Quote:
Originally Posted by dougt.ah3
Perfect. I'll just pick up and change the BMW gasket for now.
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Nice car....if you do this gasket yourself go easy when you remove the cover. Over time these gaskets can get pretty hard/brittle from the constant exposure to heat, and they can 'stick' to the aluminum head and the valve cover. On couple of my older cars the covers felt like they were welded to the head and the gaskets were like hard plastic.
So if your cover does not come off relatively easily, use plastic razor blade or similar thin plastic to break the seal between head and cover. If that does not get it done, you may end up having to pry a bit on a corner - go easy and remember you don't want to scratch the aluminum head's sealing surface.
pic: I just did VCG on my 2012 X3 motor (it's inline 6). Car is not that old but I'll be darned the cover was not even easy to get off...look at the gasket material around the spark plug holes, that stuff was very hard and as I was pulling it off it was so brittle it broke into several pieces; gotta watch that so you don't allow any of this hard gasket material get deposited/remain in the valvetrain area.
Good luck/Bill