Sorry for the lack of pictures, I had limited time to work each day and was trying to get as much done as I could.
I started following a DIY post I found (here) but quickly realized that I should take the approach I do when changing any fluids: Make sure I can get the fill bolt out before I drain the fluid. So I wanted to make sure I could get the crank bolt loose before I took everything else off, and then had to put it back on. After some searching under the car and online, I found the hole that gives access to the flywheel locking hole and the dimensions for the pin that BMW sells to fit said hole. Since that pin is $20+ and would take around 2 weeks to get to me, I started measuring things I had laying around. I figured out that a 1/4" extension fits just about perfectly, so I cut the wobble portion off of one and shoved it in the flywheel. After that, breaking the crank bolt loose was easier than it should have been, and I disassembled the rest of the front of the motor.
After a lot of cleaning, putting the new gaskets in their slots, and putting on some gasket locker, I put it all back together. Turns out that doing both halves of the timing cover without taking the valve cover off is possible, but not easy. I fought with getting the bottom half on and lined up with the bolt holes due to the new/not compressed rubber gasket between the halves. I finally had the idea to get a couple bolts on each half just barely started through the covers, and then wedge both halves in at the same time. Thankfully it worked like a charm.
Everything went fine after that until I went to tighten the bolts that go through the valve cover and into the upper timing cover. For some unknown reason, a BMW engineer in all his wisdom decided to make those bolts aluminum. And I checked, they are NOT one time use bolts. When you change the valve cover, you're supposed to put new rubber grommets on the old aluminum bolts. As I'm sure you've guessed, I ended up snapping the threads off of the last one. I found some bolt extractors that I had borrowed from a friend several months before and got to work. Thankfully the hole in the valve cover that the bolt passes through is oversized, so the burnishing tool fit through just fine. After stepping through all 3 sizes of extractors, I finally got the bolt to back out enough that I could grab it with some vice grips and twist in the rest of the way out. But that meant taking the covers back off again... Joy.
Eventually I got it all back together minus that broken bolt and filled it up with coolant. Before I ran it though, I wanted to replace the bolt. The cheapest I found it was $16 and 2 weeks shipping. Berk that. I found a long 6mm bolt, cut the head off, and used the 2 nut method to thread it into the timing cover. Then a nut, washer, and the rubber grommet from the broken bolt went on and my single stud conversion was complete!
After some cooling system bleeding, tightening some hose clamps, and some driving while very closely monitoring coolant temps, it seems like everything is working fine. Also looks like I eliminated the biggest source of oil leakage by far. I'll be driving on short trips around town for the next little while to be sure. I do know that I need to get a new radiator sooner rather than later since its dripping at the bottom driver side corner. Thankfully the end tank seems to intact and its the core itself leaking. Time to find an all aluminum one on craigslist.
I know long posts without pictures aren't a lot of fun, so thanks to anyone that's reading this. I'll be taking more pictures on future stuff, like the further interior and wiring stripping that should be happening soon.
