[Stu Blue Car]

I’m replacing my gears on the front of the camshafts. I bought aftermarket and when they arrived they are the same part number. I ordered intake and exhaust and bmw lists different part numbers. Are they really different? They look the same. Also. My original sprockets do not have plastic covers over the springs. Should they? Should I remove the covers? I kind of like the covers because my original springs are interfering withe the cam position sensor.

Thanks
Stu

[Stu Blue Car]

This is why I’m asking about a plastic cover under the pulse wheel.

[yupetc]

Whatever you're doing, DO NOT mix up the intake and the exhaust gears. The two sprockets have different timing variation angles. If you get these wrong, you should see drivability issues. I'm not sure if the variation in the timing window will cause your valves to tap the piston, but I'd would advise you to be very careful on which gear goes on where.

On back of valve gears, you should identify some German words with these 3-letter prefixes to help you figure out which is which:
AUX_____ => Exhaust Gear
EIN_____=> Intake Gear

Both have longer wording, I just don't recall them German words, but with those 3-letter heading that should help you identify it.

On some gears that come with plastics, you can often find those markings etched into the plastic. If oil sludge has much filled the etched wording, you'll best get some WD-40 and clean it out to see it.

By the way, the timing discs can be interchanged without fail. It's the gears you need to be sure of.


And you'll ABSOLUTELY need to use new bolts to torque it all down. Those bolts are TTY (torque-to-yield). Cannot be reused because the engineered properties will differ after their first stretch. You wouldn't want to have done all this work only to let the bolts back out and let wrongly timed valves gangbang your pistons (or vice versa).

Good luck, buddy.

[Stu Blue Car]

Thanks. I’m just waiting for the exhaust gear to arrive. Saturday it is scheduled for delivery. I have my new BMW bolts, that’s the cheapest thing i have ever bought there lol. Hopefully it’s back on the road Sunday.