Oil in Cylinders, all.

[Wardie]

Hello everyone its been awhile since my last post. Things had been going pretty well with the E46 until this last Monday... besides the burning of oil since I bought the car. To preface, I changed Vanos, CCV, and VCG about a month ago.

TL;DR Randomly got a lot oil in all cylinders, whats the deal?

Get in my car on Monday and greeted by a what I would pin to be a hydraulic lifter, thinking that was strange but my cars done stranger. Start going down the road and car starts to get rough, and rougher, and rougher. New smell, I can't say I've ever smelt it before... just hot oily smell almost electrical.

Flip the car around and get it back home and throw it in the garage. Check the oil, pretty much out. I had checked the oil two days ago and was topped off and only had done 50 miles since. Pull oil fill, got some smoke,steam (being 29 degrees out).

Coolant checked out, no mayo or mixed.

Start pulling spark plugs, and every plug has wet oil. Pull out the borescope and drop it down the spark plug hole into the cylinder and on the low side of the piston I have a sizable pool of oil. Any amount of oil is too much oil.

Popped DISA off and saw residue in the intake, but no flood.

So my question now is, what gives? Is it possible a hydraulic lifter failed? I had my compression checked pretty recently, I need to run and grab my compression tester to test again. I've read on super cold mornings the CCV freezing and sucking up oil from the sump. I just need a bit of guidance, words of wisdom, or talk it out.

Much appreciated.

[Newjack]

Hello everyone its been awhile since my last post. Things had been going pretty well with the E46 until this last Monday... besides the burning of oil since I bought the car. To preface, I changed Vanos, CCV, and VCG about a month ago.

TL;DR Randomly got a lot oil in all cylinders, whats the deal?

Get in my car on Monday and greeted by a what I would pin to be a hydraulic lifter, thinking that was strange but my cars done stranger. Start going down the road and car starts to get rough, and rougher, and rougher. New smell, I can't say I've ever smelt it before... just hot oily smell almost electrical.

Flip the car around and get it back home and throw it in the garage. Check the oil, pretty much out. I had checked the oil two days ago and was topped off and only had done 50 miles since. Pull oil fill, got some smoke,steam (being 29 degrees out).

Coolant checked out, no mayo or mixed.

Start pulling spark plugs, and every plug has wet oil. Pull out the borescope and drop it down the spark plug hole into the cylinder and on the low side of the piston I have a sizable pool of oil. Any amount of oil is too much oil.

Popped DISA off and saw residue in the intake, but no flood.

So my question now is, what gives? Is it possible a hydraulic lifter failed? I had my compression checked pretty recently, I need to run and grab my compression tester to test again. I've read on super cold mornings the CCV freezing and sucking up oil from the sump. I just need a bit of guidance, words of wisdom, or talk it out.

Much appreciated.

When you did the valve cover gasket, there are two other gaskets that stick on top of the spark plug tubes. These get super brittle and plastic like over the years. Were these replaced when you did the valve cover gasket?

Link for photo of the gaskets (https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-bmw-parts/ultimate-valve-cover-gasket-kit/11129070990kt2/?gclid=Cj0KCQiArqPgBRCRARIsAPwlHoU91G8xD6NRZcXgEGh oq-wp58X5AnULH06MV2wub_a0XVlC3ACuwfMaAn_8EALw_wcB)

[az3579]

I was reading the G.A.S. CCV write up this morning and the FAQ mentions that a failure of the stock CCV system could result in oil getting sucked back up into the intake. Could this be happening, failure of the CCV?

[Newjack]

I was reading the G.A.S. CCV write up this morning and the FAQ mentions that a failure of the stock CCV system could result in oil getting sucked back up into the intake. Could this be happening, failure of the CCV?

When you say failure, what exactly does that mean? I remember replacing the CCV system on the ZHP after a few years of short winter driving and breaking open the hoses were like opening up crab legs. Sticky yellow mayo on everything it was nasty. Would that be considered failure?

[Wardie]

When you did the valve cover gasket, there are two other gaskets that stick on top of the spark plug tubes. These get super brittle and plastic like over the years. Were these replaced when you did the valve cover gasket?

Link for photo of the gaskets (https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-bmw-parts/ultimate-valve-cover-gasket-kit/11129070990kt2/?gclid=Cj0KCQiArqPgBRCRARIsAPwlHoU91G8xD6NRZcXgEGh oq-wp58X5AnULH06MV2wub_a0XVlC3ACuwfMaAn_8EALw_wcB)

Yep those were brand new, if they did fail however I would see oil in the spark plug wells which I dont have.


I was reading the G.A.S. CCV write up this morning and the FAQ mentions that a failure of the stock CCV system could result in oil getting sucked back up into the intake. Could this be happening, failure of the CCV?

Its very possible, Id find it strange that it failed after a month. Im still banking on it being cold and freezing the humidity that morning was pretty high with all the fog. I do have the cold weather one now however installed last night.

Is there a reputable way to clean off spark plugs? It would be nice to keep testing with this garbage pair until/if I get this fixed.

[Newjack]

Yep those were brand new, if they did fail however I would see oil in the spark plug wells which I dont have.



Its very possible, Id find it strange that it failed after a month. Im still banking on it being cold and freezing the humidity that morning was pretty high with all the fog. I do have the cold weather one now however installed last night.

Is there a reputable way to clean off spark plugs? It would be nice to keep testing with this garbage pair until/if I get this fixed.

Can probably just spray brake cleaner on the plugs to clean them off. I wouldn't use anything else.

[Sockethead]

Did you get the cold weather version of the replacement CCV and did you replace all of the CCV components?
You can get a spark plug media blaster at Harbor Freight to blast your plugs. I've used one for years on all kinds of plugs. They will look brand new when done.
https://www.harborfreight.com/pneumatic-spark-plug-cleaner-32860.html

[Wardie]

I didnt at first but yesterday I picked one up from BMW and got it in there now. Damn its like a baby sand blaster for your spark plugs, Ill have to get one of those.

I have a theory, I cleaned out all the cylinders and all the spark plugs. Took it outside and let it run for oh... 20 minutes or so. Sound like a diesel truck as people say. Smoking from all that left over oil. Tried to take it up the hill and no go, bucked and chugged. Took it back into the garage and pulled plugs. Checked it out with the borescope. 4,5,6 were dry 1,2 were a bit wet, 3 had oil. Not a large amount, but for 20 minutes thats enough to know somethings up with that cylinder.

Im still hunting around for my pressure tester so I can see if its the rings or something else going on with that diesel noise...

Is it possible for a hydraulic lifter to fail and bleed oil into a cylinder? Thats honestly I think best case scenario right now.

[Dave1027]

This sounds CCV related. Check your installation. Also may want to check the dipstick tube for clogs. There is a CCV failure mode where raw oil is sucked right out of the dipstick and blown directly into the intake manifold. Sounds like you were close to hydrolocking your engine. It's happened before.

[Wardie]

Thats wild, I JUST replaced the whole system less than 200 miles ago.

On top of that I then replaced the CCV again but not the hoses and still having the same issue when this happened.

Adding a check valve in the CCV dipstick tube would rule that out?

[Dave1027]

Thats wild, I JUST replaced the whole system less than 200 miles ago.

On top of that I then replaced the CCV again but not the hoses and still having the same issue when this happened.

Adding a check valve in the CCV dipstick tube would rule that out?

I don't think that is your answer. From what I understand, if enough mayo builds up inside the CCV diaphragms it can cause intake vacuum to be diverted to the dipstick tube drain hose. That condition will suck oil directly out of the dipstick tube.


First, you should probably make sure the dipstick tube is not clogged with gunk.
Then maybe you should be checking for vacuum on the dipstick tube drain hose? There should not be any. Disconnect the hose and connect to a vacuum gauge. Cap off the nipple on the dipstick tube.

[Wardie]

I don't think that is your answer. From what I understand, if enough mayo builds up inside the CCV diaphragms it can cause intake vacuum to be diverted to the dipstick tube drain hose. That condition will suck oil directly out of the dipstick tube.


First, you should probably make sure the dipstick tube is not clogged with gunk.
Then maybe you should be checking for vacuum on the dipstick tube drain hose? There should not be any. Disconnect the hose and connect to a vacuum gauge. Cap off the nipple on the dipstick tube.


I have a hard time believing the CCV diaphragms have filled up with one start time when the car was in the garage for the week after I replaced it. I cleaned the dipstick out a month ago when I did the CCV the first time, however I will take it out and look again.

So disconnect the hose from the dipstick side of things and pop in a vacuum gauge on that hose coming out of the hose running down to the dipstick correct? I will need to pick up a vacuum gauge and I will try getting that done this week.

I did a compression test as well, the numbers were alright. Only cylinder 2 was down on compression and that may be due with some oil in the cylinder. Everything else was within 5-10% of each other. Cylinders were around 160-170 PSI. #2 was around 140-145.

[Dave1027]

I guess it's possible you have a defective CCV.

[Sockethead]

Oil in #2 cylinder would raise compression. It helps seal the rings. A large quantity of oil would also raise compression because you would be adding volume to the cylinder...