Help! Car is a fog machine!

[Ascott]

1999 540i/6 sedan.

After doing a timing chain guide replacement, I got the car buttoned up and started it, and was greeted with a cloud of smoke. It's oil smoke.

So, the symptom list:
1) It smokes on startup every time, the longer it sits, the bigger the cloud. The smoking clears up shortly after you start driving.
2) After revving the engine, you will get a howl from the back cover of the intake manifold. It is a Godawful noise, but it stops after you let it idle for a couple of minutes
3) The front main seal (which was brand new as of the timing chain guide replacement) failed almost immediately

I took the car to an independent locally, he's changed the rear cover, but the symptoms have not changed and he's drawing a blank. I'm hoping somebody here has run into something similar and can help. At the very least, if somebody here knows how the PCV system works on these cars, I'd like to know.

Thanks!
Andrew

[Ascott]

It was the oil separator. Broken in two. Stupid $13 part took me two whole days to replace.

Now I'm getting P0011 and P0021, both cams advanced too far. I took extra care to make sure I didn't move the chain when I pulled the guides to get to the separator, but it seems the intake cams still slipped out of time.

Is there an easy way to get them back in time, or am I looking at a full VANOS re-time on these stupid things?