Hey all, Doing a piston soak this weekend on my R55 (N14). I know going counter clockwise significantly on the crankcase bolt will mess up the timing – what I wanted to know is if it's ok to just wiggle it ever so slightly back and forth? The idea is the back and forth motion will get cleaner better into the ring area.

 

I know this is an old thread, but do think that rotating the engine CCW a couple of rotations is bad, but rocking it forth and back can't be bad.
This would also mean that when you park the car (slightly) uphill and leave it in gear would also mess up the timing. Because that's the same. Leaving the car in gear uphill will rotate the engine CCW.