PLEASE HELP - Coolant transfer pipe in valley pan or head gasket? (with pic)

[Bulk]

So this is our only car so I want to get it fixed up before my number 2 baby comes along (in 2 weeks). So I've been going through significant amounts of coolant recently and I have even had pools of it every now and again under the car. I'm thinking it is the transfer pipe that runs under the intake manifold (common problem on these vehicles). There is 200K KM or 125K Miles on the clock so it's well overdue to have this problem.

I took a few things apart and once I got the throttle body off noticed a green smearing within the intake manifold. Is this normal if the transfer pipe goes or is it more likely a head gasket?

I should also say that the oil doesn't have that milky look to it and I don't have any misfire or rough running issues that I know of, I also replaced all of the valve cover gaskets and PCV valves recently and I don't have the blue smoke at extended idle issue so I think my vacuum inside the covers is good. There also doesn't seem to be any green tinge within the PCV pipes

[David.X5]

I have not done this on the n62, but have fixed it on my m62.

I had the cross over pipe leakage on my 01 4.4. With the engine acoustic cover off, I could see it dripping using an inspection mirror and a flashlight. I removed the water pump and intake. I replaced the pipes and seals at both ends. Online dealer prices for these parts are not bad for the m62.

There should not be a path for that leak to get into the intake unless the intake seals are also bad. Intake seals are real easy compared to head gasket, but I would have guessed that intake leak strong enough to suck coolant from the outside would also be an "unmetered air leak" which would have caused some error codes or at least rough idle.

[Bulk]

Thanks David, no pinpointed leak spot that I can see, I don't have access to a mirror but from everything that I can see it looks like it is coming out of the back left hand side of the engine and running down the heat shielding as I can see it green on the underside of the belly pan in that back left quadrant. I will order a new URO collapsable pipe if that is the general consensus and hope that it isn't a head gasket.

Although I don't seem to be getting any coolant leaking into the oil just externally

[garrett.fell]

I recently had coolant-drippage from the rear of the engine on my N62. In my case it was leaking from a few spots around the perimeter of the valley-pan. See - the gasket is shot!!






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[David.X5]

File this in the category of improbably answers -

The M62 BMW coolant is dyed blue here (USA) - do you know if you have blue or green coolant?

I'm still puzzled how leaking coolant from the cross over pipe or the valley pan gasket gets into the intake. If that really is coolant, you have a second problem that is not obvious yet.

Are you the original owner? Is it possible someone added green fluorescent dye to the engine oil at some point to trace an oil leak? If so, what you are seeing in the intake would be that dye. Of course, someone could have added green dye to the coolant for similar reasons (then the coolant in the reservoir would be fluorescent as well).

If you happen to have a UV light for leak checking, you could tell if it was green-flourescent dye or just green coolant.

[Bulk]

Yeah david coolant here is green, that's a possibility but I don't remember seeing it previously when I've had the throttle body off. I've had it for 2 1/2 years...