A 24-valve M20

[bimma360]

BMW had been building high-performance 4-valve heads for years; there's no reason to think that they acquired this technology from an American tuner.

The cam drive is quite different as well. Somewhere I have pictures of this head, I need to find them.

I would love to see those pictures and drawings!

[bimma360]

its ludicrous to believe BMW got the M50 head from callaway.

Eh ludicrous is a strong word. But it's not out of the ordinary for companies to buy out the technology of other companies, or even buying up entire companies for that purpose. I'm not saying the Quadros was an M50 head.

And although my initial statement is all speculation I don't think the notion is ludicrous. The Quadros could have been in e30's for 3 or 4 years before BMW basically would have come out with something similar for the e36. Even if they didn't use the tech in creation of the m50, it's not that far fetched to think that they may have just not wanted it to find its way in the m20. Even if it would just have been for the tuner market.

I just find it odd that Callaway went that far into the prototyping phase and that early on, without even a single production run. They had all the resources to manufacture these. You usually don't go into the prototyping phase unless you know that manufacturing is viable. So what changed? Did a new variable increase the cost so much that it wouldn't have been marketable... or?

[Alex Mc]

...could be you are referring to this Racing Dynamics 24v head, to which I understand there could be a connection with the Callaway one.

No, my father had at least a cursory involvement with the Callaway project and was in possession of engineering drawings and some personal pictures of the prototype head in his files. I haven't seen them in many years but they are somewhere.

[digger]

its ludicrous to believe BMW got the M50 head from callaway.

[gath]

BMW had been building high-performance 4-valve heads for years; there's no reason to think that they acquired this technology from an American tuner.

The cam drive is quite different as well. Somewhere I have pictures of this head, I need to find them.

...could be you are referring to this Racing Dynamics 24v head, to which I understand there could be a connection with the Callaway one.

[slammin.e28]

Before I opened this thread, I thought you would make some type of reference to an M30 or how terrible the M20 is. Looks like I was almost correct. lol

:D

He he he!

But sill, M20 24v would be pretty badass. I love M12/13s.

[redsubdivisions]

24v M20 is just more valves to slam into pistons when that belt brakes.

That is all.

Still, pretty neato stuff.

;)

Before I opened this thread, I thought you would make some type of reference to an M30 or how terrible the M20 is. Looks like I was almost correct. lol

[slammin.e28]

24v M20 is just more valves to slam into pistons when that belt brakes.

That is all.

Still, pretty neato stuff.

;)

[gtdragon980]

I know an m50 is basically a DOHC m20, but the power figures they were making out of a little 2.3l is what really impresses me. I would rather spend swap money on that head to throw on an m20 rather than going the m50 route. But that's just me! Hell, they were making 2jz-ge power in the 80's!

Edit: or was it the 90's when they were developing it?

[Alex Mc]

BMW had been building high-performance 4-valve heads for years; there's no reason to think that they acquired this technology from an American tuner.

The cam drive is quite different as well. Somewhere I have pictures of this head, I need to find them.

[jeffnhiscars]

You know it's interesting that prior to that point BMW themselves only made one DOHC motor, and that was the big six M88 (as far as I know). Hell the S38 wasn't even produced until what, '86?

Seeing what BMW was achieving with the M88 with 3.5L and what the Quadros project was doing with only 2.3L, I wonder if BMW simply bought the technology from Callaway. Not saying that BMW couldn't do it themselves (of course they could). But maybe a Quadros purchase was a sound, cost effective move toward the later m50 motor. Maybe even a PR move. I wonder if it would have been a big deal for dohc m20 e30's to be on the roads a good 4 or 5 years before BMW came out with their m50 in the then new 3 series.

Hell, you m5x guys might just be running around in finalized and toned down versions of the Quadros m20. You never know.

This makes a lot of sense. As I was reading the article I was thinking the same thing as everyone else..."a drop in head for M5x performance...PayPal ready". As cool as I am to the idea of replacing a perfectly good low mileage M20 engine, Im a little less cool today after reading this.

[bimma360]

That's pretty amazing that they made a prototype so far back but were unable to bring it to market. If the guy drove a prototype in 1984, then it predated the release of the M50 by around what, 5 years?

You know it's interesting that prior to that point BMW themselves only made one DOHC motor, and that was the big six M88 (as far as I know). Hell the S38 wasn't even produced until what, '86?

Seeing what BMW was achieving with the M88 with 3.5L and what the Quadros project was doing with only 2.3L, I wonder if BMW simply bought the technology from Callaway. Not saying that BMW couldn't do it themselves (of course they could). But maybe a Quadros purchase was a sound, cost effective move toward the later m50 motor. Maybe even a PR move. I wonder if it would have been a big deal for dohc m20 e30's to be on the roads a good 4 or 5 years before BMW came out with their m50 in the then new 3 series.

Hell, you m5x guys might just be running around in finalized and toned down versions of the Quadros m20. You never know.

[FredK]

That's pretty amazing that they made a prototype so far back but were unable to bring it to market. If the guy drove a prototype in 1984, then it predated the release of the M50 by around what, 5 years?

[Alex Mc]

My father consulted on this project before it was binned in anticipation of the M50. There's something very cool about these, just like the AC Schnitzer 16V M10 heads.

[ScHpAnKy]

Awesome read, such an awesome writing style.

Wow, really makes you wonder why this project was never completed...It would be amazing to have a 24V m20 making that kind of power. That is way ahead of it's time.

haha, that's because the M50NV is a 24v M20