mmm-five wrote: ↑Mon Mar 11, 2019 11:32 pm
Z4M-2006 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 11, 2019 7:21 pm
This is where all the money is,it may be financially viable to get a second hand S54 and put in new shells and go in that direction.
I’m in the same position, but hadn’t mentioned it previously until I’d decided what I was going to do (strip & rebuild with new parts, or scrap the car, or wait for a low mileage S54).
It was driving normally, and we stopped to refuel, but sounde a bit noisy as I went to move off. Stopped and revved it slowly to about 1500rpm, and heard the bottom end knocking, so turned it off straight away & got it trailered to a specialist. They got me to start it and rev it slowly again and told me to turn it off immediately.
We took the oil filter out and could see a fair bit of metal, and to see if the filter had caught it all or if any had gone further into the engine we cut the filter apart...only to find as much inside as out. We then took the valve cover off and we could see ‘glitter’
The difference I suppose to your’s is that mine is on 163,000 miles and has done a fair few track days and Ring trips...BUT it has been well over-serviced - some times 3 oil & filter changes in a month.
Murphy’s Law is that I had mine booked in for shells, vanos & CSL style carbon airbox & alpha-n during winter, to be ready for spring.
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Once we decided what to do (whilst I was in bed recovering from a fractured hip I injured skiing) I found it quite difficult to get a good Z4M S54 engine...they were either around 100,000 miles - and probably in need of shells & vanos too, or they were out of a crashed car and couldn’t be seen running. I finally got one after 3 months of looking and almost settling for an M3 S54.
Ultimately I only paid 10% more for Z4M version over an M3 version, but it makes the engine swap easier, as the Z4M S54 is slightly different to an M3 S54.
If you get an M3 version, then check that an earlier ones have the recall done on the bearings. You'll also need the loom to connect to the MSS70 ECU in the Z4 (M3 has MSS54).
Manifolds, MAF, airbox, dipstick, sump, etc will all need to be changed over from the Z4 engine to the M3 engine - but if there’s a lot of contamination you’d want to be raplacing bits instead to avoid leaving crap everywhere.
What you’ll save on an M3 engine, you might spend on replacement parts and extra labour to swap everything.