[citizen_insane]

I had to order a new valve cover because the old one was cracked and leaking oil all over my cat making my car smell wonderful.

When I received the part, I noticed that it had 90% of the bolts I needed. This means it's missing the middle center bolt and 2 bolts on the pass side under the VANOS actutator. It appears all of these bolts go through a heat shield of some sort.

I called my local BMW dealer and they said they had no idea which part numbers were used for those bolts and the BMW diagram is no help because it just lists the bolts on the side of the page instead of pointing them out like any resonably intelegent designer would have done. So I'm left wondering which part numbers I need to complete this process. I assume it's 2 part numbers:

1) Center middle bolt
2) Side bolts

Here's a picture. Anyone able to help?

[Bavarian Tech]

I pretty sure those are the three bolts, that come out completely from the valve cover. No sleeve. Plus the valve cover on your vehicle now, should have the bolts in them for the swap. Theirs no need to replace em. Their steel

[citizen_insane]

Originally Posted by Bavarian Tech

I pretty sure those are the three bolts, that come out completely from the valve cover. No sleeve. Plus the valve cover on your vehicle now, should have the bolts in them for the swap. Theirs no need to replace em. Their steel

That was my main worry. I know that most of the fasteners are stretch bolts so I didn't want to reuse the ones from my car. If they are steel (which doesn't make sense to me since they used Al bolts to avoid galvanic issues with the head) reusing them is not a problem. However, I don't want to get to the stage of buttoning up my engine and then realize that there are 3 bolts that I can't reuse.

[Bavarian Tech]

Their steel, Any plastic valve cover has steel bolts. ONLY the magnesium valve cover on the on the N52, has aluminum bolts