Gasket replacement pictures - Part II (long) (archive)

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Below, that black pipe crossing the right cam cover is the fuel return pipe. If you look closely, you'll see the two black fuel return pipes coming down the top of the valley, just below the cam cover edge, converging together over the Number 6 intake, and then jumping over the cover to a return hose. This piping gets in the way of attaching the Number 11 lower intake manifold bolt in a big way.

Other thing to note: The tilted up engine electrical duct, suspended from the hood during the entire operation, and the manifold suspension bracket affixed to the lower side of the camshaft cover. This bracket mates with a stud on the manifold and carries some of the weight of the manifold. It's mounted with a rubber coupling to a cam cover stud. Also note the fuel rail mounting stub on the intake runner.

In the lousy picture below, you'll see the necessary kludge of parts to fasten the intake nuts. Going from left to right, that's a 3/8 metric torque wrench, mated to a 3/8 to 1/4 inch reducer, followed by a 14 inch 1/4 extension, a 1/4 inch wobbler/flex fitting, and finally, a 10mm socket with a magnet insert inside. BMW sells the equivalent tool, but I needed all these adapters and couplings anyway, so crummy old Craftsman got my money instead.

One you've inserted and seated the left intake, fastening the top nuts is no problem. It's the bottom ones that pose a problem with all that aluminum getting in the way. The secret is to insert that long, magnetic socket between the top of the cam cover and the bottom of the manifold, praying you don't drop the nut. Torque all the nuts to 10 NM. Most of the nuts can be located visually by scrunching down and peering around.

In the picture above and below, I'm going for the bottom nut of the Number 11 runner. To reach this, you've got to cross over diagonally from the Number 10 "pocket", under the Number 11 intake runner, and grab the nut, blind. Sounds impossible, but it actually works.

You can't get to the Number 11 straight-on due to the fuel return combining manifold sitting directly in your path. Thanks, BMW engineers!

Some incidental shots of the flow control valve setup prior to installation of the DK motor. Painted the cam covers with a dull aluminum paint that matched the original, followed by several coats of high-temperature lacquer.

Here's an interesting shot of the back of the left manifold DK motor just prior to attachment. Notice the hose setup, the liberal application of Hylomar, and the new paper gasket affixed to the manifold. I found all the hoses on the engine to be incredibly hard and inflexible, so I landed up replacing them all, including the fuel pressure regulator hoses, seen dangling below.

You also get a good shot of the fuel injector manifolds being fit-checked here. No injectors are installed yet.

Beauty shot of the injectors in their rails and clipped in. Notice the whopping thick O-rings on the pintle ends of the injectors. Use Gummipflege to lube these prior to press fitting into the intake bores, trust me!

Electrical duct coming down for installation between the fuel rails. Fuel pressure vacuum hoses attach after the duct is in place. Also, there's a fair number of electrical connections that must be made once the duct is back in place. This, for me, was the toughest part of the R&R procedure. Getting to the back of the alternator is a bitch.

Below, the duct is in place and the injector connectors are awaiting reconnection. The fuel pressure regulators are reconnected, and the main left and right electrical harnesses are in place. If you look carefully, you'll see the pulse sender connectors located in the open area underneath the "bridge", awaiting their brackets.

Below is an amazing amount of bright aluminum, all nice and clean. So bright the picture is overexposed!

Just prior to hooking up the left AFM and duct work. After a suprisingly short cranking period (less than 10 seconds), it started right up with no fuel leaks. Threw in a tank of Techron to clean the backside of the valves.

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