Any S63/N63 valve cover gasket tips/tricks?

[tfunk88]

Soooo I’m at 150k miles on my 2016 X5 50i and it’s time to replace the valve cover gaskets. Looks like there’s A LOT of stuff that needs to be removed…and access is still gonna be tight.

Anyone who’s done it have any tips or tricks they found useful? Any help would be much appreciated!

[Chilled]

Any luck?

Any chance to takes some pics, notes?

[tfunk88]

Things came up so I’m going to start this weekend…wish me luck!

Will try to take pics and document stuff…it looks like it’s going to be A LOT of work. My buddy has a 35i and did his a while back, he figured it would take me about a day. Then I showed him the 50i engine bay and he said “Wow…that’s a lot…and it’s crazy tight…I didn’t realize…good luck!” 😂

[Cbozz]

Originally Posted by tfunk88

Things came up so I’m going to start this weekend…wish me luck!

Will try to take pics and document stuff…it looks like it’s going to be A LOT of work. My buddy has a 35i and did his a while back, he figured it would take me about a day. Then I showed him the 50i engine bay and he said “Wow…that’s a lot…and it’s crazy tight…I didn’t realize…good luck!” 😂

Tight is a theme of that engine bay!!!

[tfunk88]

Yup…I’m pretty sure I’ll get about 10 minutes into taking stuff apart and think “Why in the world am I doing this????” 😂

[Cbozz]

Originally Posted by tfunk88

Soooo I’m at 150k miles on my 2016 X5 50i and it’s time to replace the valve cover gaskets. Looks like there’s A LOT of stuff that needs to be removed…and access is still gonna be tight.

Anyone who’s done it have any tips or tricks they found useful? Any help would be much appreciated!

[tfunk88]

Originally Posted by Cbozz

https://youtu.be/qCccMeelE6Q?si=UJUmTiD1kOz5O72x

Thanks!

I’ve started with the accessory belt/AC belt and I already hate working on it 😂

Wish all this could be as easy as plugs and coils lol

[tfunk88]

Originally Posted by Cbozz

https://youtu.be/qCccMeelE6Q?si=UJUmTiD1kOz5O72x

Hmmm…I might be more confused after watching that video 😂

[tfunk88]

Soooo, I started today. Not gonna lie, what you see after taking off the airbox is disheartening lol

[tfunk88]

Essentially all that stuff has to come off. And it is tight af in there. And I mean TIGHT. I decided to start at the front so I drained the coolant using the hose on the trans cooler. Removed the cross bar/brace and then the fan. Like I said it’s tight…and a coolant hose is clipped in to the fan housing. But overall it came out without too much cursing.

Then I disconnected and removed the rest of the radiator hoses and also the intercooler hose that was attached to the fan shroud. Man, what a mess 150k miles leaves in the radiator and underneath 😳

[tfunk88]

Then I removed the coolant hoses and vacuum hose that run across the front. BMW uses a mix of disconnectors and permanent clamps 🤬 So to remove them I had to remove a couple mermanent clamps (will teplace with proper ORM clamps or worm gear, haven’t decided) and went to work on the intercoolers. On the passenger side intercooler BMW put wires right where you need to get access to the bottom 10mm bolt holding the intercooler on. I definitely was cussing their engineers. lol

You will be AMAZED at the amount of wiring, cooling hoses, vacuum hoses, and just whatever else they could think of putting there 🤦‍♂️

[tfunk88]

Once I got the intercoolers off I decided I was done for the evening. There’s still a shit ton of stuff to unplug at the front of the engine…apparently you need to do this to get room to move the wiring harness out of the way to get at the valve cover. Yay.

[tfunk88]

Oh, I almost forgot…on the driver’s side intercooler lower bracket there is a clip holding a wire to it. It’s a plastic clip with metal insert. Getting that clip off the bracket almost caused me to say eff it, put it back together, and drop the car off at the dealer 😂 Every other piece of plastic that’s become brittle from heat that I’ve broken over the last year and a half but this @#$%ing thing held on for dear life! Lol

[tfunk88]

Oh, I also found a longer video from the same guy Cbozz posted

[shimmy23]

thanks for sharing your experience. it confirms that i'm not interested in doing this nor do i have the spare time for it

[Chilled]

nope, oil leak not that bad. Revisit in another 150k.

Did you need to remove the radiator tho?

[tfunk88]

Originally Posted by shimmy23

thanks for sharing your experience. it confirms that i'm not interested in doing this nor do i have the spare time for it

Ha ha yeah it kinda sucks. If I didn’t have a second vehicle…and wasn’t so hard headed…I’d have a shop do it lol

[tfunk88]

Originally Posted by Chilled

nope, oil leak not that bad. Revisit in another 150k.

Did you need to remove the radiator tho?

You don’t HAVE to remove the radiator, but it gives you A LOT more room to work…and it’s pretty easy to do. Plus it allows me to clean all the crap that was on it, the ac condenser, and the intercooler radiator.

[RobertMarkland]

Replacing the valve cover gaskets on the S63/N63 can be tricky due to tight spaces and lots of components to remove. Label everything for easier reassembly, and consider removing the cowl to gain more working room. Be cautious with brittle plastic parts, especially at higher mileage. Use a torque wrench for proper tightening to avoid leaks. Patience and careful handling will make the job smoother. Good luck! I was curious to see what famous people had to say about education, and I found this https://academized.com/juliette-binoche page on Academized about Juliette Binoche. It was cool to read her thoughts on learning and how she values education. If you’re into reading about celebrities and their views, check it out!

[tfunk88]

Originally Posted by RobertMarkland

Replying for the updates.

Ha ha they are going to be kind of sporadic because I’m only working on the car when I can find the time!

Hopefully with this long weekend, I will get a lot done…

[tfunk88]

Ok, not gonna lie…this job sucks 😂

I’ve had sporadic time to work on it…I get frustrated, then I make a breakthrough and think “Oh, I’ll definitely be able to do this now!” Well, now I’m at another sticking point. And it’s all about the wiring. You have to get all the wiring out of the way to be able to remove the valve covers. Which means unplugging all the wires that run over both valve covers and down both sides of the engine…or unplugging the harnesses at the ECU. Unfortunately there is zero access for each…even zero-er for the harness at the ECU…without taking even more stuff off than I already have.

Oh well…wish me luck!

[Chilled]

Lol, sounds fun. Keep us posted.