Goose 41 Report post Posted September 16 Pulled the 540i out of the garage for its WOF (passed @ VTNZ) check a couple of weeks back and noticed a few drops of oil on the ground under the engine bay. As the M62's are notorious for valve cover oil leaks, I thought Id start there, and sure enough, good leak from right hand side. Ordered a new gasket set and began work on replacing this over the weekend. Once I had got everything out of the way (and there is a lot of everything to get out of the way) it was obvious where the issue was. Someone had been there before me and instead of replacing the gaskets, they had emptied a tube of gasket maker onto the old gasket and hoped for the best.🤯 Anyway, now that I have identified the issue and have have the new gaskets to sort it, I thought I might as well give the valve covers a clean up and repaint while I have them off. Has anyone had any experience with soda blasting magnesium valve covers, or am I better to use a paint stripper on them? Also, painting vs powder coating? They are in reasonable condition, certainly better than some I have seen. Cheers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Eagle 1662 Report post Posted September 17 All that work not to replace a gasket, hopefully your oil pickup ok. @hqstu would probably have an idea on the covers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Driftit 2078 Report post Posted September 17 Firm supporter of powder coating in the engine bay. I coated my rocker covers in my race cars and I don't think I ever had a scratch or chip. And they were off and on regularly. I actually coated my cast exhaust manifold with a ceramic coating. Looked great. Never failed. Actually think it reduced heat. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neil McCauley 394 Report post Posted September 17 Dry ice blasting would be the go if you can find someone up North that does the work. Think the closest guy to Marsden Point that I know of would be in Dairy Flat though. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Goose 41 Report post Posted September 18 20 hours ago, Neil McCauley said: Dry ice blasting would be the go if you can find someone up North that does the work. Think the closest guy to Marsden Point that I know of would be in Dairy Flat though. Must admit, I had never heard of this. After checking out some videos, it looks like a good option. I have found a powder coater in in Whangarei that will do the work, hopefully get onto that early next week. I have found a few other engine bay bits to tidy up while I have things apart so not in a big hurry to get this done. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hqstu 780 Report post Posted September 26 On 9/17/2024 at 7:26 PM, Eagle said: All that work not to replace a gasket, hopefully your oil pickup ok. @hqstu would probably have an idea on the covers. I had a set powdercoated and they are flaking, possibly due to poor prep I had no control over. Guy was making excuses for not doing them and in the end was probably rushed.... Since then, I've had a further two sets gently sand blasted and then I painted myself with the wrinkle paint you can get from SCA or RIPCO. No primer. Good lasting results so far.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Goose 41 Report post Posted October 3 Slow progress...... Decided to go with a paint stripper, primer, wrinkle coat combo, not 100% perfect, but a big improvement on what was there. Hoping to reassemble this weekend, just waiting on a new set of fuel injector plug clips. I managed to drop / lose one somewhere so might as well replace the lot. I'm also on the hunt for an engine bay firewall panel (the piece that sits against the firewall between the two cabin filter boxes) in reasonable condition, part number in photo below. Mine has gone brittle and nasty. I see them on ebay etc. but they are an odd shape and shipping is crazy, plus would rather buy local where possible. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Goose 41 Report post Posted October 6 So…. Turns out the M62 and M62tu have different rocker covers, and gaskets. Thinking about it now, this makes perfect sense as the tu has Vanos and it’s predecessor does not, meaning a different shape at the front of the valve cover. End result, I need to order the correct gaskets (M62tu) and I have a brand new set of M62 non Vanos valve cover gaskets that are free to a good home. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Goose 41 Report post Posted October 28 (edited) Finally had a chance to road test the rocker cover gasket replacement I completed a couple of weeks back. No more oil dripping onto exhaust manifold so I’d call that a win! Rocker covers also look a lot better in wrinkle black too, not 100% perfect (due in large part to my skills with a paint can) but a lot better than they were. As mentioned before, I have a set of new non-vanos m62 rocker cover gaskets free to a good home. Edited October 28 by Goose 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
