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V10 "Reliability Issues" in 2020

4K views 12 replies 8 participants last post by  SeattleAggie 
#1 ·
Back in 2002, BMW made the first Formula 1 engine to rev to 19,000 RPM. If you're not familiar with Formula 1, I'd argue it's probably the pinnacle of race engineering. These guys spend ridiculous amounts of money (or cheat...or both) to gain the most ridiculously small advantage. Was 19,000rpm milestone that much different than 18,000rpm milestone? Probably not. The point is that to be the first to achieve an engineering feat in such a prominent area must take more truly smart people than I've ever met.

These engines, as I understand, only lasted 1 race. Not one race weekend...one race

Fast forward, an equally brilliant group of people who took that feat of engineering and modified it to fit the M5 and M6.

Show me two consecutive videos of these cars where at least one of the videos isn't someone revving the **** out of this engine and I'll eat my shoe.
The fact that you can find examples that can still be driven at 100K is astonishing. These things can do 200mph AND you can drive them to a black-tie event...in 2005 or 2020

These cars are like Maximus in Gladiator..."are you not entertained?"

I purchased my e64 6spd a few weeks ago.
 
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#3 ·
Going on 10 years and 170,000+ smiles:
 
#6 ·
These engines are design to be "rev the fxck out of".

There is nothing wrong with taking it to the rev limiter once the engine is warm.
Agreed. It's not so much the revving it out for me, it's more about me doubting that a good amount of former owners took the necessary steps to do that properly. Warming up 5-7 min before driving (that's a long time if you're running late for something)? Mitigating heat soak after hard summer driving by using fans (or even just popping the hood to let air out)? Those are two easy things that a majority of owners seem unlikely to do, and their engines will likely not last as long as they otherwise would have. I'm simply arguing that people are looking at this car/engine all wrong. This would seem to be one of the most reliable race engines every made by a mile, but it's still a race engine.

Other than being both V10s the F1 engines and s85 have nothing in common.
I don't follow on this. BMW started V10 development for F1 in 2000/2001 (I believe this was their first shot at it). Within five years they have a version that is streetable and can be put into the M5/M6. The cylinder bank angle of 90 degrees? Learned from F1 development that this reduces vibrations (compared to the E41 engine). The aluminum sand casting process for the block I believe was also derived from F1. With all of the R&D and hands-on experience in the development of these, I don't see anyway BMW could have built this engine WITHOUT standing on the shoulders of the P81/82/83.
 
#7 ·
popping the hood to let air out
hmmm, good idea, never thought of this one. I run multiple fans in my garage 24/7 and also have an automated one that is an exhaust vent comes on with humidity or temp levels. also de-humidifier always ready to run. most of this was to prevent corrosion and trying to keep garage ventilated, dry and cool. also keep Firebird hood always popped a bit, just to keep seals from deforming.

never thought about engine heat after a drive. what kind of extra damage gets done by just parking the car and not attempting to go thru extra effort to cool the engine?
 
#12 ·
Would it really matter
I imagine driving in traffic wouldn’t be great either
It very well may not matter one bit, but I'll give you my basic logic: there are any number of various plastics pieces and liquids in these engines. Heat, beyond a certain level, starts to damage those components. The more you reduce exposure to higher temperatures, the longer any one of these components would be likely to last. I'm positive of this in the abstract, but I have no idea if it actually matters for all intents and purposes. Maybe the difference would be so small that you'd end up replacing any of the components for other reasons far before you'd recognize any longevity gains from reducing heat, but I figure the worst case is that it makes no difference so why not do it if I can.
 
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