Hi all I have done the oil on mine before but for some reason I thought the sump bung was the banjo bolt behind he sump bung... I took it off and drained it and thought I didn’t remember it being a banjo bolt. It was full of crud and the holes were pretty much blocked I cleaned it up put it back and what do you know i saw the sump bung.

Two questions does the banjo bolt have to be lined up for the holes to work or does it just need to be in tight? How tight is tight didn’t have a nm rating so went farely tight but didn’t want to stretch threads.

Second question what does that bolt do and what does it feed will anything improve with a clean bolt? Current stable:
2006 BMW M6
2007 4.2 V8 S/C FF
Gone:
2002 4.4 V8 FF

BUmp Current stable:
2006 BMW M6
2007 4.2 V8 S/C FF
Gone:
2002 4.4 V8 FF

I think the banjo bolt you are referring to is the feed down from the PCV valve and oil cyclone, two pipes merge into one, and is just a drain back to the sump for the oil that gets separated out from the crank case ventilation. The banjo bolt might have a copper washer either side of the round connector it passes through to help it seal, can't remember without checking microcat or Rave.

Without looking I think the banjo bolt has a cross hole and a hole drilled from the end to meet the cross hole and the bolt is a clearance fit inside a circular connector that feeds from the drain pipe so the clearance between the bolt and connector is a void that fills with oil so the bolt hole doesn't need to line up with the circular connector hole.
Does that make sense ?

Great thanks that’s what I needed to hear - wonder if that contributes to my oil leak... Current stable:
2006 BMW M6
2007 4.2 V8 S/C FF
Gone:
2002 4.4 V8 FF

Is this the one ?

It looked like that yes at the back of the sump - the banjo bolt had like a black gritty paste in it - I went 10w40 semi in the end - aside from my noisy tappet it’s very quiet... I tried the Rev to 3 k for 3 mins and off for 30 secs 5 times made no difference.

Is there any symptoms of a blocked cyclone / pcv pipes? Where would you start. Car runs flawlessly.

Oil leak wise it’s very strange - i have to put in a litre every 2k I’d say but the hole underside of the car fits soaked - looks more than that but the gear oil etc is ok - rocker gaskets seem a little weepy but nothing nuts I will do them at some points Current stable:
2006 BMW M6
2007 4.2 V8 S/C FF
Gone:
2002 4.4 V8 FF

if you have tapping when warm then it is most likely the vanos units which is common, can't remember your symptoms but vanos is normally start up rattle and tapping when warm.

If you have a lot of oil around the sides and back of the engine and down the front for that matter it is most likely cam covers and possibly also front upper timing chain covers and probably vanos solenoid gaskets. Run your hand along the sides and around the back of the cam covers when it's cold of course.

The PCV is at the back of the engine as you can see from my pics when we had the transmission out.
Some of the pipes can be seen and felt with our hand, they normally go all gooey and split.

i have heard of potential serious engine damage when there are problems with the PCV but usually just lots of oil.
Mine ran perfectly when my pipes were shot.

The writing is a bit small on the attached so you may need to save the photo and zoom in to read it.

Click image to enlarge

Thanks - asked on another forum as well and they were saying that if there’s sludge in the engine then It could be in the tappet(s) and recommend a few short interval oil changes. Think I will have a feel around there Current stable:
2006 BMW M6
2007 4.2 V8 S/C FF
Gone:
2002 4.4 V8 FF

i have used forte advanced flush in mine, others say never flush, but either way i would sort your leak first as yours is getting it's oil changed by leaking
If you go on the bmw forums or google M62TUB44 tapping it will keep you busy all day reading all the threads and there are dozens on youtube