I am got a quote today for the head bolt upgrade work that will run $2,500 estimated; $1,800 without the 32 cam followers (lifters) which are recommended to be replace as part of the operation. I thought that was a high cost. Sorry to hear man

no, they won’t take the head off. One at a time. Hope that is not risky considering the age of the car

I have a 07' E63 that I bought back in Dec. 2017 and it's been in my garage up on stands ever since due to its having an "idle" reving at 1200rpm. I ended up buying a STAR system computer first, as you can't even do suspension work without it. The Intake Manifold was trashed flooded with oil, so I had the reman'd by RMT in Pompano, Fl. By the time I went to retrieve it, I had already discovered that my front AirSpring Struts were mismatched. One was OEM and leaking and the other was an Arnott, so I took the both off and brought them to RMT to get their reman'd Air Struts. Great deal! I installed F1 Fabrication Upper Control Arms to correct for Camber. I dug in further to find that my passenger side camshaft adjusters were installed incorrectly! Unbelievably, someone had taken them apart and removed the center section that rotates back and forth depending on oil pressure and installed it upside down??? This caused the inner race of the adjuster which would normally connect to the end of the camshaft with diamond washer between them tightened by the Cam Bolt to be deeper than it should be. In effect, this caused the Bolt to essentially sandwich the outer ring of the adjuster up against the timing alignment prongs on the camshaft while being "supported" by the Cam Drive Gear below instead of the end of the camshaft being flush with the inner face of the Cam Adjuster!!! After thorough inspection, I discovered that because of this the inner wall of the Cam Adjusters had a ring gouge created from the end of the camshaft due to the cam adjuster spinning/wobbling. Amazingly, there was no evident damage to the teeth of the adjuster nor the Drive gear! That certainly explained why the Cam Timing was way off when I first removed that valve covers! As such, I bit the bullet and went ahead in removing both Heads to be rebuilt by Extreme Heads in Palm City,Fl. They informed me that 8 of 16 Valves were bent!

While they were at it, I proceeded to replace the front torque Arms and installed Racing Brake Rotors/pads. While doing this, I flushed out the brake fluid. Because there appeared to be a leak in the Power Steering High Pressure Hose, I took that out to be be rebuilt and installed a new P/S Pump and Reservior.

When I got the Heads back, I went ahead and installed the newer SLS Valve Tappets. It's all back together again with New Headbolts, so THAT issue hopefully doesn't rear its ugly Head! I also installed new spark plugs, two new igniters, air filters all around. I also had my front Hood and bumper repainted due to a huge smiley face gouge running from mirror to mirror in front of the front emblem. While they were at it I opted to have all 4 wheels refinished. All that's left is to put air via Star back in the front Struts, lower onto ramps and tighten the front suspension. And the have STAR do a Timing Adaptation run and I'll be all smiles!!

Hello there,

I bought my Upper Control Arms from F1 Fabrication directly, not on eBay where they also have a presence. To do this correctly, you need the STAR/DAS programming to relieve the pressure as well to inflate the Air Struts before removing. You have to remove the front Struts in order access and remove the bolts which secure both arms of each control arm. This means unfastening the valve damping wiring down below as well as the up top and removing the air hose up top as well. I ended up buying the thinnest 10mm wrench I could find and then, fortunate for me, had a stereo installed I know grind a channel wide enough for the hose to fit between. Upon reinstall, a new O-ring is recommended.

Then an you have to unbolt the bottom of the Strut. These are tightened to a jaw dropping 160Nm, so you'll definitely need new bolts as you'll unstrip the threads most likely wrenching the nut off the first few turns. If your just off the floor, like I was, you'll need a beefy 1/2" Wratchet ( I used DeWalt ) but then you need an extension to give you leverage to undo the Bolt. Find some sturdy tube that's about 2 feet long as you'll completely cover the length of the wratchet handle.

As for the upper three nuts securing the top, I believe they're tightened to only 8-10nm (IIRC), so it's time to loosen those, but don't take them off yet as you'll need to free the bottom of the Strut from the air Spring Arm which it straddles. With the Air released from the AirSpring Strut, its possible to get the Strut off the lower control Arm by using a crowbar. By placing it between the bottom of the Strut and the Control Arm and making an effort at prying it in there, your essentially squeezing the air in the Strut enough to clear the Control Arm. Once done, then you hold the Strut with one hand and with other lossen the already loosened nuts up top. You'll want to clear the Strut towards the front in order to clear the brake lines.

Now it's time to remove the Upper Control Arm. First thing you'll do is a breaker to bust apart the ball Joint of the CA from the Steering Swivel. Then you just remove the bolts securing it and swap in the F1 CA and your halfway done! But alas...removing those Upper CA bolts are tricky but even more so after installing the F1 CA's. It's not a one person job here because even though removing them is fairly easy (be sure to use tape or something on the end of your wrench being extra careful to not lose the nut below somewhere) you'll be scratching your head trying to figure out how to install the bolts of each side afterwards! So after you place the F1 Arms in position (be sure to Lube them up properly first!) you'll need someone with small hands (think lady friend or perhaps child here!) because having someone hold the nut in those fender wells is essential as you drive the Bolt through turning it while you do so to engage the stationary Nut being held by your buddy. There's a lot going on in those fender wells, see for yourself. I certainly couldn't fit my hands in there around that nut. Even if I could, I would need somebody to drive the Bolt through, so bear this in mind.

Another note-as much as you think you can calculate beforehand just how many turns you'll need to extend the Adjustable F1 CA's in order to get your perfect Camber Alignment, guess again. Inevitably you'll need to have it done right at a shop, unless your proficient with alignment yourself and willing to jack up the car, remove the wheel in order to access the Upper ball Joint that inevitably will have to be removed more than once in order to dial in just the right Camber measured only when the wheels are weighted on the ground, with an alignment machine and a full lift with the ability to remove the wheel while it's lifted in order to get it dialed in just right. Moreover, they'll be able to do properly torque the suspension down while the car is in the air.