So I have a fair bit of oil in my plugs which I think is coming from leaking gaskets. Is this a very complicated repair. When looking at scuderiaparts it shows the gaskets and a couple tubes of silicon. Not sure what that is for but I assume if I pull off the cylinder head covers that i'll need that silicon for something. Is there a guide to this somewhere? Thanks.

 

The photo shows the valve train on the bottom and the valve cover coming off on top. Circled in red are the two variable cam timing solenoids. Each one has a wire going towards the back of the engine. On the passenger side I disconnected the little wires inside the solenoids. This was not easy (very small screws easy to drop). On the left side I cut the valve cover gasket and used silicone sealant inside the gasket and between the two cut areas. The cut was at the highest level were oil would not pool. That was two years ago no problems. There is probably another solution, I wasn't comfortable pulling the solenoids out of the engine since there are numerous O-rings and potential legacy problems.

 

Wait, wait, you did what, no screws to remove, no wires to cut, no gasket to cut, the plugs for the VVT solenoids are right at the rear of each head, and are very easily accessible to unplug, each valve cover comes off without cutting any wires, or removing the VVT solenoid mounting screws.

Johnny

 

I didn't cut any wires, just the gasket on one side. 😓

I agree Johnny: I could't get enough of my hands behind the engine to disconnect the "VAG" connectors. The other issue is on my BGT the plastic bits have become quite brittle. I was worried about breaking those connectors, not being able to firmly handle them.

 

What I am wondering is, do I need to order these tubes of silicon sealant and liquid locking fluid when I order the gaskets? It's number 8,10 on the diagram.

https://www.scuderiacarparts.com/par...123/2112/37833

 

So you don't think pulling those solenoids out is hard or risky? The alternative is I could just change the gaskets that go around the plugs and leave the big gasket in place to avoid messing with the solenoids. That gasket is probably reusable. Mine's not leaking or anything.

 

To the contrary, I think that pulling those solenoids out is very hard, and very risky, I didn't say it wasn't, I said to unplug each solenoid to remove the valve cover, as one would unplug and fish the plug end through the solenoid hole in the valve cover, why risk messing with the solenoids and their o-rings, or even risk dropping one of the tiny screws down inside the engine, and there would be no cutting of any gasket.

The black solenoid pictured is the type of solenoids that you have in your 2005, the other solenoid shown is from the 2014 CVA Bentley engine, the early design has 4 o-rings, whereas the newer has 1.

Johnny

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Ahh ok. I didn't know you could unplug them. I may skip that part anyway. I can't see the back of the engine in the car and I don't know how to unplug them. I'd hate to damage them or the plug. I think i'll just leave the main gasket in place and replace the spark plug gaskets which are the ones leaking.