Tag: diy

BMW N20 (Z4) No Start When Warm Fix

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BMW Hard to Start Warm

INTRO:

After two years, no help from the dealer or the Indy shop and countless troubleshooting steps, I have finally solved the bad start issue on my BMW Z4. Hey guys and welcome back to the SimpleCarGuy channel! Today, I will go over all of the steps I took to try and solve this problem over the last 2 years, what I’ve learned in the process and how I accidentally solved it.

Quick Preview:

To put a lot of this into perspective, I got the car with a blown engine and swapped in a newer 30k-mile engine in my garage. Since I didn’t use the same exactly engine as I took out, I had to swap a lot of parts in the engine replacement process from the old engine. As a result, I had a few issues once everything was finished, but nothing I couldn’t solve. Except for this bad starting issue. When the car was cold, it would start no problem. However, after the engine was fully warmed up, there was a chance that it wouldn’t start or hesitate while starting. It didn’t help that the car has auto stop and start option and would turn the engine off at each red light.

From the information I have given you so far, what do you think the solution to this problem is? Leave your comments below and NO cheating! Now would also be the best time to hit that LIKE button to support the channel!

Troubleshooting:

Since I believed the issue had something to do with the engine swap, I started troubleshooting some of the more obvious items. I rechecked and retightened all of the ground wires as well as the power wires going to and from the alternator and starter, checked all of the fuses and everything else I could think of. None of it made a difference. To be clear, I never had ANY codes on the car related to this issue.

With the wiring not being the problem, I got to thinking that it must be something to do with the ignition system. The most obvious item that came to mind and something I definitely touched during the swap was the crankshaft position sensor, this sensor tells the rotational position of the crank to the ECU and when it goes back, shows similar symptoms to what I had. Luckily, these are very cheap on eBay, so I swap it out but the problem remained. Similarly, the camshaft sensors monitor the speed and position of intake and exhaust camshaft. ECU uses this information for ignition and fuel control, but after swapping these out as well, I still had the same starting problem.

At this point, I’ve posted on forums, groups and consulted with a few friends and of course everyone gave a different solutions and mostly blamed different sensors that are known to fail on a BMWs. Since I like tinkering with cars, I got right to it! I’ve swapped out the air intake temperature sensor, cleaned and later swapped the mass air flow sensor, tested the coolant temperature sensor on the engine block, unplugged the O2 sensors to see if that made any difference and even looked into the oil pressure sensor as well as checked the oil pressure when the engine was fully warmed up. All was normal, still no codes or any other indication of something being wrong with the engine.

Just to check some items off my list, I smoke tested the vacuum system on the engine to look for any leaks, replaced the vacuum solenoid and even cleaned the PCV valve in the process. Of course the results were still the same.

Knowing that the wires are all secure, the ignition system is operating as expected, most of the sensors on the engine have been replaced or tested and there were no vacuum leaks on the car lead me to believe that it has something to do with the fuel delivery. I started with a big one and replaced the HPFP as I had a spare one from my old engine. The HPFP is one of the common issues on this engine that can cause very similar symptoms. However, even after replacing the fuel pump, the fuel pressure regulator AND testing the fuel rail pressure, my starting situation didn’t change.

Things I’ve Learned:

All of the items I have mentioned so far have had no effect, but replacing the injectors did make a change, just not to how the car started. What I learned was that there were 2 different injector types on the N20 engine, the EU5 and the EU6. Although practically the same, at full throttle, I would get a lean code pop up once in a while. After replacing the newer EU6 injectors with the EU5 Injectors from the old engine, those codes never re-appeared. The reason I’m mentioning this is in case you are troubleshooting a similar issue and didn’t think to look at the injector version.

Dealer:

So, I definitely learned a lot in the process but after all of this time, the car would still be hard to start when warm. Since I couldn’t figure it out, I decided to take the car to a local Indy shop that specializes in German cars. They spent a couple of days troubleshooting the car and at the end told me that it ‘might’ be the Valvetronic servo motor that needs to be replaced. Looking online, it looked like a possible solution, but before I took the engine apart, I brought it to a BMW dealer to check out as well. They scanned the car, logged some data, reset the adaptations on the DME and sent me home. The issue was back before I even got home. Not wanting to pay $200/hour for further troubleshooting, I left it alone and drove the car as is for a while.

Final Fix:

Knowing everything you know now, have you figured out what the issue was? The solution was purely accidental. If you follow my channel, you may have seen a video where I replaced the starter motor on this car. After I removed the old one and got the new one out of the box, I noticed that they were different in size, color and even OE manufacturer. I was sure I ordered the correct starter as I went by part number that came up for my VIN. The reason these two were different is because the starter that was install on my car was for N20 engines that do NOT have the Auto Start/Stop functionality. Someone in the past, installed a starter that technically fit, but was not made for this version of the car. After installing the correct starter and driving for about a week now, I have had absolutely zero issues! This just shows you that you can try 100 different things, but sometimes the solution is hiding in plain sight. I hope some of the troubleshooting steps I talked about help someone fix their cars that have a similar starting problem. For now, I will continue enjoying my BMW Z4 now that it’s 100% issue free. Thank you so much for watching and I’ll see you in the next one!

BMW Aftermarket Apple CarPlay 1 Year Review

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Hey guys and welcome back to the SimpleCarGuy channel. About 9 months ago I posted a video where I installed an aftermarket Apple CarPlay and Android Auto module in my 2014 BMW 550i. Since then, I have answered many questions in the comments, emails and on my Instagram, but it seems that I’m answering the same questions over and over again and now that I have used it for many months, I figured I’d put it all in one place. So, in this video, I will talk about the Pros and Cons, missing functionality, extra features, compatibility and answer all of your questions as well.

I’m making this video so that you can make an informed decision and not waste your money, so hit that like button if you like the video and leave your comments down below with any additional questions.

When I first installed this aftermarket Apple CarPlay on my BMW, I got lots of people asking about the quality and all of the features. Of course, at that time I have only used the system for a day or two and couldn’t give all the answers, but now I’m ready to tackle this one.

The most common concern for people was whether it would fit their specific year and model car. Well, to answer this, you have to understand BMW’s iDrive systems a little bit. The earliest system you can install Apple CarPlay using this method and without replacing parts is the iDrive CCC which came out on some BMWs in as early as 2004 model year. This system was in use until about 2010 model years on some cars. So, if your car has THIS screen, you need CCC version of the device.

The next system was Car Information Computer or CiC and it looked like THIS. If your screen looks like this, you will need an aftermarket unit made for CiC iDrive. You cannot interchange these unless the unit you get is made to work with different versions. This iDrive version was on BMWs between 2009 and 2014. I will post a list of different models in the description or comments for your reference.

BMW introduced a further update to the iDrive System in early 2012 and called it the NextBestThing also known as the NBT, which is what I have in my car and what I showed in the video. This is for 2013-2018 model years, but once again, it varies depending on the model. As an example, on the BMW 5 series F10, it’s from 2014-2016 model years.

The last system you can update using this method is the iDrive NBT EVO which of course replaced the original NBT iDrive system and is still being used on many models today and it looks like THIS.

I hope it clears up some of the questions as to what unit you need for your car. Please do your research, refer to the list I the description and make sure you understand which iDrive you have before you order. If you are more adventurous, you can also remove the screen in the car and take a look at the connector on the back. On F10 5 series, if the connector has 4 pins, it’s the CiC version and if it has 6 pins, it’s the NBT system. If you are having trouble with this, leave a comment down below and I’ll do my best to help you.

Alright, so you know which unit you need, but you have some questions. Let’s see if we can clear some of those questions up.

I know my biggest concern before installing this unit was how fast and how accurately it would connect to my phone. Well, it connects perfectly about 98% of the time. What do I mean by that? Well, if you don’t have your Bluetooth or WiFi on on your phone, it will sometimes connect half way and you are just stuck at THIS screen (show screen). You then would have to manually connect to the correct system in Bluetooth or WiFi Settings. Now, that’s not the only way it can mess up the connection. I have had times where it just refused to connect and I had to restart the unit by holding the back button for 3 seconds. This has happened about 10 times in the 9 months I’ve been using this. That’s actually a very small number in my opinion and I’ve been very happy with how fast and reliable it has been overall.

My second biggest concern installing an aftermarket Apple CarPlay unit was audio quality. Most BMWs have a wonderfully balanced and great sounding system, so I was worried it would ruin the experience. Once again, it’s not perfect by any means. It sounds great at almost any sound level, but as soon as you turn it up past a certain point, there is a hissing noise that becomes very apparent. Of course, the volume has to be very loud at this point and there has to be a silent moment in whatever you are listening to. I think this is my main concern, but not a deal breaker since it’s only at very high levels. To reduce this as much as possible, go to the settings and make sure your volume is set to the max.

Now let’s do some rapid fire questions and then finish the video with my final thoughts.

We have already answered what cars it can be installed in and the different options, but does it use the original camera or do you have to get an aftermarket one? You can switch between Aftermarket and Original in the settings. So, if your car doesn’t have one, you can install an aftermarket one and use it.

How does the camera work when you are using CarPlay? It quickly switches back to the OEM system and it works as normal, including the curving lines and sensors.

Nice, right? So, what about the radio? This device does NOT have a radio built in and you cannot mix the two audio sources together. The best solution for using Google Maps and listening to the radio at the same that I found was to play the radio station you want, or save it on one of the memory buttons, go to Apple CarPlay, but do not switch the audio source to AUX and use it without any sound.

Speaking of switching back and forth, how easy is it to switch between the systems? This system starts up when you unlock the car and the phone connects automatically, so to switch back to the BMW system, you just have to hold the BACK button for 3 seconds. This as far as I understand shuts down the unit, so when you hold BACK again for 3 seconds, it starts up again and your phone reconnects. There is no sleep mode type of function.

Cool, so we can switch between systems, but does it use the original BMW microphones or do you have to wire the one that came with the unit? Luckily, the answer on this one is YES, it does use the original microphones in the car. If your car didn’t have one or it’s broken, you can use the one that came with it as well, but you’ll have to route it the proper position. These are used for both Siri commands as well as voice calls.

Speaking of voice calls, how is the sound quality? The quality coming in sounds absolutely perfect; however, I have had a complaint from someone on the other line saying that I sounded like I’m on speaker, so I went and played with the options. Enabling this feature made it sound much better in my car, but I think it depends on your car set up. It still does not sound as good as original BMW as echo does happen on some occasions. Overall, it’s pretty good, but not amazing. Luckily, there is an option to allow phone calls to be handled by the original BMW system.

What about playing music, how is that experience? When used wirelessly, there is a slight delay in audio. Of course, this isn’t a problem if you are listening to music, but can be noticeable when watching a video. It also isn’t nearly as bad as it is on the original BMW Bluetooth audio. This problem can be easily fixed by plugging in the phone via USB. You can also use AirPlay, which is wireless and has no delay whatsoever. It clones everything on your phone to the screen, including videos, movies, apps etc. One feature I miss from the original system is volume based on your speed. The volume does not adjust automatically as you go faster or slower.

Now let’s talk a little bit on how well it integrates into the car. The iDrive controller and buttons around it works as you would expect. All of the buttons on the steering wheel work great as well and you can even use the little scroll wheel here on the steering wheel as the secondary controller. I use this most of all as I can keep my hands on the wheel and perform most of the functions.

One item that I wish would have been integrated is the Heads-Up-Display. While it still displays your speed and other BMW items, it does not show any music or navigation information. So, if you rely on the arrows and instructions being up on your windshield while using GPS, this might not be for you. I did a little bit of research on this and it looks like this display is basically ran by a different computer/module and since this device is just sitting between the head unit and the display, it cannot control it.

The last item is more related to Apple CarPlay in general. I’ve had a few questions on what apps are available and can you install stuff like Netflix or YouTube? Apple CarPlay allows you to basically install only Navigation and Audio related apps. So, you can have Google or Apple Maps and Waze for your navigation. Spotify, Apple Music or even radio apps like the TuneIn radio or iHeartradio for audio and even podcast and audio book apps. Besides those, WhatsApp and standard messaging apps are available, but mostly only work through Siri. You cannot type in a message directly as an example. There are of course some other ones, like the SpotHero app to find and pay for parking or PlugShare to find local charging stations if you have an electric car.

Well guys, this video turned out much longer than I expected, but I really wanted to answer as many common questions as possible and make the decisions easier for you. So, what do I think of it and would I do it again? Well, this may not be as good as an OEM installation of Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, but it damn sure is 10 times better and easier to use than the original BMW navigation and media player. I also love that my fiancé can easily use her phone with the car without an hour set up.

Upgrading Hyundai Kona’s Fog Lights

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Hey Guys and welcome back to another video on the SimpeCarGuy channel. Do you see a problem with this picture? I SURE DO! Those fog lights definitely do not match the rest of the design and modern look of the car. So, today we are changing them to the same color temperature LEDs. This shouldn’t take you more than 15 minutes total if you have worked on cars before. Hyundai recommends removing the bumper cover completely to replace the bulbs in the fog lights, but of course we aren’t doing that as that’s a big and risky job. I will show you a much easier way. Let’s get started.

In order to do this safely, I throw a chock behind the rear tire to make sure the car will not roll back and then jack it up and put a dolly under the front tire. The jack stays in place under a little bit of tension as well to give me two points of safety. You can of course put the car on a jack stand as well.

You will need just a couple tools for this job, a 10 mil socket and a trim removal tool. If you don’t have one of those, you can use a flat head screw drivers, but you will most likely break some of the clips doing so.

You will only need a couple of things for this job. A trim removal tool and a 10 mil socket.

Next you’re going to climb under the car and remove 7 bolts. What we are trying to do here is remove the plastic underbody panel and get access to the back of the fog lights.  If you have one of these impact drivers, it only takes a few seconds to deal with the bolts.

I really recommend getting one of these trim removal tools as it makes life so much easier. You can use a flat head screwdriver if you don’t have one, but you will most likely break a couple clips. I got a set of 100 clips and the tool for around $10 on amazon if anyone is interested. Once all of the clips are removed, the plastic can be slid forward and out of the way. It took me a total of 5 minutes to get to this point, so even if it’s your first time, it shouldn’t be a big job at all.

Now that we have one of them done, you can see how easy it is to replace these fog lights and look at the difference! It’s huge and it matches perfectly.

Also, I do apologize for the noise in the previous clip, but I wanted to show you in real time how long it takes and the cicadas aren’t stopping for at least another month. Now let’s finish the job by doing the same on the other side. Twist the bulb to unlock, pull it out and insert the new one. Lock it in place and plug in the connector. As easy as that. And here you can see the fan going and making sure the LEDs don’t overheat.

And there you have it everyone, not nearly as hard as it looks! To finish the job, I put the underbody panel back using the bolts and plastic clips and took the car off the jack stand.

Well, that’s all I have for you today, I know this isn’t as easy as it is on some cars, but nothing to be afraid of here. I think it should have came from the factory like this and match the rest of the car and you also get an added benefit of better illumination on turns. Leave a comment down below and let me know what you think of this upgrade and if this video helped you change your fog lights, hit that like button and subscribe to the channel for more automotive content. I’ll see you guys in the next one.

Most Requested Mod on my BMWs – Replacing Kidney Grills on BMW Z4 and 550

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Hey guys and welcome back to the SimpleCarGuy channel. Ever since I started posting videos online, I have gotten many suggestions, requests, complaints and even compliments once in a while, but the part that seemed to bother people the most and maybe had the most comments overall was that I had the M colors on the grill! So, in this video I’m replacing the fake M kidney grills with regular gloss black on both the BMW Z4 and the 550i.

Now, I installed mine before I knew how much people hated these and the stigma behind them. Everyone knows not to put M badges on a regular car, but what’s the harm in the M kidney grills? Well, apparently a lot as you cannot go on a forum or video without people complaining and hating on cars! So, for your pleasure and mine, let’s get these new shiny black ONLY grills installed and make the world a better place!

Do you agree with the general opinion? Leave a comment down below and let me know your opinion on this and while you are there, hit that like bottom for the Youtube Algorithm and maybe more than 20 people will see this video. Let’s get to it!

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 Rear Crankshaft Seal Install (No Special Tools)

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Hey guys and welcome back to the SimpleCarGuy Channel. In this video I will be installing the rear crankshaft seal as part of the BMW N55 engine rebuild project I have been working on. Over the past few weeks, I have bought or borrowed a lot of specialty tools, but this time I decided to install the rear seal without the use of any specially tools so if that’s something that interests you, keep on watching!

If you find this video useful and would like to support the channel, hit that like button for the Youtube algorithms and for repairing these complex beasts at home.

If you are aren’t following this rebuild project, this engine spun a rod bearing and needed a new crankshaft. I have so far replaced the crankshaft, sealed the bedplate, replaced the main bearings, rod bearings, installed a new head gasket and valve and oil pan gaskets. If you’d like to see any of those videos, check out the playlist in the description. Anyway, back to the subject of this video.

As with previous jobs I have done on this engine, the task itself isn’t that hard. The hard part is getting to the part or the rear crankshaft seal in this case. If your engine isn’t out, the recommended path of getting to it is to remove the transmission from the vehicles by removing the stiffening plate and the exhaust system past the catalytic converter and disconnecting the main drive shaft at the transmission side. The transmission can then be disconnected from the engine and dropped down. After all that work the flywheel can be removed and you will finally have access to the seal. Obviously, this is a huge job just to get to this part, but if your engine or transmission is already out and you have a leaking seal, it’s definitely a good time to change it.

I had it a little easier since my engine is on the stand, but the process is the same from this point on. First things first, we have to remove the crankshaft sensor out of the way and then remove the magnet wheel cover. To remove the old seal, you will need a small drill bit that isn’t bigger than 2.5 mm and drill a small hole without touching any metal surfaces. Then the seal can be removed with a help of a sliding hammer. I have done it without the tool before by just using a regular screw and then a regular hammer against a plank of wood that’s against the block to leverage it out of place. Whichever way you go about it, make sure there is no residue or little plastic pieces from drilling. For anything tougher, you can use a fine scotch brite pad and brake cleaner to get it perfectly smooth.

Now that we have everything ready for the new seal, you are supposed to use a special seal tool, but I decided not to buy one and used my own method so that I don’t have to spend the $300 for the install tool.

Obviously, you cannot just hammer the seal in as it would get damaged and wouldn’t create a good seal, defeating the purpose of the replacing it. So, what could you use to drive it in that’s the same size as the new seal? Well, the OLD SEAL. I flipped the seal over and lightly tapped on it until the new one started to get seated on the crankshaft. Now, this isn’t the quick method as it probably took at least 15 minutes of light and not so light hammering to get it seated. I had to stop a few times until I reached the correct stopping point. It should be just past the change in high on the block. Once the entire circumference of the seal is equally seated and will not move any further, you are done! The flywheel can now be reinstalled with new bolts and transmission put back in.

I hope this video helped you get your own rear crankshaft seal installed without having to buy any special tools and if it did, let me know in the comments down below. Check out the rest of the channel for many more BMW specific videos and I hope to see you in the next 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!