DIY: S65 M3 Rod Bearing

[Assimilator1]

Nice one, thanks mate

(why the f*** did they make the holes so small!? )

[ha9981]

Originally Posted by Assimilator1

Nice one, thanks mate

(why the f*** did they make the holes so small!? )

It's a not too hard to find a decent T30 long. I ended up buying Tekton from Amazon USA and it was great.

You can find a long bit and pair it to a 1/4 drive hex bit socket.

[Assimilator1]

Err, yea it is hard to find a decent 6" long T30 torx socket , I found none advertised in the UK! (Snap on would've done just that socket for £30!)
I also looked at 1/4", long torx bits earlier, couldn't find any of a well known make, all very cheap bits, and they were all the security torx variants (and so weaker), not a good combo.

In the end I bought the aforementioned Gearwrench set from Amazon UK which is importing it from the US for a very good promotion price of £36 .

Btw I did find a couple of suppliers (RS and Portaplus) here who sold Gearwrench tools but didn't list the long torx sockets, it's possible they could've got them, but I didn't need to in the end.

[nolaman1970]

Great write up, been planning this and I am about to start soon, BE Bearings and ARP bolts came in. Question though on one of the final steps "Note you should reapply green loctite to the steering rack bolt before reassembling" I may need to order "Green" loctite. I can't seem to find that easily locally, hoping you meant blue loctite. Thank you.

[pbonsalb]

Green is for lower torque than blue, which is lower than red. Definitely not as common, but I think I bought some at Advance Auto Parts earlier this year.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by nolaman1970

Great write up, been planning this and I am about to start soon, BE Bearings and ARP bolts came in. Question though on one of the final steps "Note you should reapply green loctite to the steering rack bolt before reassembling" I may need to order "Green" loctite. I can't seem to find that easily locally, hoping you meant blue loctite. Thank you.

I bet blue is just fine.

[TX]

Regarding loctite, we are using blue 242 and red 271 correct?

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by TX

Regarding loctite, we are using blue 242 and red 271 correct?

There are several brands of blue and red loctite. I think the 242 and 271 refer to a specific brand

If i remember correctly you only use blue in the S65, there isn't any red anywhere

[Scharbag]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

There are several brands of blue and red loctite. I think the 242 and 271 refer to a specific brand

If i remember correctly you only use blue in the S65, there isn't any red anywhere

The numbers are the grade of loctite.

http://wdarc.org/Loctite%20Guide.pdf

And yes, you do not want or need to use red loctite on the S65. It is meant to be very permanent and can make disassembly very difficult in the future. Green is a wicking type used after assembly and is pretty weak.

Use 242/243 blue for the few bolts during assembly. Loctite or Permatex are both good quality and I think they use common grade numbering.

Cheers,

[TX]

Originally Posted by Scharbag

The numbers are the grade of loctite.

http://wdarc.org/Loctite%20Guide.pdf

And yes, you do not want or need to use red loctite on the S65. It is meant to be very permanent and can make disassembly very difficult in the future. Green is a wicking type used after assembly and is pretty weak.

Use 242/243 blue for the few bolts during assembly. Loctite or Permatex are both good quality and I think they use common grade numbering.

Cheers,

Thanks for sorting me out. I was wrong and assumed it was blue and red, but see it was blue and green. I've never messed with green. If the only place it is used is on the steering column bolt, then blue should be sufficient, correct?

Happy Holidays all!
-TX

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by TX

Thanks for sorting me out. I was wrong and assumed it was blue and red, but see it was blue and green. I've never messed with green. If the only place it is used is on the steering column bolt, then blue should be sufficient, correct?

Happy Holidays all!
-TX

Correct!

[TX]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

Correct!

The appreciate button is being stupid tonight.
So I appreciate! the reply. Cheers

[l8apexr]

Very useful thread! Thanks for taking the time to create it.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by l8apexr

Very useful thread! Thanks for taking the time to create it.

Glad it's helpful

[Davisca455]

Thanks to SYT_Shadow for creating the Rod Bearing DIY!
The car:
2008 E92 DCT, Northern California car, Sacramento area all its life.
65,253 miles on original rod bearings.
Supercharged for approximately 59,000 miles.
The car has always been very well maintained, always garaged, always warmed up (unless a borrower didn't?), but not babied.
4 HPDE events.

Started installation of BE Bearings and Bolts on 2/4/21
20 mile test drive on 2/5/21

I read the original post and Theodores notes 3 times.
Bought all my parts and borrowed an engine brace from SAMM3Y.
Watched the video twice, then went for it.

I did this on a friend's (cars original owner) 2 post lift.

Wednesday evening 2/3/21:
Put the car on the lift and opened up both oil drains. After watching the video I was hoping to keep the dripping to a minimum.

Thursday 11:00am 2/4/21:
Disassembled the car and pulled the pan.
I thought I might go home after pulling the pan to let it drip some more, but it really wasn't bad at all, so I kept after it until I had all the new bearings and bolts installed.
I decided it would be a good thing to install the oil piping before heading home for the night, since all those fasteners use blue Loctite (242) and I wanted the Loctite to have a chance to fully cure before adding oil. So I flushed out all of the threaded holes with alcohol and cleaned all of the fasteners with alcohol as well.
Installed all the piping and called it a night, after something like 9.5 hours.

Friday 8:00am 2/5/21:
Reassembled the car minus all the undertrays and front tires, installed the two new drain plugs, removed the old oil filter, suctioned the filter housing dry, added the new filter kit, filled up the filter housing with oil, filled the crank case, reassembled all my supercharger intake piping, crossed my fingers and pushed the starter button. The car fired instantly, no knocking, no weird noises, no alarms. Got out of the car after about 3 minutes of run time, and while it was still running, I looked and listened all around the engine, above, below, stuck my head in each wheelwell to listen from there as well. The car ran for a total of 5 minutes.
I shut off the engine and raised the car to inspect for leaks and to install all of the undertray bits.
Took the car for a test drive.
It took me about 15 hours to do the entire job. That includes setting up and cleaning up.
Not a good pace to make a living at changing rod bearings for sure, but it was a good pace for me to be comfortable and do high quality work.

Crank Rod Journal Examples:




Starting at the front of the engine and progressing toward the transmission in order. All pictures have the Rod Shell on the left, or the bottom depending on how the pictures decided to upload.

#1


#2


#3 (Rod shell was relaxed and sitting gently on the crank)


#4


#5


#6 (Rod shell was relaxed and sitting gently on the crank)


#7 (Rod shell and cap shell were relaxed and sitting gently on the crank)


#8

[TX]

Great work man. You have a few shells that look like they were about to give you problems. Cheers for doing the job and doing it the right way by your write up. I am the same way. I always do all my own work because I know many are not as thorough. The dealer is no exception. Unfortunately, I didn’t have access to a lift , but did know someone who could do the work. I have confidence it was done correctly as they are a stand up operation, but there will always be a small part of me that will wonder if every arp rod bolt was exactly 50ft lbs and not 46 or 54. Yeah, call me Nuts, OCD, whatever, but I’ve learned if you want it done right and have the ability then do it yourself. Enjoy the new bearings!

[Davisca455]

Originally Posted by TX

Great work man. You have a few shells that look like they were about to give you problems. Cheers for doing the job and doing it the right way by your write up. I am the same way. I always do all my own work because I know many are not as thorough. The dealer is no exception. Unfortunately, I didn’t have access to a lift , but did know someone who could do the work. I have confidence it was done correctly as they are a stand up operation, but there will always be a small part of me that will wonder if every arp rod bolt was exactly 50ft lbs and not 46 or 54. Yeah, call me Nuts, OCD, whatever, but I’ve learned if you want it done right and have the ability then do it yourself. Enjoy the new bearings!

Thanks TX.
Interesting thought you had about the rod bolt torque.
My friend with the lift has a whammy torque wrench, but it doesn't have a calibration sticker on it, so I borrowed one of the 3/8" and 1/2" drive torque wrenches from work, because they get calibrated every 6 months.

Nobody loves my car more than I do, so whatever repair or regular maintenance work that I feel comfortable doing I will give it a whirl.
But if not for this DIY, I wouldn't have attempted it and instead would have had to get recommendations for a shop near me, and I certainly could have gotten comfortable with that, no problem at all.

The night before I started, I had this fantasy that I'd undo the first rod cap and the bearing shell would look perfect.
So I messaged SYT_Shadow and asked him if he had ever heard of anyone that pulled a rod cap off and then asked themselves "Why in the heck did I do this, these shells look great?"
His response was....."Nope."
As I'm doing the job and each bearing looks worse than the previous one, I told myself "You #@cking IDIOT! That track day in January isn't looking like the best choice you've ever made, does it? Could have been a really baaaad day."

Went to meet some other M3 forum members today, so I have 180 miles on the new bearings now. No icky noises. No leaks.

[SYT_Shadow]

That's what the DIY is all about: empowering you all to take care of your rod bearings and see them for yourselves!

[Davisca455]

Oh ya, for my car, it wanted a full 10 liters after the bearing upgrade.
I originally put in 9.5 liters, but halfway thru this morning's test drive the car asked for another qt.
I stopped off at the nearest Napa auto parts for a liter of LiquiMoly 10w60 and added 1/2 a liter. It's much happier now.

[TX]

Originally Posted by Davisca455

Oh ya, for my car, it wanted a full 10 liters after the bearing upgrade.
I originally put in 9.5 liters, but halfway thru this morning's test drive the car asked for another qt.
I stopped off at the nearest Napa auto parts for a liter of LiquiMoly 10w60 and added 1/2 a liter. It's much happier now.

That's interesting. When i picked up my car I was told it had 10.5L and was showing >Max, but wasn't showing it during their test drive. I opted to fix it at home. I drained 1/2L from the front plug and it was happy after that.
10L might be the sweet spot after an overnight drain and pan removal.

[Davisca455]

Originally Posted by TX

That's interesting. When i picked up my car I was told it had 10.5L and was showing >Max, but wasn't showing it during their test drive. I opted to fix it at home. I drained 1/2L from the front plug and it was happy after that.
10L might be the sweet spot after an overnight drain and pan removal.

On my car it takes a bit for the level sensor to reach some sort of steady state, but once there it seems to function quite good as a real time level sensor.
But I'd prefer a dipstick...

[pbonsalb]

A dipstick can be added, but the time to do it would have been when the pan was off since it must be off to weld the bung. I did not do it first rod bearing change but might do it during the next one. I think Bimmerworld sells the kit but maybe it is another vendor.