Those who have done it, easy to replace the 93 325 valve cover gasket?

[BMWdriverwanted]

My 93 318 was a bear to wrench the back end in, what about a 325? Does it pretty much drop on/in or is there also hellish wiggling?

[flyfishvt]

Naaaahhhh its easy. One of the rear bolts is a bit of a tight fit getting a ratchet in there but it won't take long at all.

[King Hax]

Naaaahhhh its easy. One of the rear bolts is a bit of a tight fit getting a ratchet in there but it won't take long at all.

this is why flyfish is awesome. he knows things. lots of things.

[BMWdriverwanted]

Cool! I dont mind fighting it for the most part if I didnt just have surgery on the leg and be all full of stitches. Standing over that thing fighting for a half hour may be a little too much too soon. If I was gonna have to fight it relentlessly, I would just pick another battle until I got a little better, heh heh.

[flyfishvt]

The toughest part is making sure the lobes on the rear of the valve cover gasket are set in place properly. Just be patient. The whole job should only take an hour tops.

[BMWdriverwanted]

Note to self, buy mirror, no, wait, I have paper, i will write it down, lol.

[Bianca98]

I did mine and painted the cover green even. super easy to do.

[freddybeemer100]

I did this, I think I used a small 10mm wrench on the rear bolts. It amazed me how clean the galley was, absolutely no sludge, just a nice golden hue. So unlike the mud I always found in my American cars. The RTV sealant in the right areas is very important.

[BMWdriverwanted]

I just did mine, sort of. Took the valve cover off and it was pitted all to h-e-double tooth picks and back. Still got a new gasket, smeared copper silicone into the cleaned pits and hand tightened the bolts using just the extension. I figure this will mate the gasket to the silicone wet and cement the silicone to the valve cover AND the gasket. Once it is all dried tomorrow, I will torque it down tighter and it should hold a seal. If not, then I will gob it up with silicone on the outside till it golds and I get a new valve cover, lol.

Yea, was darn clean in there!

Hey, yea Bianca, I saw that , I was like, what the.... Must be the green goblin has risen, lol. I am not gonna do the whole thing, but, i think i might do that in blue or something....

[coolpizzadude]

It's about as easy as changing the oil. Just about anyone can do it. Just take your time and be patient.

[Volf]

Incredibly easy

Sent from my DROID X2 using BF.com

[BMWdriverwanted]

I thought so til I did mine and it still leaks from the back lower moon groove, grrrrr! I think I have something else going on because I was looking back there with the engine running and I could see a small bubble pop out the bottom, where the rubber tab is. Along with a drip per second flow....something is up.

I would say worn rings and lots of blowby, but, checked all the plugs and they are white from a 40 minutes continuous drive. I thinks me PVC system may be clogged, will have to check that in a few.

Either way, I am gooping up the back moon area with silicone. :rolleyes

[flyfishvt]

It sounds like you think there is pressue building up in there causing the air bubble. There should be a slight vacuum.

[freddybeemer100]

Try the vacuum repair method. Clean the area, apply a shop vac to the oil filler hole and squirt rtv around the area leaking (not too much) just enough to draw the RTV into the void.

[scooper]

necessary to replace nuts and studs while doing the valve cover gasket? I see some wetness in the rear of the cover...grrr...the gasket was only done 15k ago! The shop probably didn't put enough silicone back there. So there's no need to put silicone all the way around, just at the 3 half moon areas in the rear? Thanks.