E70 Valve stems seals and engine rebuild - done right
 

Hello everybody....I just wanted to share my experience about getting valve seals done on E70. I bought my 2008 X5 4.8I about 18 months ago with 90K. Staring this summer the car started to show symptoms of valve seals failing – excessive oil consumption and severe smoking from the tail pipe after few minutes of idle. I knew that I have a serious problem but was terrified to find out how much it going to cost me $$$. I've seen many posts about the common valve stem seal issue with the N62 and N62TU engine.

Dealer wanted about 11K and Most INDI shops can’t do this job right. I knew about an INDI BMW master tech located in Long Island, NY that does the job for about ~$2500 BUT just changing seal valves would not be right fix BECAUSE if you don’t put new valves / gaskets / water pipe / all bolts and machine shop rebuild cylinder heads you are doing a TEMPERATELY fix.

Luckily I been going to same INDI shop for last 3 years with my E63 and now X5. After speaking with Mike - shop owner and master mechanic he agreed to do full job for about $4200. I was super happy to get this price!!!

Fast-forward to now – Car was in the shop for about 9 business days. I got it back and drove it for about 500 miles. Not a single problem. Engine sound like a brand new and pulls Hard! I love it !!! I feel very confident that my car is good for another 100K miles.

Take a look at the pictures attached and ask any questions you got about rebuild.

If you need your valve seals done go to see Mike – MP Motorsports / 347-725-4228. Shop located at Queens NY.

Getting valve seals done right is no longer an impossible task but still somewhat expensive … LOL


Cheers mates : )

Sounds like a good experience. Well done. What were the symptoms you were having? I've got 115k on mine.

Wow thats a big job indeed. Good time to put headers on it (if they are available).

Symptoms of valve seals failing – excessive oil consumption and severe smoking from the tail pipe after few minutes of idle. I will post a video when I find it.

Perfect time to put new headers if you got them :)

Nice to see that there are some quality technicians out there still! Looks like an excellent job! PS: Nice X BTW

With all due respect, hogwash! You don't need to pull heads to fix valve stem seals. And, failed valve stems seals does not mean there are other issues with head or other components.

Davidf - why would you not rebuild the heads if you already doing the valve stem seals ? If you already investing this much money in the engine rebuild I thing its very appropriate (unless you want to fix just enough to sell the car)

Because simply replacing the seals is usually all the head needs. I proved this to myself after replacing the seals on my 545i. New seals solved the oil consumption issue and the plugged secondary air port issue (not applicable to newer V8).

With AGA's tool, the seals can be replaced without removing the heads. Time and money saved. And a DIY task. The smarter choice in my mind. I,suppose it is possible that excessive guide wear could be an issue; but, not the case on my car with 125k at time of seal replacement. BMW provides a spec on determining allowable guide wear by measuring side to side movement at the top of the valve stem.

I was about to say the same. it looks like 'make work' to me. We used to hold the valves up with compressed air while changing seals in the 'old days'

Another reason I would want to avoid pulling the heads is the real risk of pulling the head bolt threads in the aluminum block when you torque the new bolts down. If it was me, I would Time-Sert the block before re-installing the heads.

Some people asked me why I had to touch cylinder heads - Reason for rebuilding cylinder heads is because valve guides were worn and thus by just changing the seals the problem would re surface in the near future ��

Worn valve guides at 100k! I would be worried there are other issues that will surface with your engine as it seems to me it was not well cared for. Out of tolerance valve guide wear at that mileage is unusual. I hope you got the real story from the service department/shop.

Most others wont need to go to your extreme to fix valve stem seal issues and, it will still be "done right".

Davidf did you replace the coolant valley pipe too? Since you already in there? Good job bro

Yes, replaced with AGA pipe.

I must be really old, I've used oiled up cotton clothesline. With piston at BDC, feed as much oiled cotton clothesline into the cylinder as you can, rotate up toward TDC and compress the line. Service stemseals. Remove rope, do next cyl.

Ah now you are bringing back memories! I used to do that before I had a compressor.

I doubt BMW techs would have greasy clothes line in their tool boxes :-)

Think white/bluish smoke on start up
 

Hey guys,

Just thought I would confirm before we launched into fixing Valve Stem Seals via the AGA tool on a N62tu.

My car with 110000kms only blows (large amounts) of thick white/blue smoke on start up. It does this 4/5 times the car is started, and it doesnt matter if it has been sitting for 5 min or overnight.

The plum of smoke is the same as the videos I have watched of other n62tu's with the valve stem problem - but they have the smoke after IDLE. We do not have any problems with smoke after idle.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Haha. I have done it that way more than once.

Also remember putting a piece of oil soaked leather belt in place of a spun main bearing to make a last run for the finals. (And using a tie wrap to hold up my pants.) Believe it or not, the car got down the track and we drove it home front the track.


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I plan on dropping the engine out early next year.
Only planning on doing valve seals and all external seals and gaskets, no head job intended for now.

Thanks for the pics.

I am looking at taking engine out to do the valve seals (using AGA Tool) because we have some pretty major looking external oil leaks - so fix them all at once...

Any one have a times guide for taking out engine in an E70 x5?