Just got home its dark outside, so cant see much but turned off the car after a whole day driving and smelt burning oil. Popped the hood and engine bay was smoking from the rear. Once the smoke cleared i checked the exhaust manifold near the primary catalyctic converter to find some drips of burnt oil. Let the car cool off and then felt her up i mean the engine, near cylinder 8 and managed to get oil on my fingers. What are you thoughts guys? Valve cover gasket? Head gasket? Ill get a proper look when daylight strikes tomorrow but i need your thoughts on where to look first.

Probably valve cover gasket

valve cover gasket, common problem and a easy fix bro.

Just don't forget about that supercharger vacuum line...

i just had to redo my passengers side too cuz every time i would start it int he morning a small puff of smoke would come out, i guess i never sealed it right the first time. OH well, this time around i did it perfect. Anyways they are very easy to do just take your time and dont rush trying to yang out the plug wires or anything, take it easy.

Yep, VCG, cheap and easy

Might as well change both and be done with it. Even torquing the bolts does not seem to help once they leak.

Had fun this afternoon working on the car! I ended up ordering new valve cover gaskets, map sensor, crank sensor, spark plug wires, plugs, 10litres of mobil 1 0w-40, mann oil filter, drain plugs and washers and breather lines. Spent the day changing out the passenger(drivers side in US) valve cover gaskets. Very straight forward, only down time was cleaning the valve covers and waiting for all the fuel to trickle out from the rail. What a PITA i lost 16cents of fuel before it stopped. Couldnt find my 17mm wrench for the plug wires so ended up popping them off by hand. Much easier! Cleaned it all up before proceeding to the damn CPS! The screw faces the wrong way! Grabbed the ratchet a swivel, 3 adaptors to an etorx bit and had it out and the new one back in within 10 minutes. I guess i got lucky. Tomorrow afternoon i have the other side valve cover to do, an oil change and possible map sensor replacement, still not sure as the car has been driving fine but was looking to upgrade to the green Bosch map sensor? Will keep everyone posted.

10 liters, holy crap. I think they only take 8.5 if you literally drain the coolers

If you already have the MAP sensor, you might as well change it out... you're already there

Hahaha sorry, yeh i bought 10 litres but will only use around 8, its cheaper to buy 2x5litre bottles then 1x5 litre and 3x1 litre bottles.

I also wanted to double check how the supercharger vaccum line is seated, i bolted it back onto the Valve cover but i did knock it loose intially, how does it contact the supercharger? Anyone have a photo?

Thank you all for your help

If you look down the right side of the S/C (facing the engine) between the surge tank and S/C, you will see a rubber gromet about halfway down, toward the rear. You can then guide the metal vacuum line into it.

In this pic, the grommet was actually pulled out, but it is resting right on top of what it should be sticking in to.



Hope that helps! If you don't get it right, you will get a CEL and a high idle by 2-300 rpm.

Perfect, i pushed the vaccum line back into the rubber grommet and tightened it up on the valve cover. Other side valve cover was done, took my time and managed to get everything cleaned up nicely. I ran into another complication while doig a thorough inspection of the wiring harness for the coils. Turns out cylinder 1 had some melted rubber which coated both the male connector inside the coil pack and the female connector inside the wiring harness. Does this look normal? Am i able to find the same connector from a wrecked e55 for cylinder 1 and solder it on?