Smoke Tested and I need help

[legobumb]

Sorry for the late reply.

My M54 has no belt driven fan. Just the electric fan. I was under the impression that that is because it's a manual transmission model and not the automatic transmission model.

And as of right now, I just put in new spark plugs and the new diaphragm for my DISA valve that I got from Russia. I drove for about 10 miles or so and I had gotten a pending P1092 that went away after stopping the car to put air in the tires (turned off the engine) and then starting the car again. On my way back home, I got a pending P2096. But I can't be certain about any codes that pop up until I've actually driven for some time (like 50+ miles), and I don't want to until I fix my electric fan. The mechanic said my engine is running a little hot and it's possibly because the fan isn't turning on at all.

Here's a running list of everything I've replaced so far from the start of all this nonsense, up until this post.
- Valve Cover Gasket + New Rubber Grommets
- Pressure Hose (that goes from the secondary air pump to the check valve)
- Check Valve Vacuum Hose (just the first segment)
- Upper Intake Boot
- Lower Intake Boot
- Upper Intake Boot Vacuum Hose (the one that goes from the F-connector)
- Upper Intake Boot Hose (the larger hose that goes from the F-connector)
- Air Filter
- DISA valve O-ring
- DISA valve membrane
- Dipstick tube O-ring
- Dipstick O-rings
- Intake camshaft position sensor (was for an unrelated code having to do with it, but I'll include it anyways)
- The Entire CCV system + Oil Separator + Air Distributor O-rings
- Idle Control Valve Boot
- Throttle Body Gasket
- Fuel Filter + Pressure Regulator + pressure regulator vacuum hose (this probably didn't need to be done even though it had about 60k miles on it)
- Spark Plugs (6 new NGK 3199's with a small amount of anti-seize on just the threads torqued to 20 NM)

Pretty much everything that's typical to a vacuum leak on these M45B25 engines, short of the intake manifold itself and the exhaust manifolds.

I also did a compression test on each cylinder and got the following numbers (the mechanic mentioned it could be a blown head gasket, but the results say that's not a possibility).

Cold Engine (read online that cold engine compression tests aren't proper but did it out of curiosity anyways)
#1 210 psi
#2 212 psi
#3 212 psi
#4 210 psi
#5 220 psi
#6 215 psi

Hot Engine
#1 202 psi
#2 212 psi 209 psi (came back and did this cylinder again for another reading)
#3 200 psi
#4 200 psi
#5 204 psi
#6 204 psi

I'm not entirely sure where to go next besides fixing the electric fan not working issue for the time being. But I also need to drive the car to see what codes still pop up. With my luck, it'll be all of them (again). >_> This engine might just be toast and need a rebuild or something. I'll just have to get a professional smoke test on it rather than trying to do it myself and see what they find.

[legobumb]

Finally figured out how to look at my fuel trim percentages on the OBDFusion App. At idle, my fuel trims on both banks are in the 10-15% range which is stupidly high. When I give the car throttle, they immediately reduce down to more normal 5% or less or so. This is pretty definitive of a vacuum leak from what the internet is telling me, so I'm 100% going to get this beast smoke tested and see what they tell me.

Also, my electric fan does turn on when I turn the AC on, but I don't think it turns on otherwise.

[Critter7r]

Finally figured out how to look at my fuel trim percentages on the OBDFusion App. At idle, my fuel trims on both banks are in the 10-15% range which is stupidly high. When I give the car throttle, they immediately reduce down to more normal 5% or less or so. This is pretty definitive of a vacuum leak from what the internet is telling me, so I'm 100% going to get this beast smoke tested and see what they tell me.

Also, my electric fan does turn on when I turn the AC on, but I don't think it turns on otherwise.

If the fan is functional, then you may have a bad sensor.

And I believe you're correct about manuals not having the belt-driven fan.

[m.patrick5.mp]

legobumb, I feel your pain and I also have had almost the exact scenario with my 01 330ci 3.0 m54. 250,000 miles and around this time my AF or electric fan stopped working. I use the digital Celsius reading under the milage reading, opposed to the temperature gauge. Reason for me doing this is because I had a small crack in my ET and after fixing the problem I remained overly paranoid & learned how to keep a Celsius digital readout from hidden features of the E46. I also started a thread about 330ci auxiliary cooling fan and slowly but surely started eliminating all faulty possibilities. Compression test were fine along with leak down test and long story short now is I've got a compromised HG. So I've taken the advice of some fellow members here since my leak isn't extreme and I'm going to try to seal the leak with some chemicals as opposed to the proper yet labor intensive way. I'm a Fabricator/certified welder and work 80 plus hours a week . Sorry about the lengthy reply, but just thought I'd share and I wish you nothing but the best in your repairs and trouble shooting.

Sent from my moto e5 cruise using Tapatalk

[R Shaffner]

Finally figured out how to look at my fuel trim percentages on the OBDFusion App. At idle, my fuel trims on both banks are in the 10-15% range which is stupidly high. When I give the car throttle, they immediately reduce down to more normal 5% or less or so. This is pretty definitive of a vacuum leak from what the internet is telling me, so I'm 100% going to get this beast smoke tested and see what they tell me.

A lot of good advice here. I'd like to help emphasize a couple of points.

You said smoke came out of #1. If it came out of the #1 plug hole, because the plug was removed, then that means nothing. An intake valve would be open somewhere, and smoke blown into the intake would get into that cylinder and come out the open hole. Put the plugs in and then do the smoke test.

You said you got a lot of oil on plug #1. That would be from the cam cover and/or gaskets. Smoke might come out there, but you'd need to be producing a lot of smoke and pushing it pretty hard to get it to fill the intake, get past the CCV, and then fill the crankcase.

I suggest doing a smoke test on the crankcase directly. (Remember, these systems are designed to pull blow-by gasses from the crankcase into the intake, so a leak in the crankcase will make it lean and cause positive trims, just like a leak in the intake.)

There are several ways you could test things.

You could do a smoke test directly on the crankcase. Best done with the CCV path blocked, but you might see smoke leak out somewhere without blocking the CCV.

You could temporarily modify the CCV system so the crankcase vents to the air, and the CCV path to the intake is blocked. If that fixes your problem, you'll know the air leak is coming from the parts disconnected from the intake (the crankcase and/or the CCV).

[Critter7r]

IIRC, the engine is a closed system with regards to ventilation. Taking the intake boot off of the MAF and closing off the end of the boot with some plastic wrap and a rubber band and then pumping smoke into the boot via the little port in it will provide a sealed engine and show you where any air leaks are at.

[R Shaffner]

IIRC, the engine is a closed system with regards to ventilation. Taking the intake boot off of the MAF and closing off the end of the boot with some plastic wrap and a rubber band and then pumping smoke into the boot via the little port in it will provide a sealed engine and show you where any air leaks are at.

Yes, that's right and I generally agree. Except:

When the plug was out it gave the smoke an easy way out, making it hard to see where else it might otherwise leak from.

And it's hard to get smoke into the crankcase by blowing it in the intake, where it must travel past the CCV. To test the crankcase, it's more effective to just blow it directly into the crankcase.

[Critter7r]

Well, the CCV isn't actually a "valve" (as in, it doesn't open and close), it's just an open centrifuge, so the smoke has no trouble getting past it. It does take some time for the engine to completely fill with smoke for the test to be effective though.

[R Shaffner]

For the record PCV's are valves. They open and close to control the flow. That's what they're there for. The CCV on my M62 opens and closes. I suspect it does on your BMW as well. The Oil Separator part is the open centrifuge, as you called it, to separate the oil from the crankcase air going to the intake.

For the smoke test, I've seen some PCVs that close promptly with very little reverse flow (from the intake to the crankcase). On those cars smoke from the intake would not flow well into the crankcase. I don't know how easily it would flow into the crankcase on your BMW. In any event, I'm sure that blowing smoke directly into the crankcase would be the best/easiest way to spot a leak there.

[Critter7r]

For the record PCV's are valves. They open and close to control the flow. That's what they're there for. The CCV on my M62 opens and closes. I suspect it does on your BMW as well. The Oil Separator part is the open centrifuge, as you called it, to separate the oil from the crankcase air going to the intake.

For the smoke test, I've seen some PCVs that close promptly with very little reverse flow (from the intake to the crankcase). On those cars smoke from the intake would not flow well into the crankcase. I don't know how easily it would flow into the crankcase on your BMW. In any event, I'm sure that blowing smoke directly into the crankcase would be the best/easiest way to spot a leak there.

My M54 does not have anything more than the oil separator within the crank case ventilation system. On the M54, the "oil separator" and the "crank case vent valve" are synonymous.

You may be correct on the M62 engine, it's been awhile since I've dug into one of those, and they don't have the kinds of CCV issues later vehicle had, so I never really got too familiar with the details.

[m.patrick5.mp]

I have to agree with you R Shaffner, I have a 2001 330ci with the m54 and mine is the same as yours. Just co-signing that fact for ya.

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[legobumb]

Okay so I got my car back yesterday from the shop that did the smoke test. They shop told me my valve cover had about a half inch crack in the valve cover on the cylinder #1 spot where the ground wire is. They also cautioned me that they never took the valve cover off to further inspect. They just stopped once they saw the smoke coming out and pin-pointed the crack. So today after work, I took the valve cover off to further inspect and found a bit more than a "half inch crack"! Holy cow this sucker is pretty gashed. I'm not sure how or when it happened, but it's pretty beyond a simple high temp epoxy band-aid I think. I'm going to try anyways because all I need it to do is pass emissions and then I can look into getting another valve cover from probably a junkyard because I'll be damned if I spend $530 on a molded piece of plastic. Below is the pic. It looks worse from the underside, believe me.

valve cover crack.jpg

EDIT
Actually, ECSTuning and Turner Motor Sports both have a 26% off sale for Genuine BMW valve covers, putting them at $378.50 which is far more reasonable than $530+. I might go for that actually. Unless someone else can vouch for some other brand of valve cover?

[MIKYZZ4]

Have you priced at http://www.furiousmethod.com/
Just enter a BMW part#

[R Shaffner]

I've had good luck with eBay, when buying from sellers with good reputations.

[MIKYZZ4]

Don't forget the sets of washers, grommets, as a lack of them may be the cause of the cracks.

[legobumb]

@MIKYZZ4
None of the washers or grommets were missing. The way it broke makes it seem like a lot of stress was going on in that specific spot. Most of the sites that your suggested site brings up seems to have more expensive or URO or Vaico availability. Are those OE brands?

@R Shaffner
Are those used parts or new? And are they OE/OEM parts?

EDIT
After snooping around the interwebz, it seems URO and Vaico are actually pretty good alternatives for a valve cover. I'm not seeing anything bad about them so far from any of the BMW community.

[R Shaffner]

@R Shaffner
Are those used parts or new? And are they OE/OEM parts?

Glad you found the problem.

I've seen all types on eBay. For this I was thinking you might find a used one, instead of having to go to a junk yard. Often the parts can be returned if they're not what you want.

I once did a comparison of the 5 series models over the years. They got bigger, taller, longer, and MUCH more complicated. But BMW kept the weight about the same. Amazing, really. Using more and more plastic parts helped them do that. I understand why they did it, but I agree sometimes it seems they went too far with the plastic, especially for hot engine parts.

I bet you can seal the crack well enough to pass an emissions test and run ok for a while. I'd probably assemble it, clean the outside near the crack with brake cleaner, and then put a bead of some high temp sealant along the crack. All you need to do is block the air leaking in for a while, as a temp fix.

Or, maybe you can block the CCV path to the intake and vent the crankcase to the air temporarily. That should get rid of your trim issue.

[R Shaffner]

I have to agree with you R Shaffner, I have a 2001 330ci with the m54 and mine is the same as yours. Just co-signing that fact for ya.

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Thx. I haven't taken one of those CCV units apart, but the bottom part looks like the funnel (separator) and the top part looks like a valve with a diaphragm to me.

[legobumb]

So I ordered a Vaico valve cover from autohausAZ as well as a new gasket set and 15 rubber sealer grommets to go with it. $165 or so for it all. Fantastic.

However, I did use some epoxy rated for up to 250F to seal up the crack for the time being just to be sure it was in fact my vacuum leak. It sure was! My long term fuel trims went from +10-15% all the way down to bank 1 being about +1.5% and bank 2 about 0.8% and the short term fuel trims ranging between +/- 5% depending on how I'm driving. That's totally a massive improvement. I cleared the codes and right now I just have a pending P2096 after about a 20-30 mile drive. I'm hoping it'll go away because that 1.5% on bank 1 LTFT should be within normal to not throw a code. :/ Unless I actually have a bit of an exhaust leak somewhere around that post-cat oxygen sensor.

New valve cover should arrive by the 20th and I can't wait.

[MIKYZZ4]

I hope my link helped you to discover autohausAZ , as I routinely use it to price parts.
Update us once arrived and installed.

[legobumb]

I hope my link helped you to discover autohausAZ , as I routinely use it to price parts.
Update us once arrived and installed.

It did, and thank you for that. Too bad FCPEuro doesn't offer different valve covers apart from the genuine BMW branded ones, otherwise I 100% would have ordered it through them simply because lifetime warranty. The site was also cheaper than ECSTuning by about $30 and Turner Motor Sports didn't even offer the Vaico brand valve cover.

[MIKYZZ4]

Great, glad it was helpful.

Yes, as FCPEuro is my go-to for parts,(Lifetime Warranty +Free Shipping)
as well as offering a choice between Genuine OE+OEM parts.
I do use Turner, BimmerWorld and others for specialty aftermarket parts.