Buying a 318is

[Colby.325e]

I have an M42 currently, and it's always been reliable for me. I love it for a DD, my commute to work is only a couple miles, so I make good use of the 4.10 rear end. When I was commuting to work and taking the highway for my last job, I wished I had an M20. Lots of revs, and I was getting better gas mileage off the highway.

[GillesBigCowboy]

I think m42 is a great dd... enjoys the curves more than m20.

[Swoon]

Valve cover bolts like to strip out if overtightened which can cause a nice oil leak. I heli-coiled all mine. Great little engines, don't expect it to be a top end monster but they are geared awesome for daily driving around town or backroads.

Alright thanks
Read your whole m50 swap haha, looks great. What suspension are you running?
And how much did your whole swap cost you?

[Vivek]

So other than the chain tensioner and that bolt issue, the M42 is a solid, reliable engine? Searching around, it seems like it gets a lot of criticism.

When it boils down to it, just take the car to the shop for an inspection and if everything checks out I should be good?

What are some other e30 issues not exclusive to the m42?

Most people who criticize the m42 just say it's slow and for some damn reason think their m20 is fast . There's really nothing wrong with the engine. The timing belt will never randomly snap because there isn't one. It's DOHC and makes more HP per liter than an m20. If a shop gives the car a clear inspection I'd say you're great. I had my old e30 (currently my dad's DD and he's put over 25k on it in the past couple years) checked out by a shop once and they had a whole laundry list of shit they thought was wrong with it. In all those miles it hasn't had a single issue and we've just been doing basic maintenance and some suspension work on it.