Is that oil coming from my head gasket?

No, it's most likely not your head gasket leaking, it may just be your oil filter housing gasket. (an oil leak seen under your intake manifold following the head gasket going all the way around the front part of your block but stopping at the...

What are the torque specs for the aluminum bolts?

22 nm

just did this. sure enough, it was the problem.

Thank you OP and all who made helpful comments and shared their experience.

I just did this, but I did manage to strip the star bolt head closest to the fan. I was using an 8mm box wrench and was able to break the bolt on top and under the intake, no problem. The third bolt stripped and I made the mistake of trying to force it on, just stripped it more. I was totally bummed, thinking I'll be heading to a shop to get it done (along with taking out the stripped bolt). Decided to search and see if there is such a thing as a E-torx box and.....YES!

http://www.amazon.com/GearWrench-922...orx+box+wrench

Got this wrench, put it on the stripped bolt, and it wouldn't go on. Was ready to give up, then tried the E-12 side of the wrench and it broke it free. Cool. Went to the dealer and bought a replacement bolt.

From there, the job was pretty easy.

Drained two quarts coolant. If you are careful with the drain plug, you can drain without completely removing the plug. Once I had two quarts out, taking the housing off was completely mess free. I think partially draining the coolant is a great idea, guess it helps if you've changed your coolant before as I did recently.

Removed the air intake snorkel. Removed the three bolts, and the sensor connector. Didn't remove the oil filter, really didn't need to keep anything from spilling or making a mess. Used a large screw driver to prop the housing out fo the way. My gasket was still in one piece and came out easily.

The E-torx box ratchet is an excellent tool for this job. It makes a very tight bite on the star. $15 bucks avoided a major PITA.

One thing I thought of (I'm a noob, maybe some of you do this all the time) was tethering the wrench for the bolt under the intake. Maybe it's just psychological, but the tether just seem to make my hands feel more dexterous since I wasn't concerned with dropping the wrench. Also, when you're loosening the bolt under the intake, just pull on the rope to un-thread and let gravity ratchet it back.

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Why do you have to redo a coolant job to do this? I talked to my mechanic and he didn't seem to know that you had to mess around with the coolant at all?

guys, i couldnt get the third bolt lose with any tools (gear wrenches). so i opened my german tool set, and i found the perfect tool. just took my 20sec, to get to the bolt and totally unscrew it. i was worried about this job, but at the end it just cost me 27USD for the gaskets. job was done in 45minutes, and 40 minutes were for cleaning the parts. the car i did it is my wife's N52 e60 530xi, attached are some pictures

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You don't need to "redo" a coolant job. It helps minimize mess if you you drain some of your coolant, not all of it ( I drained 2 quarts ). If you don't, you will likely spill coolant as you loosen the housing. Per several of the posts on this DIY, people spilled a decent amount of coolant when they didn't drain any.

Again, all I did was drain two quarts from the radiator drain plug into a clean bottle. Only required loosening the plug. Once the new gasket is on the housing and tightened back up, you just open the coolant bleeder screw, pour the drained coolant back into the reservoir (reusing what you drained), tighten the bleeder screw, and do the venting process. EASY.

Just a quick comment - you can get the third bolt (the one under the intake manifold) with a 1/4" mini ratchet, 4-5" extension, a swivel attachment and 8mm socket. Works wonderfully.

is the part for a 135i the same? i have a leak in that area and after looking closely it almost looks like there is a sharp metal gasket in between te filter housing and head. i would love to know if it is in fact a rubber seal or a metal gasket on an 08 e82 with n54 thanks!

this is a great DIY

Did this yesterday and I didn't have as easy a time as it sounds like some of you did. I have a 2007 328i with the N52 engine.

I was not able to get the bolt underneath the manifold with the 8mm ratcheting wrench (it stripped the bolt head almost instantly. I ended up taking off the oil pressure switch to try and get a little extra room, didn't help much, finally had to remove the intake manifold (along with all the covers on top of it) to finally get to the bolt and remove it.

I also had trouble with the lower bolt on the front side of the housing (the furthest towards the front of the engine, on the bottom with the head facing opposite the other two). I was able to break this one free with the 8mm wrench however the wrench ended up bottoming out on the mount for the hose going into the head just under this bolt. Being a ratcheting wrench I obviously couldn't just thread it back in so I ended up having to remove this hose in order to get that bolt out. Not a big deal but something I didn't see mentioned (maybe I missed it) and figured I'd mention for anyone else trying this.

Anyway, my gasket came out in one piece, didn't notice anything in the coolant which kinda surprised me (I'm at 133k miles, much more than some others in here). Saved a bunch of money and learned a lot so pretty happy with it. Thanks for the DIY.

Can you elaborate in this tool? Looks like an extension bar, a swivel head, and a E10 socket????