Hello, my first post on this forum; be gentle lol..My 98’ M3 sedan with just under 110K has developed a cylinder head gasket leak..upon visual inspection there is cached oil along the bottom of head cover, with a slight burning smell when first starting up...upon removing spark plugs there is oil in cylinder five tube..reading up on this forum the gasket seems to be the culprit..I don’t see fresh oil anywhere else exposed on outside of engine..
Has anyone ever done this gasket changeout themselves? If yes is the changeout any different from non M cars? (As I changed out my M20 E30 gasket lots of times) Or should I leave it to my BMW technician to handle? I have all parts needed and the time but just asking everyone out there, because when I think of M and myself doing this, I think of lotts of money...thanks for reading..
Ken
2011 E90 LCI 328i Sedan
2007 E91 328i Touring Sports
2004 E46 325i Sedan South Africa
1998 E36 M3 Sedan
1991 964 Porsche 911 C2
"Has anyone ever done this gasket changeout themselves?"
😂
Yup. Most - if not all - of the guys who hang out here have done it at least once. It's pretty easy as far as these things go.
There is a Pelican writeup on it, lots of YouTube videos, etc. Just Google it. This is not high risk here - you can do it, and if you mess it up, at worst it will still leak and you can just try again. In fact, I'm due for it again as well.
But yeah, you can do this easy - it's no different for a normal e36 vs an M3.
-Josh: 1998 S54 E36 M3/4/6 with most of the easy stuff and most of the hard stuff. At least twice. 271k miles. 1994 E32 740il with nothing but some MPars. 93k miles.
Josh, thank you very much for the confidence pep in getting this done. I just read the Tech Article on Pelican as mentioned, and does seem pretty straight-forward. As most of the service has been done by myself on my M3 (lubricant changes, plugs, filters, all that, etc.) this is the first "engine" service I'm actually doing. Can't wait~~~
Yeah it's super easy, just follow the good DIY's at Pelican or elsewhere and you'll be fine. Two things to keep in mind, be mindful of the torque spec when reassembling (it's low), and remember to use RTV sealant where it says to (by vanos and in the back I think). Oh, and chipping the old gasket out can be a PITA. Mine was like glass. Make sure and get all the pieces.
1999 M3/2/5 - Titanium Silver - Track/Weekend Toy
While you have the cover off, make sure to check it for cracks as best as you can. Many of the high mileage / 20+ year old covers are starting to crack. These cracks can display as leaks, but can also display as poor idle/rough running as it can & does allow unmetered air into the engine.
My GTS2 car had a cracked cover (<80k miles) whereas my M3 with 280k miles did not.
Some of the cracks are from historical over-tightening of the mounting bolts....some are just age and constant heat cycles.
Gasket should go into the valve cover (cam cover) clean (no RTV). RTV should be used at the two junctions where the front cover meets the head, and I usually put a thin coat in the two half-circles in the rear of the head. Bolts will need to be torqued correctly so you don't snap the studs <or> crack the cam cover.
I have had much better luck sealing the valve cover (use dabs of rtv’s on front half moons and rear corners as others have mentioned) with the ELRING gasket vs Victor Reinz (both I believe are OEM suppliers). The ELRING gasket is taller providing more squish when the valve cover is torqued to the head.
Straight forward job.
1 trick pony
Is it beneficial to source an S50 magnesium valve cover to replace an S52 composite one?
TRM Coilovers 670F/895R | BBS LM | Corsa RSC36
OP make sure you get new rubber washers. The hardware you can re-use.
beware of the cap nuts and studs that go into the head. just replaced my VCG yesterday and snapped a couple studs when tightening the cap nuts
The cap nuts are NOT torqued into place. You tighten them until they bottom out and that's it. Don't be forceful and don't be torque wrench hero here, it isn't needed. If you have read any posts about people suggesting you don't fully bottom out the cap nut, this is false. This bad info is more common with the E46 crowd though.
You do need start from the inside out when tightening the cap nuts. It's also a good idea to bring them down slowly in the inside out pattern until fully seated. It isn't unheard of for a fresh valve cover gasket to break the plastic valve cover if fastened down unevenly.
Last edited by Braymond141; 09-16-2020 at 02:27 PM.
It is impossible to over tighten the valve cover with a cap nut. This is why so many people snap the studs that they thread onto... lack of understanding of what a cap nut is. The gap between the cap nut head and the base is set, it will never change in size.
The plastic valve covers crack from unevenly fastening of those cap nuts with a fresh gasket. Sometimes they are going to break no matter what you do correctly due to heat cycles.
Last edited by Braymond141; 09-16-2020 at 02:34 PM.
Everyone~~Thank you for all the insight! Very informative.. it's like I'm waiting until Friday the end of workday to get this started!
As mentioned, be sure you have a complete gasket set including the cap nut rubber washers. These are usually not included and are purchased separately.
These:
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...er-11121437395
Or the more expensive genuine BMW version. I believe you need 15 of them. At least that's how many I bought when I did mine.
1999 M3/2/5 - Titanium Silver - Track/Weekend Toy
Also check with a straight edge (like a 3ft bubble level) is the valve cover is warped. Mine was a little on the corner. I just used a sheet of sandpaper on the garage floor sand it down a little.
E36 M3 journal https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...-Build-Journal
F80 M3 journal https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1734421
Miata K24 build https://www.miataturbo.net/build-thr...ine-up-105885/
-Josh: 1998 S54 E36 M3/4/6 with most of the easy stuff and most of the hard stuff. At least twice. 271k miles. 1994 E32 740il with nothing but some MPars. 93k miles.
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