this explains why "all bmws burn oil"

[stefanom3]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRAnBgQ_B7M

[bcain79]

Great info - wish i could have this done to my engine. :thumbup:

[RobertFontaine]

It's a shame the blocks aren't better prepared from the factory. Round and flat would be nice. Interesting that the crank itself is not touched in this build.

[ezbmr]

I will have to watch it later, my 5 doesn't lose/burn a drop, my 3 loses a few

[xMLMx]

I remember my first engine build.

[Kevlar]

Interesting to watch...

[325bob]

It's a shame the blocks aren't better prepared from the factory. Round and flat would be nice. Interesting that the crank itself is not touched in this build.

These engines have won best engine of the year, too bad they are so poorly built, LOL, BTW, all my Bimmer engines used very little oil and were raced every Sunday, my current engine is in its 3rd chassis, and might go into my E24, with a blower. ..

[RobertFontaine]

My M52 has never burned any oil or lost any coolant in 15 years. Within spec they are pretty great engines. 1000 hp / 3.2 or 312 hp per litre however is pretty amazing. The factory could have prepared these engines to that level initially.

When BMW came out w/ the 8 cylinder M3 in the 90's and started tearing Porsche a new one I had hoped that this was the direction that they were taking. Instead they broadened their lines and watered down the product.

The opportunity that they had in the late 90's to continue to deliver the best car money could buy well into the 2000's was huge. They had the platform and the chops. If they had chosen the path less traveled I believe that they would have been better off. Bigger is not necessarily better as GM has shown.

Yes the S54 is and was a fine engine but they could have delivered significantly more with only a little more care. The M3 that they are delivering today should have been delivered in 2001.

[jamin325i]

well, first off i did not know they all burned oil.

[Boogieboy]

Cool vid!


Was that a gangster rap about snowboarding? LoL!

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[CMG]

Egg shaped and needs to be torque plated?

[stefanom3]

basically they didn't torque plate the block when they were boring and honing the cylinders.

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[1bmwdrvr1]

Yikes! ALL BMW'S burn oil? I'm lucky, after 80±k I haven't had to add any oil since maybe ¼-½ QT during the first 5k miles.. 2003 330, always warmed-up ( yeah, I know unnecessary) and 75% of the starts its been driven like I stole it... Only one "extra" oil change at 5k miles and when the valve cover was removed to have the gasket replaced at 75k the dealer reported "no sludge"... Maybe my motor was produced on a good day at the factory...

[stefanom3]

don't shoot the messenger. if you want to argue send emails to the guy from the video :cool

[e30lov]

Interesting stuff, but I couldn't take the horrible song playing in the background and had to stop it

[OnTheFence]

1 Quart every 1000 miles.

[02325]

My 02 325 doesn't burn or drip a drop of oil, i change the oil every 7500 or so miles.

I would say that eng had been run hot a time or 2. I dont see BMW letting an eng go with egg shapped cyl.

[ratcat77]

Interesting stuff, but I couldn't take the horrible song playing in the background and had to stop it

I concur, had to drop the volume to "0" when the music came back then up to hear the conversation. My X5 4.4i doesn't use a drop of oil, heaps of torque. What is Torque plate? Even with a tiny oil leak at 1 - 2 drops a day I still haven't had to top it up.

[bayerische]

Interesting video.

[SilverBeam]

I've never had a BMW burn oil, neither has my family, and we've owned quite a few 100,000 mile + BMWs. My E36 burns oil, but that's only because I need to replace the valve cover seal.

[Makr]

Cool video.

BMW engines are not machined different than any other manufacturer. Even after the guy in the video torque plates the block when he hones it at some point the cylinders will not be perfectly round. Torquing the main cap are going to tweek it. Age will change it. Just because it is metal doesn't mean it is a solid structure.

[ptarditi]

don't shoot the messenger. if you want to argue send emails to the guy from the video :cool
Why not shoot the messenger, its your thread?
Egg-shaped cylinders and a lifted head gasket with a warped head, someone's daily driver? If the rev-limiter wasn't flashed out then the driver must of been bouncing off it every shift. I'm going to say it is a testament to BMW that they can build a motor to "just be burning a little oil" and still be running, they are more likely to leak oil then burn it. Also if the driver was listening to that music while driving i'd probably rather hear my engine thrash itself apart too! REmember this is a company that took 2liter motors and got 1300hp out of them they just weren't "daily drivers".

Merry Christmas to you all!!

[e30lov]

Also, i'm going to go against the grain here with the people saying "oh my beloved bmw never burns a drip of oil in 200000 miles!!!" and come back down to reality. My m3 burns about a quart of oil every 1000 miles. Everything seems fine, and it runs great.

[prash]

My 220K mile V8 has never burned any oil either.

[EdirtySicks]

Not one of the 7 e36s or my 535is leaked a drop by gasket or mechanical breakdown. Power steering reservoir... well Comon;)

[AusE39er]

Cool vid!


Was that a gangster rap about snowboarding? LoL!

Sent from my iPhone using BF.com

Yeah was also wondering how they thought that was a good idea too, lol.

Otherwise a good vid.

[bayerische]

I recall reading somewhere that the Nissan GT-R engine is torque pl8d at the factory. Or was that the S2K?

[90turbo1]

basically they didn't torque plate the block when they were boring and honing the cylinders.

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i am going to call BS on this one, I have rebuilt a few of these motors in the shop here, with new blocks and pistons. We measured and inspected the new blocks before fitting pistons and found no egg shaped cylinders. Along with all the other motors I have to rebuild the cyl are works of art, there honing is second to none and never found an out of round cylinder.

Tearing apart a S54 motor that has obviously been beaten within an inch of its life and calling BMW out on it is just a PR scam they can drum up to make them selves look good.

I do believe they (the performance company making the video) does a perfect job of making power themselves and they use sound practices but from experience in building these "stock" motors I have not witnessed what he is describing.

[sprintman]

People complaining about oil burning are often using the wrong spec oil. Very easily fixed.

[bayerische]

i am going to call BS on this one, I have rebuilt a few of these motors in the shop here, with new blocks and pistons. We measured and inspected the new blocks before fitting pistons and found no egg shaped cylinders. Along with all the other motors I have to rebuild the cyl are works of art, there honing is second to none and never found an out of round cylinder.

Tearing apart a S54 motor that has obviously been beaten within an inch of its life and calling BMW out on it is just a PR scam they can drum up to make them selves look good.

I do believe they (the performance company making the video) does a perfect job of making power themselves and they use sound practices but from experience in building these "stock" motors I have not witnessed what he is describing.
I thought the point was that it's egg-shaped after the head is bolted onto the block?

[stefanom3]

yeah, that's what I understood too... and you get uneven wear because of that. they even showed the marks at TDC.

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[97mreaper]

Correct torque plating is something you
Def should do to these motors if going for
Big power and reliability. Every motor that don(pa wizard) builds, is torque plated. It's done for a reason not just to Make BMW look bad.

[OnTheFence]

Ok, I'll ask. What is "torque plating"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV_Z6gkRM0Q

[90turbo1]

Ok, I'll ask. What is "torque plating"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV_Z6gkRM0Q


torque plating a motor is basically bolting a thick steel plate to the engine block. This holds the block and simulates a cyl head being bolted to the block when they bore, or hone a cylinder.

this is a must on any open deck motor, and should be used on any motor really.

[Bracky]

Tearing apart a S54 motor that has obviously been beaten within an inch of its life and calling BMW out on it is just a PR scam they can drum up to make them selves look good.
I second this, it looks in a really bad way they said it was smoking when they got it. Also i've had may bmw's including a well used e21 which still shows no sign of burning oil and a extremely abused 140k/mile m42 drift pool car that sat at red line till the point of the oil turning to water but still no smoke or noticeable loss of oil, although I must say most have dropped some but were not too much of a problem to replace gaskets.

[willpeoples]

My SA told me they are designed to eat oil as they are a performance engine, I have ate oil in all three, 325, 335, and m3. It also depends on how you drive, the harder I drive the more oil I go through.

Interesting video. I really like the s50 engine, would love to own one of these...

[EE05063]

wait, you mean the engineers at BMW had no idea their cylinders were egg shaped?

:shifty:

[D. Hitchcock]

My old M20-powered e30 -- an STX-prepped autoX car flogged regularly -- dripped a little here and there. I think I had to add a bit every 1500 miles or so.

My M42 powered e30, my M52 powered e36, and my M54 powered e46 don't burn oil.

[sooky123]

All the turbo bmw motors burn oil no doubt about it. However there is a limit, it shouldn't burn through 1 qt in 500 miles. Something is definitely wrong.

My s50, m44 and m52 never burned oil though.

[fcvapor05]

My SA told me they are designed to eat oil as they are a performance engine, I have ate oil in all three, 325, 335, and m3. It also depends on how you drive, the harder I drive the more oil I go through

No engines are designed to lose oil. I don't know where that came from, but its pretty dumb.

[Tony P]

I have less than 19,000 miles on my '07. To date, it has never burned any oil.

[bastadelli]

My ex. 525i e39 with m54 burnt a little less than 1qt per 6k miles. It had about 110k miles on the odometer. And about the same
for my old e34 540i at 220k miles, but my brothers e32 740i with about 150k miles burns almost nothing.
And I guess all was driven with similar oils 5w-40 different brands though.

It definitely depends on if you rev it like a 18year old or like grandpa. :)

[R6Russian]

Also, i'm going to go against the grain here with the people saying "oh my beloved bmw never burns a drip of oil in 200000 miles!!!" and come back down to reality. My m3 burns about a quart of oil every 1000 miles. Everything seems fine, and it runs great.

Jesus, quart a thousand? That's terrible. My piece of shit 325 with 251 on the clock doesn't leK or burn a drop. Only cars that are ok burning a quart a thousand are saturns, it even says in the manual that they will burn oil faster than you can pour it in but even then a quart every 1000 is still too much

Realistically, burning more than a quart between oil changes is bad. Run a quart of atf in your next oil change, it'll help soften up the valve seals and free up the rings a little. My old car when I first got it would burn a qt/1000 and it was BAD. Military grade smokescreen every time I would do a rip (rings), even worse smoke anytime getting back on the gvas after engine braking (valve seals) and after about a year of religious 3k oil changes with 1 quart of atf in oil, all the burning stopped. I tried all kinds of mechanics in a bottle and the 2 that worked were marvel mystery oil and atf.