I'm tackling this in a couple of weeks -- on #15, why the two short beads of RTV at each end of the semi-circle rather than a light continuous bead? Just curious...

Less is better. You only need to seal where parts and gaskets come together, the semi-circles and gaskets on either side seal themselves. Makes less a mess.
Main thing is getting it into place before tightening everything.

Personally, I don't like to use RTV (silicone sealant) I prefer Yamaha's Yamabond 4 motorcycle engine sealant. It is expensive, but it never hardens and is not slippery like silicone RTV.

In the Ooooold days, we used 3M yellow super weatherstrip adhesive. I still keep some around for sealing small stuff, like small gaskets etc and it's a very handy contact cement that will stick to weatherstrip (obviously) rubber, glass and metal, it also never hardens completely..... but RTV is good for filling in gaps.
Me, I don't want to see the stuff oozing all over the place. Too messy. And slippery. :wink:
(I knew a girl like that once....)

Just did mine this morning -- all went well except for the brief scary moment when pulling off the oil supply pipe seal (pic #14). It shattered into three pieces that, fortunately, I was able to find, extract and reassemble (to confirm I had them all) with the help of some extra-long extra-skinny needlenose pliers. That sucker was more like Bakelite than rubber after 138K. It was also the only piece I sourced from the dealer.

Anyhow, no leaks, no more oil-on-header smell. Thanks for the write-up and pics.

Next project for you if you haven't done it yet, is the oil filter housing seals and gasket.
Good write-up on that here too. I have a 96 ti with going on 160,000 miles on it, and with the valve cover and oil filter housing gaskets/seals/o-rings all done now, I can park in my new driveway without a drip pan !!!

thanks for this thread. I just did my valve cover gaskets last night. Looks to have gone successful. Having all part #'s/seals was important.

There was oil leaking inside the spark plug cylinder and causing oil to get inside the ignition wire and was causing a misfire. The spark plug was covered in oil from the seals around the spark plug cylinder being old/hard.

Who ever did the valve cover before I owned my car stripped the 3 bolt housings that are in front of the valve cover near the water pump/oil cap.

The trick to use a longer screw worked to fix the stripped screw hole issue, and all bolts tightened successfully.

Now I am waiting for my new spark plug wires, and hopefully this fixes the misfire. If i'm still getting a misfire I'll replace the Ignition coils.

thanks again for this tread. saved me lots of $$$$!

No satisfaction like a job well done. And no leaks...

So far driven 50miles, no leaks, no check engine light. :keepsfingerscrossed:

ok update. Threw a CEL and check engine light came on after 118miles of driving.

Multiple misfires, so its definitely the spark/ignition wires. So im installing the new ignition wires tonight.

But also threw a P1174 code. Can this be due to dirty MAF? or could it be a bad SHUT OFF valve? seems 02 censors arent the problem with this P1174 code. (from reading other forums and people trying to address P1174, seems like new 02 sensors did not fix)

any thoughts?

thanks!

whats the size of the 2 little valve cover bolts and any idea where i can get some, mine kinda snapped.

P1174 is being triggered by bad CVV or PCV (same thing, different name)

Hex bolts are stripped underneath the CVV, and it seems BMW has discountinued them, so ill be using a regula M6X20 bolt.

since the original hex bolts are stripped, has anyone ever tried prying the CVV off, or cutting it loose? damn screws wont unscrew!!!

11 Collar screw M6X27,5 2 11121721883 $2.67

http://www.ecstuning.com/ES18251/

buy 2 of these...that should do it.

I get alot from that site, got my rims from there, i didnt know what they where called since most call them valve cover bolts.
Picked some up from bmw of atlanta

Thanks for posting this.... definitely made completing this job a lot easier. Unfortunately, I had the same problem with the bolts shearing off in the cylinder head using a torque wrench set properly (goes down to 5ft/lbs and I tested it first). I didn't get close to spec before breaking the bolts. After 160k of heat cycles and probably multiple removals, these things were soft to say the least. So, to the point... if you need the longer ones, they are M6X42,5 part # 11121721877 or 11127568809. The resource I found had both listed. You'll need 13 of them at about $3 a pop from the dealer.

I wish if I could find this thread sooner. I just replaced valve cover gasket and spark plugs over the weekend to address an oil leak into cyl#2

I didn't know about Oil Supply Seal. my car is 96/318iC with 175K miles
Should I go back and replace the oil supply seal? What are my options here ?
Should I replace all the gaskets again one I open the cover ? Thanks

Very nice DIY, something I will be doing this weekend. However, I have a question. That oil supply seal, is that the same thing as this seal on PelicanParts.com?

Link:
http://www.pelicanparts.com/cgi-bin/...0%281995-99%29

If so, I will be going to the dealer to pick em up, along with the bolts.

BTW, I bought some NGK plugs from the dealer and the box says to torque the plugs at 30 newton meters. That's like 23 lbs torque, I think. Did anyone else get that as well?