M57 3.0d - oil everywhere and lots of white smoke

[AUSBMX]

Hi all,

Just broke down on the side of the road:

10 minutes into driving home (after a great day dirt biking!) with a small trailer and dirt bike on the back - I noticed a possible small decrease in power, then saw a huge plume of white smoke behind me and an odd noise from the engine, possibly turbo area. Immediately pulled over and saw oil everywhere in the engine bay. Looks like it may have come out from the valve cover gasket.

Disconnected the intake charge pipe after the intercooler from the intake, and heaps of oil was being blown out here (like your hand would immediately be covered in oil while car is running), also noticed a small pin hole in the rubber/silicone elbow piece which was squirting oily air out when connected and engine revved slightly.

I suspected the turbo oil seals have failed (also quite a bit of oil in the turbo region, but hard to see exactly where from), or the CCV was blocked somehow (have the vortex type). Anyway, I put my spare 1L of oil into the engine (bringing it close to full again) and then manged to limp the car home 45 mins / 60 km with the electrical connector of the turbo disconnected (seemed to minimize turbo air flow, guessing sets the variable vanes to a neutral position?) and the intake charge pipe disconnected, the smoke quickly cleared up as it was burnt from the intake and no more could be added as the charge pipe was off. No horrible engine noises thankfully. Also no engine lights at all funnily enough.

At home I did the dipstick test - while idling I pulled the dipstick, and got no oil squirting up (or any noticable airflow), so maybe the CCV is okay? There does seem a bit excessive blowby from the oil filler cap see video here: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...JQeHFrVUxKdVRB

I'm planning to investigate further tomorrow when there is some light, but hoping someone can point me in the direction of the likely culprit. I've got a laptop with ISTA+ too if that is any use in troubleshooting.

Car summary:
It's actually my E83 X3, however figured I'd post here as it's the M57 which is much more common on the X5 - and it's much more active here.

285,000 km, oil and filter change every 10,000 km it's whole life with full synthetic 5W-40 LL01 oil.

EGR system has been disabled (removed vacuum actuator connection, and blanked exhaust gas port into EGR cooler).

Generally been really reliable, I blanked the swirl flaps and cleaned the oil gunk from the intake when I bought it ~60,000 km ago. Always noticed a bit of oil sitting on the intake charge pipe, but figured it was pretty common, however maybe this little bit has built up and totally filled the intercooler and it hit a critical point today? Always been a bit of oil build up on the aluminium part of the charge pipe after the intercooler which I've been trying to figure out for some time, guess this little pin prick hole in the rubber section is to blame and may have been there a while.

Car doesn't really use much oil, maybe 1L in 10,000 km normally. I noticed it possibly used 0.5-1L of oil driving home with everything disconnected - maybe still pushing into the intake side of the turbo.

Always had a slight feeling the turbo didn't build pressure quite as well as my e53 X5 M57, but it would still hit ~1.4 BAR, or a little above 20 PSI with a decent bit of throttle (just viewed from the OBD2 reader).

Coolant temps were nominal, somewhere 80-90 the whole way home.

edit:Not sure if the valve cover gasket is the cause or symptom... But likely an overdue maintenance item here.

Any help welcome!