To loosen the crank bolt. Who the the hell needs 239 ft lbs of torque on a freakin crank bolt?....
This may be a deal breaker for me,...if I cant get this bitch to bust loose, I'm selling this pig
I was kidding about that in case anybody took that serious.
Seriously,...why in the world is the crank bolt that tight? The last time I had to deal with a bolt this tight was on the Termi engine. But with that engine I had the whole drive train still in the car. I had the benefit of the weight of the car, the trans in reverse, blocked tires, and an applied e-brake. And a really long freaking piece of roll bar tubing for an extension.
Here I got an engine on a stand.
About the only thing I can do is remove the thing from the stand, remove two flywheel bolts so that I can get some longer ones, put it back on the stand, then jam a crowbar between those bolts, and let the bar wedge against the bolts holding the engine.
That'll keep the engine from turning, I just hope that the whole stand doesn't turn over.
** and just like that,...what once was a concern, ends thanks to the internet, and the mechanics at BMW.
When you look online...Turns out that you're not the first bonehead that has had to break that stuck sonofabitch loose. And it also becomes evident that you're also not the first to wonder how the hell you're gonna stop the engine from rotating while you try and loosen the bolt.
The " How do I stop the engine from rotating" question is answered from the online search with basically a one line answer:
Jam a piece of wood into the crankcase to prevent the crank from rotating.
Durrrrrr!!!
Here I have the freakin pan off and I don't even bother to think about that. Instead, I remove the flexplate, and thread two of the exhaust manifold studs into the crank, and wedge a crow bar between them. I guess either will work, but the wood idea is a guarantee that I wont shear off a stud into the crank.
The other problem of what the hell am I gonna use as a breaker bar was simply a matter of talking to the shop foreman here at the dealership.
Almost half of these guys have 4' long 3/4" breaker bars, because BMW cranks are torqued to 300+ ft lbs.
I now have one of those in my car with a 22mm impact socket on the end.
That leaves only..."How do I keep from flipping the engine stand over",...and that one's easy. I'm just gonna stick a bar in the open end of the stand leg to keep it from flipping.
I'm so glad I thought of all of this sht.