Replaced my valve cover gaskets on Sunday. Funny story.
Monday, developed severe leak, dumped a few liters of oil on the highway. I noticed lots of oil squirting out from the oil filter. Replaced oil and filter, replaced o-ring. Seemed to do the trick. Drove off again and noticed large amounts of smoke from the engine and coming into the vent. Quickly hit the recirculating air button and went home. Oil coming out of bank two valve cover gasket (noticed the inner gasket went bad when changing spark plugs a few months back). Tried to repair with gasket sealant. Not a good idea (doesn't do anything, wastes money, and more of a mess you need to clean up).
Purchased gasket from Pelican Parts on Tuesday and arrives Thursday. However, they only sent the inner gasket. The soonest I could get a new one is Monday if they overnight the part (got it too late on Thursday to call them during business hours). Called local BMW--they don't have part. Called one that's bigger and further away, they have one left. I take the bus to work on Friday, use my zipcar rental (Honda Civic Hybrid) and got the part. When I got home to install it, the outer gasket doesn't fit because it's for bank one. Called BMW, they apologized, and were open tomorrow. Go down Saturday, matched the picture I took of the valve cover, and was happy. Installed per the TIS and instructions here, with a few differences, noted below. Started car, brought to operating temperature, and started smoking again. Couldn't check the seal in the back because engine was too hot. I then dared and assumed it was the old oil (took off under armor and cleaned up lots of oil--still cold).
Today is Monday--drove it about 200 miles and drove it hard in some areas. Normally I fill up a liter of oil every week. Check the oil again and the level is the same. I hope this solved my oil burning problem....
So some differences--
Valve cover gasket and the valve cover groove the gasket fits into coated with glycerin, per the TIS. I went to Walgreens to get glycerin (common laxative/stool softener) and could only find suppositories. KY Jelly contains glycerin, so I went to the female product / sex aisle and there was an 80-year old woman (no exaggeration) standing there with a bottle of "warm touch" KY in her left hand and a pair of XL Magnum Condoms in the right hand, reading the back label. Bit my lip hard as to not chuckle (I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo), and went back to the suppository aisle to make sure I'm not missing a bottle. Then I remembered bubble solution contains a mixture of glycerin and water. Bought a bottle of bubbles for $0.59. Don't have drei bond (as called for by TIS), so used high temp gasket sealer only at the place where there's a gap in the valve cover (in the front, where there's a seam in the lip where the gasket sits, on top and bottom). I smeared some and replaced the cover. Total time without air tools (someone stole my air compressor a few months ago) was 3 hours 20 minutes from when I stared (with all the correct parts) to finish. This included cleaning the old oil from underneath the beast.
So the tool list would include the following:
Parts
- Gasket, correct side, inner AND outer
- Glycerin (Mr. Bubbles)
- Drei Bond (or Red high-temp gasket goo)
Tools
- 3/8" OR 1/2" spanner
- 1/4" spanner
- 10 mm socket, matching the first spanner
- 8 mm socket, 1/4" (this is for the velocity stacks--better if you have a smaller socket--noticed 3/8" was a little big)
- Wire brush (to remove old gasket material--dremel with wire brush attachment worked well)
- Compressed air (clean out the valve area of bits of crap)
- Flat head screwdriver (to remove hose clamps)
- Pry bar (to remove valve cover--use extreme caution and tape the end to protect the aluminum parts)
- 3 or 4 magnetic trays for bolts
- Magnetic pickups (for when you drop something in the engine bay)
- Phillips screwdriver (to remove the under armor when the magnetic pickups don't get what you dropped)
I think that list is comprehensive. Clean the throttle bodies since you have the cover off. I used the spray cleaner and the dremel wire brush attachment. Make sure you don't get metal dust in anything important.
I think that's everything. Should post pictures of the old valve gasket cover. It was missing one of those "half moons", which is a big chunk of the outer gasket.
Don't want to do this anytime soon. Should have replaced bank one since I was there, but removing the valve cover was a serious pain in the *** and scares me in that it feels like you might break something. I'm a firm believer to leave well enough alone if it works well, for risk of: (a) making it worse and/or (b) breaking something else.
My next job is the lower oil pan, since I (and previous owner) stripped the drain bolt hole.
