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Head bolts on M20 engines

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Over the years we have seen three different vendors for the hex head
style bolts (12.9 grade) found in M20 engines- "Kamax", "Verbus" and
"Ribe". The "Ribe" bolts are the ones that seem to have the most
problems. We have never found a broken "Kamax" (used primarily on
earlier M20's) or "Verbus" bolt. You can easily check the vendor and
type of bolt by removing the oil fill cap and looking inside the valve
cover with a flashlight. We replaced these bolts years ago on our
customer's cars routinely during Inspection I or II services, because we
had the valve cover off for the valve adjustment anyway. The Torx style
headbolt set has a current BMW suggested retail price of $28.22. The
labor time we would charge for this job was 0.75 hour ($36.75) to
install the set. I am surprised that anyone still has the old style
bolts. The service bulletin has been around since April of 1990. 

I am attaching a letter that I sent to an unfortunate Digest member a
few weeks back. So often when I read these Digests, there will be
someone struggling with a problem that is way over their head. If you
take your problem to a qualified and trained BMW specialist, you might
just be doing yourself a favor. Please read on...

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You should consider finding yourself a good, independant BMW specialist
to help you with your more technical problems. We see it time and time
again where a good intentioned owner will "try to save a few bucks" by
attempting to solve a more technical problem themselves. Unfortunately,
a large percentage of the time, unneeded (and often expensive) parts get
"hung" onto the car. The owner's frustration level goes way up, along
with the car having it's "condition" for a protracted period of time.
Good BMW technicians are out there, and you may have to search a bit to
find one, but you just might find that you can strike up a mutually
beneficial relationship (really, this happens).

If you had a problem with your gall bladder, would you attempt to remove
it yourself to save a few bucks? I'd bet that it would be possible for
someone who was determined enough, but I wouldn't want to be around to
watch the "learning" proceedure (or see the final results).

Why not pay someone to do what they can do proficiently, while you pay
for it with money that you have earned from doing what you do
proficiently? Isn't this the economy of specialization and expertise?
On the other hand, maybe you can only marginally afford to own a BMW (or
any car). A BMW does not have to be expensive to maintain, if you can
find the right professional to help you take care of it.

One of our now loyal customers, who took suggestions from the "digest",
ended up "hanging" a fuel pump, an air flow meter, and a fuel pressure
regulator on his car to solve an engine "quitting" problem (about $600
worth of guesses). When he was totally frustrated and finally brought
the car in (his first visit to us), we **DIAGNOSED** the problem and
found a faulty control relay. The total cost of the repair was $40 ($15
relay + $24 labor charge). I could give you many other examples similar
to this.

You may be attempting to fix this problem yourself, because you consider
yourself to be a "hobbiest", but if you find you are running into some
excessive grief or frustration that this type of technical problem can
cause you, maybe it's not wise to "lose a dollar to save a nickel...".

When you post a technical question to the digest, you should realize that
any replies that you may receive will most likely be from other
enthusiasts or car owners that have no formal BMW technical training.
Sure, they may have had a problem similar to yours, but from my exper-
ience, many types of failures (like the "links in a chain" analogy) can
result in the same apparent symptom or symptoms.

Not very many BMW technical professionals subscribe to the digest because
of it's amateur nature, and of those that do, very few would be
foolish enough to guess at your expense. When I do ocassionally read
the postings, I cannot believe how much misinformation and "voo-doo"
type beliefs are out there. I personally don't believe that there
is a tangible "cost to benefit ratio" of using expensive "snake oils"
(e.g. Zymol, Slick 50, WhiteRhinoHornWax, etc. etc.). This type of
product fanaticism surprises me in a group that you would think would
be comprised of mostly intelligent, professional types. 

I could spend a lot of time trying to answer problems from the digest,
but honestly it is hard to do without having a crystal ball or being able
to guess from (usually shallow) problem descriptions. This means I
sometimes actually need to see the problem or symptom, and use my
diagnostic skills, knowledge and expertise to solve that problem.
Consider also that (maybe like you?) I have bills to pay and a family
to feed.

Just a thought.

Rion Groh
European Motorsport
BMW Service and Repair Specialists
2520-D Dominic Dr, Chico CA 95928
rggroh@domain.elided
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