections. Now the valve cover can be unbolted. If you will be reusing it, make sure to unbolt all 26 bolts in the correct sequence and remember that these bolts are attached to the cover itself and will not peacefully come out past the plastic part.

With the valve cover removed, we can inspect the surfaces on the cylinder head and remove any bigger debris with a plastic razor and use a scotch brite pad for anything remaining. The valve cover itself has 4 different gaskets that should be replaced each time the cover is removed to avoid any oil leaks. Replacing them is very easy, remove the old stuff, clean out the channels of any dirt, insert new gaskets and we are ready to go back on the cylinder head. In my case, I had to install the spark plug housing which came off during the rebuild. With everything ready to go, the cover simple can be lowered making sure everything is aligned and torqued to spec.


Torquing these bolts to spec and in the correct order is probably the most important step as this plastic cover can easily warp or even crack if not done correctly. Refer to the diagram for the correct sequence and then  hand tight or use a power drill on the lowest setting on all of the screws. For round two, each one gets 8.5 Nm in the same order. DO NOT go back to the first ones to check torque or retorque them again. They have to be done in that order and left alone.

If all went well, simply re-assemble whatever you have taken a part to get here and enjoy your new valve cover gasket!

Now onto the Oil Pan gasket and install. As I mentioned earlier, I had to get a new oil pan as the engine I’m rebuilding is from a BMW X5 and the oil pan and pick up tube are different on that car. This one is a lot more complicated to do at home if you don’t have your engine out, but it is possible if you drop the front axle support and remove the front differential and power steering pump. With correct access, this is a simple job just like the valve cover. Just as before, cleaning all of the surfaces is very important to prevent leaks and then we can drop the gasket on the engine block. In this case, there are no guides, so you have to be very careful when installing the new gasket as it will move around if you’re not careful. It took me 2 tries before I got it perfect and I had perfect access, so I imagine it’s a little bit harder while working under the car. With the gasket aligned and the oil pan sitting on top, we can insert new aluminum bolts in a couple of spots and screw them in a few threads. Now comes the important part. If the engine is out, you’re supposed to use an alignment tool to make sure the oil pan is perfectly aligned with the block. If the transmission is still attached, you don’t have to worry about it as it will align itself to the bellhousing. Here is what I did. Then hand tight a few screws to keep it from moving around. All screws on the oil pan are torqued to 8 Nm and then 90-degree rotation for the short ones and 180 degree of rotation on the long ones.

Well, look at my engine looking all spiffy now with the new gaskets and ready for more parts. Thank you so much for watching part 6 of the N55 engine rebuild project and I’m looking forward to seeing you in the next parts where we install the front and rear crankshaft seals, install the injectors, the exhaust manifold and drop the engine in the car. Leave a comment down below and let me know what you think of the progress so far and if you’d like to follow the project, don’t forget to subscribe. See ya next time!

Test and Clean VANOS Solenoids – BMW VANOS Symptoms

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Hey guys and welcome back to the SimpleCarGuy channel. In this video we will discuss common symptoms of a bad solenoid, see how we can test one at home and how to clean it.

Ever since the early 90s, a lot of BMW engines have been using the VANOS system to adjust the valve timing on the fly. This gives the engine more power over the rev-range and for that reason in general, we like variable timing on engines. We get low end torque and high end horse power, very similar to VTEC on Honda engines. The design has changed over the years, starting with single VANOS system used in the 90s, dual VANOS system used in early to mid 2000s as well as the famous n54 engine that was in production until 2010 and of course Dual-VANOS with VALVETRONIC that I have in my N55 engine that was released in 2009 and is still used today.

Now that we know a little bit of history, let’s take a look at how to actually diagnose a bad VANOS solenoid. A lot of the times, the symptoms are not drastic, so it can be difficult to tell, but usually you’d look for things like loss of low-end torque or power in high revs, slow response or inconsistent idle or even poor fuel economy. Some of the more noticeable items could be rough idling; especially, on cold starts as well as long cranking. Of course, if it’s bad enough, the car will go into limp home mode and you’ll normally get codes related to Camshaft Position or VANOS specific codes. If you suspect the solenoid might be fault on your car, there are ways of testing it. This isn’t something you’d see a dealer do, but it may help you troubleshoot your engine issue. Of course, if the issue is intermittent, this method does not guarantee that it will always work, but it’s an easy way to detect a bad one.

BMW N55 Engine Rebuild Project Part 5 – Timing Chain and Oil Pump Replacement

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Hey Guys and Welcome back to the SimpleCarGuy channel. In this video, we will have some fun installing the oil pump, oil pick up tube, the timing chain and timing the engine. I liked doing the timing chains so much that I did it twice. More on that later!

If you are new here, well, I have been rebuilding my BMW N55 engine for the past few weeks and it’s been a great learning experience. I have replaced the main bearings, crankshaft, sealed the bed plate, installed new rod bearings and a new head gasket. The last huge item on the list is the timing chain, which is today’s video.

While I’m doing this with the engine out, it is possible to do a timing chain job without having to remove the engine from the car. As in previous videos, I won’t be showing those steps, but I’ll do a quick overview on how to get where we are. I recommend you watch my previous videos where I show a lot more detail on disassembly.

HOW TO GET TO THIS POINT:

So, the quick overview. Here we go.

Step 1: Unplug the battery and drain the oil from the engine. Remove air filter housing or clean air pipe running over the valve cover depending on the car and undo the gas pressure lines.

Step 2: Remove the underbody protection, intake silencer housing, fan cowl and the serpentine belt that runs the accessories. With that access, you can now remove the vibration damper and the front crankshaft seal. If the belt tensioner is in the way, you may need to remove it as well.

Step 3: Remove the valve or also known as the cylinder head cover by unplugging the vacuum lines, wiring from the injectors and anything else that’s in the way. If you will be reusing the valve cover, make sure you undo the bolts in the correct order (show here) and remove it from the cylinder head.

If you aren’t replacing the oil pump or oil pump chain and sprocket, no further disassembly is required. Otherwise, you will have to remove the front axle differential, remove the power steering pump and remove the bearing support to be able to remove the oil sump and have access to those parts.

Before you can remove the timing chain or the oil pump components, you have to rotate the engine into the TDC (Top Dead Center) position using the main bolt. You know it’s in the correct position when cylinder number 1 is at the very top. Now we can install the timing tool onto the camshaft to make sure they do not move while we remove the central bolts on the intake and exhaust camshaft adjusters. You should have no issues unbolting these. Then remove the chain tensioner as well which will give your chain some slack and allow you to remove the camshaft adjusters by hand.

Next, the main bolt must be loosened and taken out. This is a tough one. With the engine out, it took an 8 foot pipe to get it done, but I have also done it in with the engine in the car on my N20 timing chain job and it was a little easier. Whichever way you go about this, make sure the socket is very secure on the bolt and doesn’t slip and spray some WD-40 or whatever else you have if it’s a bit rusty.

With the main bolt out, there are only a few things holding the timing chain and timing chain guide in place. The 2 bearing journals that are hiding behind the screw plugs, the crankshaft hub, two little screws at the top by the camshaft adjusters and of course the camshaft adjusters themselves. With those removed, hold the timing chain and guides with one hand and remove the hub with the other making sure not to drop the sprocket. I recommend keeping the chain tight to avoid this and just pull it up as soon as the hub has cleared it.

Now that everything out of the way, we can finally get to fun parts! Since I’m rebuilding the engine, I’m reinstalling the oil pump using new bolts. The install is very simple, but to be safe I do a mock up with old bolts while I’m working on getting the chain assembly in. Just in case I have to move it or something isn’t lining up properly. If I used new bolts and have to loosen them, I’d have to get new bolts again. The 3 bolts at the top are torqued to 10 Nm and then 180 degrees angle of rotation for the longer bolt and 90 degrees for the shorter bolts.

We are almost done with this job and as you can see it does take some time and effort to get there, no wonder a shop would charge you a couple thousand bucks for this! Anyway, to install the new chain and tensioner, make sure it’s all assembled correctly and the sprocket pointing the right way. Then it can all be lowered into the engine, lining up the sprocket with the crankshaft hub and locking it in place with a new main bolt. You don’t want to tighten it to spec just yet. First, reinstall the 2 bearing journals and the 2 little screws at the top to hold everything in place. Torquing all to spec, of course.  Now the main bolt can be torqued to 100 Nm and additional 270-degree rotation. I recommend having someone help you out with this one, it felt a little sketchy as I was doing it.

With the main bolt locking everything in place, it’s time to install the intake and exhaust camshaft adjusters back in with the chain around them. Should be pretty easy since the chain tensioner is not yet installed. Of course, you have to make sure that the intake adjuster goes on the right side and the exhaust on the left, you cannot mix these up! While you are pulling the chain over the exhaust adjuster, make sure it is sitting on the guide rail and not anywhere else. With everything looking good, we can install the pretensioning tool instead of the chain tensioner and torque it to 0.6 Nm and torque the central bolts to 20 Nm with 180-degree rotation after. The very last step before testing is installing the chain tensioner and torquing it to 55 Nm.

Once everything looks good, we can remove all special tool and rotate the engine a couple of times making sure everything sounds good and recheck the timing. If everything still lines up and the timing tool fits as it did before the engine is timed and ready for its new crankshaft seal and re-assembly. A video on front crankshaft seal is coming out soon!

Now, remember how I said I had to do this job twice? Well, after I rotated the engine a few times, it made this clicking sound from the camshaft adjuster which I wasn’t very sure about. So, I posted a short clip to check with others and see if it’s normal. I learned that indeed, it is normal and it will go away as soon as oil pressure is built up and circulating, but I also learned that I was making a mistake. Initially when I looked at the timing components, they looked fine to me so I reused them.. but after many, many convincing arguments from strangers, I have decided to replace it all with brand new stuff, including the chain tensioner. Anyway, thanks for watching, check out the links in the description for parts needed, leave a comment down below and I’ll see you in the next one.

BMW N55 Engine Rebuild Project Part 4 – Cylinder Head Gasket Replacement

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Hello everyone and welcome back to the SimpleCarGuy channel. This is part 4 of the BMW N55 engine rebuild project where I install the new head gasket and reinstall the cylinder head back on the engine. In the previous videos I have taken the engine out of my BMW 335i, tore it apart and found that it was not rebuildable… some time later I found this engine for cheap locally and have replaced the main bearings, crankshaft, piston and installed new rod bearings. Now this engine is ready for the cylinder head to go back on.

I chose not to do much work on the cylinder head except to clean it up a little bit and remove some carbon. After inspecting it, I didn’t see excessive wear or anything of concern and honestly, I’ve used most of my budget that I had for this rebuild on bolts, seals, gaskets and all the replacement parts.

Clearly my engine is out of the car and it took a decent amount of work to get this far but I’m not sure I’d recommend doing this with the engine in the car if it is at all possible. BMW  also recommends taking the engine out for this job and that’s why you see so many valve cover videos on YouTube, but I couldn’t find any as far as the head gasket. Anyway, this series is meant more to document my journey with this car and rebuilding the engine as a hobby mechanic and hopefully help someone in the future do the same or at least start doing DIY jobs at home. Also, now would be a great time to hit that like button for all the BMW DIYers and for the Youtube algorithm.

Check out my video where I disassemble a BMW n55 engine and take the cylinder head off to get an idea of what to do to get to this point. If those specifics aren’t your thing, I’m highlighting the basic steps in this video.

Step 1, remove the engine from the car by removing the exhaust system, draining all of the fluids, removing the intake, radiator, all of the piping and disconnecting it from the wiring loom and transmission. Wow, that was easy! The engine is out now!

Step 2, mount the engine on the engine stand, removing the exhaust manifold with the turbo, injectors, gas lines and anything else attached to the cylinder head. We are moving right along!


In step 3, we undo all of the bolts from the valve cover, remove it and install the timing tool onto the camshafts. Now we can undo the central bolts and remove the camshaft adjusters.

That’s it! Now we only have 14 big bolts holding it in place and after muscling those out of the way, we can lift the cylinder head off the block! No body said this one was easy, but now we are finally ready to replace that head gasket.

Now starts the most tedious part of the job and that’s getting everything nice and clean. This doesn’t look that hard on video, but it sure takes a while to do. I’m mostly just removing the carbon build up as much as I can to help the engine breathe a little better and have the oil flow a little smoother.

Removing remanences of the old gaskets is the most important step; otherwise, your new, expensive gasket will not make a very good seal and you’ll have oil leaks after all of this hard work. I didn’t use any metal tools while doing this as it’s very easy to damage the mating surface, but I did use a brass spinning wheel on the valves to get rid of all that build up carbon. The brass tool is approved for aluminum, so I had no concern using it on hardened valves. Having this great access to the pistons, I gave them a quick clean as well. MUCH BETTER!

Now that all of the parts are ready, it’s a good idea to wipe everything down and make sure there is no oil and dirt in the blind holes or anywhere the gasket will touch. Then, it’s time to actually install the gasket. I decided to go with the ELRING head gasket as they are the OEM for BMW and I’ve used their products before. It simply drops on top of the block, making sure all of the holes line up and the head can go on top. It’s heavy and you should really have a buddy help you out, but I work on this stuff at night and I like being in the way of the camera, so here we are. Once everything looks good and it’s lined up, it’s time to grab a torque wrench and the angle gauge and torque our head bolts to spec.

These bolts drop in easy, but make sure the washers are there. Very easy for those to fall out and get overlooked. You’ll need a special long torx bit set to reach the bolts and set correct torque values. I got mine on Amazon and if you’re interesting, check out the link below, these work great.

There are 3 types of bolts here. We have the M11 and M9 bolts, those are the ones that go in the middle and are torqued to 30 NM, then 90 degree angle of rotation and another 180 degrees on second round. The 3 third type are the M9 short bolts that go on the side where the timing chain is and are torqued to 22nm. I don’t think I have to explain how important it is to do this to spec, just imagine the pressure between the block and the head when the engine is running. And the last thing to do to finish the job is to put back the stopper bolt for the eccentric shaft and the oil spraying nozzle that we removed to get to the bolts.

That is all for part 4 of the BMW n55 engine rebuild project, in the next video I will be installing the oil pump, the timing chain guides with the timing chain and timing the engine. If you’d like to see that, subscribe to the channel and I’ll see you in the next one. Thanks for watching.

BMW N55 Engine Rebuild Project Part 3 – BMW Rod Bearing Replacement

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Hey guys and welcome back to the BMW N55 engine rebuild project. In this video, I go through the process of replacing the rod bearings with the engine out, but the process is exactly the same once you have access, although maybe not nearly as comfortable. Rod bearings fail for many reasons; mostly, due to oil starvation which causes them to overheat and spin on the journal of the crankshaft. If you catch it in time, you can simply replace the rod bearings and you are done. However, if it’s not caught in time or the rod bearing has already welded itself to the crankshaft (show n20), you’ll have to replace the crankshaft as well, just like what I’m doing with this engine. If you hear a knocking coming from the bottom of the engine, the most likely culprit is the rod bearing. This is why some people choose to do this as a preventative maintenance on their hard driven or high mileage BMWs. If you are interested in those steps, check out my previous video where I go through the process of installing a piston, replacing the crankshaft, installing new main bearings and sealing the bed plate. Before we start, make sure to hit that LIKE button for the YouTube algorithms and future DIYs.

In this video I will not be showing you a step by step on how to get to the bearings as it’s different on every car and may be harder or easier depending on the model. As an example, it would be much easier on a BMW Z4 that is rear wheel drive and has tons of space to work with, but it’s much harder on a BMW 335i e92 like this one as space is very much limited and you have to deal with the all-wheel drive system. In any case, to get to the bearings without removing the engine in this car, you’d have to remove all of the reinforcement plates and covers under the car, lower the front axle, remove the front axles and differential and remove the bearing support. ((maybe show video with engine already out ‘for clearance of what to do’). All that work has to be done just to allow you access to the Oil pan. Now, this isn’t necessarily a very complicated part of the job, but it’s important to keep safety in mind, have the engine supported at the top in the installation position and use plenty of jack stands. When I did this on my BMW Z4 with the N20 engine, I used jack stands, wood blocks, 2 jacks and some muscle to lower it. The jacks would allow me to lower and raise the subframe as needed to squeeze the oil pan out. Like I said, a little different on each car and you don’t have to deal with a differential on a rear-wheel-drive car, but you get the idea.

Once you have sufficient access, Removing the oil sump is fairly easy, you just remove the connector for the oil sensor and unbolt all of the bolts. Then, muscle it out of space and watch out for oil dripping down on you.  Once the oil sump is removed, you will see the oil pump and the plastic pick up tube. Strangely, the workshop manual does not mention removing the oil pump, but obviously if you need to replace the bearings on cylinder 1, you’d have to remove it as well. That’s a process of its own, but mostly you just unscrew some bolts and you can remove the oil pump without removing the chain modules.

Clearly this video is more about the correct procedure of changing the rod bearings rather than all the preliminary work, but I hope I helped you get an idea of what it would take to get to this step. Since I had the crankshaft out on my engine, I took that opportunity to install the bearings on 5 of the 6 cylinders for convenience, but I will show you how you’d do it if the crankshaft was still installed on the 6th cylinder. The very first step would be to remove the connecting rod cap and be VERY careful not to mismatch it with another connecting rod. It’s best to do these one by one if you are worried. As mismatching connecting rods and connecting rod caps can cause rod knock or even damage. Now would be a good time to inspect the journal on the crankshaft and after removing the bearings, see how good of a condition both of the surfaces are in. You can clean them with a non-metal sponge. I used a very fine scotch-brite here to clean the surfaces and then wiped them down with some break cleaner and a lint free paper towel.

I decided to go with Calico Coated KING rod bearings instead of BMWs color coded bearings for a couple of reasons. As you may know, technically, you are supposed to look at the crankshaft marking to determine which bearing shells you are supposed to install on which cylinder and each one would be slightly different to make a perfect fit. These aftermarket bearings are more or less the average of all those values and should fit all bearing colors and provide longer life with the Calico coating and not as tight of tolerance, allowing for more oil flow.  It’s important to get standard sizing as these come in the oversized spec as well and you do not want those unless you have had your crankshaft resurfaced. Standard sizing is indicated by the STD letters on the bearing itself, check every single one to make sure there was no mix up.

Now that the surface is clean, the bearing should go in very easily. The trick here is to put the end with the key in first, squeeze it just a little bit as you are putting in the other side and it should just pop in there.

I repeat the same process for the rod caps. I clean them with scotch-brite, some brake cleaner and a clean paper towel and then install the bearings exactly the same as on the connecting rod. Here you can see exactly what I meant as far as the installation goes. Very easy!

Now that we have all of our pieces ready to go, it’s time to check the clearance between the crankshaft and the bearing. It’s vital that the clearance falls within spec if you want your engine to last. Essentially, what I do here is place a small piece of Plastigage on the journal and then install the connecting rod cap on top using the old bolts. Of course, I will be installing new bolts on final assembly, but these are just fine to use for testing. Before torquing them down, double check that you have the correcting connecting rod cap. When installed, it should look like once piece, even with finger pressure on the cap. The torque specs here are 20 Nm with additional 70 degrees of angle rotation and the 70 degrees of angle rotation again. Once everything is torqued up, the cap can be removed and clearances checked. You are looking for clearance between .025 and 0.76 mm just like on the scale. Since I’m going with aftermarket bearings, I should expect a slightly looser clearance than from factory, but that’s to be expected. If you’d like to learn more about Plastigage, check out the video in the top right corner.

Now that I know the clearance is perfect on this engine, it’s time to do it for real!  I repeat the steps, but this time I’m are not doing it dry and adding some assembly lube to the bearings after cleaning off the Plastigage. With the new bolts in, it’s time to torque it to spec the same as before. We are still doing 20 NM and 70 degrees of rotation, twice.

That’s all it takes to correctly replace the rod bearings on a BMW N55 engine and many other BMW engines of this era. Now, all that’s left to do is to do it 5 more times. As you are checking the clearance on each bearing, you don’t’ want to see too much deviation between the cylinders. They should all be more or less within the same range if done correctly.

Now put the car back together and enjoy another 100 thousand on your BMW. I hope you guys enjoyed this video or at least found it helpful. I put a lot of effort into these videos knowing they won’t be popular, so hitting that like button really does keep me motivated. Anyway, check out the rest of the channel for more DIY video and other car related content and I’ll see you in the next one!

How to Measure Engine Clearances using Plastigage

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What is plastigauge.

Hey Guys and welcome back to another video on the SimpleCarGuy Channel. If you have never heard of Plastigauge, you are not alone! Before I started rebuilding this engine, I have never used or even heard of this handy product. What Plastigauge does is measure the clearance between machined parts such as crankshaft and the crankshaft bearings or the crankshaft and the rod bearings. Since the clearance on modern engines is so small, it’s not like you can physically insert anything between the parts. All it really is a thin plastic thread that when crushed by two surfaces can accurately provide the clearance. Before you start, make sure you know the range that your will need for you application as there are many different scales. You can find the specifications for your engine in the workshop manual, technical documentation for the engine or TIS software for your brand of car.

Why use it.

Now that we know what it is, why do we need it? Well, modern engines are built on very, very tight tolerances and clearances that control oil flow to vital parts of the engine, such as the crankshaft. If your bearing clearance is looser than it should be, it will reduce flow resistance and lower the oil pressure and if it’s too tight, you are introducing access heat, which increases wear, which then increase a chance of a spun or welded bearing.

How to use it

Finally, how do you actually use it? Luckily, it is very easy to use but of course there are a couple of things to do before you start. First, clean all of the contacting surfaces so that the result is accurate. Second, make sure you know the correct torque specs for the bolts or screws. The reason that both of these are so important is that if you have debris between the two surfaces or don’t torque correctly, the results will not be accurate. Then, cut a small piece of the Plastigauge that’s about the width of your bearing journal. Place it on top and proceed to install the bedplate or rod cap. On most modern engines, you cannot re-use bolts on the crankshaft or other vital components; however, it IS ok to reuse the bolts for testing purposes when measuring clearances with plastigauge.

How to measure the clearance.

Once you have torqued you bolts to spec, you can release them and remove one of the parts to expose the crushed plastigauge. Now, you can just grab one piece of the packaging that has the scale on it, it can be imperial or metric, depending on how your specifications are provided and place it right on top of the line you see left by the plastigauge. Compare it to the scale to see which one is the closest and that’s the clearance between the two parts. If the clearance is what you are looking for, wipe the ruminants with some break cleaner, lubricate the bearings if needed and do the final assembly. That is all it takes to measure the clearance on crank bearings, rod bearings or any other parts that use this method. Thank you, guys, for watching and if this helped you understand how plastigauge works, hit that like button. If you’d like to see me rebuild a BMW N55 engine, check out the playlist in the description below. I’ll see ya in the next one!