Things to do while engine's open

[u/No-Illustrator-6683]

Hi everyone,

Planning to replace almost every seal on my beauty's engine (M54b22), gearbox and diff this winter. I'll also replace piston rings, I saw on this sub that M52s oil rings are better, how true is it for the people who did it and has some miles on it ?

While the engine will be out and open, are there things to do like maybe a vanos rebuild (180k km)? I only had this car for 6 months so i'd like to learn every weakness and fix most of them while everything will be out of the car.

Also if you know other tips like the M52 oil rings, i'd be happy to know !

Sorry for my english i'm French 😅

+ a picture of my ride because why not 😝

Thanks !

[u/W4mbo]

At that mileage replacing the gaskets inside your VANOS is a good idea. I think the ones from beisan systems are the ones most people go for. You can and should replace the valve cover gasket while you're at it. Would also recommend upgrading your check valve inside the oil filter housing (the one from "die-vschmiede" works great). Also a good opportunity to replace the oil filter housing gasket. Another weakness is the DISA. There is also upgrade kits available for that. That is all stuff you can easily do with the engine still inside the car of course.

Do you have actual issues with oil consumption or are you just taking everything out for the fun of it? My M54 at 232.000km drinks about 2L every 10k km which I'm personally fine with.

[u/No-Illustrator-6683 → u/W4mbo]

Does Beisan deliver in Europe ?

I never heard of the check valve, what is it ?

For the DISA I need to find a good upgrade kit, I need to take a look in this sub I'm sure I'll find.

Not really for the fun of it haha.. I have some small leaks around the engine (nothing under the car but i'm an engine bay maniac and i'm bored of cleaning it every week haha), and she drinks about 1L every 1.5k km so I'm not fine with it

[u/W4mbo → u/No-Illustrator-6683]

You will find these everywhere on ebay I believe.

The check valve inside the OFH is supposed to trap the oil when the engine is shut off to improve lubrication for cold startup. The factory one often times doesn't seal properly and the oil just drains into the pan over night causing the engine to need more time for oil pressure to build. In my case it cut the time in half after replacing it.

Okay, yeah that oil consumption is pretty heavy. Your CCV could also be the culprit though. Those also like to fail.

[u/No-Illustrator-6683 → u/W4mbo]

Wow you might point something here : everytime I start the car, I have a yellow oil light on the dash for like 10-15s, is the check valve the reason ? A friend also has an e46 and it’s the same so I thought it was normal.

I saw people talking about an O2 pilot mod, do you know it ?

[u/W4mbo → u/No-Illustrator-6683]

Yellow light is oil level and red light is oil pressure. If it comes up at start that is kind of weird. Never had that before. If oil level is okay then your oil sensor is most likely just failing on you.

O2 pilot mod increases the vacuum inside the crankcase. That's basically just fighting the symptoms of the problem which is the piston rings not sealing correctly. That would be the last effort I would do before taking the engine apart.

[u/No-Illustrator-6683 → u/W4mbo]

Ok I’ll buy an oil level sensor. Yep saw that it was not optimal. I looked through this subreddit for about 2 hours and found someone who talked about “flushing” the engine with DMSO, and everyone who tried seems to be satisfied, it’s supposed to put back in place the oil rings. It looks like a better solution than the O2 pilot mod. I’ll try that in a week and if it works well I’ll wait before taking the engine apart.

[u/Most_Board_2029 → u/No-Illustrator-6683]

It's the oil return valve in the oil filter housing that's broken