All in all it went pretty smooth. Thanks to all who offered assistance and tips - most of them came in quite handy.

Here are the new gaskets before the little job started. The part numbers for those bad boys are:

11-12-9-069-871
11-12-9-069-872

Total of $40.48 with CCA discount at BMW of Houston North.

Just got a new Autoweek and haven't had time to read it yet. An $80k Volkswagon!??! It better have Fahrfegnuggen (yeah, I don't have a clue how to spell it or what it means :^)).



The following image is with the coil cover removed on the left side (driver's side in US, cylinders 5-8). This side ended up being harder to get the valve cover in without messing up the new gasket on the back side due to those dam$ hoses/lines you see running up near the micron air filter box. What are those anyway? Brake lines? Fuel lines?


The next image is with the valve cover removed. I see a little wear (not much, mind you) on the tip of the cam lobes - is that normal for 121,000 miles?



Another couple of shots of the engine inards (and what beautiful engine guts they are :^)):





And finally, the valve cover with new gasket in place. A little bit of sludge build up on the inside of the valve cover. I used dino oil for about the first 60k of her life before switching to synthetic.

The old gasket (above the cover on the ground) was quite brittle and broke/tore easily when I took it out. It was time for the change (if not past time):



Mike Ernst
98 540i 6-spd