(And others, if you want to add your photos too! I also saw the request in the Honda Valve Train pics thread for "more photos," so here goes)
Car has 200,400km (~124k miles) and was doing the Valve Cover Gasket as it has progressed worse than "just seeping" as before.
As I pulled things apart, I gradually realised it was much, more worse than that. Spark Plug wells full of oil, cracked coil boots (Previous owner's mechanic did plugs just 2yrs ago -25K km / 25K miles).
The first 20yrs this car spent its life in the city and was initially BMW serviced. Car mostly does highway driving, with short trips thrown in now and again.
The previous owner then took it to a well-regarded Indy for much of her time, although the final service was with another mechanic whom I found numerous shoddy jobs that it should NEVER have left with (leaky radiator, bad fan clutch, squealing belts).
As previously discussed, before BMW introduced the "LongLife" oil grade in 1998, the service interval was about 12K km or 7.5K miles. This would be with conventional oils in 1993, then BMW "Special Oil" from 1996, followed by the familiar LongLife standards. The LongLife standards allowed a 9,320 mile (15K km) interval due to fully-synthetic oils being used.
Only sludge is that on the VANOS unit and flaky stuff around the oil filler on the valve cover itself (no photos yet, work in progress!). Will clean the cover itself as that stuff is loose and likely to get stuck somewhere it shouldn't someday.
Car has 200,400km (~124k miles) and was doing the Valve Cover Gasket as it has progressed worse than "just seeping" as before.
As I pulled things apart, I gradually realised it was much, more worse than that. Spark Plug wells full of oil, cracked coil boots (Previous owner's mechanic did plugs just 2yrs ago -25K km / 25K miles).
The first 20yrs this car spent its life in the city and was initially BMW serviced. Car mostly does highway driving, with short trips thrown in now and again.
The previous owner then took it to a well-regarded Indy for much of her time, although the final service was with another mechanic whom I found numerous shoddy jobs that it should NEVER have left with (leaky radiator, bad fan clutch, squealing belts).
As previously discussed, before BMW introduced the "LongLife" oil grade in 1998, the service interval was about 12K km or 7.5K miles. This would be with conventional oils in 1993, then BMW "Special Oil" from 1996, followed by the familiar LongLife standards. The LongLife standards allowed a 9,320 mile (15K km) interval due to fully-synthetic oils being used.
Only sludge is that on the VANOS unit and flaky stuff around the oil filler on the valve cover itself (no photos yet, work in progress!). Will clean the cover itself as that stuff is loose and likely to get stuck somewhere it shouldn't someday.
