Valve Cover Removal

Wow It's frightening this amount of oil ! There is, for me, an only way for the oil, this is the gasket or May be your covers are porous, this the problem with this metal with the years the magnesium become porous.
I can't imagine this oil come from the spark plug hole LOL

2) Don't use acid on magnesium if you do that you will damage the cover,
You can use an usual paint remover for metal, use a paintbrush to put the paint remover ( a coat of 2/3 mm) after put your cover in a plastic bag for 24hours
8er.org/forum/index.php?attachment/22665/

After take a wire brush to remove the paint, if needed use one more time the paint remover and polish them.

Just before the paint use brake cleaner to digrease the covers.

That much oil can be expected if the plugs haven't been changed for a long time - or the PCV valve is clogged-up (as that will produce positive crankcase pressure). FBMWSH is no guarantee that the plugs have been changed for years either! Also, that oil looks black, it's either been in the valve cover a long time or in the engine a long time - neither points to judicious servicing.

Honnestly I don't think you have porous cover so much so that the oil get through, Timm is right when he speak about the black oil, this an oil accumulation years after years of the leaking gasket.
I guess the last owner never change the spark plug.

Sorry I didn't mean to alarm you - I've had 6 V8's and every one has looked more-or-less the same give or take a few cc's of oil around the plugs. The last one looked just like your picture and it is a very healthy engine, nothing to worry about at all. The chain tensioner is a good idea, always better to be safe than sorry and all that. As you have had a lot of oil sitting around the HT boots, if you can afford it I would change the contaminated boots for new OEM ones - around £10 each but make sure you get the right ones (Bosch/Bremi):

http://www.cooper-bmw-parts.co…age&option=com_virtuemart

The advice about replacing the spark-plug rubber connectors is good, as your existing ones will alsmost certainly have been damaged. In my view, the oil comes from two places: 1. improperly tightened spark plugs and 2. the rubber seal around the centre of the cam-cover. When I did mine, i used loctite, grey, 5699 silicone sealant all the way around the rubber seals -on both sides - as well as the 'half-moon' area. No new oil leak yet. Also, I ended-up just buying new cam-covers, as the magnesium on the old ones was powerdery and flaky and the new covers were not that expensive.

8er.org/forum/index.php?attachment/22732/

of course, whilst you're at it, you may wish to go further than just the valve covers:

8er.org/forum/index.php?attachment/22733/

It is a real back-buster on the V8, it's not a job I fancy doing again. I didn't use sealant but I did use silicone grease to help stick the gaskets in position and stop them folding when fitting the manifold.

Zitat von IvanT;112293

...did you fit the covers back while it was still 'wet', or did you let it cure first? My concern is the lack of space and having to manoeuvre a bit to get the covers in place. I don't want sealant all over the place.

Regards,

Ivan

I found that the Loctite starts to cure pretty quickly, so as soon as I maganed to cover all the surfaces (rubber gasket top and bottom), I put it all back together as fast as possible. I do appreciate that with limited room for manouvre, it could end up being messy. (Probably better to apply to the engine part rather than the cover part.) I don't know if it is entirely necessary to cover all the contact surfaces, but if you look closely at one of my pictures, you'll see what appears to be remnants of black silicone sealant on the cylinder head, ex-factory, and not just on the round recesses. Incidentally, I ordered new rubber Dowty washers, spacer-tubes and bolts, but found that the latter actually came comple with the rubber washers.

I do know that before I started the job, that the car has a poor idle, took an extended cranking time to start and the engine would die when approaching traffic junctions etc. It didn't take much more effort to do the rest, which included:

replacing belts and tensioner pulleys

replacing water pump, thermostat and seals

Replaced radiator (totally corroded)

replacing PCV valve assembly.

Replacing 2 rubber caps and two vacuum hoses (deteriorated, cracked)

Clean-out intake manifold and breather tube (full of oily deposits)

replacing breather-tube O-ring seals

replacing manifold gaskets

replacing injector O-rings

cleaning throttle valve assembly (sticky)

repairing, heat-damaged, outer insulation sleave of the battery cable running though engine V

Repainting various pulleys, oil-dip-stick tube and battery cable conduit.

The transformation in terms of how the engine runs now compared to before is like the difference between day and night. The engine is now very responsive and idles very nicely.

Hi Ivan,

don't worry about that, you will have the new gaskets(11121437395) in this place, it is important to change the rubber gasket for each hole.
I you are scare about that, you can remove the paint just around the hole with a little flat screwdriver.

It's hard to say, may be for the whistling sound an air inlet it seems to comming from the front of the engine bay.
Is the idle is rough?

I can only hear hissing and what sounds like a tired bearing on one of the ancillaries (pulleys, alternator. compressor or steering pump) - but the sound on the video is not good enough to make an informed conclusion. What I would say though is that you should re-fit the acoustic covers and re-assess the noise. The V8's sound tappy, hissy and growly with the covers off.

Try removing the oil filler cap with the engine running and see if the whistle stops. The valve covers are under the same reduced pressure/vacuum as the crank case and you may be hearing a vacuum leak.