Big bump for CirrusSR22's detailed write-up of this procedure with all of the pictures. Just did the whole thing on my M42 and it went flawlessly. Definitely a good time to replace the pair of cabin filters too. It looked like they had never been done on my 1995 TI.

And great advice from paul somlo on using a M6x1 nut to get the rubber washers on the valve cover bolts. I can't imagine having to use brute force to push those on 15 times.

The whole reason for doing this project is that a bit of oil was leaking into the coil tubes for cylinders 1-3. I cleaned out the oil and replaced the plugs (likely never had been done either) just before putting the new gasket and cover on.

Remember to use a criss-cross pattern when doing the cover bolts too. I started with the bolt in the very center at cylinder 2. It was actually this plug tube that had the most oil in it. It looked like the gasket had been replaced once before, and I bet that last time the surrounding bolts were put on first, leaving an curvature in the cover and a gap at the center bolt.

Anyway, fun job, hardest part was probably pulling the air flow baffle out. It might not be needed to be removed, but it certainly gives more room to maneuver the valve cover off and on.

This DIY saved my car. 1997 318ti, so we'll dpne thank you so so much, last owner did some garbage work. Was nice to undo some of that work... I can't unscrew the over torqued bolt that stripped my head. But that's another problem. Thanks again for just being another awesome 318ti owner

My ti M-Pack has a blown head gasket - why I got it cheap.
One of my other cars is a Daimler Sovereign S2 - read Jaguar XJ6 S1.
The engines in them are renown for camshaft cover oil leaks - THE fix is a well kept secret.
When the retainers are over torqued the material of the head is drawn upwards preventing the cover from sitting down correctly. This is usually followed by some PO tightening down the retainers further - increasing the leak.
The trick is to LIGHTLY countersink the threaded holes to remove the distorted material.
New gaskets correctly installed and covers correctly torqued - no leaks.
Hope that helps some one with the leak that wont stop!

I just did this, thanks for the preview walk through. That oil line grommet thing was rock hard and shattered when I took it out. Due to your heads up about it being hard as plastic, I stuffed rags all around it before pulling it off so all the brittle little bits were captured. My cabin air filters were downright nasty. See yours tucked back inside behind that ducting you removed at the rear. I ordered them Saturday and Amazon had there here Monday slipping them in just in time before I have to drive back to work tomorrow. I love it when a plan comes together! 12 years later and finally you know your pictures did some good. Thanks

I took a lighter to a blade (to heat it up) and sliced down the side of it. I was tugging on it before that for around 15 minutes trying to get it off and it wouldn't come off. It was so hard that I opted not to use pliers or anything because I thought I would be taking it off in pieces like others have stated. It's so close to the timing chain for there to be a rubber pinata moment. No way I'm fishing that **** out of the timing chain/cover.


I also dabbed some ultra black rtv on areas of the valve cover gasket so that it wouldn't fall off when flipping it over (bought the elring gasket). Also on the front portion of the cylinder (where those seam things are) and half moons so it slid into place and didn't snag. Hand tightened everything and I then torqued everything to 7.5ft lbs working from the middle to top/bot middle on outward slowly and snapped off 2 bolts. I didn't even know I snapped the middle bolt. That's how weak these 24 year old bolts were.


https://i.imgur.com/prRLhSm.jpg


I'm mad that I broke any bolt, but I was particularly mad that I broke it @ the bottom right since it's a pain to get a drill in that area. To makes things worse, it didn't break perfectly horizontal. It had a slight angle to it. I marred some of the area to and cleaned it up a bit. I can't imagine breaking any of the bolts on the far left where it would be a nightmare to get a drill in there.

I had to extract the bolts using left handed bits and got it all installed again w/ new rtv. I didn't torque anything down. Just stopped when I felt the resistance got too much. Those bolts are around $12-15 a piece. Those bolts are pretty heavy for how they look/feel, but the bit cut through them like they were made of pewter. Working fine so far with no leaks.

Breaking those bolts seems to be a common theme - and using a torque wrench on them seems to be the common denominator. Once they snug up, there's very little torque needed to snap them off. On small, non-critical fasteners, it's better to trust your wrist.

Agreed that these only need a very small amount of force.

Not all toqrue wrenches are equal.
I've been successful a couple of times now with my 1/4" drive torque wrench.

But if in case the only torque wrench available is a 3/8 or 1/2 drive, I'd do them by hand.

I bought a 5-80ft lbs 3/8" torque wrench from harbor freight just for the valve cover bolts as I only have a 1/2" one that didn't go that low. So not sure how accurate it is at the lower settings (or any settings actually since I can't truly test it), but I wasn't planning on shelling out for something more proper. I assume it's okay. I did some small tests on various bolts to see if it would even click @ 7.5lbs and it did. So it does engage on some level, but not 100% sure if it's off by a lb/lbs. It's just these bolts are weird with that little seat/lip thing just above the threads. They all broke just before that. Seems it can't take much pressure.

I redid the tightening after fixing my mess up with a 1/4" wrench and just by feeling out the tightness. I've been checking the spark plug wells and exterior seam where the valve cover meets the block. So far so good.

Hope everyone else has better luck than me.