Hi all. Old bimmer lover here.

Old e83 with near 300k miles.
Installed new starter and a tiny bit of the inner intake gasket ring retainer broke off on cylinger 6 of the intake. (The inner part of the runner that holds the gasget from sucking IN.)

So.. i have a impossible to seal intake.
Went to junkyard. Pulled an intake off another e83 x3 3.0. I get home. I swap everything thats new over to the junk yard intake, and the throttle wont bolt on as its slightly larger bolt pattern and the intake has a smaller bolt pattern, different from the original. I discover my original throttle has 6 pins (the car at the yard had a 2 pin throttle). Other than that, the intakes are identical in every other way.

How can i identify ordering the correct intake if model and engine size apperently isnt enough?

This undoubtedly your X is 07 or higher with the N52 engine?