It doesn't take that long to remove the valve covers and take a good look at the guides. They are some sort of dark brown plastic. The copper is hard to explain - the only pure copper I recall is the various crush washers. The bearings are laminated, I think you would see some whitish metal also.

The rod bearings are easy once you get the pita oil pan off. Assuming the N62 oil pan is as bad as M62 oil pan, then it's a ~20 hour job (in and out) to drop the oil pan. Yikes!

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David.X5
2001 X5 4.4i Sport
SOLD! at 160k miles