Official S65 Rod Bearing Condition Example Thread

[Solo_M_Tech]

Customer didn't want to pay me to do the bearings for him. Decided he would DIY. Engine seized 2 days later. Fast forward a year and I get the engine from him removed, to diagnose why..... these rod bolts are strong as fuck....

1. all of the rod bolts were finger tight

2. this.....v

[pbonsalb]

Expensive DIY lesson. I have learned a few, but glad that one was not among them. I am going on 5 years with my DIY rod bearing job.

[turbo_joe]

Went ahead and took care of my rod bearings, replaced the OEM bearings (60k miles) with BE bearings/APR bolts

2012 M3, in my possession since 2016 with 27k miles. I drive the piss out of the car, oil changed twice a year (summer/winter about every 5k) with a more than a few track days and tons of autocross.

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by Solo_M_Tech

Customer didn't want to pay me to do the bearings for him. Decided he would DIY. Engine seized 2 days later. Fast forward a year and I get the engine from him removed, to diagnose why..... these rod bolts are strong as fuck....

1. all of the rod bolts were finger tight

2. this.....v

Ouch. Soo, bolts where not tightened or what do you mean Solo?

[Solo_M_Tech]

Originally Posted by Helmsman

Ouch. Soo, bolts where not tightened or what do you mean Solo?

yes none of the rod cap bolts were torqued.

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by Solo_M_Tech

yes none of the rod cap bolts were torqued.

Ops...

[tdott]

Originally Posted by Solo_M_Tech

yes none of the rod cap bolts were torqued.

How do you forget to torque all of them?
Even worse if he thought that was fine.

[bmwlover0725]

Originally Posted by tdott

How do you forget to torque all of them?
Even worse if he thought that was fine.

Depends on the type of bolt. OEM bolts are a pain in the ass and have a very specific torquing procedure. ARP and other bolts are more straight forward and just require setting the proper amount of force.

[Frozen]

I would think Torquing the bolts at the end of the install would be one of the most simple steps of a DIY replacement

[Scharbag]

Originally Posted by Frozen

I would think Torquing the bolts at the end of the install would be one of the most simple steps of a DIY replacement

One would think...

IIRC the stock bolts have an 11 step torque procedure. Each. Yuck.

But still, every single rod bolt was just snugged? Wonder if he just did step 1/11 and called it quits. Step 1 is something like 6Nm IIRC.

Sucks for that guy - tough lesson to learn. RIP S65!

[Solo_M_Tech]

Originally Posted by Scharbag

One would think...

IIRC the stock bolts have an 11 step torque procedure. Each. Yuck.

But still, every single rod bolt was just snugged? Wonder if he just did step 1/11 and called it quits. Step 1 is something like 6Nm IIRC.

Sucks for that guy - tough lesson to learn. RIP S65!

Originally Posted by tdott

How do you forget to torque all of them?
Even worse if he thought that was fine.

Originally Posted by bmwlover0725

Depends on the type of bolt. OEM bolts are a pain in the ass and have a very specific torquing procedure. ARP and other bolts are more straight forward and just require setting the proper amount of force.

Originally Posted by Frozen

I would think Torquing the bolts at the end of the install would be one of the most simple steps of a DIY replacement

Originally Posted by Scharbag

One would think...

IIRC the stock bolts have an 11 step torque procedure. Each. Yuck.

But still, every single rod bolt was just snugged? Wonder if he just did step 1/11 and called it quits. Step 1 is something like 6Nm IIRC.

Sucks for that guy - tough lesson to learn. RIP S65!

each bolt is torqued 9 times. 6nm, 20nm, 130* angle, release, repeat, release, torque final time.

my guess is he installed all of the bearings and bolts, thinking he'd remember to go back and torque them all, forgot, and here we are.

I always do one rod at a time, dont move on to the next until its torqued. Then mark the cap that it's been torqued. OE bolts or ARP. same process.

[BanjoPaterson]

Originally Posted by Solo_M_Tech

yes none of the rod cap bolts were torqued.

O.k. I'm now slightly glad I've the mechanical ability of a trout. I just buy the bolts and rods, then hand it over to my Indy mechanic (a BMW Master Technician), who is painstakingly meticulous.

I know if I had any ability I'd try to do it myself and, based on past DIY projects around the house, would end up in this position.

[SSR Performance]

Rod bearing job from the past weekend!
3/30/19

[SSR Performance]

Rod bearings from 4/16/19!

Contact us to today to schedule your appointment.
(800) 438-2808 or info@SSR-Performance.com

[Zulu Saffa]

Been meaning to post this for a few weeks, but work travel got the better of me. Got mine done at Mporium (deansbimmer) in Mckinney, TX. Would first like to give a shout out to Coulter and Mike for their accommodation and professionalism. They know what they are doing. I drove up from Austin to get this done. If you are thinking about getting this done and are in the area, go here.

Some stats and background on the car:
2011.75 e92 ZCP
41K miles
2nd owner
Broken in meticulously (I know the original owner)
Oil change every 5-7K miles
Typically follow warm up protocol when possible, never rev out excessively when not up to temp and always kept below 4K rpm when warming up
A few track days each year
No significant mods that would impact engine performance

Visually, they do not look to bad to me, but Mike confirmed that this is still excessive wear for a car with this many miles. One bearing (6 top) had a strange scratch on it that could have come from some debris.

Considering there are no BE bearings available, we decided to move forward with ACL as I did not want to wait around for BE to come in. I have a track day coming up and needed some mental insurance. Mike/Coulter seemed confident enough that ACL put out a fine product and are still better than stock. Considering I have little wear on the bearings, apparently I have a good engine. BE rod bolts were used.

Other work completed include:
Spark plugs
Front rotors and pads
Brake flush
Replace engine mounts (as you can see, one of them pee'd on their floor)

Car definitely starts up and runs smoother than before getting the work complete.

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by Zulu Saffa

Been meaning to post this for a few weeks, but work travel got the better of me. Got mine done at Mporium (deansbimmer) in Mckinney, TX. Would first like to give a shout out to Coulter and Mike for their accommodation and professionalism. They know what they are doing. I drove up from Austin to get this done. If you are thinking about getting this done and are in the area, go here.

Some stats and background on the car:
2011.75 e92 ZCP
41K miles
2nd owner
Broken in meticulously (I know the original owner)
Oil change every 5-7K miles
Typically follow warm up protocol when possible, never rev out excessively when not up to temp and always kept below 4K rpm when warming up
A few track days each year
No significant mods that would impact engine performance

Visually, they do not look to bad to me, but Mike confirmed that this is still excessive wear for a car with this many miles. One bearing (6 top) had a strange scratch on it that could have come from some debris.

Considering there are no BE bearings available, we decided to move forward with ACL as I did not want to wait around for BE to come in. I have a track day coming up and needed some mental insurance. Mike/Coulter seemed confident enough that ACL put out a fine product and are still better than stock. Considering I have little wear on the bearings, apparently I have a good engine. BE rod bolts were used.

Other work completed include:
Spark plugs
Front rotors and pads
Brake flush
Replace engine mounts (as you can see, one of them pee'd on their floor)

Car definitely starts up and runs smoother than before getting the work complete.

Cheers Zulu. Did you use ACL standard or increased clearance (HX) shells?

[PRJ]

2007 6MT - 66,500 km / 41,000 miles. Replaced with BE Bearings and BE/ARP Bolts.
Couple of track days and a few hillclimbs in my almost 2 years ownership. Unsure of levels of abuse and warm-up behaviour of previous owners.
I know there’s a lot of conjecture about the value of having a Blackstone analysis done, but I’d say mine reflected the condition of the pulled bearings pretty accurately. Copper is starting to show on all of the top shells (not in order, sorry)
Garage said that the bearings were in pretty good condition, but that’s all relative as we know. I can be a bit of a stress-head/overthinker, so the peace of mind for me is priceless.

[deansbimmer]

Originally Posted by Helmsman

Cheers Zulu. Did you use ACL standard or increased clearance (HX) shells?

When we use ACL sets we select uppers and lowers from multiple H and HX sets, each measured and matched to similar thickness shells for the most consistent clearances. We use these customized ACL sets during BE shortages.

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by deansbimmer

When we use ACL sets we select uppers and lowers from multiple H and HX sets, each measured and matched to similar thickness shells for the most consistent clearances. We use these customized ACL sets during BE shortages.

Nice service Deansbimmer. Possible to say something about the thickness variance so far?

Cheers

[deansbimmer]

Originally Posted by Helmsman

Nice service Deansbimmer. Possible to say something about the thickness variance so far?

Cheers

They are relatively consistent by OE standards, but that's part of the reason we're where we are at this point. They're still off and benefit by matching shells from multiple sets. BE however, measure perfectly in every set because they match them before shipping so you don't need to buy multiple sets to end up with one set with consistent dimensions.

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by deansbimmer

They are relatively consistent by OE standards, but that's part of the reason we're where we are at this point. They're still off and benefit by matching shells from multiple sets. BE however, measure perfectly in every set because they match them before shipping so you don't need to buy multiple sets to end up with one set with consistent dimensions.

Curious, do they keep within quoted 0.008mm (0.0003inch)? Also, what combined thickness with the pair do you target Deansbimmer?

Thanks

[Richbot]

Apropos of nothing at all, I happened to tear down a racecar Ford 1.9l that had about 100 hours of flat-out sprint racing time on it last week. The rod bearings looked brand new, and are significantly larger than the ones in the S65 rods. An oversquare motor that only revs to 6000rpm, but still, surprisingly hilarious to put them side-by-side - on one side you have a POS commodity-spec Escort lowest-bidder-supplier engine and the other a high compression high rpm high specific output single-application engine designed from scratch to be a racecar engine platform that costs an order of magnitude and half again more besides to make...wow nice work bmw