E36 M3 Evolution Questions

[mark.c]

I know of three Evo engines that have done it, all of them taking the crank with it resulting in very expensive repairs. The mileage of these three was all around 100-120k. The owners were careful and did all the good stuff above but you can only guess at how the car has been treated in the past, a good bruising of the crank early on is all it takes to show its head later on in life.

As an example I have a mate who buys all his M stuff brand knew on finance, then proceeds to show them ZERO mechanical sympathy for the year or two that he has it....ignoring oil warm up lights etc.... I can only wince as the next owner spends his hard earned cash on a one owner, low mileage, full dealer histoy car. ...

ETA..sorry went a bit of topic there, would I fit ARP bolts on a leggy engine that was an unknown quantity..yep.

[evojam]

I was told that the standard bolts can stretch if the engine is overrevved or suffered too much abuse from an uncaring owner,Munich Legends said failures are rare and the 3.2L Evo engine is a strong unit capable of big mileages if correctly looked after,think one of the ML's guys was running around in an Evo with over 200k on the clock and still going strong!

Here's a pics of my standard rod bolts changed at 94k miles,no signs of stretching which was good news,the ARP bolts are much higher quality ofcourse.

[M3John]

Ratio Wrecker said:

M3John said:

160k here on mine and i adhere to that mentioned above. Had the car 10 years and all has been ok so far - touches wood.

I'm impressed. What's your driving style and which oil do you use and at what intervals? How often have you had the valve clearances done on yours?

To be completely fair, in recent years the Tardis has lived a life of semi retirement so usage isn't that much.
Driving style? Well remember that it is solely a toy (and not my only toy too) but, the other side of the coin is that i live in central London so "hooning around" doesn't really happen. If i had to quantify the driving style for the sake of the text written here then it'd be fast rather than hard and it's never over-revved before it's warmed up (which lets be honest, doesn't take too long).

Oil - just the recommended spec from BMW. Nothing ultra fancy. As for intervals, the car only did 1,800 miles last year so whenever it's needed really although when the weather improves a bit I'll get the car out and give it a full service. The oil will stay in there for a maximum of two years / 8k - whichever comes first. Which is usually the former.
WRT the valve clearances, for years i was spending absolute fortunes on having the car serviced by a respected specialist and on every Inspection Two service (which was quite often as i was doing a fair amount of travelling) the clearances were checked but all appeared ok. Read into that what you will, needless to say that the Tardis runs like a turbine !
If the clearances need doing then I'll obtain the correct spec sheet for them do them.

I have heard stories of the big ends slipping (mainly here on PH which is my biggest exposure to an on-line forum) and I've no doubt that it can happen. But then again, it can happen in any car and in HER MAJESTY who is 64 years young now it hasn't happened to me as yet. So maybe it's one of those things where it has happened to the few and all of a sudden all Evo's will suffer this fate. Who know's?
To throw a cat amongst the pigeons and to give you an example of what i mean, with regard to the VANOS units, mine did just over 100k on the original set and i changed them simply because i had a solenoid sticking intermittently. Internet scaremongering or a small lapse in maintenance? I'll let you decide....

[Neil_M]

Mechanical sympathy does go a long way.

Regarding oil, there is a long winded debate about which viscosity to use too. It's worth researching too .