might be worth taking that to a parts cleaner at a shop.

 

You’re there so might as well do the vanos. I bought my teflon together with viton seals and rattle kit from Beisan Systems. 50skid on YouTube has a great DIY that’s easy enough to follow. Will take you 30-45 min to service the vanos even with no experience. The varnish doesn’t look great but it’s not sludgy either. Regular oil changes with good stuff should be fine in my opinion.

 

I just happened to watch kid's video an hour ago. Now that's confirmation! Thanks for parts reference.

 

For what it's worth, I did the vanos seals on my E46 when it had about 100k miles. It made no discernable difference.

My E83 never had any major maintenance when I purchased it (aside from clutch), and I did the VCG and OFHG. Drove and continues to drive beautifully with plenty of power considering its measly 2.5L... that said, my engine internals looked completely clean.

I would suggest you do the vanos seals at the very minimum, and clean out the vanos oil supply line at the same time. Might not be a bad idea to replace the CCV components at the same time. They seem to go (or cause massive oil burning issues) on neglected M54s, particularly the 3.0L.

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For what it's worth, I did the vanos seals on my E46 when it had about 100k miles. It made no discernable difference.

My E83 never had any major maintenance when I purchased it (aside from clutch), and I did the VCG and OFHG. Drove and continues to drive beautifully with plenty of power considering its measly 2.5L... that said, my engine internals looked completely clean.

I would suggest you do the vanos seals at the very minimum, and clean out the vanos oil supply line at the same time. Might not be a bad idea to replace the CCV components at the same time. They seem to go (or cause massive oil burning issues) on neglected M54s, particularly the 3.0L.

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ac, This will be my second X3 with the M54 and I got lucky with the first. Seller had kept up on maintenance and repair, but didn't want to pay a dealer $1.2K to fix a no start condition. For the cost of the engine ground strap, I had a running car. It's needed a battery and the expansion tank and hoses since then plus some ISTA based service functions.
This one is a totally different story. No maintenance history or records available for the past several years. So I'm going ahead with Beisan Vanos seals and a cleanout since the VC is off.

 

Besian Vanos Seals all the way. I did this on my 2002 525i with the M54 at about 180k, if I remember correctly. I detailed my experience in this Vanos Seals Thread from 2015, which ended up becoming a pretty good discussion on Vanos/Double Vanos itself, as well as the original seals vs Besian seals.

Good luck with the 'new' M54. The Vanos job is a no brainer. A few other really important jobs I remember from my time in an M54 were a) Replace Fuel Filter, b) Spark Plugs, c) Motor and Transmission Mounts, and d) Ensure the DISA valve is operating properly in the intake manifold. If the DISA valve flap is not operating (opening/closing) at the correct times, you will want to replace it and see what it takes to correct. Have fun bro.

 

The double vanos repair came out great and no more VCG oil leaks. On to the next repairs before state inspection and tags - new front driveshaft and SAS calibration.