KwS

The leak isnt coming from the cylinder so no worries there. Either its a leaking spark plug tube seal (which considering how crusty the seal is, wouldnt suprise me), or it is excess oil that was spilt ages ago and wasnt cleaned up. No risk to anything internal. The "gunk" i think you might be referring to is the black coating on the internals. This is usually caused by infrequent oil changes at some point in its life. There is no sludge, the black is a thin, hard coating, sort of baked on. Other than being discoloured everything else looks good inside.

Only the heads burred thankfully, so should be able to get them out, but hoping i dont need to remove had to get to the bottom one. I have cleaned the oil up, and since i now have to buy new bolts for the vanos unit ill get new valve cover gaskets too.

So, today.... There comes a story of sadness, happiness, anger and ultimately heart ache. Today was vanos day. Rolled the car into the garage and began work. First thing ill say about it, is that the instruction on the Beisan Systems site are sh*t (http://www.beisansystems.com/procedures/euro_s50_single_vanos_procedure.htm). Totally sh*t. Like, useless lump of sh*t. They are based heavily on the 3.2 Evo engine, which clearly doesnt share that much with the 3.0 as a lot of the instructions and pictures do not match. Did a stock take of my tools to make sure i had everything needed, Check. The willing victim First step, remove fan and shroud. First failure.... 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. Fan was very dirty, will need a clean. Clutch is original but seems to be OK. Keeping organised! Next up, remove the coil cover and disconnect all the coils. Pull the coils out. issue two. Found two of the coils drowning in oil. Removed the plugs and cleaned out of the oil. Cleaned the coils. Unsure of its it from a spark plug tube seal failure or someone spilling oil whilst filling. There is oil around the top of the hole so i think maybe a spill. Remove the valve cover. Third issue. Gasket is hard and like plastic. Beisan says that the gasket is Viton and does not require replacement. Bullshit. Issue four, as you can see in the above picture there is a thin coating of baked on crap in the engine. Such a shame to not see it nice and clean. Not sure if crap oil in the past or long service intervals, but no sludge, just a hard thin coating. Issue five, 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. WTF. Once i knew where this was it was easy as to align TDC. So i start pulling the Vanos to bits in order to remove it. Issue six, in order to align the intake pulley you need to rotate the cam using a 24mm Spanner. The spanner i purchased for the job is too wide, doesnt fit on the hex in the cam. Have to run out and buy another, different brand one. Issue seven, 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 found to the sensor on the vanos bridge, so that needs to be removed before the solenoid comes out. Took the intake piston cover off and removed the tiny wee nut OK. Next up was to remove the bolts that hold the vanos unit to the head. MAJOR ISSUE. Two of the bolts strip and the hex socket spins freely. f**k. I cover her up, shut the bonnet and go inside. This is an issue for another day. To be continued.

Found it, behind the toothed wheel >_< Will put up pics to show where it is in my thread once im done. ONWARDS!

Hi all, in the middle of doing my vanos and i have hit a real snag. I cant find my TDC marks T | O on the crank pulley. I have lined the cams up so the lobes are at 45 degrees pointing to each other, and i can see the pointer on the timing case, but no bloody mark on the pulley. i have spin it over a couple of times watching the pulley and cant find it. Anyone with a 3.0 know where they are? The set up is slightly different to the 3.2 engine.

Hes also pretty busy with the megameet, so give him bit of a break.

Keep an eye on my project thread over the weekend and you will get an idea of what it takes to rebuild the S50B30 vanos using Beisan kit.

I used to be a huge subaru fan, almost everyone i knew a few years ago owned one, and ive owned a few myself. The auto AWD system is good, and strong too. The later model 98/99 onwards are better, as are the manual boxes. The engines are good provided they havent been abused or badly looked after/maintained. The older 2.5L non-turbo engines were terrible, real prone to headgasket failures. The 6 cyclinders in all generations are fantastic, and bulletproof. The turbo engines are good, but for drivability the later model single turbo engines are preferred over the twin turbo ones. More reliable too. The rocker cover gaskets are prone to leaking, but a new set of genuine gaskets will fix this. They fail because the oil can pool on them and they get badly overheated due to the exhaust manifold sitting so close to them. The later BL/BP single turbo or 3.0 sixes are really nice cars. Highly recommended if you want a comfortable AWD cruiser with some power.

Want to try that again?

The procedure you have linked is for the dual vanos 3.2 Evo, not the single vanos 3.0 like Beeker2 and I have. This is the correct procedure, which is much simpler. http://www.beisansystems.com/procedures/euro_s50_single_vanos_procedure.htm

I had a big rant about 3pedals clearly knowing nothing about Subarus, but it seems i have been beaten. But yes, most subarus in NZ are fulltime awd, and subaru engines LOVE being rev'd. /Source - owning multiple of various generations, and growing up elbows deep in them.

cost. I have the skills, tools and time to do the work myself, and the beisan kit is pretty cheap. All Dr Vanos does is what ill be doing, but half way across the world with a labour fee. Plus, i enjoy wrenching on my own car. Gives me far more satisfaction (and i know its done right).

As per the Obsessive Security blog, the AA stats used are inaccurate, and the NZ Police stats are way more telling. http://vehiclesecurity.co.nz/blog/

I now have all the vanos seals and gaskets, including the Beisan Systems kit and tools. So itll be new Vanos solenoid seals (using S62 seals), new cover bolts, new cover gasket, new locking nut, new vanos filter, a whole load of internal seals and the anti-rattle kit (beisan). Will be carrying out this work over the long weekend. Cant wait. Lots of pictures will be taken (including a couple i will send to Beisan in the hopes they can replace the missing pictures from their procedure page).

This is my fuelly at the moment. Lots of high RPM full throttle 0-100KPH, but very little rush hour or town driving. Mostly motorway driving.

The Toybaru 86 has something similar too.

Since youre using big brakes now, wouldnt want to sell the anti rattle clip from one of your front brakes?

Other than towing, my old AWD Mazda Familia could do all of that. Whats your point?

Shame its not the Twin Turbo facelift S600.... Looks like a good price if thats what youre into though.

When i called Jeff Grey Wellington to order bits for my E36 they mentioned they had an S54 Vanos unit there (he thought it might have been an S50 one). Could be worth a try?

Every time you say it, my ears twitch up.... so much want for V12 E34 wagon.

I suspect i may have been treated badly based on my age. Or he was on the rag. I dont know, he was a total wanker though.

Collating all my receipts for the M3 into a spreadsheet, Gone back just over a year and already its up to $5500. Its had the majority of the known failure points sorted. Still another 9 years of receipts to go from the PO and a few from the owner before.

Anyone confirmed the VIN in carjam is actually correct? One digit out could be why its coming up as Canadian.

Looks like it'll be coming from Germany then rattle rattle rattle chatter chatter chatter