Whites smoke from engine bay....should i be worried...

[NabsNabsNabs]

It's been a while since I last posted on here.....having moved to a project house, my project car has taken a back seat for a bit...Good news is Desmond now has a nice new garage to live in .

Anyway, I've probably done about 200 miles in the past 6 months, the car has been mainly parked up in the garage.

I turned on the engine today an noticed a faint amount of white smoke coming from somewhere down in the depths of the engine bay, perhaps underneath the engine on the drivers side..

Any ideas? It's a M54 2.2 engine ( 72k on the clock ). Worried about head gasket per Google searches, but the smoke smells 'burny' to me rather than 'sweet'

 

[Oddly Godly]

I know the rocker cover gaskets are prone to leaking. Maybe a small amount of oil dripping on to the exhaust. Might be able to see from looking underneath the car with a torch

 

[NabsNabsNabs]

I'm hoping it's nothing major.....is rocker cover gasket change an easy to moderate diy fix?

 

[Oddly Godly]

If it is the rocker cover gasket it is a DIY job. I have never done it myself and have read on here it can be a bit fiddly. But you would need to confirm that is the problem.

 

[the Nefyn cat]

If it's still the original gasket then it'll need changing, I get the feeling that BMW used the same rubber for the gaskets that they used for the Vanos seals, and there's plenty of us on here that know what they get like. Best to give it a good clean and then give it a run.

 

[Fender2004]

Have a look at the spark plugs, as some times there is oil there off the rocker cover leak.

 

[NabsNabsNabs]

Thanks for all the suggestions, sounds like next weekend has a list of jobs waiting. I have noticed the Vanos unit looks to be weeping oil just a little, so had earmarked the seals for that, if not the same smoke, probably the same underlying cause of old seals