[Eriksson042887]

A couple years back I did the valve cover gasket on my N54. When I re-installed the injector hold down brackets I installed them upside down. A week later the car started knocking under any load, stopped driving it for a week and when I went back and started it, it wouldn’t stay on, would die after 5-10 seconds. Days of research led to me finding out about my mistake. I removed the injector brackets and sure enough they were wiggling side to side. I bought the PPI kit. Here is where the nightmare starts. I receive it quickly, everything is good. I drill my engine and put in the inserts. I leave it overnight. I put new seals (Elring), and use a MAZDA tool to compress it. It doesn’t go in, I was told sometimes you need to tap it in with a mallet. So I do. Start it up, starts super rough as it should, drives absolutely perfect. I’m happy. Park it and go to sleep with a smile on my face. I wake up and start it, idles fine. I put it in reverse after 5 seconds and all the sudden it’s misfiring bad, shaking and all. I told my self that Mabye the inserts/seals need to break in and it will do this a few times. A few times of this later and it keeps doing it day after day. I message Mike from PPI and he said that I might have damaged the inserts so he sends me new ones. I buy another set of Elring seals and the genuine bmw injector seal tool. 5 of the inserts come out with a flathead, cylinder 1 won’t budge, ended up destroying the top of it and can’t get a flathead in there anymore. I drill it out, took Mabye 10 full batteries from my M18 and 40 minutes of drilling. Re threaded it and put in the new ones. With the Elring seals again and the genuine tool… they won’t go in. As of the day of me posting this, they sent me out another set of inserts, I go to remove the 2nd set again and guess what! 5 of the inserts aren’t coming out, damaged 2 of the tops!!! N54 ruined my teen years for sure. (19-22). Car has been sitting for months now. Don’t know what to do as I have no motivation anymore. I was thinking of using left hand drill bits to get the threaded inserts out, good idea? Where I’m at now is a new set of inserts, GENUINE SEALS!!! Genuine seal tool and I’m gonna dip the tip of the injector in some engine oil before putting it in. How in hell can it not work?! Just needed to vent.

[oVeRdOsE.]

motivation can come back time to times.

At the point where you are, this is pretty beat up.

On any project, at one point you stop and re-think.

here what I would have done :

1- its ok to hire someone sometime. So a old guy from a machine shop can surely find a way. Yes might cost a towing, but sometimes asking help is good for health.

2- change the head, hard job, but after you'll be set. Also, not 100% sure you can do it while engine in the car. make sure you use the injector removal tool avoiding rounding up the bore.

3- cap it ( i dont know how) go full port injection. stupid idea, expensive, but will work.

4- low mileage engine swap, and ''while you're there'' turbo upgrade, or even single turbo . ( this is the route I went, but I had time and $). It's impressive how easy you can swap an engine, I did it on dolly and jack stands. No crane or fancy tools.

5- Huge stop, sell it as is (or part-out) and get a N52 328 will all goodies to get around 250-280bhp.


N54 are expensive as fck, easy to messup, has tons of small issues. But still a great engine when everything is done right.

here even Alex tell us so :

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0_af2BPulpo

[Jaronbwall]

Sell and/or part out the car. Take your lumps and move on. Probably shouldn't have purchased a 335i as a teenager but you learned some valuable lessons.
If you don't sell it and continue down this path that motor is coming out and more $$$ will be spent. LOTS of DOLLARS.
It's a "while you're there" lets upgrade/replace/maintenance project even more so if the engine is out to fix the injector ports.

[sparkyte]

I feel you, I got a 335xi tuned and bashed by previous owners, had many problems which cost x1.5 MORE money i paid for the car to be fixed, and still i dont even know if the car will make it on a 300 miles trip or not....definitely not a daily and reliable platform, at least not after you get one thats 15+ years old. I wish i went with the M57 but it is what it is. If you have money and NERVES to fix it go for it/change of the head at least while in there its good to do others stuff so even more $$$$/, if not just part out the car and move on.

[Wolf 335]

Maybe try sliding the threaded inserts over the injector tip first to make sure they have the right clerance.
You bought this kit from some site, PPI. Who machines these insrets for them? What are the tolerances? Verify tolerances of the hole before you screw the inserts into the block.
I've pulled injectors out a few times and never had to use a mallet to get them in. Maybe a light tap from the top but nothing significant to the point of metal getting damaged.

Im not even going to ask, but i'm going to assume that you proactively verified that there were no metal shavings in the cylinder after your drilling and numerous removals of inserts.

Also, did you make sure the inserts were screwed in flush with the bottom of the injector hole?

Not sure what else to say other than good luck.

[Eriksson042887]

I appreciate all the comments guys. It’s my first car so it’s super sentimental. Worst case scenario I keep it on my uncles land and just leave it for years under a cover until I get a small shop or garage of my own, only problem there is I’m scared of rust. It’s a Los Angeles car, 0 rust. I found these in my master technicians box, PRAY FOR ME!

[oVeRdOsE.]

those car a very good for rust.

my 170k miles 2008 lived in a place where we use salt and calcium on the road on winter time, and rust is very minimal.

And I swapped this car, so I saw all little corners. Pretty clean still.

[Eriksson042887]

Guess who’s smiling ear to ear

That was a cheat code, came out STUPID easy. I’m going to contact PPI about this and tell them that this is what they should recommend should future customers need help.

[oVeRdOsE.]

here you go !

[Wolf 335]

Originally Posted by Eriksson042887

Guess who’s smiling ear to ear

That was a cheat code, came out STUPID easy. I’m going to contact PPI about this and tell them that this is what they should recommend should future customers need help.

Good work!

Keep up the momentum. You got this, just takes patience.

Verify that new inserts fit over your injector before you srew them in. Maybe they got a bad batch that wasnt machined to proper size.

[Eriksson042887]

Originally Posted by Wolf 335

Maybe try sliding the threaded inserts over the injector tip first to make sure they have the right clerance.
You bought this kit from some site, PPI. Who machines these insrets for them? What are the tolerances? Verify tolerances of the hole before you screw the inserts into the block.
I've pulled injectors out a few times and never had to use a mallet to get them in. Maybe a light tap from the top but nothing significant to the point of metal getting damaged.

Im not even going to ask, but i'm going to assume that you proactively verified that there were no metal shavings in the cylinder after your drilling and numerous removals of inserts.

Also, did you make sure the inserts were screwed in flush with the bottom of the injector hole?

Not sure what else to say other than good luck.

There is some metal shavings, but that will all get blown out, it’s soft aluminum. I don’t think that the inserts screw in flush with the bottom but I could be wrong, you just keep screwing until it stops, the top expands out a bit to “sit”.

[Eriksson042887]

Originally Posted by Wolf 335

Good work!

Keep up the momentum. You got this, just takes patience.

Verify that new inserts fit over your injector before you srew them in. Maybe they got a bad batch that wasnt machined to proper size.

Thank you for the motivation, I almost exploded today. After everything was going good, I was torquing the spark plugs and the wrench wasn’t clicking… it just kept going and then BAMN! I heard something fall into the cylinder. I took out the plug and it was fine, there was nothing that I can see in the cylinder with those mechanic cameras, I think the Amazon basics wrench is just junk, have had it for a couple months. To be fair I did use it to break a triple square rusted beetle caliper bracket bolt… best case scenario I damaged the spark plug. Worst case I messed up the threads. But I think it was just the wrench skip that made the bang. Will update yall tomorrow or after tomorrow.

[whyzee125]

Amazon anything is absolute dogshit. Hopefully it's just the wrench skipping. Toss that thing in the trash and try again when you've got a clear head and fresh start. You'll get there!

[oVeRdOsE.]

Originally Posted by whyzee125

Amazon anything is absolute dogshit. Hopefully it's just the wrench skipping. Toss that thing in the trash and try again when you've got a clear head and fresh start. You'll get there!

i was questioning that, even if op can redo the insert job, this seems pretty beat up. Not sure a 2nd try will work at this point.

lets hope for the best

[Eriksson042887]

[Eriksson042887]

Originally Posted by oVeRdOsE.

i was questioning that, even if op can redo the insert job, this seems pretty beat up. Not sure a 2nd try will work at this point.

lets hope for the best

Me reading this

[Eriksson042887]

Update.

Ok, so ran the tap through the threads just one more time to clean em up and brake cleaned the crap outta em, sucked em up with one of those pump thingies with a thin tube and then ran a torch in the spark plug holes and the injector bore to burn all the brake clean out, imagine I hydrolock it! Put some thread sealant on the inserts, and put em in no problem, put genuine seals on and use the 4 step genuine compression kit. Dipped them in some engine oil and… they all slid in, but took some more force than I’d like… How the hell do people who use this kit just put in them in dry and drop em in all the way by hand?! Either I’m doing something wrong or I just keep getting bad batches, bad luck? Remember I said the torque wrench skipped a tooth and snapped? I heard something? Well one of the spark plugs, the ceramic on the inside moved independently from the metal where the 12 point socket touches. Already contacted the store and warrantied it, new one coming Monday. Everything is good! ( so far ). Will update Monday!

[oVeRdOsE.]

hehe.

please update if it works, it will give hope to many DIYers !

[AWD Addict]

All I could think about after the OP is


"Dude. Hire a mechanic."


Good luck though. Yikes. What an ordeal.

[Eriksson042887]

Originally Posted by AWD Addict

All I could think about after the OP is


"Dude. Hire a mechanic."


Good luck though. Yikes. What an ordeal.

Why would I want to hire myself?

[Eriksson042887]

Engine light is intake vanos solenoid, was already bad. Drives mint so far. Obviously won’t know until I go WOT which isn’t anytime soon. Very excited to get the N54 back on the road. I’ll update yall when I go WOT.

Photo is my hand when I had to push the injectors in, forgot to add that on the last couple posts. That’s genuine seals with lube, I don’t know how people use aftermarket ones and go in dry.

[Eriksson042887]

Alright boys. So I started it up again today and it died on startup 3 times. Weird thing is it then ran fine for a good 5 seconds and then started stumbling again. But once it warms up after 30-40 seconds it runs beautifully. I’m guessing leaky injector. I will get logs tomorrow.