Sheefo2k | Valve cover gasket & Fuel tank breather valve
I m in the process of doing my valve cover gasket as well as a fuel tank breather valve that is located underneath the intake manifold.
I used TIS and some DIYs on here to help me go through it. I wanted to take detailed step by step pictures to help future members.
I am not responsible for any damage, I m doing this to the best of my knowledge.
I completed the driver side yesterday and I wasn't feeling too good so I decided to finish the rest today.
Let me know if there are any questions or anything specific you want pictures of while I do the passenger side.
This is my first DIY so take it easy on me
disconnect battery positive terminal and slide it through the cover (MAKE SURE THE BATTERY IS DISCONNECTED)
remove all 4 spark plugs
remove 8 nuts/screws with 8 metal washers and 8 rubber washers holding the valve cover down
remove 3 nuts/screws on the front of the valve cover
I used my pic tool to gently pry the valve cover off, make sure not to damage the head nor the valve cover
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Clean the old surface really well
Clean the vlave cover with some brake cleaner
Rub some little glycine all over the gasket area and install fresh new gasket (you cant mess up the sides)
TIS only states to put silcone on the 2 half moons in the back and 2 spots in the front. My old gasket had 2 more extra spots and so I did that as well.
Redireccting the wires like so, helps with sliding the valve cover back in place.
I installed new 8 rubber washers and 3 washers on the new valve cover.
It's defiantly really time consuming stopping and taking pictures. I just got done, time to crack a beer and grill some dinner. I will update the thread in couple hours. I took more pictures and detailed some important things I might have missed documenting on bank 1.
I hope someone will find those useful down the road!
Ps. Did a lot of cleaning.
Nice work sheef. I feel I may need to do this soon. I know I can do the work, but I have just enough questions about the job to stop me.
What would definately help would be all the part numbers for the gaskets and grommets (there's 2 part #'s for the grommets right?) and also all of the torque values for all the of the nuts and bolts for reassembly. Valve cover to head. Lower plenum to throttle bodies. Trumpets to lower plenum. Upper plenum to lower plenum and any others I'm missing.
Also re: the RTV. It looks like it goes between the head and the gasket only. Nothing between the cover and gasket itself eh? How does the gasket stay on the cover during reassembly? Pressure fit?
And where exactly dos TIS say the RTV goes? The half-moon wells I understand, but where exactly in the front?
What kind did you use?
Take a look at your new part. You have to release the bottom hose of the nipple.
Press on the U shapped connecter towards the hose and pull off
Release the electrical plug
It's very simple, just take your time and think outside the box. It's a tight fit but EASY.
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Passenger side Valve cover gasket
Remove 2 10mm nuts holding the plastic wire holder down.
Start removing the 10mm nuts holding the coil packs down
Remove the 10mm bolts holding the 3 ground wires down.
Remove all 4 four coil packs.
pull on the boot of the coil pack to seperate them.
Spray some electric maf cleaner and let it air dry. We wont use them for a bit.
Remove 8 nuts holding the valve cover down.
remove 3 bolts with washers that hold the front of the valve cover down.
Make sure prior to remove the valve cover, to remove the 8 metal washers so you don't lose them.
After removing the Valve cover, take a look at where BMW installed their tri bond 1090 gasket maker.
START CLEANING! Grab a beer and a rag an go to town on cleaning. You can spray a little bit of break cleaner on the rag and start clean the cyclender head.
Don't forget to clean the valve cover too.
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How to replace the rubber washer on the front 3 bolts that hold the valve cover down.
I tried pulling the rubber washer off but it was impossible.
One clean cut with a razor to seperate them.
Push the new one through (it will be tight but man up!)
Old on the left and new on the right
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Back to work
Now that everything is clean, start assembling the gasket in to the valve cover.
Grab a rubber mallet or the back of a screw driver (rubber handle part) and slightly tap the gasket in to the grooves of the valve cover.
I bought 6 new washers (3 for each side)
I bought 16 rubber washers for the nuts (8 each side)
Apply little gasket maker on the two half moons, and 2 spots on the head.
Reinstall the valve cover in place and tighten by hand first.
Tighten diagonally from the inside out towards the headlights. I did 4ft lbs and then 8ft lbs.
Clean the plenum really well with brake cleaner prior to installing it.
Before
After
Use the 8mm nuts and tighten all the trumpets. (A hair over hand tight -Don't forget they're plastic)
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I m sorry but my camera died but I hope you can use the earlier pictures to reassemble the intake, cabin air filter, oil lines on the manifold etc.
It's not a hard DIY, just time consuming. You have to be organized when doing this DIY so you don't mess anything up.
So you needed 16 rubber grommets for the valve cover nuts (8 per side) and 6 rubber grommets for the valve cover bolts up front (3 per side)?
That's odd because one of the other valve cover DIY's on this site says 20 and 6. And when I placed my order with pelicanparts.com last night even their site says you needs 20 nut grommets per car.
I guess I need to email them and modify my order. They're only .75c each, but I'll never need them again so why buy 4 extras?
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