01 740il - OSV - Burning oil, smoke in exhaust

My 01 740il has been burning through oil and Smokes Sometimes..
I get a great big plume of smoke when I start it in the morning, sometimes.
Or when drive it then park it then drive it later, sometimes.
I get a great big plume of smoke when I open it up, WOT on the freeway entrance, but then it goes away.
Or Ill be driving and it will be fine but when I take a hard turn I get a great big plume of smoke, but only sometimes.

I did the OSV replacement a couple of months ago, and it seemed to work for a while.
But now I am still getting a lot of oil build up in my Intake Manifold.
And my Check engine light came on, I ran the codes and it was a misfire in cylinder #1 and #8. My 4-month old spark plugs were all fouled up, replacing those made the light go off.

Did I do the OSV wrong?
or
Did it just go bad again?
or
Is there something else wrong?

Any Help would be appreciated

My '99 7 is doing almost the exact same thing, however mine only smokes for a brief period when I first crank it in the mornings and when it's been sitting for an hour or so. Did you ever find out the problem(s)? If so, please let me know....I've replace the air mass, crankcase ventilator (this seemed to eliminate the problem but then it came back again less than two months later!?), spark plugs, ignition coils, gaskets etc to no avail! Thanks.

i wish i knew what the correct name of the part was, because when i bought my E38 back in february it did the same thing. the dealership fixed it though so i havent a clue on its exact name. from what i remember its something to the effect of a Lambda valve. i should go ask them, this would likely help you guys out. i may visit the dealership tomorrow, i'll ask them what was replaced. i just know its not smoke from oil, its from too rich a mixture of fuel and the cloud is basically vaporized fuel. hope this helps yall

The first OSV valve I put on my car was bad and I had to replace it again along with my valve cover gaskets. This eliminated my smoking on start up.

You may need to change your valve cover gaskets.......they could be leaking oil into the spark plug compartment causing the miss fires and burning oil. Do it soon or your coils will go bad due too the oil. Mine had the same issue and that fixed everything. I had to buy new spark plugs coils and spark plugs though. When I changed it the rubber gaskets shatters like glass

Has anyone resolve the issue of smoke on start and then goes away? I'd love to know what the fix was as I've spent a ton of money trying to figure it out.

I took mine to the shop and they flushed the engine, removed the oil pan and cleaned, replaced right valve cover gasket. When I got it back it was worse than before and leaks oil. Took it back and they said they replaced left valve cover. I didn't believe them since they didn't touch left and didn't leak before oil pan and right valve cover, remove and replace.

The smoke on start continued as before, but as before it was random. About 1,000 miles later it began running real rough when I started it and got a huge plume of smoke. I turned it off and took off the left valve cover and plugs. From front to rear, plugs 2,3,&4 had oil on the threads and 4 was fouled. There was also oil in the chamber outside the plugs. I examined the inner valve cover gasket and could see partial penetration but not all the way through. Unless the oil in the inner chamber was left there by the shop, I have no explanation how it got there.

I took off right spark plug cover after noticing condensation on the left. Both covers had droplets of condensation but not sure if it's water or oil.

plugs getting fouled, keeps causing misfire. all i know is its definitly not any of the coils. What do you guys go after first. i keep reading somthing about a osv? is that oil separator valve? i dont work on these bmws much as you can tell. Im prety certain cuz its been sitting fora while but when i last worked on it, once i cleaned the plugs it wouldnt miss, but within a week it would be missing again, plugs very oily. Somewhat oily on the plug and boot side, but even more oily on the electrode side. I cant run the vehicle yet because the water pump is shot, so i have to replace that before i can really begin diagnosing. Once i get the pump on there, what would you guys look for first..crank case ventilation? oil seperator?

OSV is the oil separator valve and it's often the problem for a white puff of smoke on start up.

www.e38.org has a few posts about it. The general test is to pull the oil dip stick while the engine is running - if it makes a sucking noise, and/or if put your finger on the hole and feel suction, it's the OSV.

What if I already replaced the OSV about a year ago. Is it possible that it got messed up again if the engine still had sludge from before? It was in really bad condition the dirties oil ever. Everytime I start the car a white ploom of smoke blows out. Someone told me it could be the Valve seals under the front manifold behind the timing chain. But could it be the OSV again. It's only been about 9 thousand miles roughly. If it is the front crank case ventilation valve is it necessary to removed the timing chains? and does anyone have a guide?

EtherHunt

Help yourself by providing more information about your car.
Year....m60....m62.....m62tu.???

Originally Posted by Brummel

EtherHunt

Help yourself by providing more information about your car.
Year....m60....m62.....m62tu.???

M62 the one before Vanos but after Nikasil.

Basically It's an engine with 270,000 miles. Did OSV on it and then after two oil changes I decided to use Engine sludge cleaner. It was dripping oil prior to that though.
Then One day I start the car and smoke blows out the back it's done 4 times so far. I haven't drove it since. It can't be OSV. It might be gaskets and leaking into combustion chamber maybe? or crank case ventilation, if its the ccv then will I have to removed the timing chains? is that hard to do? are there any guides?

It's the ccv. Save yourself a lot of time & money & replace it with genuine bmw. The ccv (crank case ventilation valve) will go bad because of a leak n a gasket so find it or them too. U will also most likely need ALL of the intake manifold gaskets. Good luck. I just went thru this, it was very stressful.

Sent from my VM670 using Bimmer App

sleepymartini, if you didn't already state that you changed the OSV, I would have recommended replacing it, but since you already did, I don't know. Did you have this issue before replacing the OSV? Did it get better after replacing it? Maybe you got a defective OSV that failed in less than a year.

Heartboy, sounds like valve stem seals. Mine has 207k miles right now, and if I don't start the car for a few days, it will smoke and run rough for a few seconds.

BM740il, I was thinking valve cover gaskets as well, but if the oil is in the intake, and not on the valve cover, then this cannot be the problem.

Hawk73ku, from reading your post, I'd imagine that your original problem was due to either valve stem seals starting to go bad, or a bad OSV. But now that the shop touched it and the problem got worse, I don't know. I'd buy the gaskets and try to take on the OSV, valve cover gaskets, and oil pan gasket myself if I were you, as these jobs are not really that hard to do, and there are lots of write-ups and people out there that should help you out if you try to do this yourself. These jobs just take time and patience.

monk46, I'd start with the valve cover gaskets.

Etherhunt, I believe it is your valve stem seals as well, but they are in the heads themselves surrounding each of the 32 valves in the motor. I don't know how to diagnose a bad CCV (the part behind the timing chain with a pipe that connects to the OSV) in these cars, but I've heard that it is hard to get to as well as being time consuming, just like the valve stem seals. My 740iL has 207k miles right now, and my valve stem seals are starting to go. At 270k miles, I'd imagine that I'd get smoke at every start-up as well. If anyone knows how to diagnose a bad CCV, please let me know.

taralynn, are you talking about the OSV behind the intake manifold, or the CCV behind the timing chain? I have heard one name used for the other and vice versa. Honestly, I don't know if these are even the names that BMW uses to classify these parts.

I did the OSV replacement 2 years ago, and I still get a big plume of smoke when I start until I give it WOT. So my question is; Are the OSVs going bad because the parts themselves are faulty, or is it a design flaw in the OSV system that causes the OSV to go bad, and it doesn't matter if you replace it it will eventually go bad again.

I also replaced the Valve Cover Gaskets(which was a pretty easy DIY) and that seemed to fix the plume of smoke on hard turns.

Alright I figured it out sorta. It is not OSV (these cars are built out of plastic and cheap materials on purpose like most cars). It's the Crank Case Ventilation listed as Oil Seperator on realoem dot com (is it really oem bmw genuine 100 percent?) So for sure thing I will be changing all gaskets and bolt gaskets and oil pan gaskets and I will be called Gasket King. Then or before I mean, I will also change the plastic guide rails crap that breaks on purpose so these cars will never exist unless they keep producing extra parts or people maguyver things together. And then I will try to sell it maybe. Oh and I'm also planing on taking pictures of the whole ordeal and posting the first official CCV replacement guide on e thirty eight dot org. best place to order all this stuff? does anyone have any links? whats the best site for purchasing genuine bmw parts?