CarlT

Hi Everyone

In a quest to broaden my BMW knowledge, I might be opening a can of worms here, but how are these M5 engines? I've driven them and really like them, but what are there weaknesses? Do they handle abuse?

I know I'm pretty vague in my questioning, but I just want the general feedback on anyone with good and bad experience with the 3.6 and 3.8 engines.

Regards
Carl
PS I'm not looking to buy a M5, I'm just curious of nature...

__________________
"The E31, The father of all modern BMWs"

93 850CSi
99 728iA
00 DiscoII

raymondw

Hello Carl,

In general the S38 engine is very robust and durable, but this depends on the usage and regular Maintanance. A proper warming up is very important.

Proper warming up means that you wait untill the oil is minimal 90degrees Celcius before revving the engine hard. The S38 engine is little weak below 3000RPM and this means you have to downshift regularly to achieve maximum acceleration. Many people cannot wait untill the engine is fully warmed up. When this is the case, the S38 engine will not last long.

I know of some people who have had to rebuild their engines, but this was manily caused by abuse or lack of service.

I have my E34 ///M5 3.6 for allmost three years now and in the mean time, I have driven 42k km with her (Currently 142k km). The only repairs I had to perform where the replacement of the Distributor rotor and cap and the repair of some leaking intake manifold gaskets.

The preventive maintanance I carried out was the replacement of the waterpump at 120k km and the replacement of the rear cranckshaft seal.

For the rest, I chance the oil regulary about every 7000km and have an Inspection I or II done every 15000km. With an Inspection I or II, the valve clearances need to be checked and if necesary adjusted. This is very important because if the clearances are out of spec, the valves can burn.

So in general the S38 engine is robust and can take a lot of proper abuse, but when abused in a wrong way, it won't last long. But this is the case with many other high performance engines as well.

With best regards,

Raymond

1990 E34 ///M5 3.6
1985 E28 ///M5 3.5 (without cat)