s52 lower timing cover @ headgasket pouring coolant after timing job (pic attached)

[NLZN]

Long story short I replaced both chains, vanos, all lower guides and hardware etc..
Got everything running, started up like a champ, no issues.

Started the bleed process of filling the block back up and I noticed I'm pouring coolant out of the lower cover where it meets the head gasket (see pic of mirror).
Should this area be sealed on install with something special? Bentley didn't mention any sealer. I used all new gaskets on the lower cover, orings on the water pipe etc..

Any advice would be appreciated.

20170421_001049.jpg

[Mklock]

Gotta use rtv where the timing cover meets the cylinder head. The sad part is only way to get to it is remove the head.

[bmwdirtracer]

I can't make heads or tails from a picture taken into a mirror, sorry.

But by your description,the head is not flat, or it's cracked, or it's not bolted down. There isn't any coolant there, if the head is sealed to the block, and if there were a leak which RTV could seal, that leak would be oil, not coolant.

Are you sure it's not the thermostat housing leaking?

[NLZN]

originally i thought it was the t stat housing so I took it off and rtv'd the outside to be safe.
see the pic below. this is where that pic with the mirror is. timingcover2.png

[bmwdirtracer]

Got it, sorry, been a long time since I've had an S52 in front of me.....all M54a and newer these days! But then, lo and behold, I'm disassembling an S52 at work, RIGHT THIS MOMENT; head gasket bad, so engine's getting a full rebuild.

Yes, on the S52, there is coolant there. there are also two thin but fairly long head bolts at the front of the engine, under the timing gears.. One is under the center of the exhaust cam gear, the other goes directly through the division between the two halves of where the thermostat bolts to the head. You didn't have two E-torx bolts left over, did you? If you look at the top of the timing cover, you'll see the protrusions where they come down, from the head.

(One's about 2" long, one's ~3")

[NLZN]

End result: headgasket got crumpled when I put the timing cover back on the first time.. to which I've replaced that portion (it's only for the timing cover) with a universal cork gasket that i cut out. Held up to a dragcross and an autocross this weekend with a 3+ hour trip to each. So far so good