[Persian Whisperjet]

If you do not have a trans tune the car will artificially delay shifting into third to accelerate warm up and reduce emissions. One of the best reasons to get a tune is getting rid of that annoying "feature" in my opinion.

[Persian Whisperjet]

Originally Posted by AnShk

the engine revs a lot more first mile and I do see smoke during first acceleration.

My post was in reference to this comment.

[335dsleeper]

You don’t see anything because all your emission components are inplace.

Originally Posted by AnShk

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?

[335dsleeper]

I’m not sure what you’re responding to.

I do have a tranny tune.

Originally Posted by Persian Whisperjet

If you do not have a trans tune the car will artificially delay shifting into third to accelerate warm up and reduce emissions. One of the best reasons to get a tune is getting rid of that annoying "feature" in my opinion.

[Owen81]

Would it be easy to swap the head studs for ARP while doing the VCG replacement?

[335dsleeper]

I think you have to remove the camshafts.

[Dazza335iC]

Yesterday morning I noticed a strong diesel exhaust smell during my commute, which started on the freeway. Once I got off and hit the sidestreets, I noticed vapor coming from under the hood and an even stronger exhaust smell. Pulled in to a parking lot to find that the little dipstick on my ACC catch can was missing, and it was venting crankcase vapors. I threw an M8 bolt in to the hole and all was well. Fast forward to that afternoon, I was idling for ~10 minutes yesterday while on a phone call and writing some notes (had the AC cranked as it was 95F or so). Drove ~2 miles home and noticed in my rearview that the car was emitting a lot of bluish smoke. Opened the hood: no sign of anything amiss. Drove to work this morning, and the smoke was still there. Really bad at lower speeds during accel/decel, and still noticeable on the freeway. The color/appearance looks like something between diesel soot and burning oil. There's also a TON of oil on the underside of the engine, transmission, and exhaust, and I had to add a quart yesterday. It looks like oil is leaking out of the rear main at an alarming rate. Burning oil and leaking oil all at once, and suddenly, sounds like excessive cranckcase pressure.

The car is driving fine, no codes or faults. Running JR ST2 with DEF/EGR deactivated but all hardware in place. Does this fit with a leaky VCG?

[335dsleeper]

X5 is nearing 240k and blue smoke on start up is completely gone. If you have blue smoke on start up, swap your vcg before it fails.

Originally Posted by 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.

[CO335D]

Originally Posted by 335dsleeper

X5 is nearing 240k and blue smoke on start up is completely gone. If you have blue smoke on start up, swap your vcg before it fails.

240K! Killin' it!

[derkenblosh]

Originally Posted by 335dsleeper

X5 is nearing 240k and blue smoke on start up is completely gone. If you have blue smoke on start up, swap your vcg before it fails.

At what mileage did you replace your gasket? And what side of the country? ... Doesn't get very cold here in Vegas... Wondering if heat is more of a factor tho.

Starting to see signs of oil mist on the driver-side of the engine bay and I'm just past the 100kmi mark

[itsbrokeagain]

Sounds like mine may be the culprit as well! I've been getting heavy blue smoke while cold and going around town, truck has 109k on it so it's prolly due for replacement. At $89 that's a cheaper fix than buying new turbos (which was kinda on the list anyway, heh heh heh)

I'll order the set up and replace it next week along with doing all my deletes and report back.

[RL18]

Someone want to do a diy for vcg? Or take some pics of the project

[Kozlio]

Originally Posted by RL18

Someone want to do a diy for vcg? Or take some pics of the project

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e...h-lid/8JwPMbJl

Hoping this is a good starting point. I need to do mine (preventively) too

[apexit4]

Originally Posted by RL18

Someone want to do a diy for vcg? Or take some pics of the project

Here's the PDF I used when replacing my valve cover, it has slightly more detail:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ylq...ew?usp=sharing

Keep in mind that the valve cover is plastic and the oil separator (built into the valve cover) has a tendency to fail over time. Plastic valve covers on BMW's are notorious for failing and needing replacement. If you can swing it, consider replacing the valve cover too as preventative maintenance.

[itsbrokeagain]

Got my first rounds of mods put in and the smokes gotten worse, I should've done the VCG first lol. Literally leaving oil on my rear bumper.

[itsbrokeagain]

welp my gasket was actually changed recently....turns out my engine is pretty sludged up and the turbos are prolly blown. Put a new valve cover on anyway to overhaul the CCV system to start. New turbos are on the way.

[TDIwyse]

Long time no posting from me … nothing new to report until this month when my 335d also suffered a VCG problem. Several people in this thread and on the forum were very helpful with the process/procedure of doing the replacement. I'd like to thank 335dsleeper for initiating this thread and email exchanges during procedure, Andrew for the kit and some emailing, and especially Yozh for some very good suggestions for the procedure. I'm hoping he will post and share similar things he did with me so the whole community can benefit.

apexit4, thanks for the pdf you link above. The extra info in there about all the things that need to be done BEFORE you can even start getting to the main procedures was very helpful. A lot of the preliminary steps in there may not be needed depending on how your vehicle is setup, and there's some places where steps can be skipped/altered/re-arranged.

Dazza335iC – My symptoms of the VCG issue were similar.

After not doing a lot of driving in the 335d all summer I had started driving it more this Fall/Winter. A couple weeks ago I decided to do a full fueling pull and in the upper rpm's at close to 40psi of boost there was an odd sound and the tone of the engine changed. I immediately backed off fuel. Shortly thereafter I could smell burning oil. No lights/warnings came on, so I didn't think anything serious had happened, but I knew something wasn't right...

When I got home I found lots of oil along the CCV routing and oil running down the back of the engine/downpipe/transmission and the underpanel of the car in the area was dark/wet from leaking oil. I don't use the engine cover except in extreme cold weather, and I could see oil spray patterns above the CCV puck, the oil fill cap, and the CCV tube exit that blew off the pipe that routes to my Fleetguard crankcase filter (see attached pic for spray patterns).

At idle steam/vapor was leaking out the closed oil fill cap, and when removing the cap there was lots of steam puffing out, which was far from "normal". I also lost at least 1 quart of oil in the short drive after the incident.

Fast forward to this past week when I replaced the VCG and all the initial testing shows the symptoms are fixed. Here is a link to some pics that will be discussed below if anyone is interested: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TZLEaNUh4DtcWQjV8

My rig is a 2011 and only has 86k miles on it when this happened. Surprised the original VCG only lasted that long. The old one was still flexible and pliable (although not as soft as the new one), and I could only find small edge cracks on the first 2 intake track hole/passages that “might” have been the problem where boost was able to leak into the VC. No other abnormalities in the VCG as far as I can see. Why BMW routes boosted intake runners through the crankcase with only that rubber gasket as a seal is something of which I am not a fan.

Some comments about the process outlined in the link apexit4 linked:
-There are torque specs in that link. They are a bit different than 335dsleeprs #'s on his post #9.

-Page 6 shows how to remove the radiator fan. I skipped that step and left mine in.

-Page 10 shows a special tool for removing the leakage lines. I was told this wasn't needed and found that to be true, with one warning. Be careful of the top of the grey cap as it can go flying if you are prying under it and not ensuring the sides don't flex outward... The first one I was doing had the cap go flying, but fortunately I didn't have to look too hard to find it...

-Page 11 says to release the clamp on the leakage line T fitting and detach. I skipped that.

-Page 11/12 go over the fuel line and fuel injector removal. I did this step later after I had everything else ready, because I wanted to minimize the time the fuel rail/lines were open/exposed.

-Page 11 says to use a fuel line socket. One person told me they did this without that tool. I bought a set and am glad I had it. Also get a fuel injector slide hammer to remove the injectors. Based on Yozh's suggestions, I found these that worked:
A slide hammer that works and was prime shipping: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Line sockets (17mm is what is required): https://www.ebay.com/itm/3pcs-Inject...72.m2749.l2649

-Page 11/12 … Keep track of each line/injector and where they go so you don't have reprogram injector codes. I had some debris fall into 2 of the injector openings when removing the injectors. I found a old rubber fuel line taped to a vacuum worked well for sucking out all the debris

-Page 12 says to also replace the o-ring on the leakage line of the injector, but Andrews kit doesn't come with these. No one I talked to said they replaced these, and they didn't have any issues. So I didn't replace them either and so far it looks like they are ok.

-Pages 13-15 have a lot of steps for that rats nest of stuff behind the turbos. Based on comments I did not follow all these steps, but basically disconnected the minimum mounting bolts and pulled back that clap trap to allow enough space to get the VC off and back on.

-Page 17 top pic … you can't see the bolt its pointing to in that pic. But imagine the worst possible place it could be, and that's where its at. In the link to my pics I have an image showing this bolt as its almost out and its running into the firewall. Took me a long time for this one as I was using a vicegrip as I couldn't get any other tool onto that damn thing. Andrew suggested its easier to remove this one after the VC is disconnected and slid forward a bit before fully removing the VC. I did not reinstall that bolt.

-Page 18 says to use a sealant in 2 spots to help the gasket seal. Based on Yozh's suggestion I used Loctite RTV 598.

When putting the new gasket back onto the VC, I found it helpful to push the new bolts from Andrews kit “into” the holes of the gasket (you can see when they engage the gasket by looking), which keeps the gasket securely in place when turning upside down.

I also replaced my glow plug module since the intake was off. I had a horrible time getting the rectangular connector off the old module. In fact, that was likely the most frustrating part of this whole procedure. Hours of frustration fighting that one connector and I ended up making a special pry tool to get it off... I have no idea why it was so difficult, except perhaps I damaged the “release” tabs since it was cold when I was first working on it.

Since the manifold was off I installed one of Andrews swirl flap delete kits. I also replaced the intake manifold round and rectangular gaskets, although Andrew said that's not absolutely necessary.

I was glad to see my engine has basically 0 carbon build up in any of the intake runners. This is likely due to having EGR mitigated from very early on in the engines life, and perhaps some help from water/methanol usage.

This was a BIG job from my perspective, with lots of things that could go wrong. I never want to do it again.

[sukutash]

I'm doing this job currently and it does take time a bunch of prep work. The bolt referenced by TDI as being in close proximity to the firewall is in fact better dealt with by removing the valve cover then sliding it forward for easier access. I also will not be reinstalling that one.

I did snap one of the threaded standoffs that hold injector #6 down due to corrosion and it being seized aka welded to the head. After carefullly center drilling the portion left in the block, inserting an extractor to get it removed...SNAP...now extractor is a permanent part of the head.

I will post/contribute my lessons learned once I complete the job.

[apexit4]

Originally Posted by TDIwyse

Long time no posting from me … nothing new to report until this month when my 335d also suffered a VCG problem. Several people in this thread and on the forum were very helpful with the process/procedure of doing the replacement. I'd like to thank 335dsleeper for initiating this thread and email exchanges during procedure, Andrew for the kit and some emailing, and especially Yozh for some very good suggestions for the procedure. I'm hoping he will post and share similar things he did with me so the whole community can benefit.

apexit4, thanks for the pdf you link above. The extra info in there about all the things that need to be done BEFORE you can even start getting to the main procedures was very helpful. A lot of the preliminary steps in there may not be needed depending on how your vehicle is setup, and there's some places where steps can be skipped/altered/re-arranged....

Thanks for all the tips based on your most recent experience, they should go a long way in helping anyone that has to replace their VCG. I know I didnt provide much info when I initially posted the link to the PDF, but I agree that some steps aren't completely necessary. Not something I hope to do again anytime soon but being deleted this time around and having done it once already should make it a breeze next time.

[Mik325tds]

Originally Posted by TDIwyse

Long time no posting from me …

Thanks for taking the time to post your insight and pictures TDIwyse. Based on your comments I'm not looking forward to that job, yet feel that I probably should tackle it sooner than later.

[apexit4]

Originally Posted by Mik325tds

Thanks for taking the time to post your insight and pictures TDIwyse. Based on your comments I'm not looking forward to that job, yet feel that I probably should tackle it sooner than later.

Its really not as bad as it seems. More tedious than anything. Replacing the valve cover was literally the first job I tackled with my 335D and it went without much of an issue.

[apexit4]

I did forget to mention something on the topic of the grey fuel line connectors that clip onto the injectors. The PDF I linked above has the part number for a tool BMW makes specifically for removing them. It was reasonably cheap and made removing them a breeze. I didnt want to risk breaking anything there since you cant buy any of those parts individually and havent regretted my decision. As TDIwyse said, its definitely possible to do without the tool, but I like to err on the side of caution and have the right tools.

The fuel line socket on the other hand was invaluable. The clearances between the nuts that hold the injector down and the valve cover are so small its almost impossible to use anything else. I highly recommend getting one of those before tackling this job, it saves so much time and stress that its worth the small investment.