removing camshafts - M50 nonTU

[jbourke]

Hi all,

I was reading an interesting Pelikan article on the net about removing camshafts without the BMW special tool ... my main obstacle for not replacing a noisy lifter.

Apparently while turning the cs there is a spot where only the #1 lobes are under spring pressure, the rest isn't ... Once this spot is found you can remove all other bearing caps without any risk of bending/breaking the cs. The last step is evenly removing the cap closest to cilinder #1.

What do you guys think? Sounded plausible to me ...

BTW a very entertainging site about DIY on V12 E32's: http://bmwe32.masscom.net. A lot of things are applicable to E34's as well.

Cheers,

John

[yaofeng]

I removed both cam shafts on my 525i last year, without the cam locked at no. 1 cylinder TDC (naturally if they are locked they cannot be removed) and without the cam shaft removal tool from BMW. I replaced two valve lifters.

It was my first E34. I was very careful loosening the cam bearing caps nuts a few turns at a time on both.

Ignorance is bliss?

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b274/yaofengchen/BMW_95_525i/DSC_1639.jpg

[jbourke]

http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/techarticles/E36-Camshaft-Removal/E36-camshaft-removal.htm

Entertaining article which strongly advises against your method yaofeng :-) maybe it isn't that bad if you do it very carefully. Why didn't you replace all lifters, they aren't that expensive are they?

Cheers,

John

[yaofeng]

I removed all the lifters as you can see. Why replace only two? Only two are bad. I did not remove the camshafts because I found valve chatter or anything. You probably can tell from the picture the engine has sludge. I did my best to clean it.