Two VANOS Removal Questions

[BumpyZ4]

I'm going to refurb my VANOS and had a couple of questions.
1. Do you think it is better to unbolt the RT engine mount and jack the engine up or loosen and pry on the crossmember?
2. Just eyeballing it, it looks like the VANOS will not clear the temp sensor housing on the lower radiator hose. Can anyone confirm whether or not the radiator hose needs to be removed? Thanks.

[Joez4]

I undid the left engine mount and didn't have to jack up that high for the vanos to clear the crossmember, seems easier and more sympathetic to the car than prying on things if you ask me,

Can't help on radiator pipe clearance as when I did mine i was removing the water pump at the same time so all the pipes were disconnected, having the fan and radiator removed helped me get to the vanos bolts alot easier tho

[bigwinn]

You’ll deffo need to pop the hose off to allow clearance

As for the crossmember question- if I struggle for clearance I’m happy to put a pry bar on the front of the engine to get the extra mm’s- but I know others who will pop an engine mount off and jack up one side

Horses for courses both work

[enuff_zed]

I undo the right mount, left as you look from the front of the car.

[BumpyZ4]

Thanks all. I'll let you know how it goes!

[BumpyZ4]

Got it done. Well, waiting on an exhaust cam sensor as it was leaking oil through the pins into the connector. I ended up doing the engine mount and jacking it up an inch or two and I was able to wiggle it out. The seals/orings definitely weren't doing much! I expected more of an oil mess but the messy part was the coolant.