Valley Pan, or hopefully something else.

[SlickGT1]

85k miles

So I found a dab of blue on my beige tiles in the garage. Said shit to myself, and measured out where the drip came from.

Looks to be the back of the engine. Damn.
Opened the expansion tank, nearly empty. Damn.
Added water and coolant.
Pulled out the floor jack, got under it, the transmission case has some serious caking going on. The reinforcement plate, by the oil filter same shit. Looks like oil might be leaking from somewhere, but it could just be the crud being washed off. Oil level is fine.

I can clearly see that the leak is coming from the somewhere outside the transmission housing. So I am praying that it is not coming from the place in this vid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_gjFZJbAoE

Is there any other place that I can check, before concluding that the valey pan is the true culprit? I didn't have much time yesterday to look, I was going out, so did all this in a few min quickly.

Another thing to note. It almost seems to be a huge coincidence that this is hapening very shortly after I swapped all the front side coolant hoses, expansion tank tstat, the works. I did not replace just the backside heater core hoses, and I don't know why to be honest with you.

So my question, is it possible my 2 BAR cap is screwed up or something? Is it possible I messed something up during the expansion tank and hoses job?

Thanks all.

[TwinTurboGTR]

Replacing the coolant hoses up front is probably coincidental.

As for the leak... The cover in the vid is not likely to be your problem. 7 series are more prone to the failure from what I have heard and there have been very few E53's that have reported this problem. If you are scratching your head why, I don't know either. It might be due to the fact there are a lot more 7 series with the N62 than X's.

So it sounds like you most likely have a leak at the valley pan or the inlet pipe that sits in between the valley itself and the cover. The only way to visually inspect it thoroughly, is to remove the intake and look in between the valve cover and the valley to see any accumulation of coolant.

The replacement pipes can be obtained online as the collapsable style, but they are pricey, but weighing the outcome of labor, the extra money is well worth it. Just make sure you use sillicone paste on the o rings before reassembly.

This job will probably take you a good part of a day maybe two. You may also wanna think about replacing other various gaskets and o rings while in there.

[jcp240z]

Before you pull the intake pull the rear cowl piece and check the heater coolant hoses. I had a slight leak there that showed up at he rear of the engine. Really showed up when one hose blew during a high speed run. Fortunately no over heating problems, shout down within 5 sec.

[flatlander]

Did you bleed the coolant system of air after the coolant hose and expansion tank work? If not, air in the system can cause pressure spikes and burps or leaks elsewhere in the system afterward. On the backside of the V8 is a coolant manifold with two gaskets. There is also the valley pan drain area drain holes. These are the two spots that could be leaking from that area. I would use a mirror extension and look back at the rear coolant manifold gaskets and the valley pan drain holes for evidence of coolant leaks.

[SlickGT1]

Thanks all. I will reply with pics in a bit. I stuck my phone in there last night and managed to get some decent shots. Looks to be a decent amount of coolant passed through. I ordered a coolant pressure tester yesterday as well.

I actually looked at the receipts, I did the coolant hoses almost a year ago. And yes I bled the crap out of it, actually super easy to do on out cars, dont even have to start it up.

I agree that I need to take the cowl filter part off and really get up in there. I will try to do this tonight if I have time. At least it's only takes 5 min to remove.

I'll post some pics up when i get to a PC.

[SlickGT1]

Thanks all. I will reply with pics in a bit. I stuck my phone in there last night and managed to get some decent shots. Looks to be a decent amount of coolant passed through. I ordered a coolant pressure tester yesterday as well.

I actually looked at the receipts, I did the coolant hoses almost a year ago. And yes I bled the crap out of it, actually super easy to do on out cars, dont even have to start it up.

I agree that I need to take the cowl filter part off and really get up in there. I will try to do this tonight if I have time. At least it's only takes 5 min to remove.

I'll post some pics up when i get to a PC.

[J.Belknap]

Originally Posted by SlickGT1

I ordered a coolant pressure tester yesterday as well.

The right tools for the job. It could be that water connection, but you could just wait for the tester to come in before taking stuff apart.

[SlickGT1]

First Pic is my car. I got my phone in there and snapped this. This is looking down, you see the engine lift hook on the bottom pic, that is what you are looking at here. Notice the 2 wire looms, and look at the same location on the bottom pi. You see the steady stream of coolant. Now do you see that seriously shiny black part. That looks like oil. I can't reach this to touch it. And nothing seems to be leaking on that side. The driver side has some grime, and I am not really sure yet what that is all about.




Notice on this pic, the water connection. Is it possible that is what I am dealing with currently?

[SlickGT1]

Does anyone have any good DIY on removing the intake manifold. And probably something for the valve cover gaskets. N62 preferred, but will take M62 if you got it. Thanks.

[Brandon002]

Look on youtube, there is a very detailed DIY for the valve covers and front timing covers on an N62. I haven't searched for a how to on the intake R and R. I'm sure there is something on there.