So I bought my super cheap L322.

The chain was rattling about but I managed to get it home okay other than the oil light on at the top of my road as luck would have it.

On driving it to the workshop, the oil light was off and the chains fairly quiet but then the oil light came on and didn't want to go off so a tow to the workshop was in order.

Anyway, whipped the sump off and the tensioner is in bits.

I've started stripping it down (what a bastard bastard job) and am nearly there.

Just wondering what's best to do really.

The lower chain, all guides and tensioners replaced no problem. I'm guessing the chain is probably stretched so probably worth doing.

However, is it worth doing the top two chains?

Is it worth just whipping the tensioners out and refurbishing them?

Is it worth doing the VANOS. Bearing in mind I have no idea what sort of noises the VANOS are making if any as the chain was too loud.

It's done 170k!

Delayed response ..
None of my chains measured any different to the new ones at 120K
Depends if you are keeping it, the cam chain tensiiner seals take 5 minutes and the cam chains are quite cheap so I would do them and leave the vanos for now although I did mine it is a fairly fiddly procedure. They won't fail but just be noisy. Read the beisan procudure which will give you an idea of what's involved

Wot holy chicken ( ) said. I had all my chains and guides done (£3000!) but not the vanos as they were fine before and have been since. It was another £900 for the vanos.

hi
i am very interested to know about how you did this and what it cost as i have a very loud noise in the front of my motor.
its done 220,000 km 130,00 miles
so if i understand you right, you can see the tensioner by talking the sump off.
did you have to remove the motor to do the job
thanks

Motor does not have to come out. but the front of the car does. (radiator etc.) Saint V8 has done a very good job on this in the wiki.

hi
what is wiki.
i tried googling it

If you look at the top of the page under the Blue fullfatrr.com logo you will see wiki in red font (RR wikipedia). Do yourself a big favour and read up as much as you can to get a good insight into your vehicle. Lots of invaluable info and remedies all in one place
Also lots of info on BMW forums on the engine and youtube is also a great resource.
 2007 TDV8 VSE
2003 TD6 gone.
2002 P38a gone
1999 P38a gone
1997 p38a gone
1993 VSE gone
1992 VSE gone
1966 Series 2a with V8 conversion gone

thanks, found it

knares wrote:

hi
i am very interested to know about how you did this and what it cost as i have a very loud noise in the front of my motor.
its done 220,000 km 130,00 miles
so if i understand you right, you can see the tensioner by talking the sump off.
did you have to remove the motor to do the job
thanks

holidaychicken
thanks for your info, i assumed the rad would be the first thing that had to come out

Negatory, you could stand in there and still have room

You can see the crank holding tool and breaker bar in the first pic and the other pic isn't a bonnet prop, it is the other end of the breaker bar and that only just shifted it. i broke the 3/4 drive bar tightening the crank bolt

gee
thanks for the photos, a picture is worth a thousand words so it is said
is that crank bolt right hand thread or left hand thread.
what tension is the crank bolt
thanks

Bolt is normal right hand, have you got yourself a copy of Rave manual which is the best vehicle repair manual ever?

Click image to enlarge

tried to down "2002-2006 workshop manual ..RAVE"
it uses winzip which i am no sure off i get some pages which say cant load PDF which i think is one of the pages you have put up

what pc are you using ?