M50 + M52. Building up a hybrid.

[permit]

The Al blocks are $$$$$$.

[Jordan]

The OBD-II crank position thingy are completely different

It's called a Hall Effect sensor.

[permit]

It's called a Hall Effect sensor.

I learn something new every day.

[Addissimo]

It's called a Hall Effect sensor.

actually according to bmw its a pulse generator...

:)

but yeah, hall sensor, crank position sensor...


you say potato, I say fuck you

then I eat the potato... because i'm from idaho.

[conrod]

Jeez, you guys get ripped off on the engines over there! All of our single vanos M52 engines over here from the 2.0litre,2.5 (323I) and 2.8 were ali blocked,the last of the cast iron block 6 cylinders(except for the S50 and S54) were the M50, plus we got the proper S50 engines in our M3's. Ali blocked M52's can be had reasonably cheaply here, from NZ$1000 upwards (about $700 in your ringits) How does that compare with your local pricing?

[CarsSuck]

I wish i could tell you, but no one will tell me. I guess im gonna have to call around to all the recyclers and probably have to wait a damn long time to actually get one. I'm going into action mode.

This setup plus A/C delete should yield a nice tossable car. Especially when the Z3 rack goes in.

[FredK]

Jeez, you guys get ripped off on the engines over there! All of our single vanos M52 engines over here from the 2.0litre,2.5 (323I) and 2.8 were ali blocked,the last of the cast iron block 6 cylinders(except for the S50 and S54) were the M50, plus we got the proper S50 engines in our M3's. Ali blocked M52's can be had reasonably cheaply here, from NZ$1000 upwards (about $700 in your ringits) How does that compare with your local pricing?

Well conrod, the big problem is that your blocks (together with the European M52s) have Nikasil coated bores. If high sulfur fuel is ever used with the engine, premature bore wear can occur, causing a huge loss of compression.

Only in the late 90s the US proposed reducing the sulfur level in fuel. You see, removing sulfur from gasoline requires additional processing which costs more money.

If you had a Nikasil block manufactured today, you could most likely run it without any significant bore wear because of more stringent regulations on sulfur content. But, these engines are at the least 7 years old.

BMW's solution was to install steel liners starting in roughly March 1998 production for all aluminum M52s.

[conrod]

Thanks for that Fred, I didn't realise that about your fuel. What octane rating is yur fuel over there? We get 92 octane, which we call "regular,"from all suppliers, 96 from Shell,Caltex (Texaco to you?) BP and Mobil,97 from Gull, and 98, which is "premium" from some BP and Mobil. I believe Shell in Australia is soon going to sell 100 octane out of the pump, hopefully we will get that here.

[FredK]

I believe in NZ, the fuel is graded as in Europe, on the Research Octane Number (RON) scale. In the US, our fuel is rated using (RON+MON)/2, where MON is the Manufacturer's Octane Number. The result of using the US's average octane number scale is that the number is numerically lower than RON values.

That said, there are primarily three grades of fuel available in most states--87, 89, and 93 octane. California only has 91 octane available at most pumps.

Now, remember that our fuel is on a different octane rating scale. Our 93 octane is roughly equivalent to 98 RON fuel. So we have the same fuel available in terms of octane rating. There is NO difference in the fuel octane, just the way that they are labeled.

When BMW started to have these Nikasil bore wear issues, they believed the problem was restricted to the US. However, this was NOT the case. Sulfur levels in fuel depended upon the supplier even in other countries, and it was not uncommon to see these failures in the UK and also in Europe. Only after more recent legislation were the sulfur levels brought down in both Europe and the US.

Anyway, thanks for reading. :D

[conrod]

Thanks Fred,yes our fuel is graded on the RON scale.Heres me thinking you guys just got bad fuel! You learn something new every day!

[RobertK]

The Al blocks are $$$$$$.

Then this must be a steal of a deal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-Z3-2-5-Liter-Six-Cylinder-Engine-Head-6-Cyl-Motor_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33616QQitemZ8030929504QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

[FredK]

It's a good deal but it's the DOUBLE VANOS engine. It's not the right engine!

[RobertK]

No love for double Vanos?

[FredK]

by itself it's a great engine. However you can't convert it to OBD-I because there is no OBD-I DME that can control double Vanos. So, unless you run it as a OBD-II engine you can't use the M52B28TU.