New e30 owner, a couple of questions

[stamar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHmMlU8Q-V8

[UserError]

Cool video, though they did go a bit overboard on the maintenance, in my opinion.

[stamar]

at the same time in europe they used a mercedes w123

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

but they only decided to try for a million kilometers which is only 60%

so that says something good about bmw imo. at least vs the mercedes w123.
or honestly just the m20. I have never heard of an m50 even thinking about going a million miles.

Oh btw, it was 14k oil change intervals.

My car buddy friend, who also owns an e30 explained a few things an m20 has going for it that are actually the same with all million mile motors... most of which are 4 cylinders like the toyota sr20

its sohc and its belt timing. to make a long story short, theres way less metal contact in the head of an m20 than most engines, and its the metal that the oil is there to wash away.
So starting out with less contact points of the cams, and fewer valves is already way more important than synthetic oil.

now, six cylinders is very much the opposite, it is working against it. most million mile motors like in the accord or volvo are 4 cylinders. But everything else is going perfect for an m20 including the neutral vibration.

It may sound like were biased but the m20 is the last of the reliability is the goal engines made ( from bmw) and one of oh...10 20 ever made that make it to 1 or 2 million miles.