[Neosakai]

I got my uro valve cover from rockauto for my n52 and the valve cover seems to be abit off when I look at the eccentric shaft sensor seal as well as looking into the spark plug tubes.

The bolts do screw in just fine so I'm not sure if this is a problem. I know alot of people here have used uro's valve covers so if anyone can chime in that'll be great. I'm only worried that oil will seep out from the eccentric shaft sensor seal since it doesnt look perfectly aligned.


Thats actually not the only problem I'm having right now, the gasket seems to be too tall and when I torque the valve cover to spec (8.6nm), the gasket looks messed. Below are some pics and comparison against my old gasket (bmw gasket)







in this pic you can see the bwm gasket is shorter than the uro gasket that came with the valve cover


Here is what the uro gasket looks like on the valve cover (sorry i only have pics of the spark plug tube gasket but you get the idea)



vs bmw gasket





gaskets arent too expensive so i'm not too worried about just buying a new gasket and move on but should I be worried about the alignment issue with the valve cover? Or do you guys experience this too and its fine?

[E92_William]

This is what the eccentric shaft sensor gasket looks like on my URO valve cover that's in the engine on my stand so no idea how long it's been there for but I don't remember it leaking from there before I cleaned the engine. It does indeed seem to be more offset to one side. I'd have to pull the cover in my car to see if that's the same situation in that valve cover. That gasket has a design that does seem to be made so one side can be compressed and the other more loose though.

Definitely wouldn't use the gaskets between the valve cover and cylinder head that came with it though. I used felpro gaskets in the cover in my car and it's bone dry 25k miles after. Eccentric sensor seal and valvetronic motor gasket are easy to do if they indeed fail

[Neosakai]

Originally Posted by E92_William

This is what the eccentric shaft sensor gasket looks like on my URO valve cover that's in the engine on my stand so no idea how long it's been there for but I don't remember it leaking from there before I cleaned the engine. It does indeed seem to be more offset to one side. I'd have to pull the cover in my car to see if that's the same situation in that valve cover. That gasket has a design that does seem to be made so one side can be compressed and the other more loose though.

Definitely wouldn't use the gaskets between the valve cover and cylinder head that came with it though. I used felpro gaskets in the cover in my car and it's bone dry 25k miles after. Eccentric sensor seal and valvetronic motor gasket are easy to do if they indeed fail

OMG thank you for this! I totally freaked out and spent my whole day trying to wiggle my valve cover in attempt to get it aligned since I was worried it would leak out of there or other problems. Its definitely reassuring to know I'm not the only one with this and glad to know it hasnt cause you any problems. I guess with this I'll continue with my installation with a new gasket

[E92_William]

Well I'm not saying it hasn't caused me any issues since that's what it looks like in an engine I pulled from a car I never saw run. But will check in my own car to see if it looks the same

[Soden82]

I didn't have any problems with my URO VC in my N54. But that gasket does seem to be too thick. I'd order a felpro or elring gasket and replace the one on the cover currently

[mapleleaf1773]

OP

Check your eccentric shaft bolts when you take the cover off. Make sure all 3 are tight. Just an idea

[RayLivingston]

The entire point of the cover/gasket/bolt design on the valve cover is to achieve CONTROLLED compression of the gasket. When tightened down, the cover should be in contact, or VERY nearly so, with the head ALL the way around the perimeter, and around each spark plug hole. The cover is a very specific thickness around each bolt hole. The bolts all have a specific shoulder length, so they can be fully tightened to where the shoulder contacts the head on the gasket surface. This prevent under- or over-compressing the gasket, either of which can lead to leaks or premature failure.

The gasket in question here appears CLEARLY too thick. Personally, I would not use it. If I had no choice, I would be very careful not to over-tighten it. But, there's no good way to know what is "tight enough".

I replaced the valve cover on my 335i with a $99 EBay special. The cover and gasket were fine, but the kit also included new bolts, which all had longer than stock shoulders, by something like 0.050". Once installed, it leaked like a sieve. I took out all the new bolts, and re-installed the original ones, and it hasn't leaked a drop in 4-5 years.

[mainbearing]

I think that BMW gasket was just old and compressed. Looks like OP used some RTV as well, and that might have raised its height?

Here are some Uro pictures. The sensor does look sitting towards the rear of the engine, similar to OP's picture. The picture of the original sensor is not as clear, but it does look similar to the Uro a little towards the rear of the engine, but not as much (or camera angle?). Therefore IMO Uro can use a little improvement, even by 1 mm. The spark plug coil and its dust cover look centered.




The gasket at the front of the engine and by the OFH. Nice and dry all around:



And the plug hole. The Uro gasket on the cylinder head does cover more:

[Jesda]

Should be fine but I'd swap out the gasket. My Mostplus VC came with ACM gaskets that fit perfectly but I swapped them for Elring since I had a set laying around.

If you want my ACM valve cover gaskets for free send me a message or email jesda@jgulati.com