[colorado.e9x]

I finally received my DISA valve rebuild kit from vanos-bmw. I ordered them April 23rd lol. Looks like I'll be tackling a fun project here soon.

[E92William]

Hopefully it goes well. Take a few pics I might wanna do it in the future.

I went to my local junkyard today and guess what I saw. One of my biggest fears. Disa valve broken and flapping around in the intake. This is one of the main reasons I think I might go for the N54 manifold after a while

[Wolf 335]

Originally Posted by Welcome to NBA Jam

Slathered all the leather in my car with Leatherique. I won't be driving for the next 24 hours and it's mad hot out. Looking forward to tomorrow's results!

So what's the result?

[colorado.e9x]

What you showed in those videos is what I think happened to mine. Waiting on formic acid to arrive next week and then some free time after that to do that and install my PCV kit

[E92William]

Well that one at the yard was likely an early model disa. It seems the later ones don't fail nearly as often.

You're closing yours up properly with formic acid? Mines when I opened them to drain the oil out, I closed them by melting the edges with a soldering iron

[colorado.e9x]

That's an interesting find. Mine is most definitely an early model lol, built in 05. I didn't think about using my soldering iron. I figured if I'm going to do it I'd rather do it right the first time. Knowing me if I did it any other way the seal would break at some point

[E92William]

It's probably a lot easier with the acid too I bet lol so I don't blame you. The early valves always looked more flimsy to me so I try to get newer ones if possible when parts picking

[E92William]

Testing and fixing junkyard disas

[colorado.e9x]

Let me know how that goes

Starting my CCV replacement and DISA valve rebuild today. Formic acid should be here by Friday so hopefully I can get the car on the road before work resumes Tuesday

[E92William]

So far I've had good luck working their kinks out. Basically no play just motor issues from oil.

[colorado.e9x]

I've been battling these stupid plastic clips and connectors all day and I'm getting tired of it

[colorado.e9x]

Originally Posted by E92William

So far I've had good luck working their kinks out. Basically no play just motor issues from oil.

How did you go about separating the two halves of the case?

[E92William]

lol it's a lot easier to take out the manifold in the junkyard where you don't have to worry about breaking shit

The way I've gone about opening them is a thin flathead and kind of tapping it with a hammer at the seam. About a 1/4 or 1/3 of an inch apart between each time you go deep into the case, you'll start to hear it kind of crack apart. Maybe this isn't the most appropriate method if you're using acid to close them back up. So I've also opened them using a razor blade and tapping that all the way around works as well.

[colorado.e9x]

That's for sure.. I'm halfway tempted to break them and just secure it with zip ties later. The ones giving me the most problems right now is the junction box just below the manifold and the hose that connects behind the throttle body. Huge PITA

I'll keep both of those methods in mind whenever I can actually get to them

[colorado.e9x]

I really want to give up at this point. Clips won't budge at all and I'm just about ready to break it off.

[E92William]

Oh no dude don't do it that way. The box you should unbolt it's from the manifold it has two torx screws. There's no way you'll get it off like that it's a huge pain.

Not to say the two little screws aren't a pita by themselves but less of it than the box

[colorado.e9x]

Funny enough I was fighting those two bolts, got the easy one towards the front off but with a combination of my large torx bits, all the wiring, and steering rack I could not for the life of me get the other one off.

I did finally get it off the other way with my trusty thin screw driver, a hammer, and wd40. A little barbaric but it eventually slipped off

[E92William]

That's great. Putting the bolts back on is even harder than taking them off. Basically no space to move or see anything

[E92William]

It's real Bmw hours

While on the small disa the plastic rod goes all the way from the gear part of the housing to the top. The large disa, the rod only goes through to about halfway through the disa then has a metal insert at the top to finish the connection. They're both the same length. Seems Bmw decided to use the same length rod to save money on the long run lol which is probably why the large one breaks off more often.... the rebuild kits seem to correct this by having a single rod that goes all the way through.

[Buug959]

Today I changed the old leaking valve cover on my n54 for a brand new one. Took about six hours start to finish. That includes scrubbing all the plastic parts like the engine cover, cabin filter housing, air filter housing, cowl, brake fluid reservoir cover and the module cover on the passengers side. It would have been a little quicker but I dropped the only E10 socket I own when I was loosening the fourth valve cover bolt. I lost it down the side of the engine near the water pump or so I thought. I ended up raising the front of the car so I could take off the plastic pan under the engine to get the socket... it wasn't there.I searched for about 20 minutes under there. Guess where I finally found it. Yup, inside the fan shroud lying against the radiator! It must have been doing some real pin balling around to end up there. Anyway its all back together and running. I did get a bit of a surprise when I started it and got a light on the dash saying the all-wheel drive dsc ? had failed and my anti-rollback had also failed. Now I'm thinking how could that happen??? Ok so long story short, both lights went out when I drove it around the block. Must have had something to do with disconnecting the battery. It looks pretty good under the hood now and I don't have that stinkin' oil smoke anymore.
Next project depends on which parts arrive next, oil change kit or suspension kit. All in all its been a good day.

[E92William]

That's common on xdrive cars. If you disconnect the battery for a bit it'll trigger a fault for the awd system. Kind of scared me too when doing my own valve cover

[jbey128]

Still diagnosing what my engine malfunction light is more research has lead me to believe more on the fuel system side will see as the days go on. hope to have the problem solved in a month at most