Any BMW engine that is an M-series (M20/M30/M5x) engine is bulletproof. The variable valve timing unit on newer M-series engines may fail, but so does the VTEC solenoid on Hondas. The sound of the inline-6, especially on the older M20/M30, is intoxicating.

The cooling systems in the E30 were fine, but when BMW made the change to plastic and recyclable parts in the 90s, the cooling systems became prone to failure. But, the cooling system issues are overblown - really, you're only looking at about $300 in parts every 100K.

The M62 has a shitty chain guide design. Tons and tons of failures at around 200K-250K. Mine failed at 245.

I should have qualified my statement - any inline-6 M-series engine is built to last.

BMW makes shitty V8s.

i've owned and tinkered on many german engines before. mostly bmw, some mercedes and vw, few porsches. i can say from experience that they are needlessly complicated and generally have more failure points compared to japanese engines. sometimes the reasons are not clear at first why it needs to be so complicated but once you open enough of them up and go through the literature, it will make more sense. usually.

religious maintenance is a must. items that would normally last the life of a japanese engine are considered maintenance items and consumables on a german counterpart. as with most japanese stuff, when something goes wrong, it will usually try to keep running so you can get home in one piece. it will then politely suggest you go fix the problem eventually. on german products, when something goes wrong, it usually defaults to "shut it all down" mode to protect whatever good parts are still left. it will then proceed to yell at you to fix it by way of threatening you with expensive consequences.

once one comes to terms with these points, german engines aren't so bad.

funny. working at a shop, i have experienced both of these scenarios.

1) a woman in an acura EL that was overheating and she drove as fast as she could to the shop for us to take a look at it.

2) an older gentleman in a 90's buick that towed the car in for a random stall issue. Turned out to be no coolant/overheat/blown headgasket problem.

the M62 is a single row timing chain as apposed to the earlier m60 engine with dual row. There are many variables to prolong the life of your valvetrain components: proper oil viscosity, oil type, oil/filter change intervals, and external tensioner replacements. Having seen your journal, your engine kicked because it had heavy amounts of sludge. Timing chains set ups are different for all vehicles. I think only japanese vehicles are more capable of doing more than 300k on the original chain/guide/tensioners. My explorer required a new timing chain kit at 230k, while my BMW at 200k is perfectly fine. I'm starting to like the idea of timing belts much more now...

sorry, don't agree. :suspicious:

+1

+2.



i had the original M60 motor in my old 840ci...

did a car fax report, turned out it had well over 200k miles on it... suspension and bushings were tired and worn... but it ran awesome.

original motor. although it did have the alu-sil block update earlier in its life...

ran like a clock and no leaks. car was well taken care of during its life, no sludge build up in the motor was found

ya, i remember when die hard audi fans failed me when I said audi's weren't reliable =/

it is now Fucked In Ass Twice