[arob]

***1995 BMW 325is***

This past weekend, I was able to get to the point of reinstalling the head / cams after cleaning up the pistons due to the $$hift at Hyperfest.

Got the cams back in, and hand-tested the turning of cams before moving forward.

Turning the crank, the intake cam turned nicely. However, the exhaust cam turned maybe a couple mm, then snapped.

Thoughts on how I screwed this one up?

I've already got replacement cams, but appreciate input before round 2.

Thanks -
Rob

[Dr K]

Wow. Sorry Rob. No idea how to advise (this is outside my current limits of knowledge), but wanted to give you some sympathy.

[tank]

I had once thought of upgrading my e36 camshaft until reading this.

Piece of cake, I thought, until I learned that the BMW camshafts are not like many others that I had worked on previously. Particularly on the six-cylinder cars, the camshafts are very long and hollow. This makes them very susceptible to bending and adverse side loads that can be placed on them during the removal process. After consulting the BMW factory documentation, I quickly realized that BMW requires you to use a special tool in order to remove the camshafts. "No problem," I thought. "I'll just purchase the tool and then rent it out through Pelican for others to use." Well, that well-thought out plan went right down the drain when I realized that the tool costs over $1400 and isn't even available for purchasing at this time. The story I received from our BMW dealer was that the tool is specially made by one guy, in some small company, in the motherland of Germany. There would be an eight-month lead time for delivery of the tool, and even that wasn't guaranteed. In addition to that, you had to buy two tools - one for the four cylinder engines, and an adapter add-on tool for the six cylinder engines.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/tech...ft-removal.htm

[HoodPin]

I miss the good ol' days of easy to work on cars.....

[Dr K]

Seems cheaper to just buy a NEW camshaft and not worry about removing the old one!

[arob]

Originally Posted by Dr K

Seems cheaper to just buy a NEW camshaft and not worry about removing the old one!

Actually would have been cheaper to just buy a replacement motor.

[Dr K]

How much is a replacement motor for a SPEC-3?

Let me know when the next BMW-CCA club race is at Summit Point. I'd love to come up and see what it's like. How do the racers differ from PCA racers? I would assume it's between NASA and PCA, but closer to the young and wild, or the older/richer?

[4Rings]

Young and wild guys are usually up front, the older and richer racers are in the back of the pack. Rob runs in the very select mid-pack group of older but not-so-rich drivers :P

[BlackTalon]

This thread is getting long, and no one has yet posted anything helpful for Rob's issue.

[smdubovsky]

Originally Posted by smdubovsky

May be quite a bit cheaper to just buy another stock head. Heck, if you can find a cheap enough motor, get the whole thing.

Originally Posted by arob

Actually would have been cheaper to just buy a replacement motor.