L322 Whats this?

Anyone know what this is gunked into the back of my drivers side cylinder head (the black rubbery half round thing)?
Its leaking oil and making an unholy mess of the street (its between the rocker gasket and the head).
Need to know what it is unless it comes as part of a rocker cover gasket kit.
PS. 2003, 4.4 petrol Vogue
Cheers all.

If it's a 4.4 it looks like part of the cam cover seal that's been leaking and tried to be sealed maybe ?

The half round bit on the right hand side

Sorted, thanks mate, I'll order it now

I assume LR003812 is drivers side?

This was my shopping list as it if you are going in there you may as well do the other seals around the bolt holes as these can leak and fill the spark plug bores up with oil as can the inner seal. You will also need the correct sealant and apply it to the places shown in rave, the half circle bit being one of them.
i can't remember which way around but i think drivers side is banks 1 to 4 and passenger is 5 - 8 but its on here somewhere. The G part of the part number denoted reinz brand i think
the sealant part number is STC 50550 cross references to a loctite part number if you have a google and you can buy it off ebay.
Also the cam covers will be really messy with all the paint lifting off around where the seals fit so be prepared for a clean up job.
The seals go rock hard, really brittle and are quite often stuck in the channels unless they have already been done before so i heated mine up with a hot air gun and they came out easy.
there are some good write ups on the net on how to do it on the M62 BMW forums, although rave is good
i followed this one as a guide along with rave

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...wTo-gt-M60-M62-Valve-Cover-Gasket-Replacement

Spot on, thanks mate, not seen anything to suggest a particular type of sealant so very helpful. Job for Friday now although it's lost a gallon in 4 weeks, it's worse than I thought it was but at least its getting done now. Cheers

Your front timing chain covers can also leak which is more involved and check the two vanos solenoid seals at the front of both heads which is an easy change.
How are your PCV valve pipes at the back of the engine as they are also a very common source of oil leaks?
When my cam cover seals were leaking it was dropping oil onto the hot exhaust and threatened to catch fire but you sound like you have such a volume of oil it's probably cooling the exhaust !
good luck

I give up lol. Gasket changed (thanks for your help with the list HC) still smoking, oil hitting the hot exhaust and burning off in massive clouds of blue smoke, (was just one cloud earlier but it was 1/4 mile long!)
I'm hoping it's just excess oil being blown about but something tells me it's not.
The extent of the leak :

did you follow rave with the tightening procedure and the extra gasket sealant and the seals can drop off at the last second when you try and put the cam covers back on.
You certainly had a good oil leak before.
have you checked your pcv hoses as if i am correct, if the pcv valve is failing it can pressurise the camshaft covers / crankcase as the pipes connect to the camshaft covers.
if the PCV valve is faulty and the seals were leaking, having replaced the seals could be directing the oil out elsewhere, as in the pcv hoses that turn to mush.
have a look at Storey Willson's video, he designed the allcomms so a top bloke..
have a read through saint's how to as i think i have posted on their how to make a manometer to test the PCV valve.



https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-ro...ve-and-thats-when-it-went-a-bit-wrong.232995/

pcv valve gone will cause pressure in the block and cause oil to blow past seals & gaskets and can also cause blue smoke so worth checking LR recommend changing the pcv valve every 30,000 miles

I'd echo Andys comments to check the PCV, to get that much oil in there I do wonder if your crankcase is getting pressurised!!!

EDIT: and Kev above

PCV was changed in March along with the hoses so it should be Ok. I don't have rave so didn't know of a specific tightening procedure but I did use high temp RTV sealant in the required places.
The previous gasket appeared to be a bit of a bodge job which might explain the amount of oil in the plugs.
Previous bodge:

And the condition of the old gasket, looks to have been getting hot and appeared melted:

This is the Rave manual, very comprehensive manual on just about everything.
Did you torque the bolts on the cam cover down ?
I would think you would be ok, you need to check to see if oil is still coming out of the new gasket or where exactly.
I think what looks melted is part of an after thought bodge to try and seal the gasket and it doesn't look like there has been sealer applied to either side of those semi circle bits.


http://www.landroverresource.com/

I've run my finger along the gasket edge and it seems OK which is worrying as now I'm thinking I'm looking at a bigger problem.
Gonna give it a wash off under the bonnet and keep my eye on things, hopefully it's not too serious.
Thanks.

They are a really good engine with a few quirks, the timing chain guides failing being the most deadly.

There is a basic test you can do for crankcase pressure which i think is by starting the engine and on idle and either getting a plastic sandwhich type bag or thin carrier bag and resting it lightly over the oil filler cap hole with it removed and it should slightly suck in with the engine running although whenever i tried this oil was flicking out off the top cam chain so the other option is to remove the dipstick and the same should happen whereby the plastic gets lightly sucked into the top of the dipstick tube.
The other option is the manometer as already described.
It could be as you say just the oil that has been dripped onto the exhaust while changing the seals but if the smoke is coming out of the exhaust then more concerning.
check down the spark plug bores and if you removed the spark plugs for any reason while you were in there then that could have dumped oil into the cylinder.

keep an eye on your front timing chain seals as they go as bad as the cam cover seals and often get left as they are more involved to change.

keep us posted

I will, oil definitely not coming out of the exhaust, it's burning oil on the manifold/downpipe. There is staining on top of the right hand downpipe which suggests the problem is probably more towards the back of the engine and high up so I think I'll check the PCV because it was the same garage that changed the PCV last March that did the rocker gaskets in 2012 (there's an entry in the service record to show rocker gaskets were changed at just under 100k)
I'll post back with my findings, oil will be easier to see after its had a good clean.
Thanks.

i used a small webcam connected to my laptop on a usb lead to get a good look behind the engine and taking out the heater plenum helps as well which is quick and easy to take out.
I used moviemaker to record and watch back indoors
I wonder if your cam cover is warped and not sealing correctly but finding the source of your leak will guide you as you are doing

Hamster97 said:

I will, oil definitely not coming out of the exhaust, it's burning oil on the manifold/downpipe. There is staining on top of the right hand downpipe which suggests the problem is probably more towards the back of the engine and high up so I think I'll check the PCV because it was the same garage that changed the PCV last March that did the rocker gaskets in 2012 (there's an entry in the service record to show rocker gaskets were changed at just under 100k)
I'll post back with my findings, oil will be easier to see after its had a good clean.
Thanks.

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a small pipe that the pcv connects to which in turn connect to a metal pipe that returns oil to the sump. it has failed on me before which was leaking oil on the manifold might be worth a look it routes through the water manifold under pcv