"These build journal entries are part of a Special Series on the S65 VANOS covers failures, the available preventive solutions, and my unboxing & installation notes of the Snap-In Covers.

In this entry, I document my unboxing notes and the technical features of these VANOS covers."
- Matt

Unboxing.  

I received one of the prototype snap-in covers in the Spring of 2022 and unboxed it to cover the design features and my initial impressions. 

They are light, it's arguably the first thing I noticed when unboxing the covers. They are CNC machined from 6061 aluminum as to not add drag to the engine. 

If you throw these outside, the wind will catch them. 

The covers are thin! It's another obvious aspect of the covers once you see them in real life. The covers are required uniquely to hold the cam bolt into the VANOS gear.

It doesn't need to be any more as there is no axial load placed on these covers nor any less without increasing risks of bending them during installation. 

The snap-in tabs are obvious: there are 6x tabs across the cover. 

The alignment tabs have a different design, with an indent in the middle.  

The alignment hole is critical to your installation, I'll touch on why this matters in my installation notes. 

The edges are sharp: you're going to get your fingers caught once as you probe the tabs yourself.  

Up next: it's time to install them. 

I will cover the critical steps to a successful installation of the snap-in covers.