engine and drivetrain Fresh out of M42s

[wickstad]

Will you accept an S14 instead?

I walk up to the ski lift line where my wife is holding our place. There is a guy in line obviously speaking to her. I hear things like, "chain driven double overhead cam instead of belt drive...". And I just continue to put my skis on wondering why my wife is listening to this guy when just the day before I bored her to death talking about Datsun B210s.

So finally I ask this guy what he is going on about after he tells us he would rather pick up women on dates in his Cherokee rather than his BMW so as not to impress them too much. He says he bought one of the last of the E30s and they were probably out of standard engines so they gave him an engine from an M3. He's put 270k miles on it since new. He's had work done such as the waterpump more than once. He said engine output was 170hp.

Does this sound plausible. I believe the guy. Why would he make something like that up. And if he's had work done and owned the damn thing for 270k he must know which engine is in there.

Any thoughts? The car is a 318i convertible. I didn't get the year.

[M3M3]

um, no.

lowest hp s14 in US was 195, and it was the early ones. there was no shortage of M42's. they used that engine in the e36 318. 170hp would be way too high for an m42. i am guessing the guy doesn't know what he is talking about.

they did add an "m-technic" package to some of the last few e30's. it was plastic body add on's. no engine change.

[BLUNT]

if this guy is impressing women with an e30 they must be some real lookers

[bracohen]

170 is about what an M20 is rated at, and if he has the MTECH body kit it would be a 325 which can be a '93 325 rather than a '92. Sounds like the guy doesn't even know what model his car is.

[rey949]

Yeah! I heard they were fresh out of teeth when they were handin' em out over there too!

[Pierre]

The M42 was the junior M3 motor, with high compression, dual overhead cams and 16 valves. It was the first non-M car that had a 4-valve head so some people associated it with the S14, in a smaller version. In fact, the horsepower per liter output was fairly close. (76hp per liter for the M42 and 85hp per liter for the S14.)

There were a handful of E30 convertibles that had the S14 motor, none of them sold in the US. It sounds like the guy wanted a 325i and the dealer told him a "story" that they were out of M20s and convinced him to buy a 318i instead making him thinks he's getting something special.

[c.d.iesel]

[jgerock]

Not sure about this, but I read a feature article in Bimmer Magazine about an E30 in Europe (England?) that was equipped with possibly the S14 engine from BMW. It wasn't an M3 and of course North Americans didn't get it.

[Tommy]

Not sure about this, but I read a feature article in Bimmer Magazine about an E30 in Europe (England?) that was equipped with possibly the S14 engine from BMW. It wasn't an M3 and of course North Americans didn't get it.

I'm not sure but you may talk about Italian 320is which had 2 liter version of S14. Nobody got it but Italy and Portugal.

http://www.bmwmregistry.com/model_faq.php?id=10

Tommy

[jgerock]

Not sure about this, but I read a feature article in Bimmer Magazine about an E30 in Europe (England?) that was equipped with possibly the S14 engine from BMW. It wasn't an M3 and of course North Americans didn't get it.

I'm not sure but you may talk about Italian 320is which had 2 liter version of S14. Nobody got it but Italy and Portugal.

http://www.bmwmregistry.com/model_faq.php?id=10

Tommy

Thanks Tommy! Great information on the 320is. The car in the magazine was "red" - maybe Cinnabar. I'll look for the article.

[wickstad]

The M42 was the junior M3 motor, with high compression, dual overhead cams and 16 valves. It was the first non-M car that had a 4-valve head so some people associated it with the S14, in a smaller version. In fact, the horsepower per liter output was fairly close. (76hp per liter for the M42 and 85hp per liter for the S14.)

There were a handful of E30 convertibles that had the S14 motor, none of them sold in the US. It sounds like the guy wanted a 325i and the dealer told him a "story" that they were out of M20s and convinced him to buy a 318i instead making him thinks he's getting something special.

It is a convertible. He also said it was 2 liters. He seemed genuine and I find it hard to believe that he's been telling people it's the motor from an M3 for twenty years, including his mechanic, and hasn't been set straight yet.

So if I see him again I'll try pinning him down on the hp number. Could the car somehow have been sourced out of Canada?

[roadhog0]

The M42 was the junior M3 motor, with high compression, dual overhead cams and 16 valves. It was the first non-M car that had a 4-valve head so some people associated it with the S14, in a smaller version. In fact, the horsepower per liter output was fairly close. (76hp per liter for the M42 and 85hp per liter for the S14.)

There were a handful of E30 convertibles that had the S14 motor, none of them sold in the US. It sounds like the guy wanted a 325i and the dealer told him a "story" that they were out of M20s and convinced him to buy a 318i instead making him thinks he's getting something special.

It is a convertible. He also said it was 2 liters. He seemed genuine and I find it hard to believe that he's been telling people it's the motor from an M3 for twenty years, including his mechanic, and hasn't been set straight yet.

So if I see him again I'll try pinning him down on the hp number. Could the car somehow have been sourced out of Canada?

It could be an Italian 320is convertible?

[jrhone]

The M42 was the junior M3 motor, with high compression, dual overhead cams and 16 valves. It was the first non-M car that had a 4-valve head so some people associated it with the S14, in a smaller version. In fact, the horsepower per liter output was fairly close. (76hp per liter for the M42 and 85hp per liter for the S14.)

There were a handful of E30 convertibles that had the S14 motor, none of them sold in the US. It sounds like the guy wanted a 325i and the dealer told him a "story" that they were out of M20s and convinced him to buy a 318i instead making him thinks he's getting something special.

It is a convertible. He also said it was 2 liters. He seemed genuine and I find it hard to believe that he's been telling people it's the motor from an M3 for twenty years, including his mechanic, and hasn't been set straight yet.

So if I see him again I'll try pinning him down on the hp number. Could the car somehow have been sourced out of Canada?

M3s were never 2 liters....2.3 or 2.5. So maybe he was talking about the 320is that may have been imported. It never made it to north america. BMW never "Ran out of" M42s. They would NOT stuff an S14 in it just because. The nightmare this could cause would be huge for future repairs....

[KFunk]

The M42 is chain-driven double overhead cam, instead of belt driven like in many other 4 cylinders.

I'd bet he was likely referring to them putting in a M42 instead of an M10, like most earlier 318i models. Since of course, they just switched over to using the DOHC M42 in the last production year E30 318iS and of course, the last couple of years past that when they only made the E30 convertible.

You throw that in with some dealer BSing like "Yeah its DOHC just like the M3, not like the old SOHCs they used to put in these, chain-driven, blah blah" along with the typical misunderstandings of the type of douche that likes to hit on another guy's wife while getting on a ski-lift (some guys are just dumb and think talking about old BMWs might be interesting to women).

So yeah, he just keeps on taking his E30 318iC back to that same dealer for service (since he can't even change his own waterpump, another hint that he doesn't really know his engine). Even if he went elsewhere for service, it should come up in the system as an M42. It's probably just like shipm8's new daily driver. Who knows where he got the horsepower numbers or 2.0 liter idea at.. maybe just a misunderstood magazine article or a friend's comments.

If it really bugs you, don't argue about it with him. Just ask if you can check out that awesome ride and have a peek under the hood. Don't tell him what it really is..it'll just make him mad and disappointed. Just say it's awesome and walk away...

[bluedevils]

Off topic a little bit, but I ran some web info about racing version of M42, called S42, used in Europe/German club/touring racing, anybody heard that? I know you can stroke M42, e.g., Metric Mechanic sport M42, using a diesel crank but not sure it will be cost effective.