N62 head gasket oil leak

[X53Jay4.8is]

Whats the black hose that appears to be protected by the heat shield? If its some type of vacuum hose or air circulation hose then its possible that oil blowback could be in the hose and is leaking out on your head. I just can't believe that your N62 has a failed head gasket. Typically it would show itself in other ways. Get the intake gasket taken cared of and any other vacuum/air circulation hoses. Then re-clean the engine down and see if anything else persists from a leak perspective.

[collinja]

It actually is not a hose but a wire loom which appears to connect to the starter. It may be easier to see in the first picture below.

The 2nd picture is of the same heat shield just below the outer rear of the head looking in from behind the front tire of the passenger side. I cleaned it all up last evening, just had to merely wipe it with a rag. After driving about 50 miles today this is what it looks like. Appears most of the oil just slides off of it onto the belly pan/reinforcement plate.

[SeanC]

Get your fingers in between the strut tower and the valve cover. Feel along the valve cover gasket mating surface. Dry or not?

The pictures are only telling me that the leak is not from the back of the valve cover. Not necessarily from the head gasket either.

[collinja]

I felt all along the valve cover/gasket and as much as I would like to find oil, it was dry. I ran along the length of the valve cover with the mirror also and didn't see any signs of leakage.

[collinja]

UPDATE- I got the X5 into an indy shop today that only services BMWs. They quickly diagnosed the issue as valve guide seals. They said that hadn't seen that many that had a visible external leak coming from the exhaust manifold. This diagnosis definitely seems to be more in line with the typical issues seen with N62s with this mileage. Unfortunately, though still a spendy fix ($4300).

[X53Jay4.8is]

Originally Posted by collinja

UPDATE- I got the X5 into an indy shop today that only services BMWs. They quickly diagnosed the issue as valve guide seals. They said that hadn't seen that many that had a visible external leak coming from the exhaust manifold. This diagnosis definitely seems to be more in line with the typical issues seen with N62s with this mileage. Unfortunately, though still a spendy fix ($4300).

I call BS. How did they come to the conclusion that you need valve seals to control a tiny leak. Valve seals are down deep in the engine. Now if your X5 is smoking, tiny clouds of smoke then yes indeed you may need valve seals which is characteristic of the N62 engine. I would imagine that you have a breather hose that has too much oil in it that is causing the leak.

[collinja]

Yes, valve stem seals. Valve stem seals is the term I'm used to using but it seems many folks are also using valve guide seals interchangeably and that the term they used on my estimate. It's definitely losing/burning a bit of oil.....about a quart every 600-700 miles depending on the type of driving.

X53Jay4.8is it is definitely smoking a lot once it has warmed up and following a long idle at a stoplight or stop/go traffic. Can you enlighten me some more on the breather hose contributing to this? The breather hoses I am aware of are at the front of the engine, so am not sure how they are contributing to the leak at the rear.

[X5only]

Originally Posted by collinja

Yes, valve stem seals. Valve stem seals is the term I'm used to using but it seems many folks are also using valve guide seals interchangeably and that the term they used on my estimate. It's definitely losing/burning a bit of oil.....about a quart every 600-700 miles depending on the type of driving.

X53Jay4.8is it is definitely smoking a lot once it has warmed up and following a long idle at a stoplight or stop/go traffic. Can you enlighten me some more on the breather hose contributing to this? The breather hoses I am aware of are at the front of the engine, so am not sure how they are contributing to the leak at the rear.

When did the smoking start, before or after the repairs you mentioned in post #1?

[SeanC]

You mean valve stem seals? If so, that means the oil makes it through the combustion chamber without getting burned before making it out of the exhaust manifold gaskets. I wonder what the inside of your cylinders looks like. You must be losing oil like a whore sweating in a church.

Difficult to believe.

[X53Jay4.8is]

So you do have puffs of smoke and oil burning. Then you have to do valve seals. When they go in to do the valve seals just change all of the rubber hoses, vacuum ones and plastic breather hoses. Might as well do new cooling hoses also.