m60 timing cover oil leak

[RobZR]

If it's the crankshaft seal that is leaking I believe you can pry it out without taking the cover off. The problem is getting the Jesus bolt off in the car to take the pulley flange off.(see the last 3 pics above. Mine seeped a little on my last 540I. I had the ambition to replace it, till I got to getting the Jesus bolt off, it wouldn't budge with a 18" breaker with a 3ft pipe on it. I even made a bar to bolt to the flange to keep it from turning the crank.

I gave up and lived with the seeping. I figuring the engine needs to come out or the whole front end ( radiator,condensor,etc.) to get a BFH impact on the sucker. the torque spec on it is ~350lb so you need a serious impact to get it off.

if you decide to fix it replace the water pump while your at it since you did all the work already to get to it.

good luck


Rob

'95 540i/6
'01 740iL sport

[yaofeng]

BMW calls for torqing the M18x1.5 bolt on the front seal to only 100 Nm and then 150 degrees more in three stages. So it is a torque to yield bolt. I got it off but did not replace it. A grade 10.9 M18x1.5 bolt is to be torqued to 440 Nm. I didn't get that either after putting in the new seal.

[compmore]

thanks guys for the info and pics.Indy was also talking about 1k for the job but i'm gonna check it out carefully before i do anything

geoff b