BMW Engine Parts

If your M50, M52, or M54 engine takes a few seconds to build oil pressure after sitting, there's a good chance that your factory oil filter housing drain back valve has failed. Over time, the factory plastic check valve degrades, allowing oil to drain completely out of the housing and back into the oil pan while sitting. Every cold start essentially becomes a dry start, resulting in a loud ticking noise and causing unnecessary wear on your engine's internals.

Unfortunately, BMW does not offer this check valve as a standalone part, forcing you to purchase a costly, complete oil filter housing assembly just to fix one failed plastic component. Thankfully, our team of BMW enthusiasts took note of this common failure mode and designed a permanent, cost-effective fix.

Our Billet Oil Filter Housing Drain-Back Valve is designed as a direct-fit upgrade for your factory oil filter housing. CNC-machined from high-strength billet aluminum, this upgraded valve restores positive sealing to keep the oil filter housing fully primed. Maintaining this hydraulic prime ensures rapid oil pressure stabilization upon startup, directly mitigating dry-start bearing wear and top-end lifter starvation without requiring the purchase of a complete OEM housing assembly.

Over time, the factory valve cover hardware on M50, M50TU, M52, M52TU, M54, S50 (US), and S52 engines is subjected to continuous heat cycling, oil vapor, and moisture, causing original cap nuts to oxidize, corrode, or thread-strip during routine maintenance. Our Polished Valve Cover Cap Nut serves as a direct replacement designed to address these common failure points while improving upon overall engine bay aesthetics.

Because maintaining precise gasket compression is critical to preventing oil leaks, these cap nuts and washers are machined directly to OE-style dimensions. This exact fitment allows for direct compatibility with original and replacement valve cover studs (see T#55317643) and ensures the hardware can be torqued precisely to OEM specifications without guesswork. Manufactured to grade 8.8 structural strength standards, the hardware maintains the necessary clamp force required under normal and high-performance engine operating conditions.

To resist corrosion, both the cap nut and washer undergo an electroless nickel plating process during production. Unlike standard zinc coatings that dull or rust over time, electroless nickel provides a uniform layer of corrosion resistance that withstands long-term chemical exposure and extreme temperature swings while giving the hardware a polished, high-end appearance. Each cap nut assembly includes an OE rubber washer seal, ensuring a tight, leak-free barrier that prevents oil from escaping through the mounting studs.

Heat is the enemy of lap times and engine longevity. BMW calibrated the factory oil thermostat on the N54, N55, and S55 platforms for rapid warm-up and emissions targets, running oil temperatures uncomfortably hot under prolonged load. When you’re pushing full throttle down the straight or stacking laps in midsummer, you need thermal headroom long before factory thresholds are reached.

The Turner Motorsport Oil Cooler Thermostat Housing drops your thermostat threshold to 70°C, circulating oil through the cooler early to build a buffer against heat saturation. Engineered for hard-driven road course and track day cars, the housing is protected with a Type III black hardcoat anodized finish for maximum resilience against thermal cycling and harsh track environments. Build flexibility is built right in: retain your OEM hard lines for a simple, direct-fit cooling upgrade, or adapt to full braided lines using our Turner AN Adapter for dedicated competition oiling systems.

If you own an M57-equipped BMW, you already know this twin-turbo diesel powerplant is an absolute torque monster. What you might also know is that all that low-end grunt and high-compression diesel vibration wreaks absolute havoc on your accessory drive system.

From the factory, both the E90 335d and E70 X5 35d utilize a rigid alternator pulley. With each cylinder's fire, the crankshaft experiences a violent micro-acceleration. Because the alternator has a heavy internal rotor spinning at high speeds, it wants to keep spinning at a constant rate. When the engine suddenly slows down (even minutely between firing cycles), the alternator fights the belt. This constant tug-of-war results in extreme stress on your engine's belt-driven components. At best, it’s an annoying, unrefined chirp at idle; at worst, it’s a ticking time bomb for your expensive harmonic balancer.

To solve this issue, many enthusiasts choose to run a clutched alternator pulley (also called an overrunning alternator pulley). A clutched pulley allows the alternator to "freewheel" or coast when the engine slows down, completely isolating its rotational inertia from the belt drive to prevent component wear. While the N52's clutched pulley (12317560483) is a straight bolt-on, the offset is incorrect for the E90 335d's accessory drive. Thankfully, our engineers designed this zinc-coated spacer to provide the precise amount of spacing needed to perfectly align the new pulley with existing belt drive components.