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In a desperate attempt to stop the oil leak on my 320/6 I bought a new set of 'blind plugs'. They fill the gaps left so the rocker shafts can be withdrawn (I think). I put a new gasket on but there is a fairly steady drip when I've been out in the car.

The new gasket doesn't appear that oil tight & the blind plugs have been fitted with silicon all around them. The Haynes manual doesn't make any mention of using silicon / gasket cement on either the plugs or gasket.

Should they be fitted dry?

If it's not the blind plugs then it will probably be the cam oil seal

Just spotted the problem with the cam cover. I nicked the one off the parts car & painted it up ready to use when I did the valve clearances. I didn't know that where the later torx bolts have been used a boss on the cam cover has to be ground off. When I compared the replacement cover with the original I see the boss hasn't been ground down.

So, fitting the original cover should solve that problem.

I'll try the plugs in dry & see how it goes.

Well that seems to have sorted it - no more oil leak even after a 75 mile blast around Northumberland (roof off too!).

Roll on Summer

Lol. How many times have I done something like that. I once rebuilt a 323i engine, spent 5 grand on it. When I was done the car smoked. I took the engine apart twice changing the head gasket each time only for the car to keep smoking. Turns out I forgot to change the gasket on the throttle housing for the preheater, it was dumping antifreeze straight into the cylinders!