Valve Cover Gasket Installation?????

[Multibeemer]

Well, after walking away from the project and clearing my head for a little while, I saw that I could gain access to the clips from some other angles than I was approaching them initially, and I managed to get the front three loose! The one closest to the firewall - not a chance! So, I doused it in tri-flow, gave it a little tug, and it came free! So, my three-day-long struggle is almost over, as the rest of the jof has gone relatively smoothly so far. I'll do a detailed write-up of my experience with this very challenging job, so maybe it can help someone in the future.

One glitch - I lost one of the clips. It went flying as I yanked it loose, and it's vanished. It's not in the cam area, so I don't think it's in a dangerous spot, but it has definitely disappeared. Unfortunately, it's apparently no longer available as a separate part, but my local dealer is trying to locate one. Film at 11...

[fast4d]

I'm getting PTSD reading this thread. hopefully the car will burn to the ground before I have to do this (or valley pan) again.

[HPIA4v2]

Originally Posted by Multibeemer

Well, after walking away from the project and clearing my head for a little while, I saw that I could gain access to the clips from some other angles than I was approaching them initially, and I managed to get the front three loose! The one closest to the firewall - not a chance! So, I doused it in tri-flow, gave it a little tug, and it came free! So, my three-day-long struggle is almost over, as the rest of the jof has gone relatively smoothly so far. I'll do a detailed write-up of my experience with this very challenging job, so maybe it can help someone in the future.

One glitch - I lost one of the clips. It went flying as I yanked it loose, and it's vanished. It's not in the cam area, so I don't think it's in a dangerous spot, but it has definitely disappeared. Unfortunately, it's apparently no longer available as a separate part, but my local dealer is trying to locate one. Film at 11...

Good job there multibeemer.

A couple of folks at e38.org even never installed those clips back on, there are 2 screws holding the electrical box, I guess. Not I am suggesting to go without but those guys been running their 740i fine for a couple of years now; in case the dealer can't locate the clips for ya.

[Multibeemer]

HPIA4v2,

You kind of answered my question, which is, what if the BMW dealer can't locate a spare clip? Given that the box would be held in place with three clips with a very tenacious hold on the box, it seems to me that leaving one off would be very low risk. Any thoughts/opinions on this? My only other opition would be trying to fabricate a duplicate on my own.

The moral - be very careful when removing these clips. Not only are they in a very difficult spot to access, there are lots of nooks and crannies for them to fall into once you get them loose, and they're NLA!

Another question. On the passenger side, after I had finished installing the new gasket (without having to removed the dreaded wire box - I'll explain how in another thread), I realized I had forgotten to coat the new gasket with glycerin like the instructions say. How big of an issue do you guys think this is? I imagine the problem this might cause is that the gaskets could be very difficult to remove in the future. Now that I've done the job, I think I could re-do the passenger side in 2-3 hours, so it isn't a big deal if I end up having to do that, especially since I don't have to deal with the wretched clips on that side. My question is, how urgent is it to go back in there and coat the passenger side gaskets with glycerin? Or is it not a big enough deal to worry about? Thanks.

[ralphy4321]

Originally Posted by Multibeemer

HPIA4v2,

You kind of answered my question, which is, what if the BMW dealer can't locate a spare clip? Given that the box would be held in place with three clips with a very tenacious hold on the box, it seems to me that leaving one off would be very low risk. Any thoughts/opinions on this? My only other opition would be trying to fabricate a duplicate on my own.

The moral - be very careful when removing these clips. Not only are they in a very difficult spot to access, there are lots of nooks and crannies for them to fall into once you get them loose, and they're NLA!

Another question. On the passenger side, after I had finished installing the new gasket (without having to removed the dreaded wire box - I'll explain how in another thread), I realized I had forgotten to coat the new gasket with glycerin like the instructions say. How big of an issue do you guys think this is? I imagine the problem this might cause is that the gaskets could be very difficult to remove in the future. Now that I've done the job, I think I could re-do the passenger side in 2-3 hours, so it isn't a big deal if I end up having to do that, especially since I don't have to deal with the wretched clips on that side. My question is, how urgent is it to go back in there and coat the passenger side gaskets with glycerin? Or is it not a big enough deal to worry about? Thanks.

How long approcimately a project like this takes?

[Multibeemer]

I'm going to start a new thread detailing my experience, but between researching the job, getting stuck trying to remove the clips, driving around to find just the right type of pick, and actually being hunched over the engine doing physical work, I'd say I have at least 12 hours of work into it so far, and I'm not yet finished. But like any difficult project, if I had it to do over, I bet I could knock it out in 1/4 the time.

As far as my question of the criticality of the glycerin, I replaced the valve cover gasket on my daughter's 04 325i back in July, without coating the gasket with anything (the youtube video didn't mention anything about it). Since this job was about 1/100,000,000,000,000,000th as complicated as the job on the X5 V8 (you guys with sixes have no idea how good you have it...), I think I'll yank the valve cover off this car and see how the gasket is faring without the glycerin. If it's already stuck pretty tight, I'll do the X5 passenger side over and add the glycerin sooner rather than later. If is comes of easily and is still nice and supple, I'll wait till I've recovered from the X5 job, after all the physical and emotional scars have healed...

[m5james]

Originally Posted by milesz

Oh, how I wished you had made a video of the entire process. I have the Bentley Service Manual but its not that clear to me. Please, the next time you preform this and similar repairs, please shoot a video and post it for all to learn.

Thank in advance

Becuase it's probably more inconvenient to have someone stand over them while doing this job, and w/ the already suggested www.e38 .org, you should be able to figure it out, or else maybe this job is beyond your skill level. You're making this harder than it has to be...just start taking things apart, it's quite an easy job in relation to other regular maintenance items.

[Multibeemer]

Originally Posted by m5james

You're making this harder than it has to be...just start taking things apart, it's quite an easy job in relation to other regular maintenance items.

Whoa

I'd be interested to hear what you consider a difficult job

[m5james]

I'm guessing it's been about a year now, but I did a full 6spd conversion on my 740iL and sold my automatic transmission to a customer who's auto had failed....roughly 8hrs later (removal of mine, removal of his, installation of his) and he was back on the road again. About 4 years before that I swapped the engine out in my 7 as well. Just yesterday I did another VC change on a customers car, took about an hour or so. VC's are pretty straight forward though, you're going to hate life when you have to do the valley pan gasket It does get easier w/ experience though Honestly, once you're in there and taking things apart while looking at the pics on www.e38.org, you'll be able to make it work...have faith!

[papasmurf]

I did mine, what a huge PITA. Took me about 10 hours with me cursing the whole time.