Valve Cover bolt order

[Instrumental]

I ordered the revised valve cover and as I've done research on the R&R, I can't find any info on the order of tightening the bolts. I found the torque spec of 106 inch pounds in the manuals posted here, but no order. Does it matter?

 

[stormsurge]

I just take it in steps. A few turns on each one till their tight. someone might have a order.

 

[Hatchet]

I believe its you start at the outside corners, and then just work you way in towards the middle. do it in 2 or 3 tightening steps.

 

[AtlWrk]

I believe its you start at the outside corners, and then just work you way in towards the middle. do it in 2 or 3 tightening steps.

I've always seen the opposite: start in the middle and spiral out. This is how it's called out for the intake manifold, cylinder head, trans pan etc. If you pin down the corners any distortion, mismatch, etc. has no place to go but up (away from the sealing face).

I didn't see an order specified in the service manual so I doubt it's critical. There are only 4 bolts down the center on the 5.3L as opposed to 8 or 10 around the perimeter like many valve covers.

 

[Instrumental]

Ever have a moment in the middle of a seemingly simple project when your heart jumps to your throat and lots of bad words start streaming through your mind? Had that today! I was making great progress on my valve cover swap and was torquing the bolts. Imagine my surprise when one of them started to spin freely. I pulled it apart to find:

Luckily, the broken bolt was easy to access and finger loose, didn't even require vice grips. I swapped the bolts for the OEM ones and the rest went just fine. I decided to go with thesea foam in the oil and I'll do an oil change tomorrow to hopefully end my oil consumption.

 

[STLtrailbSS]

Nice save could of been a nightmare