Any help is appreciated. If there was a brick board equivalent for BMW's I would be there. Everyone on the brick board has been very supportive regarding my Volvo questions and incrediably knowledgeable so I thought I would take a long shot and see if anyone had access to a Mitchell's or Chilton's flat rate manual.

So far he is quoting $3,100 which includes a head gasket, a valve job, cam and new timing belt. I have asked for a break down but he seems to be stalling. If the head wasn't already off, I would have the car towed to another mechanic but I feel trapped.

The setup for my BMW 524td is very similar to the Volvo diesal. Mechanical injection and overhead cam so while he is there I am having the timing belt replaced and I need a new cam.

The cam shouldn't be much labor since it has saddle bearings holding it in place. To time the pump and cam you put a dowl pin through the bell housing to hold the fly wheel, dowl pin in the injection pump so it doesn't move, time the cam and put a jig on a special square front lobe of the cam to hold it in place while you tighten the idler pully for the the belt. If I had a jig for the cam, I would just do it myself but that's a special BMW tool just for that particular car.

How many hours labor would it be to remove and replace the head on a diesal Volvo. I am guessing 4 hrs. to remove the head, 2 hrs. for the cam, 4 hrs. to re-install the head and 2 hrs. to time it. That's a total of 12 hrs @ $65 per hour or $780 for labor. The cam should be about $600, I know that's high but it's something of an unusal car with most parts only available from BMW Germany.


Thank you for any help you can provide.