BMW Motorsports Team Purposely Broken Connecting Rod

[Jeffrey535i]

Guys,

In my possession I have a set of BMW Motorsports connecting rods that are forged from one piece of metal, then broken where the connecting rod caps go around the crankshaft. These rods look like they came out of a S38 M5 motor and the rumor I heard about them was the BMW Racing Team had to make the rods stronger for their racing cars and still use parts that were in production. So the euro ///M Series of cars in the 1990s could have these same rods.

Does anyone know or have any sources where I can find more information about these?

I have googled, and even the process of making these isn't on the web.

Thanks,
Jeffrey

[BimmerBreaker]

They are called fracture-split, they are used on many BMW engines including modern production engines in their M vehicles. The process of how to make them is well known and widespread if you look up "fracture split connecting rod" - its a cool technology, but far from rare in the modern era.

Even some non-M engines, like the M62 (V8 in 540i, 740i, etc from late '90s early '00s), use fracture split rods.