DIY: S50B30 Vanos Rebuild info

[KwS 2372]

This is a guide based on my experience of rebuilding an S50B30 vanos using the Beisan System kit.

I have made this guide to aid anyone else that is undertaking this work, and to supplement the Beisan Systems instructions, as they are based off the S50B32 engine and is lacking some detail and crucial information. The Beisan instructions are here, http://www.beisansystems.com/procedures/euro_s50_single_vanos_procedure.htm

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS MY EXPERIENCES WITH THIS. THIS IS NOT A STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTION, IT IS MEANT TO COMPLIMENT THE BEISAN INSTRUCTIONS TO FILL THE GAPS AND HIGHLIGHT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE 3.2 AND 3.0. PLEASE FOLLOW AT YOUR OWN RISK.

The first step was to make sure i had all the tools that Beisan lists. The list they supply is pretty good. MAKE SURE YOUR TOOLS ARE GOOD QUALITY, ESPECIALLY YOUR HEX SOCKETS OR YOU WILL STRIP BOLTS.

First step, remove fan and shroud. First issue i had.... 32mm wrench is too big to fit between the fan and water pump bolts. Solution, remove two of the bolts in the pulley. A swift whack of the hammer on the spanner and off the fan comes. Fan is on a reverse thread. Remove the shroud with the fan.

Important to keep organised.

Next up, remove the coil cover and disconnect all the coils. Move the coil wiring out of the way.

Pull the coils out. Remove the valve cover. My gasket is hard and like plastic. Beisan says that the gasket is Viton and does not require replacement. I would HIGLY recommend having a replacement before starting work.

Finding Top Dead Center.

The Beisan instructions say to line up a pointer like the below one, with marks on the front of the harmonic balancer.

After 2 hours of searching and much frustration i finally worked it out. By fluke i found the pointer, a simple mark on the timing cover, and the marks on the balancer arent on the front, but hidden down behind the pulley.

Beisan says the solenoids will be linked, and removed in a certain way. Nope, in the 3.0 they are separate and the wiring doesnt exit via the bottom like the 3.2, it exits top and bottom, per solenoid. The top solenoid wiring is also spiral bound to the cam sensor on the vanos bridge, so that needs to be removed before the solenoid comes out.

This is the intake piston nut. Its tiny, are this has been the cause of many issues for others. IT IS NOT REVERSE THREADED, LEFTY LOOSEY, RIGHTY TIGHTY. It wont be very tight.

Next up was to remove the bolts that hold the vanos unit to the head.

There are four bolts on the part behind the vanos (the bridge). Two are easy to see, the other two are recessed in the middle of the bridge. Make sure clean all the oil out of the holes. The two recessed bolts are too deep for my hex socket, so be sure to either have a deep socket or if you get stuck like i did a hex key will work (with some added leverage). This is a 6MM hex head.

I had a couple of stripped bolts thanks to cheap tools, so i had to remove the radiator to get them out. THIS IS NOT REQUIRED UNLESS YOU STRIP THE BOLTS LIKE I DID.

One thing i will note too, is to remove the radiator you must disconnect the oil cooler. It is held in with one 10mm bolt on the RH end, and then you lever it out of that bracket with a screwdriver.

Next up was to begin the removal. First you need to remove all the bolts from the front of the vanos unit, 6 short, 1 long for 7 in total (not the 9 Beisan says).

Once this is done, remove the 4 bolts across the vanos bridge, and remove the bridge. Note, all 4 bolts are the same length (not 2 short 2 long like Beisan says)

Proceed to carefully slide vanos unit forward a little. Beware of the oil pump driver which is a disk that goes between the vanos unit and the exhaust cam. If dropped, this will take a swift trip to the bottom of the oil pan. Beisan has no picture to show what you are looking for with the driver, so i took a few. Hold it onto the vanos unit with your finger.

The driver is a disk that sits here.

Looks like this

When removing the vanos unit, my piston got stuck to the shaft that sticks out of the intake cam. I had to use my tack lifter to gently lever it off the helical gear. There is a wee notch in the top of the gear above where the piston is stuck that i found to give just enough room to lever from.

Removed!

Remove piston (push out with finger)

Pull the intake cylinder apart

Bag of seals

Once removed, ALL parts get a thorough cleaning in a mixture of brake clean and degreaser. The vanos bridge and bolts came up mint.

This is another part Beisan was not clear about. When you replace the seal on the cylinder and you are refitting to the bore, DO NOT PUSH THE CYLINDER IN. Let is rest, and then use the cover to push it in with the tightening of the screws. If you push the cylinder in you WILL ruin the seal.

Rest it like this

Put on cover (aligning the indent in the side with the vanos filter next to it). Make sure you remove the oring on the cover as per instructions, first.

And slowly wind the screws in, bit by bit and doing them in a star pattern until the cover is seated completely. Remove cover and cylinder should looks like this,

Nicely seated.

Clean the cylinder cover and renew the seals on that too

Another thing Beisan missed is that the cylinder cover has a dowel to align it, and MUST be aligned correctly.

Thats that side done. Next up is to remove the oil pump cover. My bolts were really tight, so i soaked in CRC (penetrating oil), cracked them, wound out 3 turns and then put more oil on them and left to soak.

Gave it a wipe down and replaced the seals. Be aware that if you rest the unit face down like i did it can and will push the oil pump out of place, so take care to gently push it back into the unit.

Vanos unit all back together

Next up was the solenoids. I had done a lot of research on how best to approach this, and the E39 M5 boys have some pretty good info about it (same solenoids).

I decided it was best to replace the seals, remove the gauze ring and clean the solenoids. The gauze ring is the brown bit you can see in some of the photos of the solenoids. Its a plastic ring with some gauze filled slots.

My gauze rings were ruined. The gauze was missing in places, and the rest was blocked. Used a scalpel to lever it off slightly, and then some pliers to break them and pull them off.

I then turned my attention to the cleaning of the innards. Obviously i cant disassemble them, so had to find another way. The best way people tend to use is to flush them with brake clean whilst actuating them. I went with this method.

Out came the 9V battery and connector.

The solenoid leads are moulded with the polarity on the connector, so just join + to + and - to - and hopefully you should hear the solenoid click. I didnt.

It turns out the top solenoid was dead. Nothing at all. I began to flush it by blasting brake clean into the ports, and after a few tries i finally get a faint click from it. Yay! I spray and actuate a few more dozen times until im getting a nice, solid, hearty click every time and then move on to the next one.

The lower solenoid wasnt as bad, it clicked first try but was very faint. A thorough cleaning fixed that, although some of the rubbish that came out was pretty nasty.

Replaced the seals on both, and put them aside.

Replaced the vanos filter. Old one was black and you can see blockage in the gauze. Its cheap and easy to get at so ill replace this again in a thousand km or so.

Since the vanos unit was done, i moved onto the anti-rattle kit.

You need to replace the splined, helical gear from the intake cam.

It wasnt easy, mine was reluctant to move forward enough to pop out until i game it some help (by wiggling the can back and forward a bit). I also noticed it was hard to get into the Beisan tool so i gave the spline a real good scrub and it moves much freer now.

Once removed the cause of the rattles was WELL obvious. There should be no axial play (wiggle)..... mine had a ton of movement. Loose as a goose.

Pulled it apart with my rattle gun, worked a treat. The innards were dirty, with chunks of something inside it and noticeable wear on the end washers.

The Beisan kit replaces the outer ring and both end washers.

All fitted up with the discarded bits in the background

Back in the engine.

So i got a new valve cover gasket and spark plug seals, 3 new bolts and 3 new washers for the vanos unit (to replace the rounded ones and a spare), and a new oil cap as the old one weeped.

New stuff

The new vanos bolts to replace the rounded hex. Its obvious im not the only one to have issues, the new bolts are T30 Torx, not hex.

Same deal with the new solenoid cover bolts, no more hex.

Vanos solenoids installed. Note the placement, with wires exiting top and bottom, not both exiting down the bottom like the B32.

New cover gasket (use a small smear of liquid gasket to hold this gasket to the cover to aid in reassembly)

Cover on, with new bolts.

New valve cover gasket. The new gasket is much softer, and much better to work with than the old one. Note that with the S50 engines you apply the gaskets to the head, and then the cover onto that. The gaskets have locating lips, ridges and dowels.

Cover on. What a prick of a thing to get into place. Took about 3-4 tries as it kept getting stuck on the loom holder above it, and the rear cam cap.

Coils in

Radiator in

This may not be completely necessary, but with the coils still disconnected, I cranked the engine a few times to get oil into the vanos unit.

Coils connected, key turned and it roars into life. Idles a bit lumpy. Idle is to be expected, vanos isnt worn in and the ECU has lost all its learning and reset to defaults.

Parts used during my vanos rebuild. This is for my car, some parts may vary so please check via RealOEM or your dealer to be sure.

Beisan Systems seal kit BS031

Beisan Systems Anti-rattle kit BS032

Beisan System Anti-rattle tools BS094

The following parts are from BMW

Vanos solenoid O-Rings (S62, improved design over S52 and direct replacement)

11367830828 x2

11367830829 x2

Vanos filter

11361401973

07119963073

Vanos solenoid cover gasket

11311318323

Vanos cover bolts

07129905121 x4

Vanos intake piston nut

11361313170

Valve cover gasket

11121404358

11121317386 x2

Oil cap

11121716993

And the bolts i had to replace due to rounded heads (hopefully wont be needed by anyone else)

07129903807 (bolts)

07119931044 (washers)

Be aware most parts are Ex Germany (all Beisan parts are Ex USA), so order them beforehand.

I hope this helps. Its not a hard job, just time consuming, fiddly and a right terror when something goes wrong. Its well worth doing and completely within the range of anyone with a decent set of tools and can follow instructions.

Edited July 13, 2014 by KwS

[Dave@nz 11]

Well done Kevin,

Great work to be doing this at home bet you saved a bundle by doing it yourself.

Quite a complex design and looks like the orings and filter have have a limited life

good quality oil and frequent changes would be the thing to do.

Dave.

[BreakMyWindow 1870]

Nice work!

Have got a vanos solenoid seal kit sitting in my garage that this post has given me motivation to put to use.

[KwS 2372]

Bump. Theres a few rebuilds going around at the moment, hope this helps.