Thanks for sharing this fix; I did it on my X5 yesterday. One thing I did differently was adding an intermediate catch bucket in front of the vacuum; took an old (but clean) plastic bucket and cut a hole in the top big enough for the vinyl hose to fit into tightly, then cut another hole in the top large enough to fit the crevice tool that came with the shop vac. Then just hooked the vacuum hose up to the crevice tool wedged firmly in the top, and the vinyl hose to the CCV hose that connects to the front end of the valve cover. The bucket caught most of the slimy sludge; I didn't want to have that gumming up the flexible hose on my shop vac. Worked pretty well.

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2001 X5 Sport 3.0/5-speed
1998 318ti/5-speed
1988 735i/5-speed
1984 528e/5-speed (soon to be M20B25-powered 525i!)