Debating doing the belly pan swap as well. Any issues? Did the package fit inside your car or did you have it delivered to where you installed it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by dcorn
Wanted to put in my 2 cents, just completed this work today. Thank you so much for this DIY!!
My car is a 2008 335i, manual trans, with oil cooler. Almost 96k miles and the belt was date stamped 2008.
- Only way to get even remotely enough room was to remove the fan. I used the previously posted mishimoto video for a guide. Contrary to what was posted earlier in this thread, there is only ONE screw that holds the fan to the radiator, top passenger side. There is no lower screw. Basically undid that one screw, removed the connector, moved the coolant overflow hose, and yanked the fan out. The rubber grommet on the driver's side was a PITA, but some WD40 for lube helped a bit. It was a really tight fit getting it out with the oil cooler lines.
- The inlet pipe across the front of the engine was annoying, but unbolting it and forcing it out of the way when needed was the only way to get the torx sockets in place. I moved it around a lot and there doesn't seem to be any negative effects after everything went back together.
- Make sure to remove the belly pan. First, because you'll definitely drop something during this process. I started this months ago and I dropped a socket almost immediately. I wasn't able to jack up the car and get the belly pan off in my small garage, so I drove around until today with a torx bit down there somewhere. I also found it handy to push part of the fan out from below, and getting the belt on as well.
- Because there is very limited room for sockets and ratchets/breaker bars with the inlet pipe and other crap in the way, make sure you know what drive size all your sockets are. My set of torx sockets vary drive size and sometimes I didn't have space to add adapters. The only torque wrench I had was 1/2" drive and most of the torx bits I had were 3/8" and I didn't have my adapter. So all my pulleys were tightened to german specs.
- Similar to posts above, I left the metal plates on the back of the new pulleys. Mine also had them on the stock pulleys.
- The job probably took me 2 hrs or so, but I was really taking my time to not break anything. I was nervous about the coolant lines and nipples that everyone had trouble with, but no problems here.
- I ended up finding an intercooler connector that wasn't installed completely by the last shop that worked on my car. It was leaking quite a bit of oil, damnit I really need a catch can. The can runs so much better now.
- I installed the Turner Motorsports aluminum belly pan after the belt/pulley swap was done. Man, that thing is beefy.
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