Best resources to learn about the various Z4 models?

[Silverstar]

Smart money is on the N52

+1

You would say that wouldn’t you, it’s what you’ve got
Rob

True, but it's what I actively chose based on the fact that I plan to keep the car for a few years and don't fancy forking out big money for repairs all the time and it had to be a 6 cylinder. Judging by what the OP is saying, seems like he is in the same boat so then the N52 makes more sense or the N20 perhaps since he hasn't shown a preference of number of cylinders.

 

[Silverstar]

Smart money is on the N52

Arguably the N54 is a much stronger engine than the N52, just the ancillires around the N54 are junk

The ancillaries, ie fuel pump etc were so much better on the post LCI cars, nearly all the problems with the N54 were on the very early cars

This is true the engine is golden it's the other bits. The problem is there are too many of these other bits that can and do go wrong and all of them are relatively expensive to fix. I did query about if the later cars were better with some specialists but the answer I got back was not really. I think the next generation of this engine and the current gen are much better in this aspect.

 

[Anonymous]

Interesting reading from some guys that appear experienced on various BMW engine types..enjoy..

N20 https://bmwtuning.co/bmw-n20-common-problems/

N54 (and others) https://bmwtuning.co/n54-n55-b58-s55/

Seems to line up with most of what I have read elsewhere..