Gents... I've been following this thread almost from the birth of it...
so.. where do i start, now understandably, i can get off on a tangent and blow things skew since my car was one of the mentioned cars in this stack... so..
we need to exercise
Respect: this is what we have to people of experience
Mutual Respect: having the same relation each toward the other
my timeline of issue is along about 3 or 4 days on before and after vanos
i chatted to chris prior to my vanos being done, and it's what this forum moves us forward, that we look at work experience and quality of work, so i took my car in for vanos based on this "quality of work"
during this time i had been speaking to "Alex" ( member who corrected my vanos ) he had mentioned to me that timing is a high requirement on these motors, so alongside he's support, i bought the Vanos Cam Bridge(amongst various other BMW Tools for S54), and still proceeded on good advise to get the vanos done at Axis, so... vanos done and car collected, as with any excitement car felt better, as with an M car, you want to DRIVE it... so you need not look at the bottom end power, which after everything bedded was really bad...
so, the Cam Bridge arrived a month later... with me bickering to Alex, i made him drive my car a few times, and he felt the car lacking at the bottom as well...
long story short, we open the motor, remove vanos, low and behold the timing was out...
rewind a month and few days... when i was scrutinizing the Timing when the car was booked in, but was given every reason that the timing will be spot on... i was curious to see the cam bridge in real life, but was shown a replica, that was me taken aback..
with the Timing redone the car pulled like a boeing, Thank you Alex..
Then i met Chris at one of the Ice Cream Run's... and the above explained itself..
Then i spoke to a few other guys, to hear there opinion, which we all shared a similar issue,
Separate Matter:
with this, i questioned them about Shims, i was given a verbal quote of a couple clicks under 16k to have my car shimmed, being the person i am and not willing to spend money without proper reason, i consulted Alex again, we shimmed my car... and 2 shims where out ... barely... so they are still in there at present ( price of a shim puck from BMW is R30 )
and and and... i don't want to stick the bearings into the conversation...nonetheless...
Back on track:
now, the question is do you go to someone else(out of the blue) or go to the source, keeping in mind you have already made an outlay of a large sum of money...
i did the latter and consulted Alex, because i was previously given an assurance that "all will be spot on"
@ Fordkoppie, just to clear, the Mech in question is the one that built the car in Cape Town, he has relocated to JHB and is working with a BMW Master Tech ( not the Gtech special ), and your CSL will need to get the timing checked as well...
so, we need to keep in mind as well, how much of duration is your camshaft out, and is your car adapting fine or over fueling ? mine was burning rich(above normal ) even so , that if you stood behind the car the fumes where really strong... that subsided quite a bit after my timing was redone
Question? has there been any potential damage?
i can go on to reiterate conversations and phone calls that i got ( colorful )
but..
Chris with the Respect of Yourself and Jezebel, i will not post other items here, you, along with a few of our close from members have helped me quite a bit with various items, if this get's to a name calling session, i will put some gloves on
in the efforts of not derailing, we have to keep in mind and give Mutual Respect to Chris with all this in question, has and still is faithful to the brand despite all of this, ask any of us, what would we do in the same situation, and we would have thrown in a towel at the idea of a rebuild...
we need to exercise caution that we must not be Mortified or Scared into " oh if you don't do this or that, that's it! " but learn from experience that there are certain fundamental items that need to be looked at to ensure continual enjoyment of our beloved cars
Spiro