Valve Cover Gasket Sealant or Not?
 

Hi everyone,

My 01' 3.0i X has been leaking oil from upper front area for quite a while. Nothing major, but I decided to give it some loving, so I bought the complete gasket set including 3 spark plug gaskets and 15 rubber seals from Bavauto.com. My question is, do I need to buy gasket sealant? And where to apply it? Apply how much?

I've been doing homework on our forum and bimmerfest forum as well. Interesting thing is I got different opinions, I saw people applying on every corner, while someone else doesn't apply at all. :dunno: and to be honest, I really don't know which is correct. So anybody who is experienced with this, your kind help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for your help in advance!

Only need some sealant on the corners of the Vanos area.

Probably about a couple 3" strips. Search the thread "spark plug and valve cover gasket 3.0 DIY" and there is a very detailed writeup about what to replace and how much sealant to use.

Thanks. I assume you're talking about this thread:

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ent-3-0-a.html

There's only 1 pic showing to apply some sealant, but I need some more details as to where and how much. Maybe I didn't find the right thread.

Thx.

I also find this thread:

Beisan Systems - Procedures - Double Vanos Procedure

And here's what I found about the locations of the sealant. Am I in the right direction? Thanks!

Nope you found the right thread. If you look closer in the picture you can see the gasket gel (its gray so hard to see), but its in the same spot as the orange in the pic above. And yes that pic is perfect, those are the locations it needs to be applied (small amount)

If you're doing the VCG already why not do the Vanos seals at the same time (same disassembly), how many miles on your 3.0? If above 100k I'd be doing both if I was you.

Well, I haven't given too much thought about that. Mine is 135K, and still running strong (knocking the woods), except for this minor oil leak. What do you recommend I should by gasket seal from? And what brand?

Is the vanos tend to fail at this stage? Thanks again for your valuable feedback!

I got it. Here's the detailed step-by-step DIY:

BMW DIY – Double VANOS Repair (Rebuild) on M52TU, M54 and M56 6-Cylinder | Bavarian Autosport Blog

Any symptom when the vanos seals ages?

Its not a "wake up and feel it" failure. But at your mileage, your seals are due for replacement, doing so should give you smoother idle, little more torque in the midrange, and the car should overall drive smoother.

If doing the VCG at your mileage, definitely something i recommend because literally the Vanos is RIGHT THERE, just a bit more time to do the R&R, and do the seals. Also, be sure to pick up the 15 grommet seals for the bolts on the valve cover, they are not included with the VCG kit, and are definitely needed in my opinion as those rubber pieces could leak if reused. And I don't think I need to tell you this, but go Genuine BMW on the VCG set, the non-BMW set is only a few bucks cheaper so its not much more to get the BMW gaskets.

besiansystems.com is where you want to get the vanos seals from, 60 bucks for the M54 motor. Make sure to buy their rubber soft grip vise jaw liners, you will definitely need them for the job.

They have an extremely good DIY instructions with pictures and tools needed, and explain aging vanos symptoms and the characteristics of the vanos.

I would use the sealer. I didn't and has some leaking, although sealing the outside after assembly solved the problem. Doesn't look the best, but nobody looks there, anyway.

I used permatex gasket maker for the applicable areas under the VCG. Make sure you do the front AND rear semi-circle portions.

As for the Vanos there's 2 parts to the repair, the seals and the sleeves. The seals are a cakewalk, but the sleeves involve taking the pistons apart and dealing with the components inside. It can be a bit hairy if you haven't done a repair such as this before...I'd highly recommend readin both proceedures thoroughly before diving in.

Lastly you only need the soft grip vise jaws for the sleeve replacement, not for the seal replacement.