I have a valley pan/cover leak on my 02 x5 4.4 with 83k miles. A dealer and an independent shop both quoted me $1200 (12 hours) to do the job. I've read that this job is about 6 hours on a 5 or 7 series. is this due to space issues?

I plan to tackle this job myself. are there any tips to make the job easier?

Thanks.