A valve cover of a internal combustion engine is fixed on the cylinder head by a plurality of screwed joints, preferably with a circumferential gasket inserted in between. At least some of the screwed joints are provided and/or coupled in such a way with a resiliently and/or elastically flexible element (11) on a cold side (3) of the cylinder head (1), which faces away from the at least one exhaust port in the cylinder head (1) and hence faces a cold side of the engine, that the valve cover (2) lifts off from the cylinder head (1) in a defined area of the cover only in the area of said cold side (3) when there is a defined excess pressure in the crankcase.