M Coupe

[SPB2]

Hi

I'm thinking about finding myself an M Coupe, I've always been a fan, but never realised there were two different engine options. I though the car only came with the E36 M3 engine. Now I realise BMW offered the M Coupe with the E46 engine also.

Does anyone have any practical buying advice? Where to look, what to look for? I've heard rumours of bearing shell failures on the E46 engine, are these common?

Perhaps this topic has been covered in detail before. Be most grateful for any advice or to be pointed in the direction of any previous threads.

[GTWayne]

SPB2 said:

Perhaps this topic has been covered in detail before

Yeah, just a bit!
Try looking back through these here pages, it won't be long before you find what you are looking for on the subject

[ASBO]

Most on here will agree that the S54 engined car is nice but perhaps not worth the the extra folding over the S50. The main reason for this being that it's down on power compared to it's E46 cousin and therefore barely any quicker than the older S50.

[DavidCane]

As far as I can tell, the S54 gives you fly by wire throttle and DSC. Apart from that you have a reliable VANOS in the S54, but a weakness in the shells. BMW still don't include the Z3MC in the recall they did on the S54 M3s, so it's still a risk

You pay a lot more cash for an S54 and to be brutally honest, I'm not sure why.

[Vixpy1]

ASBO said:

Most on here will agree that the S54 engined car is nice but perhaps not worth the the extra folding over the S50. The main reason for this being that it's down on power compared to it's E46 cousin and therefore barely any quicker than the older S50.

In the real world, the S54 in the M coupe makes on average 25 to 40 more bhp than the S50.

Its a far quicker car.

[maahny]

I'd have to agreed with Charlie on this one. S54's consistently put down 325 BHP on the Dyno Dynamics whereas the highest reading seen by an S50 is 300, lowest being 275.

I owned a S50 and if I bought another I would be paying the extra for the S54 engined version. To get an S50 to the same power as an S54 you would need a good starting point and intake/exhaust/remap.

[Broccers]

Interesting.

Our M Coupe rolling road shootout (April 06 edition of Total BMW) says different. Sorry.

[maahny]

Broccers said:

Interesting.

Our M Coupe rolling road shootout (April 06 edition of Total BMW) says different. Sorry.

Hi Simon

It may say different but its blatantly wrong :-p

[zmrjason]

Just to add to the old BHP bragging malarkey
My S50 knocks out over 350bhp........
Not standard though

[shunt]

zmrjason said:

Just to add to the old BHP bragging malarkey
My S50 knocks out over 350bhp........
Not standard though

A very powerful hairdryer!!!!

[zmrjason]

Best example of BHP induced Alopecia!!! Not scared....

[Broccers]

maahny said:

Broccers said:

Interesting.

Our M Coupe rolling road shootout (April 06 edition of Total BMW) says different. Sorry.

Hi Simon

It may say different but its blatantly wrong :-p

Hi Imran,

As the cars were all tested on the same day, one after each other in a 3-4 hour session, I'd like to know how they are more wrong than figures banded about which are from different days / conditions ??

[Broccers]

Shunts Alpina put out 300 if I remember rightly - was that wrong too ?

[shunt]

Si, now you've told Jason I used to have a hairdryer too, bugger. I think I was suffering some strange form of mental illness, happily this has now passed.

Anyway just to put you straight it was actually 310bhp but look at the torque:

Edited by shunt on Friday 20th June 19:05

[maahny]

Broccers said:

maahny said:

Broccers said:

Interesting.

Our M Coupe rolling road shootout (April 06 edition of Total BMW) says different. Sorry.

Hi Simon

It may say different but its blatantly wrong :-p

Hi Imran,

As the cars were all tested on the same day, one after each other in a 3-4 hour session, I'd like to know how they are more wrong than figures banded about which are from different days / conditions ??

My comment is based on 2 rolling road days carried out on Z3M's and the all the other Z3M's we have dynoed over the last year or so. Taking into account the experience Vixpy has with different cars on his dyno he is more than qualified to make the statement which he has. Every standard S54 ZM I have dynoed has made between 324-327. S50's make anywhere between 270-300 BHP.

All the Alpina's we have dynoed have made over the quoted power so I can belive Shunts hairdryer made the power it did.

Edited by maahny on Friday 20th June 21:12

[shunt]

The hairdryer when pitched against my old S50 did have the edge. It didn't feel or sound as fast but put the two together and it was clearly quicker. So maybe most stock S50's are < 300.

[muppetboy]

Okay then guys seeing as the thread has been totally hijacked.

How do I get my S50 Coupe up to the BMW quoted 321??

It may go on the the rollers today at surreyrolling so we'll get a base figure.

Out of interest how do they compare to E36 M3's, do M3's also produce less than what BMW quote?

[Broccers]

Speak to Imran (Maahny above) and ask him about their live mapping - achieves very good results.

http://www.evolveyourcar.com/

(Sorry steve for the reminder thet you had that car)

Re rolling road stats - different setups / kit / days can't be compared to each other in my opinion. A shootout day is well worth it to use as a benchmark.

All good fun

[maahny]

Broccers said:

A shootout day is well worth it to use as a benchmark.

All good fun

[Loud Pedal]

Imran and the boys from Evolve 'live mapped' my S50 a couple of weeks ago after i put some race cats(along with CAI) on and it is now in VERY rude health indeed, putting out 334bhp and 280 ftlbs torque. But the most impressive thing is how they totally smoothed out the power delivery making it even more linear than before!!