E46 M54 CCV et Al

[AndreB320i]

Can't find anything regarding CCV on this forum, so here goes.

E46 320i M54 motor > 250 000 Km.

It started as a valve cover gasket replacement, fairly simple job right ?    NOT.

Needless to say the CCV hose to valve cover snapped off when attempting to remove. At this point I started investigating CCV problems (high oil consumption being one symptom) and even considered a bypass, but since Bemow can supply a complete kit, including pipes, for a decent price I decided to stick to the original configuration. This means removing inlet manifold, a job I never ever want to do again   :RedNo: I suspect the inlet boots were fitted with the engine out of the car since clamp screws for the bottom section were facing down, impossible to reach from top or bottom, so tiny strokes with a hacksaw blade was required to cut them off, plus of course boot replacement. :argh:

Advantage of having manifold off is I can replace the hard water hoses, although they look good.... and inspect / replace all vacuum pipes that are shady. Manifold gasket is quite hard, so might as well replace as well. Also clean injectors as they came out when trying to remove the fuel rail - although that is not a manifold off job of course. Since idle control valve and throttle body were removed as part of the fun job, they came in for a good cleanout as well. ICV was stuck, no rattle, but moves freely now.

Also not a manifold off job, but related anyway is the DISA which looks good. No rattles, the seals look good (not sure about the O ring), but closing valve and blocking vent hole it holds pretty well.

Here's a question: Any views on cleaning the removed manifold with water based degreaser ? Due to all the oil deposits, presumably due to bad CCV, it is filthy. I can let it all dry out really well before refitting of course.

I am not sure how I am going to deal with refitting. There are so many tubes and cables clamped in impossible to reach places, I'll just make it up as I go.

Any advice from anyone that has done this before is welcome. I have seen the 50's Kid vids etc, but any bit of info is useful.

 

[Jive_E46]

I have not done this before but if I were in your shoes and took apart as much as you did, I would consider replacing whatever pipes and gaskets you can get your hands on(within reason). Also a good idea to clean out your throttle while you're at it. At this advanced stage of disassembly would you consider walnut-blasting your valves?

Hope you come right!

 

[Kyle]

Those clamps are pretty much the stock orientation, I just got a socket on there from underneath with a swivel attachment to remove them, but I assume you've already got them off...

The product below works great for removing built up carbon, the official directions are to spray it into the TB while the car is running, however it will work just as well as a spray on cleaner.

https://shop.liqui-moly.co.za/pro-l...gcxZpwsfRwPsiKPwbV71JOT-2UO5y-5BoC8aYQAvD_BwE

While you're there, I would suggest cleaning the ICV and TB with the product above.

 

[Camnefdt]

I had to replace the 2 pipes under the manifold last week so just done this process myself haha.

But if to just clean the oil in the manifold, a water based degreaser is perfect. if you have something like a pipe cleaner type brush to get down in and scrub the runners, even better.

just make sure anything and everything is rinsed out before refitting. A little bit of water/moisture wont do any harm, but dirt and dust will.

 

[AndreB320i]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

I have already cleaned out ICV, throttle body and Disa. ICV was stuck, but rattles nicely now. DISA had some crud in the seals against which the valve closes, cleaned out with carb cleaner and then some si spray. DISA looks fine so not replacing now, easy to do later if it does have a problem. Throttle was not so bad at all. Didn't go all out with cleaning, I heard that one should not move the butterfly as it could upset calibration. I would have thought closed is closed and serves as an index point for the software, but not taking any chances there.

Also got a new inlet manifold gasket as the old one was quite hard.

Kyle I'll try and get some of that product, could be useful for cleaning several areas where injectors plug in also the vacuum equalizer (I think that's what it is) the ports where it plugs in have some hard crud which I want out the way. First line of cleaning was carb cleaner, it did well. Then paraffien (let it soak), amazed at the number of black flaky bits that washed out. Will follow up with degreaser.

There is a hard plastic vacuum hose that crosses over the motor down through a little valve gadget that looks like it has a venturi which connects to manifold as well as the F connector just after MAF. I could not get any one of the ends disconnected so eventually cut through a straight section of one of the rubber hoses. Don't know if I can get that hose, will work out a solution when I get there. Lot's to do before then.

Jive_M135i  - I don't know about walnut blasting ? I thought anything I did to valves would require head removal which I don't want to do or any kind of cleaning could result in stuff in the cylinders. I imagine cleaning with valves closed will only do a partial job......... I'm an amateur in this regard with a real job running mu own electronics business.

I'll report back when anything earth  shattering has happened  :biglol:
[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Jive_m[/font]

 

[Jive_E46]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

I have already cleaned out ICV, throttle body and Disa. ICV was stuck, but rattles nicely now. DISA had some crud in the seals against which the valve closes, cleaned out with carb cleaner and then some si spray. DISA looks fine so not replacing now, easy to do later if it does have a problem. Throttle was not so bad at all. Didn't go all out with cleaning, I heard that one should not move the butterfly as it could upset calibration. I would have thought closed is closed and serves as an index point for the software, but not taking any chances there.

Also got a new inlet manifold gasket as the old one was quite hard.

Kyle I'll try and get some of that product, could be useful for cleaning several areas where injectors plug in also the vacuum equalizer (I think that's what it is) the ports where it plugs in have some hard crud which I want out the way. First line of cleaning was carb cleaner, it did well. Then paraffien (let it soak), amazed at the number of black flaky bits that washed out. Will follow up with degreaser.

There is a hard plastic vacuum hose that crosses over the motor down through a little valve gadget that looks like it has a venturi which connects to manifold as well as the F connector just after MAF. I could not get any one of the ends disconnected so eventually cut through a straight section of one of the rubber hoses. Don't know if I can get that hose, will work out a solution when I get there. Lot's to do before then.

Jive_M135i  - I don't know about walnut blasting ? I thought anything I did to valves would require head removal which I don't want to do or any kind of cleaning could result in stuff in the cylinders. I imagine cleaning with valves closed will only do a partial job......... I'm an amateur in this regard with a real job running mu own electronics business.

I'll report back when anything earth  shattering has happened  :biglol:
[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Jive_m[/font]

Walnut blasting can be done without removing the head and is quite a popular maintenance topic. The after pics make the valves look brand new ! But the Liqui-Moly solution also seems to do a similar job

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

 

[AndreB320i]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

I have already cleaned out ICV, throttle body and Disa. ICV was stuck, but rattles nicely now. DISA had some crud in the seals against which the valve closes, cleaned out with carb cleaner and then some si spray. DISA looks fine so not replacing now, easy to do later if it does have a problem. Throttle was not so bad at all. Didn't go all out with cleaning, I heard that one should not move the butterfly as it could upset calibration. I would have thought closed is closed and serves as an index point for the software, but not taking any chances there.

Also got a new inlet manifold gasket as the old one was quite hard.

Kyle I'll try and get some of that product, could be useful for cleaning several areas where injectors plug in also the vacuum equalizer (I think that's what it is) the ports where it plugs in have some hard crud which I want out the way. First line of cleaning was carb cleaner, it did well. Then paraffien (let it soak), amazed at the number of black flaky bits that washed out. Will follow up with degreaser.

There is a hard plastic vacuum hose that crosses over the motor down through a little valve gadget that looks like it has a venturi which connects to manifold as well as the F connector just after MAF. I could not get any one of the ends disconnected so eventually cut through a straight section of one of the rubber hoses. Don't know if I can get that hose, will work out a solution when I get there. Lot's to do before then.

Jive_M135i  - I don't know about walnut blasting ? I thought anything I did to valves would require head removal which I don't want to do or any kind of cleaning could result in stuff in the cylinders. I imagine cleaning with valves closed will only do a partial job......... I'm an amateur in this regard with a real job running mu own electronics business.

I'll report back when anything earth  shattering has happened  :biglol:
[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Jive_m[/font]

Walnut blasting can be done without removing the head and is quite a popular maintenance topic. The after pics make the valves look brand new !  But the Liqui-Moly solution also seems to do a similar job

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

 

[Camnefdt]

this engine shouldnt require walnust blasting. Carbon build up is only usually an issue on direct injection engines.

Carbon build up is caused by the oil that drips down past the valve stem seals and gets burned from the heat of the engine running.

Port injection keeps the valves clean, basically washing off the valves with the fuel being sprayed in behind them.

My e46 320i has almost 320 000km and the intake ports are practically spotless.

 

[AndreB320i]

So here's an update.

First of all, again thanks to all the replies.

The car went back on the road on Saturday. Did a bit of local driving first to ensure no water or obvious oil leaks and today a Jhb round trip of 110 Km. So far so good. She's running nicely, I think a little livelier, but the VANOS definitely needs a kit. The surging around 3000 RPM, particularly when laboring slightly, is still there. I could not find a kit in time to include with this job, I need the car for business.

The vacuum hose I had to cut was joined with a short section of tubing which is a tight fit. Spraying carb cleaner on the joint with engine running causes no change in engine revs so I assume it seals.

Had a bit of a struggle with the new inlet boots. They fit well, but did not really want to take on the required angles. Once clamped they are still in place though.

Since I am an amateur in this business I made a number of mistakes during re-assembly. This was mainly due to cables and pipes not being routed correctly while fitting the inlet manifold as well as the electronic harness box (below the throttle body). This even though we did try and check that all was well, it's very easy to miss one of many and resulted in added time spent.

Another pointer to anyone replacing those hard plastic water hoses. The ends are likely to snap off when you remove the old hoses and must be removed. Also clean out the entry points in the block and thermostat properly to ensure a good seal with the new hose. When removing the end that remained in the thermostat I took a shortcut using a screw driver to try and remove the offending piece. Rather try and use a tool with a sturdy hook at the end and hook (pull) it out. I managed to unintentionally push a section into the thermostat. So fearful of it lodging in a channel somewhere and causing trouble I removed the thermostat only to find a direct channel down to the water pump. So we had to remove the water pump where the piece of plastic washed out. More extra work that could have been avoided. The water pump is still good since it has been replaced previously so I applied some Wynns silver around the gasket area and refitted.

I suspect there might still be a leak around the Vanos gasket, but I would really like to include a VANOS service when doing that job.

So for now, job done.

 

[Camnefdt]

This really goes under one of those pain the butt jobs hey!

I got mine all done, replaced those pipes, did my VANOS seals, tappet cover gasket, new crush washers for VANOS oil pipe. Checked all vacuum lines and intake pipes to make sure of no leaks only to still have an issue which im suspecting to be my ccv valve!

Proper maintenance on a car is never ending! But at least at 320000km I can smile knowing I was the first person to open up the tappet cover and remove the intake on my car.

 

[AndreB320i]

This really goes under one of those pain the butt jobs hey!

I got mine all done, replaced those pipes, did my VANOS seals, tappet cover gasket, new crush washers for VANOS oil pipe. Checked all vacuum lines and intake pipes to make sure of no leaks only to still have an issue which im suspecting to be my ccv valve!

Proper maintenance on a car is never ending! But at least at 320000km I can smile knowing I was the first person to open up the tappet cover and remove the intake on my car.

Yea, early on I think I said I never want to do this again, although next time should be easier. Mine has about 250000 + Km on the clock and I suspect I was the first to lift the cam cover as well. Part of the difficulty was that nothing came apart easily. Electrical connectors, vacuum tubes, fuel rail, you name it, nothing just pulled off. When I tried lifting the fuel rail all 6 injectors came out with the rail. I think the guys who make the "how to" videos work on their cars regularly so things just pop off.  :smilebounce:

But I feel it was well worth the effort.

Where did you get the VANOS kit ? It's two O rings per piston, the little "plastic plugs" and the gasket I think.

 

[Camnefdt]

I got mine from aliexpress. its a chinese site but the set i got is made in Germany. They are very good quality and working perfectly so far.

The pistons each take an o-ring and whats called a backup ring.

My set came with 2 new o-rings for the pistons, the 2 new backup rings, new bolts for into the camshafts, the 2 plastic plugs and new o-rings for the plastic plugs, new gasket for the VANOS unit and a new gasket for the VANOS housing itself.

If you can strip and let the car sit for a few days, you could strip everything apart and take the seals as samples to get them from a place that specifically does them. There's really nothing special about them except it needs to be for high temp applications. The only reason i didn't go that route is i cant have my car sit and risk waiting for them.

When you do get around to doing it, just remember the bolts into the camshafts are reverse (left hand thread)