M54 valve cover gasket replacement questions

[Frazzle76]

I followed this thread to do my valve cover gasket today. It was incredibly brittle. I ran the car for a few minutes afterwards and there was still a little smoke but hopefully just residual, and to be fair there may be other oil leaks anyway - this is just the first one fixed hopefully.

Thanks very much to those who posted on here. Incredibly helpful.
If there is residual oil do you think it would burn off within a couple of quick runs?

 

[colb]

It should burn off after a while, I always spray brake cleaner down the exhaust side where it has leaked to clean it off, obviously when the engine is cold and not running. Besides the cam cover and central plug well gaskets the only other top end leaks is the oil filter to engine block gasket, that goes hard and brittle just like the cam cover gaskets. To replace that the alternator has to come out to access the housing bolts after taking the filter out so the housing drains back into the sump. Replaced one of these the other week for a member, it was the original very compressed and very brittle, it snapped as it was removed just like a biscuit!!. Replacement was nice and supple, again cleaned up the side of the engine where the leak had run down the side using some brake cleaner spray.

 

[Frazzle76]

Thanks. I plan to take it on a few short drives over the next few days to keep an eye on things and see if the oil burn reduces.

 

[Frazzle76]

Should the four bolts in the middle also have the rubber bolt rings fitted? They didn’t have them when they came off but I realised I have enough rubber rings to fit.