DIY camshaft R&R

[2002maniac]

I did this write up on bimmerforums a while back.

Ok, I just got home from a 80mile drive with my new cams and I thought I would share some thoughts.  It seems that power is increased from about 4000-7100RPM.  Torque down low suffers but it is hardly noticeable around town.  Where I did notice this loss though was on the freeway.  I was cruising up a slight grade in 5th @ ~3500 rpm.  I floor the throttle and it barely picked up speed at all.  A downshift was necessary to "spool up" the motor.  Overall I love it although they could be a bit more aggressive.

  I got the cams ground at Delta camshaft in Tacoma washington.  I dealt with Scott and he was more than helpfull.  Give him a call at 1(800) 562-5500 or send him an email at Deltacam@aol.com
  I sent the cams out via UPS and they arrived back on my doorstep after 6 business days.  Total cost after shipping was $165 (!!cheap!!)

  Here are some install tips to make it a little easier:

Remove valve cover

turn the 22mm crank nut to get the motor at #1TDC.  There is an arrow on each cam sprocket that will line up with the top of the head

remove the timing chain tensioner with a 19mm box end wrench

put a zip tie through on each sprocket around the timing chain to prevent skipping teeth when you loosen them

mark the position of a bolt on each cam sprocket so that it can be timed the same when you put it back together

unbolt the the exhaust cam sprocket but dont remove it, just move it forward so the cam will clear it

The Chilton says that you need several special tools to do this job but if you are carefull you really dont.  Loosen the nuts 1/4 turn at a time (this is important! if you get impatient and do more than this, you could put a side load on the cam and it could break) until they are all finger tight.  pull them all off and remove the bearing caps and organize them so you can put them on in the same order.

remove camshaft

dope up the bearing journals and cam lobes with assembly lube before re-installing.

tighten the bearing caps 1/4 turn at a time until they are seated then  Torque to 14.7 ft/lbs

pop the cam sprocket back on and turn the camshaft so that the bolts line up with the marks you made on the sprocket

torque the two exposed bolts to ~7ft/lbs. we'll get the other two in a minute

repeat process for intake cam

re-install the tensioner

turn the crankshaft until the other cam sprocket bolts are exposed and torqure them

now rotate the crank a few times to make sure you didnt screw up and have valves touching pistons.

install the valve cover and start it up! Run the motor between 2000 and 2500 RPM for 5 minutes to break in the cams.  Finished.  Have fun!

Took me about an hour and twenty minutes to complete.

[Febi Guibo]

hey man, great writeup!

can you tell us a little bit more about the cams themselves?