Total BMW E30 4 Cylinder Buying Guide.

[Jand3rson]

Does. Sorry, I'm usually not a spelling Nazi, but you misspelled it 3 times in the same sentence.

[Jand3rson]

Total BMW is the god of BMW mags. I always enjoy it with coffee, when I'm at book store. Cant you subscribe to it over there?

I could, but it's like $100 or something to subscribe. I mean, I paid $9 a copy for it when I was buying it, but that's easier every month than $100 at once. I need to just suck it up and do it, I loved that magazing.

[Massimo]

Does. Sorry, I'm usually not a spelling Nazi, but you misspelled it 3 times in the same sentence.

Sorry dude I try to keep on top of it sometime my dyslexia gets one over me.

[IronJoe]

S14 is a great race motor, but in all honesty, it is basically worthless if you live anywhere that has other cars on the road. Yes, they are fast and fun and light and badass...but ultimately, they are torqueless, so traffic is miserable.

Nah, I wouldn't call it miserable. I've put over 10k daily driving my M3 over the past year... It's very similar powerband-wise to a B16A, except that it has torque ;-)

Seriously though, it doesn't have a lot down low but I wouldn't consider it "torqueless". They are buzzy but far from undriveable in daily situations.

[StereoInstaller1]

Nah, I wouldn't call it miserable. I've put over 10k daily driving my M3 over the past year... It's very similar powerband-wise to a B16A, except that it has torque ;-)

Seriously though, it doesn't have a lot down low but I wouldn't consider it "torqueless". They are buzzy but far from undriveable in daily situations.

Man, I drove about 6 of them about 35 miles each through San Diego traffic (we were doing radar detectors and car phones in them), ranging from freeway to city streets back in 1991. I was thinking the whole time "Damn, I wish this had grunt, this thing would rock". On the other hand, my car at that time was a '76 Scout II, 4 barrel Edelbrock on a 345 with a 4 speed w/4.23's on 31" tires...nothing else had torque.

[ohthejosh]

Man, I drove about 6 of them about 35 miles each through San Diego traffic (we were doing radar detectors and car phones in them), ranging from freeway to city streets back in 1991. I was thinking the whole time "Damn, I wish this had grunt, this thing would rock". On the other hand, my car at that time was a '76 Scout II, 4 barrel Edelbrock on a 345 with a 4 speed w/4.23's on 31" tires...nothing else had torque.

for some reason i read this and thought of a 80's rebel teen straight out of an 80's movie with a bandana and wavy golden hair.

[M-technik-3]

I think BenM should post his Dad's version of a M42, granted it's got a John Volk manifold hanging on it. I own a few, they are ok but 6's are far more easy to be nice and lazy with them.

[AndrewBird]

I'll be plenty happy with my M42.

And when I get bored with it, I'll turbo it! :evil:

[SimplyDope]

Lovin' my m42 :) But then again you get tickets in this town for going faster than a child learning to ride a bike. I'd probably want more power if it was something that could actually be enjoyed without having to wear a helmet.

[bmwstephen]

S14 is a great race motor, but in all honesty, it is basically worthless if you live anywhere that has other cars on the road. Yes, they are fast and fun and light and badass...but ultimately, they are torqueless, so traffic is miserable.

The M10 is a gutless POS, useful for a powerplant only with a turbo. Not my bag, but if you want one, have at it.

The M42 is a misbegotten jigsaw puzzle of a motor, with catastrophic leak prone retarded engineering. So many pieces, so many huge stupid gaskets, all of which are crappy designs. Hell, even the chain guides needed to be redesigned.

JustinB and I built one not too long ago, it was a horrible experience...but it sure turned out pretty:



It runs flawlessly, leaks nothing but power steering fluid (to be addressed shortly) and behaves exactly as you would expect...slow as fuck, no torque, crappy in daily stop and go traffic...but if you can run with some speed into the corners, it is a blast to drive.

All in all, I will take a stock M20 over any BMW 4 cylinder as a daily driver.

YMMV.

Luke

loving those comments, what yours verdict on other engines m20, m52, etc..

[Ryann]

Fuck the haters. My father-in-law's car has 266k properly maintained/updated original miles on the m42. It starts up every day without smoke or hesitation, pulls hard, has ZERO timing issues, and gets relatively good fuel economy whilst being flogged to it's limits.

Oh, and timing belts are for Hondas.

[immajackuup]

Fuck the haters. My father-in-law's car has 266k properly maintained/updated original miles on the m42. It starts up every day without smoke or hesitation, pulls hard, has ZERO timing issues, and gets relatively good fuel economy whilst being flogged to it's limits.

x2 230k here and running strong.the only leak i have is front main seal which im lazy to replace.

all i know is all german cars are pos!!!!!! they are fucken over engineer,use shitty quality parts,almost all the interiors are held in with plastic clips like fucken legos,and very fucken sensitive when shit breaks,meaning if one shit break there's always another part that will break with it,also another bs thing is when replacing certain thing you have to pull out lots parts just to get to it.

why can they just be simple as japanese cars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TrentW]

My personal 4 cylinder BMW buying guide is much smaller.

Here it is: NO.

One syllable is plenty IMO.

Your brevity is spot on.

Hence why the 318is has always been referred to as "The Poor Man's M3".

This statement should have referenced the 325is as far as I'm concerned.

[a3ternus]

F-ck you all!
I love my M10 cos its linked to both the S14 and ancient F1! :P
N.

[Nick_S]

For daily use my M42 is great. It's got plenty of power if you're not afraid to ring it out abit. I've got a hfc cat and muffler and TMS chip and it serves me just fine. Do I want more power though? Absolutely. My last car made around 220whp so I've been craving that or more since I sold it and have had the E30 as my only car.