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Which would you pick? N52 (silver engine cover) or N52k (black engine cover)

2003 - 2009, roadster, coupe, facelift
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shuey
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Which would you pick? N52 (silver engine cover) or N52k (black engine cover)

Post by shuey » Wed May 02, 2018 1:51 am

Hey all, I will soon be buying a z4 coupe, sport.

Without going into a big debate about which is better or which is more reliable, if you could pick z4 coupe with either of the engines, which engine would you go for? Thanks peeps
Last edited by shuey on Sun Jun 24, 2018 5:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Which would you pick? M54 or N52

Post by jamie_z4 » Wed May 02, 2018 2:58 am

you can only get a n52(or an S54) in a coupe so its kinda irrelavant really

knowing how fragile the N52 is now after owning a couple, i'd go M54 all day! The cooling system is sh1te but the actual block is a lot more reliable than the n52 in my experience.
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Which would you pick? M54 or N52

Post by srhutch » Wed May 02, 2018 6:54 am

I created a poll, then read it was for coupe, so as above can only get N52.
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Which would you pick? M54 or N52

Post by si-forks » Wed May 02, 2018 7:02 am

shuey wrote: Wed May 02, 2018 1:51 am Hey all, I will soon be buying a z4 coupe, sport.

Without going into a big debate about which is better or which is more reliable, if you could pick z4 coupe with either of the engines, which engine would you go for? Thanks peeps
I think a bit of research is needed
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Which would you pick? M54 or N52

Post by enzed4 » Wed May 02, 2018 7:12 am

Shortest poll ever :lol:
N52 it is then :thumbsup:
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Which would you pick? M54 or N52

Post by kis » Wed May 02, 2018 7:29 am

I disagree. I see it as a hypothetical question.

But agree the question should be worded better to indicate whether hypothetical or whether it’s just knowledge gap.
shuey wrote: Wed May 02, 2018 1:51 am if you could pick z4 coupe with either of the engines, which engine would you go for?
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Which would you pick? M54 or N52

Post by MACK » Wed May 02, 2018 7:45 am

kis wrote: Wed May 02, 2018 7:29 am I disagree. I see it as a hypothetical question.

But agree the question should be worded better to indicate whether hypothetical or whether it’s just knowledge gap.

[quote=shuey post_id=<a href="tel:1538452">1538452</a> time=<a href="tel:1525222309">1525222309</a> user_id=27920]
if you could pick z4 coupe with either of the engines, which engine would you go for?
[/quote]

Assuming the above and treating it as a hypothetical question then id go M54 simply for the better reliability. It's also much cheaper for parts when things do go wrong. Just compare water pump prices for example. Don't get me wrong I quite like the N52 and it's got more power and a better torque curve than the equivalent M54. It's just that when things go wrong it's much pricier to put right and they tend to go wrong more frequently. That said I would definitely still buy a 2.5/3.0 N52 engined car, as the issues it has are no where near as prevalent/plentiful as they are on it's smaller 2.0 N42/6 sibling
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Which would you pick? M54 or N52

Post by Monkeydonkeyratmagic » Wed May 02, 2018 8:17 am

M54...because superchargers fit on them so nicely.

Don't just worry about the engine though. Can't speak for the facelifts but these early ones are made of cheese. Literally everything bar the engine is unbelievably weak and fragile.
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Which would you pick? M54 or N52

Post by R60BBA » Wed May 02, 2018 9:27 am

This is purely hypothetical but if I were ever to swap, these are the (BMW) engines I would install:

S50B32 (BMW’s benchmark M engine and has the best exhaust note with a proper exhaust imo)
S65 (a bit heavy and would probably upset the car’s weight distribution but is N/A and sounds epic)
S70B56 or S70/2 (V12 engine uprated and used by McLaren for their F1 cars during the 90s)
N54 (cheap and can be mapped to solid power)
N55B0T0 (Z4 with an M2 engine - dream)
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Which would you pick? M54 or N52

Post by Marlon » Wed May 02, 2018 10:43 am

N52 (facelift) is a great engine with more power and better torque than the M54
DISA – issues mainly on M54 engines.
VANOS – problems relatively rare on facelift, doesn’t suffer the same seal issues.
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Which would you pick? M54 or N52

Post by ph001 » Wed May 02, 2018 10:46 am

Well lets look at the most common engine failure points (excluding things that are common to both like coil packs, o2 sensors, AFM etc)...

M54:
DISA valves - can break up and get sucked into intake = bad day at the office.
VANOS gets gunked up / leaks with resultant loss of midrange torque. Fairly easy to service to put right though.
Air leaks from splits on rubber elbow on inlet.
CCV system gets gunked up.

N52:
Electric Water pump (£200 to replace, easy enough to change DIY)
CCV on silver top engine can get gunked up (later revised black top engines have integrated CCV which is more difficult to change but doesn't seem to got wrong as often)
Valvetronic can be a bit ticky due to airlocks / sludge build up with lots of small stop - start journeys but not detrimental to engine.

N54:
High pressure fuel pump
Piezo injectors
Electric Water pump
Rattling wastegate actuators
Coked-up inlet valves (what a party they must be having).

The N54 is the most expensive to sort by a big margin. The M54 / N52 is more finely balanced but given the N52 runs a much more modern ECU and has the better engine characteristic and economy it probably wins. Unless you are a big engine modder perhaps.
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Which would you pick? M54 or N52

Post by Steve84N » Wed May 02, 2018 12:54 pm

N52 every time, better sound, economy and power plus it's lighter.

Reliability is 50/50 as different things go wrong but neither has very expensive problems that require full engine rebuilds.
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Which would you pick? M54 or N52

Post by hopz121 » Wed May 02, 2018 1:00 pm

R60BBA wrote: Wed May 02, 2018 9:27 amS65
The S65 is lighter than most of the Straight 6's believe it or not.
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Which would you pick? M54 or N52

Post by Steve84N » Wed May 02, 2018 1:11 pm

S65 is more than M54 or N52 but less than S54.
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Which would you pick? M54 or N52

Post by srhutch » Wed May 02, 2018 1:15 pm

ph001 wrote: Wed May 02, 2018 10:46 am
N52:
Electric Water pump (£200 to replace, easy enough to change DIY)
CCV on silver top engine can get gunked up (later revised black top engines have integrated CCV which is more difficult to change but doesn't seem to got wrong as often)
Valvetronic can be a bit ticky due to airlocks / sludge build up with lots of small stop - start journeys but not detrimental to engine.
HVA issue isn't just down to short journeys and sludge. My old 2.5si did it from almost new and resulted in a revised head being installed. Car also did not do short distances Covered a 50 mile round trip every working day. I would also argue it is detrimental to engine as it's metal on metal contact with impact.

I'd probably go with M54 given the choice, easier/cheaper to fix and more options for tinkering.
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