Valve Cover Help

[TrickerZ]

I had a leaky valve cover gasket and the paint is peeling and looking like crap, so I decided to just pull both covers, polish them and reinstall with new gaskets.

My first question is, wouldn't it be easier to just remove the fuel rail instead of messing with the injector clips? They're nearly impossible to get at! That would clear up a lot of room for reinstall. I don't know what BMW was thinking making those wiring boxes. A loom would have been 10x cheaper and easier to work with.

Second, I can't find anywhere that shows how to get at the VC on the left (driver's) side on the X5. It seems like there's a lot of stuff in the way for reinstall. What do you do about the cable going over the valve cover? And what's this little hard plastic hose that goes over the valve cover right next to the cable? It pulled out from somewhere underneath and I can't figure out what it is. The other end was open to air and I'm not sure if it's supposed to be. How do you work past the hoses in the back on reinstall?

While I was doing this, I also found that the PCV hoses were rotted pretty bad, so I'm replacing those. I can't seem to find info for replacing that for the 4.4, only the 3.0. I figure while I'm there, I might as well upgrade to the better, less likely to freeze PCV.

I was happy to see that the internals were very good looking. Makes me a little less bitter about buying the X.

[Luke]

Soon you will be an expert with those clips! I ended up removing the the electrical box top and popping out the plastic connectors to give me a little more room. I think I could do it now without removing electrical box top.

The cable will pull out a little from under the intake. Give it slack form the other end ( the battery cable that you unbolted). Push it under the intake to give you slack to pull from the other end.

The water hoses should be able to be pushed out of the way. You will need to undo a clip that get in the way. I think it helps guide the hoses.

I did not need to unhook any water hoses..


Hard plastic hose is the differential vent hose.

Good luck. I used aircraft paint remover to get the old paint off. That stuff is lethal!

[jst2878]

the second time I had to remove pull those clips it took about 10 minutes. the first time was around two hours. have a flashlight handy and a bent pic tool

[TrickerZ]

I think I'm going to have to break down and get one of those pick tools. I made one with a long screwdriver and no matter what way I try to get in there, there's something preventing me from getting at it. Bets on whether I find the clip that went flying? I'm also only 5'6" which makes it a pain to get at the ones in the back.

Thanks for the input guys!