Surprisingly not at all. One piston had a little bit of a vavle stamp on it. But cleaned it all up and looked like new still. I think these sodium filled (poppet)valves are probably fairly soft at the stem. It likely saved major piston damage. I just shook my head the entire time why someone continued to drive even though the chain ate through the front cover. Would I do it all again? No. Lol

70,000km later at 331,000km still redlining all day long though.

Was that a 4.4 or a 4.6 frank?

I think the longer stroke on a 4.6 would not be as friendly lol

Either way love some gnarly pics!

I have a 4.4, found a couple more old pics on my phone from when I bought her.

x5 bent valves

Well I removed the intake and found more issues The CCV cap and diaphragm is completely missing and the oil separator drain is dry rotted.
Can the oil separator be cleaned out and reused? Does anyone know the best place to by the CCV ?
Should I replace the Knock sensors while I am in there or do they go bad that often?

Do it all while your there. I would. Goodluck mate, Please Add more pictures with your update. :) Thanks

I would definitely change the knock sensors on this vehicle after seeing the neglect imposed on this X5's motor. I assume this vehicle also has high mileage? You have this engine ripped all the way down you do not want to put it back together and then find out that you have a bad knock sensor. With 4 in the engine one is bound to go.

BimmerM3inGA , Do you remember how you removed the D/S exhaust manifold. I could not reach the nuts for the manifold so I took the two nuts off the manifold/exhaust pipe junction thinking I could lift the head off with the manifold. No such luck. I had too rotate the head as much as possible to access the manifold nuts, only then was I able to remove the head. I do not want too put it back in that way because I will most likely damage the new head gasket. Do you have any suggestions ?

Definatley attach the exhaust manifold to the head first and lift it onto the block that way. When lifting a helper would be handy but I managed to do it myself that way.

swissfrank , It appeared that the motor mount was in the way from me being able to remove it. Did it cause a problem for you?