Yeah, working on the little M42 is always convenient, even with it in the car. Even more space if you ditch the clutch fan and put in a Spal slimline or something else electric.
Initially we were just going to take a peek into the engine and see if we could determine what was amiss.
With a broken timing chain and timing idler gear that had broken off the intermediate plate where it is mounted, it was now painfully obvious, that we would need to pull the engine from the car.
Thankfully, an E30 BMW was designed for an inline six-cylinder engine, so pulling the entire engine and transmission is a relatively easy two-hour job. This was especially true in our case since the radiator and alternator were already missing from the car and we had already opened the engine up some to look inside.
It is way easier to remove an engine in one of these cars, if you take the transmission with it.
Once everything is disconnected from the engine compartment, you can loosen the engine mount and transmission mount bolts—while supporting the engine. Then remove the driveshaft bolts and the ground strap and you can hoist the engine out quite easily at that point.
You can watch us pull the engine in a live broadcast below.
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