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Well, this is the sweet picture of success! That is one chain tensioner bolt fully inserted, torqued and secured! My anxiety about doing this job was quickly dismissed as the tap went straight in (secured by the guide) and took very little force to twist through. We were able to use a standard length 16mm spanner to easily turn the tap into the thread as it was held by the guide. The tap was packed full of grease to collect any shavings and that was a good idea (for lube also) even though very little aluminium came out. We also stuffed a small bit of cloth into the back of the hole to ensure nothing was pushed out the end into the chain casing. Once the tap was complete (seriously in less than 5 minutes after all this waiting!) I attempted to wind the bolt back in by hand but it bound! Gulp! All that was required here though was to clean up the bolt threads with some steel wool and PRESTO it wound right in... With the correct tools on hand the job took 20 mins max. Based on this experience it's obvious that the threads had minor fouling rather than any serious stripping or crossing. The thread is M26x1.5 so it's very fine for the size and obviously very intolerant of any deformation. Smoothing them back out was ultimately a simple exercise (but one that had me very, very worried). I'm not really sure what the moral of this story is but here are a few things that occurred along the way: 1. I met some really awesome people from here at Bimmersport and got some really helpful advice. Two people in particular were amazing with their time, support, knowledge and tools - thank you Ian and Mark, you're legends! 2. I had a great time with Mike at Brendon Engineering where he was always happy to invite me into the machine room and play with the (manual) tools. Wow they've got some cool equipment there! For the $80 I spent on a piece-of-mind tool I got many hours of engineering and equipment education, that was invaluable. 3. Sometimes you encounter problems that there's little or no information on and when you're inexperienced this can be intimidating. When you reach out for knowledge, take your time and equip yourself with the correct tools you can find that seemingly insurmountable obstacles are less challenging than you anticipated. Now I've just got to receive my parts from the US and put the bloody VANOS back together! Not counting my chickens until that's all done so wish me luck! Thanks for caring.

I got bored so test fitted the V8 vantage muffler with some pipe sections and alloy tape, worked well! For a bit anyway... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3vf6cyw52w

Got bored so made my own version of a upgraded M50 water pump

Dont let the electronics scare you off... I get tired of people taking the pussy way out and compromising on their builds because of the fear of EWS / wiring etc. Westy knew not too much about wiring and managed by himself to move everything across without many issues. If you do you get some of the more advance features such as DSC (assuming you have a DSC car)

Some fun going up the parking lot.

Just read through all this! What a mission, but at least it all came to a head and you sorted it out. Well done, I guess this is part off the fun owning a once high end car nearly 20 years later!

i always thought you must have! id delete mine for better mufflers etc but the E34 fuel tank is wrapped around it, its not further forward like E36/E30 etc

+1 have you deleted the spare wheel well?

oooo that sounds meaty. I think I like it better than the RS4 mufflers

wouldn't mind being your neighbor. Good stuff Mike

That sounded epic with the valve open

`Dig this car. And if I wasn't saving for an e39 m5 i'd be keen` Sam, you are so right. I`m in the same boat...might have a garage sale ( anyone need a second hand garage ?? )

Sounds like a typical NZ owner who bought it for the badge

win ... at the end of it .. great learning process

I mean that in a jealous way