So my buddy owns a 300i N52 and is having issues with MASSIVE smoke out his exhaust and it is definitely oil. I looked under the car and where the header meets the exhaust the gasket was dripping oil (bottom of headers, start of exhaust pipes), I tightened the bolt which resolved that problem (LOL) but it was a solid indicator of oil leakage as it was very dark.
Here's the video of what's going on:
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Compression test on all cylinders shows 200 across the board with cylinder 1 at maybe 190
Plugs are in HORRIBLE shape:
and VANOS needed replaced:
Codes initially were:
DME/DDE [MSV70] | 29F4: Catalytic-converter conversion
DME/DDE [MSV70] | 29F5: Catalytic-converter conversion 2
DME/DDE [MSV70] | 2A82: VANOS intake
DME/DDE [MSV70] | 2A87: Exhaust VANOS, mechanism
DME/DDE [MSV70] | 29D0: Combustion misfires, cylinder 4
DME/DDE [MSV70] | 29D2: Combustion misfires, cylinder 6
DME/DDE [MSV70] | 29CC: Combustion misfires, several cylinders
***This car has NO CATS and has AA headers to account for first 2 codes
After replacing VANOS and resetting codes, nothing has instantly popped back up.
At first I thought it was a blown head gasket, maybe the rings... then I read about the oil separator for this engine being a big cause on this.... any way to test that? Ideas on what this could be?