This is a guide based on my experience of rebuilding an S50B30 vanos using the Beisan System kit.
I have made this guide to aid anyone else that is undertaking this work, and to supplement the Beisan Systems instructions, as they are based off the S50B32 engine and is lacking some detail and crucial information. The Beisan instructions are here, Beisan
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS MY EXPERIENCES WITH THIS. THIS IS NOT A STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTION, IT IS MEANT TO COMPLIMENT THE BEISAN INSTRUCTIONS TO FILL THE GAPS AND HIGHLIGHT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE 3.2 AND 3.0. PLEASE FOLLOW AT YOUR OWN RISK.
This post also contains a real life account, play by play as it happened… there is some colourful language. This is real life.
So, today….
There comes a story of sadness, happiness, anger and ultimately heart ache.
Today was vanos day. Rolled the car into the garage and began work. First thing i’ll say about it, is that the instruction on the Beisan Systems site are partially rubbish. They are based heavily on the 3.2 Evo engine, which clearly doesn’t share that much with the 3.0 as a lot of the instructions and pictures do not match.
The first step was to make sure I had all the tools that Beisan lists. The list they supply is pretty good. MAKE SURE YOUR TOOLS ARE GOOD QUALITY, ESPECIALLY YOUR HEX SOCKETS OR YOU WILL STRIP BOLTS.
The (kinda) willing victim.
First step, remove fan and shroud. First failure…. 32mm wrench is too big to fit between the fan and water pump bolts. Solution, remove two of the bolts in the pulley. A swift whack of the hammer on the spanner and off the fan comes. Fan is on a reverse thread. Remove the shroud with the fan.
Keeping organised is super important
Next up, remove the coil cover and disconnect all the coils.
Pull the coils out. Issue two. Found two of the coils drowning in oil. Removed the plugs and cleaned out of the oil. Cleaned the coils. Unsure if it’s from a spark plug tube seal failure or someone spilling oil whilst filling. There is oil around the top of the hole so I think maybe a spill.
Remove the valve cover. Third issue. Gasket is hard and like plastic. Beisan says that the gasket is Viton and does not require replacement. Bullshit.
Issue four, as you can see in the above picture there is a thin coating of baked on crap in the engine. Such a shame to not see it nice and clean. Not sure if crap oil in the past or long service intervals, but no sludge, just a hard thin coating.
Issue five, finding Top Dead Center.
The Beisan instructions say to line up a pointer like the below one, with marks on the front of the harmonic balancer.
After 2 hours of searching and much frustration I finally worked it out. By fluke I found the pointer, a simple mark on the timing cover, and the marks on the balancer aren’t on the front, but hidden down behind the pulley. WTF.
Once I knew where this was it was easy as to align TDC.
So I start pulling the Vanos to bits in order to remove it. Issue six, in order to align the intake pulley you need to rotate the cam using a 24mm Spanner. The spanner I purchased for the job is too wide/thick, doesn’t fit on the hex in the cam. Have to run out and buy another, different brand one.
Issue seven, Beisan says the solenoids will be linked, and removed in a certain way. Nope, in the 3.0 they are separate and the wiring doesn’t exit via the bottom like the 3.2, it exits top and bottom, per solenoid. The top solenoid wiring is also spiral bound to the sensor on the vanos bridge, so that needs to be removed before the solenoid comes out.
This is the intake piston nut. Its tiny, and this has been the cause of many issues for others. IT IS NOT REVERSE THREADED, LEFTY LOOSEY, RIGHTY TIGHTY. It wont be very tight. removed this OK.
Next up was to remove the bolts that hold the vanos unit to the head.
MAJOR ISSUE. Two of the bolts strip and the hex socket spins freely. Fuck. I cover her up, shut the bonnet and go inside. This is an issue for another day.
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