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  #51  
Old 03-20-2021, 04:06 PM
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Originally Posted by absolutezero273c View Post
Or the people that buy a used BMW and don't even know you are supposed to maintain it...
What an adventure......
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  #52  
Old 03-20-2021, 08:40 PM
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CAPTAIN'S LOG DEC 14/2020:

The weather unexpectedly warmed up which caught me off guard. I quickly checked the forecast for the next week and it was calling for a mix of snow and rain most days so I scrambled to take advantage of non freezing temperatures.

It was much later in the day than I like to get started on any project but since it was only a valve cover gasket I figured why not.

Besides I've been meaning to try out my new under hood flashlight anyway which resulted in this pretty sweet picture





The usual results of not doing regular oil changes...As per BMWs suggestion





I spent some time trying to clean out the mayo out of the valve cover and whatever I could from the cylinder head and once I got to a point where I was satisfied with my clean to cold hands ratio I put the valve cover back on and called it a night. I'll give the RTV some time to cure.








The gasket I replaced was in the typical stiff as plastic condition and was leaking oil at the usual spot by the vanos. Leaking oil means there's a good chance some other part of the gasket was possibly a source of the vacuum leaks so I was feeling hopeful this might be the root cause of all the problems.

Last edited by c-bass; 03-20-2021 at 08:46 PM.
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  #53  
Old 03-22-2021, 09:33 AM
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the misfiring when hot does sound a lot like a vacuum leak like you said. Are there any other rubber intake or vacuum hoses that haven't been inspected yet?
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  #54  
Old 03-23-2021, 01:58 PM
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Originally Posted by guntherrex View Post
the misfiring when hot does sound a lot like a vacuum leak like you said. Are there any other rubber intake or vacuum hoses that haven't been inspected yet?
To this point I don't think I missed any and I swapped a few things out just in case it was something not visible to the eye.
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  #55  
Old 03-24-2021, 10:08 AM
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*** TEST DRIVE TIME ***


Feeling pretty optimistic it was a valve cover gasket causing these issues it was time to test that theory.

I put it through the usual routine of idling, fast, slow etc etc and it seemed to be behaving.

Once again I brought in the big guns and had the Mrs. do some of her errands to put it through its paces.

She comes back a couple hours later aaaaaaaaaaaand????

STILL MISFIRING AT IDLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was somewhere around this time that "Black Bastard" officially earned his name , I met my breaking point and gave up.
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  #56  
Old 03-24-2021, 12:07 PM
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I'm not sure how much time went by but enough for me to stop being a little bitch and curiosity getting the best of me that I needed to approach this again.

Back to the drawing board I just couldn't quite understand how is it that a specific cylinder could misfire if the coil and plug were replaced.

What else could affect the ignition? Fuel? Is this an injector thing??

I spent some time kicking ideas around and this was my train of thought:

I'm getting lean error codes, which to me means not enough fuel vs rich being too much fuel. If I wasn't getting enough fuel because that injector was clogged or not working properly then a simple on/off ignition cycle wouldn't magically unclog it right? Remember if I don't stop and idle (or rev the engine while I'm standing still) the misfire doesn't happen, so if the injector was bad I doubt I would be able to pull off a trick like this and drive 100km.

So I'm back to the lean by vacuum route

Let's say that we do have a vacuum leak. How the hell would it only affect cylinder 2 and 6???

If it was something leaking in the CCV, gasket or a rubber hose somewhere along the line how could that specifically affect cylinder 2 and 6 and not the rest? Shouldn't I get misfires across all cylinders randomly vs 2 and 6, 2 and 6, 2 and 6?

This lead me to the realization that I'm wasting my time with these deep thoughts and is a perfect example of why you should first.....

SMOKE TEST!!!

Ok enough screwing around it's time to get our smoke on. The only reason I didn't do this before is I didn't have any means to perform a smoke test. I looked around at the available options and the cheapest "tool" I saw out there was something looking like a paint can for $80....Pass, the next up was $200 but looked more legit...also Pass. I might set this black bastard on fire so let's keep it cheap.

Taking a look at the DIY options we have the cigar smoke method coming in at the cheapest but since I'm not stuck in the Amazon we'll class it up a little bit.


I had a soldering iron that did a pretty shitty job and I very rarely used so that became my heating element. I bought a pack of 3/8" vinyl tubing (I think it was 10feet) from the hardware store. At the Dollar tree I bought a glass jar with a metal lid, cotton T-shirt and a couple bottles of baby oil.

I took a plastic BIC pen and cut it in half. I drilled a hole in the middle and fixed the soldering iron from the under side with a couple of screws that were used to attach the handle to the heating element.

On either side of the soldering iron I drilled a hole and put half of the pen in each one. One of these will attach to the tubing and the other to my air source (Which will be a bike tire pump).

The T-shirt will be my wick which I will soak in the baby oil to create the smoke.

I'll use a rubber glove with a cut off finger to attach to my intake boot and blow the smoke in there.

At least that's the plan













SMOKE TEST ROUND 1

While I was assembling my test rig quickly I didn't think much of it at the time but I used hot glue to hold everything together. Hot glue + soldering iron + metal lid = stupid

The heat from the soldering iron was just enough to loosen up the glue so that when I pushed the bike pump the air pressure would bubble through the hot glue like chili in a pot.

I pumped for a bit like this and didn't see any smoke coming from the engine so I decided to regroup.

SMOKE TEST ROUND 2

After cleaning off all the hot glue and using 2 part epoxy like a real man we're ready to go again.

The cotton T-shirt I was using was burned from the soldering iron so I SOAKED it in baby oil this time around.

I waited until the jar was thick with smoke and started pumping...

10 pumps in I'm not seeing anything from the engine but it's also not coming out of the jar.

I kept pumping for another 10 seconds or so and thought I saw a little wisp of smoke coming from the back.

I don't know if I was seeing things or not but either way by the time I got to investigate nothing was to be found.

Also seeing as this is my first time injecting smoke into an engine I wasn't sure how much is too much so I decided to take it easy.

Well not no mo!

Pump p-p pump pump it up!!!! (Joe budden music starts to play)

While pumping I kept my eyes GLUED to the area I thought I saw some smoke and before long

SMOKE!!!!!!!! I SEE SMOKE!!!!!!!!!

SUCCESS!!! or rather CONFIRMED FAILURE!!!
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  #57  
Old 03-24-2021, 12:25 PM
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Smoke mach... errrr well smoke. Now we're talking.

Well? You're leaving us in suspense. Where did the smoke emanate from?
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  #58  
Old 03-24-2021, 01:18 PM
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Originally Posted by crystalworks View Post
Smoke mach... errrr well smoke. Now we're talking.

Well? You're leaving us in suspense. Where did the smoke emanate from?

I see nothing wrong with my car bong! A vastly superior design to the paint can I say

and of course I'm leaving you in suspense. This is the part where you're supposed to guess where the smoke came from while I sort out my next post.
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  #59  
Old 03-24-2021, 01:21 PM
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Originally Posted by c-bass View Post
and of course I'm leaving you in suspense. This is the part where you're supposed to guess where the smoke came from while I sort out my next post.
Fair enough. My likely culprits... lower oil dipstick tube o-ring, vacuum line on back of intake manifold that goes to the SAP valve. The block off cap for the vacuum port adjacent to the SAP valve vacuum line on back of intake manifold.

Those are my guesses. I wait anxiously for the next exciting installment of the adventures of Black Bastard.
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2005 X5 4.4i Build 04/05 Maintenance/Build Log
Nav, Pano, Sport (Purchased 06/14 w/ 109,000 miles) (Sold 8/15 w/121,000 miles)


2006 X5 4.8is Build 11/05 Maintenance/Build Log
Nav, DSP, Pano, Running Boards, OEM Tow Hitch, Cold Weather Pckg (Purchased 08/15 w/ 90,500 miles)

2010 X5 35d Build 02/10
Nav, HiFi, 6 DVD, Sports Pckg, Cold Weather Pckg, HUD, CAS, Running Boards, Leather Dash, PDC, Pano (Purchased 03/17 w/ 136,120 miles)
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  #60  
Old 03-24-2021, 01:36 PM
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The duct tape holding together the #6 intake runner warms up and starts to fall off. . . you said guess. . .
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