is you high milage v8 getting tired?

[mrcrappy]

My 350i for the last 2 or so years has been getting rather tired and rattling from the cam area, its done over 100 000 miles and was well down on power, i assumed that the cam was well warn so in my spare engine i decided to go and get a MC2 cam fitted at v8 developments only to find the pistons weren't relieved for the extra valve lift, so in stead i decided to strip the top of my engine down while it was in the car and see if there was anything major wrong, as i took the followers out one at a time i found they were hardly warn, most there was no visible wear at all, the cam looked ok to, on closer inspection i found that all the followers were seized and therefore were not adjusting, hence really low power and rattling, i took each follower to bits and cleaned them with fine wire wool (only takes burnt on oil off not metal) and reassembled them making sure they moved ok, then pumped them back up with oil using a pump type oil can with engine oil in it. After putting everything back together with new gaskets etc and starting up there was an initial rattle as the followers pumped back up (minute or so)but now the engine runs real smooth with loads more power, no rattles etc, cost about £20 to do for the valley gasket some liquid gasket (rocker covers etc) and anti freeze and obviously a couple of days messing about but i just can't believe the difference, i have been panicking about the engine blowing up for ages for no reason.
the only problem you may have is getting the followers out as they had a crust at the end closest to the cam ( not the part touching the cam the out side edge ) this i had to clean of with wire wool making sure none fell on to the cam (tricky).
If you are down on power and feel like there is a rev limiter above 3500 revs give it a try.

[rev-erend]

It's a well know problem with the RV8 - lots of heat and not enough regular oil changes ...

Great that you solved your problems and are happy with the result !