Ugh...

I fear I may be looking at a significant repair looming on my 2001 525i. It has always (well, within my ownership - the last four years and ~40k miles; total mileage now at 139k) used some oil. I've addressed the two common leakage points - the valve cover and oil filter housing gaskets - and replaced the CCV system, which can also contribute to oil consumption. Nothing currently leaks, and the CCV tests within spec for crankcase vacuum (3-6" in. H2O in a slack tube manometer).

Oil consumption has increased somewhat in the last few months, and in the last few weeks I've noticed puffs of oil smoke when resuming acceleration at the bottom of several large hills around here. This points to valve stem seals. Apparently, these are known to be problematic on early M54s. I'm worried that this much usage (aside from being embarrassing) will cause damage to cats in the long term.

I've researched the procedure, and it's likely too much for me to tackle going into the winter with no heated workspace. Further, several special (read: expensive) tools are necessary, none of which I own. I think I'm going to have to farm this one out, much as it makes my already emaciated wallet shrink into a corner, whimpering and rocking gently back and forth in the fetal position. I absolutely hate the idea of not being able to complete the work on my own, but screwing it up in any one of a number of possible expensive ways would be worse.

My questions (which are somewhat secondary to my venting, and are mostly directed to anyone with specific knowledge of the M5x-series of BMW engines) are:

• How much time should I expect this to take? I have a good BMW-specific indy shop that should have all the tools and has many years of experience, so I'm hoping for best-case in terms of hours of labor. Desperately hoping.

• What else should I have done while they are in there? Obviously some things have to be replaced as a result of disassembly, but anything over and above the necessities?

Would it be possible for you to take the head off yourself, then send it out to be worked on by someone with the necessary tools and experience? Sort of a compromise between freezing your ass off and emptying your wallet...

Additionally.. how much would it be to just find a JY head for it? Could you swap that yourself? might be a lot less downtime

Just how much oil are you using? 1 qt per 1,500 miles? Have you changed brands of oil? My car uses Valvoline at a much faster rate than Mobil for example. Unless you're using a qt every 4-500 miles, I wouldn't worry about your converters.

I first considered pulling the head myself. This being a VANOS engine, there are a whole bunch of things that have to happen before the head comes off, some of which require special tools that I don't have. Further, it is an aluminum block, and I've heard more than one account of stripping head bolt holes when removing the head; I really don't want to have that problem in my driveway in late December (the earliest this can happen given my work schedule).

A junkyard head is possible, but I wouldn't trust it to have better seals than mine, which means they'd have to be replaced. It would probably have to be skimmed as well (mine might have to be, for that matter). These cars are sadly often overheated when owners don't consider the cooling system a maintenance item; I'd be afraid a JY head might have come off a car that had succumbed to this, which is usually terminal for the head. If my indy has a good source for reliable rebuilt heads I would consider it.

Oil use is somewhere on the bad side of 1 qt/1000 mi, depending on what sort of driving I'm doing. 1 qt/1000 mi is the BMW threshold for acceptable consumption; it seems that anything more and blue smoke starts appearing. I know new oils (SM, SN) are less damaging to converters than older specs, and I've tried several types (all meeting appropriate requirements), but the differences in consumption are minor. I'm sure I could let it slide for a while, but the puffs of smoke and the price of converters are giving me nightmares (literally).