Quick Review - Wiseco Shim Kit

[yousefnjr]

Did a valve adjustment on the Z last week, and thought I'd share a few words about the Wiseco shim kit I used. This comes as part of a valve adjustment kit you can order from ECS, which comes with the shims, magnet/installer tool, feeler gauge, valve cover gasket, oil (TWS), and filter for around $250. Note that it doesn't come with any gasket sealant, so you'll need to pick up a tube of black RTV.

The shims are spot on in thickness and diameter. They look just like the factory shims, except these ones have the sizes printed on the shim face. You get 3x of each size. I only needed to use 1 shim so quantity wasn't an issue for me.

Very pleased with the purchase, would buy it again. If any of you are on the fence about these, you have nothing to fear!

Also, if anybody in the area needs a hand with doing the work, I wouldn't mind helping out. It's not a hard job to do, much easier than it seems.

Cheers

[StickMon]

Thanks for the review.
It's way too late for me. I bought the OEM set years ago.
What has me kicking myself is that of the 20 thicknesses that come in the stock set, there's only about 8 that you could ever need.
The OEMs in the kit have the thicknesses stamped on them, before they go in the car.
Once they've been in there a while the stamping comes off.

Did you use the feeler gauge that comes with it?
I bought this offset one. Easier to get in there, and inexpensive, by Matco standards.

Looks like ECS no longer sells just the gasket set alone.
I guess next time I'll have to buy each piece separately.

[jdoublehcubed]

Originally Posted by StickMon

Thanks for the review.
It's way too late for me. I bought the OEM set years ago.
What has me kicking myself is that of the 20 thicknesses that come in the stock set, there's only about 8 that you could ever need.
The OEMs in the kit have the thicknesses stamped on them, before they go in the car.
Once they've been in there a while the stamping comes off.

Did you use the feeler gauge that comes with it?
I bought this offset one. Easier to get in there, and inexpensive, by Matco standards.

Looks like ECS no longer sells just the gasket set alone.
I guess next time I'll have to buy each piece separately.

I managed to buy the gasket set alone a couple months ago and it was hard to find, I think it will come up if you search on the part number for the gasket. I think they forgot to map it to z4M but its still on the e46M3.

[yousefnjr]

Found the gasket, $70 - https://www.ecstuning.com/News/BMW_S...ITS/ES2586868/

Offset feeler would def make this easier. The one it comes with kinda sucks but will get you by. I think my bigger complaint is that for some measurements you have to combine multiple leaves to get what you want (.004 + .005 instead of having a .009...). Small complaint but still doing a little fist shaking

[TexasZed4MC]

I have the Wiseco Shim kit also and am very happy with the kit.

[Beedub]

i also used this kit, very very good quality easily on par with the bmws shims. They have been hardness tested too and are as hard as the stock shim. I love the printed number on them too. Now what i am a-little worried about is the victor reinz gasket that ECS sent me as part of the kit... The reviews don't fair well.

[StickMon]

Originally Posted by yousefnjr

Found the gasket ...

Thanks! I had a bookmark to it, but it no longer worked.
Note that it says Elring.
Now I know where I've been getting my Elring gaskets.

Looks like they left out the oil line crush washers.
Description says "Engine Oil Drain Plug Washer", but it's not.

[yousefnjr]

That's funny, because I was confused about that in the kit as well. They are included (2x), but the PN and description of the part was for the drain plug washer IIRC. The actual drain plug washer comes in the filter box, and looks different than ones for the oil line, so I'm not sure what's going on.

[StickMon]

ECS is like that sometimes.
They used to list the plastic clips that hold the rear deck "tea tray" to the raise/lower rods as a "fuse".