Any S63/N63 valve cover gasket tips/tricks?

[Lostwooli]

Honestly is it worth dropping the motor/subframe?
These things are wedged in there

[tfunk88]

I would say for this job…no. Mostly. Lol

Honestly for the most part it’s not a bad job because of tightness of workspace in terms of the engine bay. It’s just all the sheeeit you have to take off/unplug/move out of the way. And to drop the engine you’d have to do everything I did…plus whatever you’d have to do to drop it. Really in terms of valve cover bolt access it’s only about 6 total outer bolts that are a pain to get to because of the engine being squeezed in.

Now, would I prefer to work on the engine on a stand? Oh hellsyeah! But to get to that point is…a lot.

When I go back to do the driver’s side engine mount I will definitely drop the subframe completely. The passenger side was absolutely awful with only dropping it some 😬

[Chilled]

Hey, did you manage to take a pic of the steering shaft?

[tfunk88]

I didn’t take any pics of it, but I can when I get back in town next week.

The steering shaft is super easy. One bolt and the shaft slides off. It’s easy to put it back together, too…as long as you don’t reinstall the fuel rail before you put it back together. Ask me how I know. Lol

[tfunk88]

Originally Posted by Chilled

Hey, did you manage to take a pic of the steering shaft?

Sooo I can’t really get a pic of the steering shaft right now with how much I’ve put together. But…if you undo the clip that I drew a yellow arrow pointing to and move the hoses away from that side you have a straight shot to the e-torx bolt as long as your steering wheel is straight ahead

[tfunk88]

Sooo the thermostat housing gasket that was supposed to come in last week finally arrived…now I just have to put the cooling system together, throw in some chassis bracing, covers, etc and then see if it blows up 😂

The intercoolers were a complete pain in the butt…and I may have cross threaded one of the bolts 🤦‍♂️🤬

[tfunk88]

Soooo close to start time! 😬

What a jumble of hoses and wires lol

[tfunk88]

So…it started…but… 🤦‍♂️😂

I have codes for-

123004 “wastegate control line interruption”

120408 Boost pressure control shutdown as a follow up reaction

120908 boost pressure control 2 shutdown as a follow up reaction

A couple generator codes

CD8E12 LIN, communication (generator), missing

210C01 generator communication, bus error

EDIT- alternator was NOT plugged in 😂 How cool would it be if plugging it in fixed all the codes… 😜

So, even though it’s plugged in somehow the alternator isn’t communicating. And I’m guessing somewhere I missed a plug for wastegate control…hopefully it’s not on the front of the engine 🤦‍♂️

[tfunk88]

So my only issue appears to be wastegate control ain’t plugged in…anyone know where it’s at? Lol

[tfunk88]

Found it! Lol

Plug on front of the vacuum control for the wastegates wasn’t quite all the way in. Fortunately it was a “just remove this front cross brace” kind of thing. Woot!

It was definitely an “I’m pretty sure this plug goes here and not on the back one so I’ll start it here but don’t forget to fully plug it in once you’re sure” kind of thing 😂

[Chilled]

I still cant believe a) how clean it was inside the engine, and b) how much of a pain it seems to do this.

Bravo.


Do you really need to remove the crossbars at the back and the plastic shrouding under the windows (cabin filter/ecu)?

Originally Posted by tfunk88

Found it! Lol

Plug on front of the vacuum control for the wastegates wasn’t quite all the way in. Fortunately it was a “just remove this front cross brace” kind of thing. Woot!

It was definitely an “I’m pretty sure this plug goes here and not on the back one so I’ll start it here but don’t forget to fully plug it in once you’re sure” kind of thing 😂

Where is that vacuum control plug? Based on the photo it kinda it looks likes its under banks 1-4 IC, somewhere near the FAN plug (the + cable).


Did you end up checking out the oil separators, how were they?

[tfunk88]

Yep, I was really happy to see that clean inside of the engine as well…which made me decide not to use an oil flush treatment I was hesitant to use.

It MIGHT be possible to do the job without removing the plastic trays and braces at the rear…but I’d think the aggravation of having to work around them at the rear of the valve cover would far outweigh the small amount of time it takes to remove them. You have to reach into/over those areas a lot when dealing with all the wiring, cyl 3/4 and 7/8 injectors, etc. removing them really opens up the engine bay at the rear.

Yep, that plug is in front of bank 1. The pic makes it look really close to the fan plug, but it’s below and several inches towards the driver’s side of the bottom of the bank 1 intercooler. Basically about 4 inches driver’s side of the throttle body. I’m just glad it wasn’t the plug on the BACK side of the control…apparently I was smart enough to plug that one in instead of being unsure. 😂

I checked the oil separators as well as I could…everything seemed fine but when I do this job again in 100k miles (really???? I’m already dreading it…&#129315 I’ll definitely replace them. I should have this time but wasn’t thinking…as usual. Lol

And if these gaskets last without leaking over the next 100k (if I’m lucky &#129310 I’ll probably go ahead and do it again. The heat and time had turned the gasket into hard plastic that was a big pain to remove from the cover. Much of the exhaust side of the cover had to be picked…yep, with a small pick…out inch by inch, and then the hard as plastic residue that would sometimes remain picked/scraped out. Same with the two smaller gaskets around the plugs/injectors area.

Well, time for a decent test drive to see if she suddenly springs any leaks! 🤞🤞🤞

[tfunk88]

Drove it to work today…man, I forgot how much I love this thing! Did a full throttle test run as I got closer to my house and all is good! I was kinda hoping with new injectors replacing 150k mile injectors it would be stupendously more powerful, but…nope 😂

Only bad thing is…and I’m ashamed to admit it…I got so used to the view from driving my “monster truck”…it’s a 2005 Ford Excursion with 9” lift and 38” tires 😂…while working on the X5 and how far away things were while looking over the hood that I misjudged the curb at work and gave the right front wheel a lil bit o’ curb rash. 🤦‍♂️ Oh well, they had rash on them from the previous owner, so lesson learned. Hopefully lol

[tfunk88]

Just an update…I have almost 2k miles on the car since I finished the valve cover gasket job. No leaks. And either my oil level sensor has suddenly frozen or replacing the valve cover gaskets has resolved my oil “consumption” issue. Normally by now I’d need to add a quart. Let’s hope this stays this way!

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by Lostwooli

Honestly is it worth dropping the motor/subframe?
These things are wedged in there

Originally Posted by tfunk88

I would say for this job…no. Mostly. Lol

Honestly for the most part it’s not a bad job because of tightness of workspace in terms of the engine bay. It’s just all the sheeeit you have to take off/unplug/move out of the way. And to drop the engine you’d have to do everything I did…plus whatever you’d have to do to drop it. Really in terms of valve cover bolt access it’s only about 6 total outer bolts that are a pain to get to because of the engine being squeezed in.

Now, would I prefer to work on the engine on a stand? Oh hellsyeah! But to get to that point is…a lot.

When I go back to do the driver’s side engine mount I will definitely drop the subframe completely. The passenger side was absolutely awful with only dropping it some 😬

This is what people usually forget when they say 'easier to pull the engine'. Pulling one of these engines is very hard, and then you still have to do the job itself. Then put the engine back in.