[335dsleeper]

A few months back I attempted to accelerated onto a state route near my house in the X5. When I did, I felt a loss of power and could see heavy blue smoke coming out of the exhaust. Soon thereafter I could smell oil burning. I turned around and headed home. The LP turbo had oil all over it and it was pushing through the compressor cover. I immediately though the HP turbo failed. I reached out to a few forum members and found one for sale. I jumped in the car and drove 8hours round trip, returned home and installed it.

It seemed better but, we were very easy on it. When the engine was cold you could still smell oil burning and occasionally you’d see the smoke screen. Once warm, there wasn’t any issue at all.

About a year ago I noticed a slight blue haze on startup. This haze has gotten larger and recently, was very noticable on cold starts. Like many of you, I assumed turbo seals etc.

I finally spent a little time looking at the X5. The valvecover gasket was leaking and there was oil seeping everywhere. It was time to replace!

Our X5 has just over 205k miles and I was very pleased to see how clean the valvetrain was. Hardly any carbon in the runners or intake manifold
either. The X5 was much cleaner at 205k than my 335d was at 144k when I did the carbon cleaning.

I spent the day today swapping the gasket, replacing intake manifold orings, cleaning the engine bay and I changed the oil. I ended up chasing a HP turbo issue which ended up being a failed pressure converter. I also changed cylinder 6 glow plug which failed in the cold weather this past week.

The old valvecover gasket was horrible. Hard as a rock and was a gigantic pita to remove. You could see where the oil was seeping under the gasket and making its was out of the engine and also leaking into the top intake ports.

I’m 100% certain the vcg was the issue from day one, not my hp turbo. I also think the vcg was the reason for blue smoke on startup. Once cold, I think the gasket would let oil drip into the cylinders and on a cold start, I’d see blue smoke. So, for those of you seeing blue on start or possibly seeing oil leaking or smelling oil burning, look at the vcg and if it’s the issue, swap it out. With many cars getting in the 150-200k range, I think vcg failure will be more and more common.

I plan on driving the X5 hard over the next few days and I’ll see if the cold start blue smoke subsides.

[32valves]

Exactly what he said, ask me how I know...

[Andrew@FixMyVW]

Yup, we've changed out 10 of these valve cover gaskets this Winter, the rubber fails and allows boost from the intake runners to pressurize the crankcase with 30 to 40 pounds of boost and it gets ugly really fast. Usually the car is fine until 3000 RPMs when the Big Turbo kicks in and it's okay after it's been warmed up but if you take off hard from cold... it gets ugly.

We're going to post a new kit today that includes:
Valve cover gasket
Required copper o-rings for each injector
Recommend rubber o-rings for each injector
New set of securing bolts for the valve cover perimeter
New set of securing bolts for center around injectors

[335dsleeper]

^ maybe include the rubber grommets around the swirl flap ports too. Two of mine were trashed.

Should also include the torque specs for valve cover, Injectors and for the two different sized intake manifold fasteners. I spent a while looking for the proper values.

[335dsleeper]

* first cold start... no blue smoke on start up!*

[charlie fairmont]

Thanks for the info. Very helpful to many folks' free time and wallets.

[335dsleeper]

^ it’s not a tough job, just takes a while. It’s Definitely a DIY repair.

[robnitro]

Thanks for this notice 335dsleeper.
I wonder if for some, the valve cover bolts near the intake runners might have been loose?
Are those accessible without removing the injectors? Also what torque for the cover bolts?

[335dsleeper]

The inner intake bolts that secure the cover around the injector and intake ports are below the injector bracket and it what the Injectors is actually secured too. So no, you cannot tighten them without removing the injector.

My gasket was hard as a rock. Additional torque wouldn’t have helped anything.

Valve cover torque spec is 10nm.
Injector is 9nm
Top intake bolts are 10nm
Bottom intake nuts are 15nm

Originally Posted by robnitro

Thanks for this notice 335dsleeper.
I wonder if for some, the valve cover bolts near the intake runners might have been loose?
Are those accessible without removing the injectors? Also what torque for the cover bolts?

[Andrew@FixMyVW]

$89
http://www.fixmyvw.com/bmw-335d-x5d-...er-gasket-kit/

[Miko226]

Originally Posted by 335dsleeper

^ it’s not a tough job, just takes a while. It’s Definitely a DIY repair.

What do you think the total labor hours would be with somebody that has a full shop access to change it out?

[rkstar9]

Is there a particular area that is more prone to leaking than the others? I ask because Im having a hard time determining the source of my burning smell in the cabin and every where around the car it seems like.

Now it seems this could be a possible source of the burning smell.

[32valves]

Originally Posted by Andrew@FixMyVW

$89
http://www.fixmyvw.com/bmw-335d-x5d-...er-gasket-kit/

That's a great price

[32valves]

Originally Posted by Miko226

What do you think the total labor hours would be with somebody that has a full shop access to change it out?

The dealer near me wanted around $1200 parts and labor...

[335dsleeper]

We’ve put roughly 800 miles on the X5 since I did the valvecover gasket. We took the kids snowboarding, which was roughly 675 miles round trip. Averaged 30.15mpg (hand calculated) with speeds between 60-75mph. I was pretty happy with that.

No smoke today at cold start but, there was a small amount Saturday when we left the resort. It’s a rather steep decline heading down to the resort and a decent climb leaving, so I’m thinking oil that’s pooled in the intercooler may have attributed to that cold start smoke.

Other than that one time, it’s been smokeless on start up. 5-6x cold starts so far.

[32valves]

Originally Posted by 335dsleeper

We’ve put roughly 800 miles on the X5 since I did the valvecover gasket. We took the kids snowboarding, which was roughly 675 miles round trip. Averaged 30.15mpg (hand calculated) with speeds between 60-75mph. I was pretty happy with that.

No smoke today at cold start but, there was a small amount Saturday when we left the resort. It’s a rather steep decline heading down to the resort and a decent climb leaving, so I’m thinking oil that’s pooled in the intercooler may have attributed to that cold start smoke.

Other than that one time, it’s bedn smokeless on start up. 5-6x cold starts so far.

Glad to hear it worked for you also...

[335dsleeper]

Wanted to update this thread quick. So far my cold start blue smoke is completely gone.

I think a seeping vcg is causing the blue smoke on startup rather than the valve seals and turbo seals.

[robnitro]

Did you reuse the injector washers or replaced them?

[32valves]

Originally Posted by robnitro

Did you reuse the injector washers or replaced them?

I reused mine, but if it's burnt up I would get new ones

[Torqu3]

Originally Posted by 32valves

I reused mine, but if it's burnt up I would get new ones

Originally Posted by robnitro

Did you reuse the injector washers or replaced them?

http://www.fixmyvw.com/bmw-335d-x5d-...er-gasket-kit/

There's a link to a great kit at a great price that comes with everything you could need(including injector washers).

[335dsleeper]

I reused mine too

Originally Posted by 32valves

I reused mine, but if it's burnt up I would get new ones

[AnShk]

Originally Posted by 335dsleeper

I reused mine too

I do not see white smoke during idle start and I do not feel rough starts on early 36F mornings, but the engine revs a lot more first mile and I do see smoke during first acceleration.

So, is it VCG?