nikasil still an issue?

[griffter]

surely nikasil is no longer an issue? The problems with sulphur in petrol which gave rise to problems have been resolved so if a nikasil engine has survived this long, chances are it was always run on quality fuel and is no worse a buy than a steel lined block?

[E30M3SE]

Believe that is the general consensus on this issue.

[Slurms]

Yup, if it's not failed now then it probably won't.

[griffter]

Thanks - and good. That was my opinion when I bought a nikasil 328. But it still gets resurrected in 'what should I look for?' threads.

[Salom]

griffter said:

Thanks - and good. That was my opinion when I bought a nikasil 328. But it still gets resurrected in 'what should I look for?' threads.

The nikasil issue is dead and buried, or at least should be, it was, after all, 18 years ago!


Porsche still use it in their engines to this day.....

[jamiepeers]

Having been an unfortunate statistic of a nikasil failure in a BMW in 2004 i can say that however unlikely it is, it can still (and does) happen.

I realise it does only seem to be BMW's that have a disproportionately high failure rate regarding the material, but none the less it does happen.

No scaremongering though, although i wouldn't actively buy a BMW i knew had a nikasil block, i certainly wouldn't worry about if i had one now already.

Longer trips making sure the oil is nice and hot is supposed to be best for the engines but i realise that your engine will only get as warm as it gets if you have to use it for short trips.

I wouldn't worry about it

[Tower View]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

There's certainly been a lot written about the Nikasil issue. I purchased my 97' 328i SE with my eyes wide open. I bought it with 30k miles on the clock (yes 30,000) and have done 7k in the last six months. I did pay over the odds for it but it was the right spec I was after. I had a compression test at its recent Inspection 2 service and everything was fine.

Yes the nikasil issue could raise its ugly head at any time but I'm enjoying driving it and am not precious about where I leave it (unlike the 130I M Sport I had!). Plus I don't have the big concerns on depreciation as well.

[Salom]

Believe me, the Nikasil issue is dead and buried, use V power or any other quality fuel if you're at all worried.
A friend of mine is a BMW trained Master Technician who is now an independent BMW specialist, he agrees with me!
The Nikasil issue is a myth put about by BMW 840 4.4L owners, which really pisses me off as I own a 4.0L 840 (Nikasil), it has covered 153K miles and is as smooth as silk, it has started first time and ran smoothly throughout all this cold weather!

[m444ttb]

Mine failed a few years back on c80k miles. The car had never lived up north and was run on quality petrol. Anyone who says it's an issue that has gone is incorrect as they were back then. Until there are no cars left with the nikasil block there is always a chance but it's not an issue I'd worry about now on the likes of 328.

[jamiepeers]

Salom said:

The Nikasil issue is a myth put about by BMW 840 4.4L owners.

Ah so i take it the countless owners, myself included, who have first hand experience of a nikasil failure are spouting BS?

But because yours runs fine it must be pie in the sky? Therefore punctures in tyres are a myth spread by owners of tyre shops, as i've never had one, ever.

Like i said above mine failed in 2004 when high sulphur content in fuels simply wasn't an issue anymore and hadn't been for some time.

I can bend to the idea that as time passes the risk of a failure still happening today grows smaller, but the fact remains is that it DOES happen.

I cetainly don't think BMW would be in the habit of repeatedly fitting £3000 short engines, plus labour costs and ramp time in the name of goodwill due to a myth spread by owners. The very fact that they did do this, and continued to do so out of the extended warranty period for such failures (again as in my case) would suggest that the problem lies within the fault of BMW themselves.

It would certainly explain the fact that other manufacturers have succesfully used the coating without adverse affects, so its just BMW who got it wrong in either the makeup of the coating or the process used to bond it to the cylinder walls

[4rephill]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Whilst I agree with most of what jamiepeers has written , I have to correct this part. BMW were not alone with the nikasil problem, some Jaguar engines also suffer from it.

[jamiepeers]

Fair enough. I was under the impression that only BMW had problems regarding Nikasil. Perhaps its simply higher profile due to the high amount (relatively speaking) of failures due to it.

[galea360]

I have a "97 328i (180k) and it is showing signs of the problem, it happens and you cant do anything about it, I knew it was starting to show the signs when I bought it (cheap may I add). I have been driving it for about a year now, I top up the oil every month and it runs really well.

Every morning there is a puff of oily smoke from the rear it goes to idle and clears, only then smokes when I "boot" it. I now put magnetec 15w40 and 5/7 days it does not smoke on start up. One day i know I will have to drop an engine in her but for now I am just enjoying it.

[4rephill]

galea360 said:

I have a "97 328i (180k) and it is showing signs of the problem, it happens and you cant do anything about it, I knew it was starting to show the signs when I bought it (cheap may I add). I have been driving it for about a year now, I top up the oil every month and it runs really well.

Every morning there is a puff of oily smoke from the rear it goes to idle and clears, only then smokes when I "boot" it. I now put magnetec 15w40 and 5/7 days it does not smoke on start up. One day i know I will have to drop an engine in her but for now I am just enjoying it.

You're not alone!, My 328i sport is doing the exact same thing altough the smoke on start up is very little if any, which makes Me doubt it has any serious valve seal/seat issues but I can't rule it out completely.. I bought it with My eyes open about Nikasil about five years ago and had a compression test done by BMW at the time, the results of which were:

CYL No.1 = 28 BAR
CYL No.2 = 26.5 BAR
CYL No.3 = 27.5 BAR
cyl No.4 = 26.5 BAR
CYL No.5 = 27 BAR
CYL No.6 = 25.5 BAR

(BMW's min pressure is 10~11 BAR), and yet it has always used oil since the day I bought it!. I changed the crankcase vent (CCV), and relevant pipes but that has made no difference to the oil consumption.

I may well get another compression test and leakdown test done when money is more available to see how the situation with the engine is now. if that comes back with similar results to the above then I'll have to suspect the valve seal/seats as being the issue.

Until then I'll just keep topping the engine oil up and know that at least the oil is always fresh!

[galea360]

yes i changed my pcv valve as it was gone. This haved the oil consumption.
I was thinking that the other day if it was the nikasil issue causing my oil to burn why would it do it on start up as oil travels down so would drian out of the bores not into them so there would be no smoke in the morning...