M88 vs S38 valve cover gaskets

[alabbasi]

All

Realoem shows two valve cover gaskets for my car:

11 Gasket Asbestos Free 1 11121312172 $39.97 Cat=Yes
11 Gasket Asbestos Free 1 11121317689 $42.97 Cat=No

My car has a cat, but I'm not sure if it was installed during the federalization process. Are these P# interchangable?

My car is an 85 BMW M635CSI VIN ends with 105718

[Rich Euro M5]

If you have an M88/3 engine you want the Cat=No parts.

[john r.]

Like Rich said, unless it has been converted to dual timing chain like US, 689 is what you want.
Don' forget three of 11 12 1 312 173 (for spark plug holes).

[wkohler]

As far as I know the dual chain conversions still use the original timing covers and valve covers. The clearances are just much lower, right?

[Da_Hose]

Hey, alabbasi. When I bought my top end rebuild kit (S38), I ended up with a valve cover gasket that was just a few mm too short. My suspicion is that it is an M88 gasket. It's yours for cost of shipping, if I can find it in my piles-o-stuff.

Jose

[Rich Euro M5]

As far as I know the dual chain conversions still use the original timing covers and valve covers. The clearances are just much lower, right?

Correct. The cambox and valve cover are not swapped out as prt of the conversion. Some machine work must be done in the timing chain path to provide clearance for the dual row chain.

[alabbasi]

Hey, alabbasi. When I bought my top end rebuild kit (S38), I ended up with a valve cover gasket that was just a few mm too short. My suspicion is that it is an M88 gasket. It's yours for cost of shipping, if I can find it in my piles-o-stuff.

Jose

Jose,

Thank you for your kind offer, if you can find it, I'll be happy to buy it.

Thanks

Al

[winfred]

the vc gasket that came with my s38 head set fit on my m88/3 so i kept the m88/3 one i ordered for next valve adjustment, maybe its not same but it wasn't too different to use in my case, can't remember seeing any differences

[e24mpwr]

As far as I know the dual chain conversions still use the original timing covers and valve covers. The clearances are just much lower, right?

I'm getting ready to do my valve covers, and was told by the guy who did the conversion to use the M635 gasket.

For future visitors the Reinz looks pretty low-quality. At least it's a different material construction that looks thinner and not the same materials.


The Elring plug hole gasket (left) looks close to identical to the BMW OE parts.


I had to get the valve cover gaskets shipped from Germany. I got one extra, which I regret now. Will probably go back in the near future and get several more.