[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by budget76

First off Jess, good work making the tool/jig

OTOH, I'm very curious about what you've found here. If I were home, I'd whip out my spare S50 cams and snap some pics and see if they're angled like yours is. I find it very weird that they're sitting like this. I'm going to have to take a look at the spare cams when I'm home though. Too bad that's in a month; I'd be able to give you an answer within a day if I were home.

As for what to do, I'm really not sure. I know my engine's running great with using a straight edge to line up the edges with the dots: but you made the jig to BMW specs and they sit cocked, so I'm thoroughly confused.

I'd say this is a good question for BF.C, as there's more people with experience in this area there. I, as well as you, know how I set up my cams, but it could turn out that PelicanParts was inaccurate in their procedure, though I doubt it.

GL Jess, Feel free to PM me if you've got any questions. I'm no pro with BMW's yet, but BTDT and took my time making sure to do it right.

Thanks Budget, this is the second cam leveling tool I've made for this motor. The first one was a little rough and I wasn't confident in it's precision so I decided to make one out of aluminum instead. I used a dremel tool to make the initial cuts, making sure to cut inside of the lines just shallow of the actual specs. Then I used a file to get the edges perfectly flat and exactly to spec. As you could see in the pics, the tolerance is very tight, there's no slack whatsoever where the tool touches the cams. I'm sure the pelicanparts article is accurate, it's just in some cases such as mine where the blocks are rhombus shaped rather than square, requires a little more creativity than simply using a straight edge The pelicanparts article is very helpful none the less. The Bentley manual OTOH has steered me in the wrong direction 3 times so far where I could have caused serious damage to my engine For simple DIY work, I'd say the Bentley manual is great. However, for performing open heart surgery on your engine vitals, sometimes it's better to go with your instinct.

Originally Posted by b.u.ti-ful

I'm looking in the Haynes manual and it says you can check the squareness just by using a square to check the sides are square to the top surface of the head.

That's the conclusion that I've come to. Today I'm going to try what you mentioned earlier and cut the notches deeper so the tool has enough clearance to reach the head.

Originally Posted by BimmerBum

My cams sat just like this when we took the thing apart but when it went bolted everything back together the cam blocks were flat across the head.

Your cam gears back in the right positions?

Is you vanos unit bolted on?

Tension back on the tensioners?

Also... That tool you made works slightly different than the cam blocks. The cam blocks are shaped different where they go across the cams.

Hey Bimmerbum, nah I haven't fitted any of the components back onto the cams. I removed all of the stuff for what I thought would be a simple task of replacing the lower timing cover gasket. Turned into a big ordeal, but I'm learning more and more as I go. I just wanted to make the tool before I actually started the reassembly.

Thanks for all your help guys, I'll let you know how things go after I modify my cam leveling tool