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Originally Posted by Whatd you do to your 1 series today thread
On Facebook a few of the guys were talking about this aluminum valve cover made for the blacktop/plastic N52 VC motors. Being that I was already in the midst of trying to use the original magnesium cover, I jumped on it quickly.
It's an eBay original part - not exactly what I was trying to toss on the car but I've multiple positive reviews from other people. It comes with gaskets, although I used all OEM Rein/whoever gaskets instead.
The build quality I'd give an 8 or 9 out of 10. It's quite nice, especially for the price, but you do have to nudge it back and forth a little to get everything to line up, and it won't perfectly. Cast piece with machined gasket mating surfaces.
The PCV system is interesting. There's a removable chamber on top which go to the internal breathers, and the PCV valve itself (which appears serviceable - wonder if it just takes the normal PCV valve spring/diaphragm you can find easily these days). I didn't bother opening it up.
Definitely a little heavier than stock. (edit, Plastic is 7.5 lbs, Mg is 5lbs, Al is 9 lbs) Makes it even more of a pain to install.
Also used the opportunity to install a new PCV hose, Eldor ignition coils, a new intake VANOS solenoid and a few missing nuts/screws around the engine bay. Car runs sooo smooth now.
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To add, I was originally going to swap the magnesium cover on, but that ended up being way too much of a pain.
What's required, in case anyone is thinking of doing it:
- Magnesium cover (obv), beauty cover with mounting bracket, hardware, etc.
- Oil pan with drain tube for external PCV (specific to manual/auto)
- The entire external PCV system (need to check if you have a 1 or 2 port intake manifold)
- Carve out a weekend to do a tandem valve cover and oil pan job + extras
- Handful of little things needed, brackets to hold the external PCV onto the manifold, this electrical distribution plug to split power to all the PCV heating elements
- The wiring harnesses are actually different between the silver and black top motors. The blacktop harness will be stretched unless you extend it, shave the Mg cover a little bit, swap the harness, etc. You can see it in
this video series (he ended up going custom PCV with a catch can too).
I bought nearly everything before I found out there's an Al version of the plastic cover. Immediately returned it all, sold the cover/oil pan and bought the easy way out. So glad I did.