Hi Guys, I was doing the valve cover gasket on my M54 engine along with some other maintenance and finally when everything was ready after few weeks, I was putting all the bits back on and realized that I forgot the put the cover (image 'VC Part.jpg') under the valve cover that covers the section of the engine marked in the image 'VC Removed.jpg' . Now, either I can spend another weekend, opening the Valve cover and putting that part back in, or I can leave it alone.

So, I would like to know, what is the purpose of that plastic cover plate under the valve cover itself. It sit right under the point where you fill the engine oil. Is there any disadvantages of not having that cover there, for example, I know if you run the engine for a short distance it creates vapors and those vapors fall on this plate instead of the engine parts. So, not really sure what the plate functions as?

If I do need to redo the valve cover gasket, do I really need to drain the oil from the engine? Can I just open the oil filter and not drain the oil and then just remove the valve cover to place this part back in?

 

It's a baffle that sits over the intake cam. Hate to say it but yes I would definitely put it back in before I drove the car. Why did you have to remove it? I've never had to touch it to do VC gasket.