M54 Rocker Cover Gasket

Hey everyone,

Probably going to be changing the rocker cover gasket on my M54 in the next couple of weeks. Been a small oil leak for the past while that I'm fairly sure is coming from the rocker cover. Every so often when sitting a lights I get a fairly big smell of burning oil coming into the car so I think it's leaking down on to the exhaust manifold somewhere.

Was looking into it and a few people have pointed out that when I have the rocker cover off, I may as well do the seals on the VANOS too?? Anyone have an opinion on that? Engine has 131,000 miles on it and I don't think there is any problems with the VANOS. Certainly no nasty sounds and car seems to be running great otherwise.

Cheers,

Keith

These seals fail around 60k they dont make noise when gone you simply lose torque between 1k-3k rpm

Common leak spots on the m54 are rocker cover and oil filter housing

http://www.i6automotive.co.uk/bmw-double-vanos-kit/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gar

These seals fail around 60k they dont make noise when gone you simply lose torque between 1k-3k rpm

Common leak spots on the m54 are rocker cover and oil filter housing

http://www.i6automotive.co.uk/bmw-double-vanos-kit/

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Cheers Gar! Would you reckon the vanos would be an easy enough job to do or better off left to someone with a decent bit of experience? Oil filter housing was leaking when I got the car so that was the first job that was done on it. Checked the cars service history and the rocker cover gasket was done at around 100,000 miles but it looks like it was done using heaps gasket sealant

Defintely can be done at home but pencil in a full day for it , its a bit of a pig on the e39 as the fan and fan shroud are in the way much easier on the e46

Heres a guide to show whats involved its not majorly difficult just time consuming

http://www.beisansystems.com/procedures/vanos_procedure.htm

That's great, cheers for the help! Much appreciated. I'll definitely be sure to set a full day aside for it.