M52 or M52TU ?

Guys, please help.

I am looking for a 328. And yes I know about the Nikasil issue - but the official line is the cars built after week 10 (March 98) were ok. The supposed change was from an M52 (nikasil) to an M52TU (non-nikasil). But I've been finding cars built later in the year were still fitted with the old engine.

Am I right in this? or were late M52 engines non-nikasil anyway?

Please help, cause I'm on the verge of packing in my search and buying a Mondeo!

Ok, this is where I am now. There is a 1998 328 that I'm looking at. However, it has a production date of April 98. - After the supposed end of Nikasil at week 10 1998. HOWEVER, Bmw say this car has an M52 engine fitted. SO, how do you know if this car has Nikasil or not?

If its production date is April then it would have alusil liners - not nikasil

... then it's outside the affected dates?

 

Should add that BMW don't "stock" cars, they build them to order.

Edited by bmw325tds

Thats cool, but ally323, how do you know that your engine isnt Nikasil. (Other than because BMW say its outside the affected dates?)

whats the crack with the nikasil engines then i have a 96 n reg 328i sport should i be worried ??

Lewis, also your car may well have had the engine changed as a result of the Nikasil problem anyway.

IIRC M52TU or twin vanos came in Sept 98 to late 99/early 2000.

There are strong rumours that just because BMW stopped producing nikasil engines in build wk 12 of 1998 that a few left-overs didnt find their way into later engines.

To tell if the engine is alusil you need to peer down the side of the engine...passenger side.Use a torch and see if towards the bottom back of the engine there's a brass bolt head-this won't be there on nikasil units.

I think this nut was only added to engines that had been changed out? Or had the blocks changed out at least, in order to identify them easily.

Another way to tell would be to have an oil sample analysis done, they can tell every kind of metal that is in there from that.

Taken from another forum;

Here's a very quick way to check for a nikasil block:

You need to look into the engine bay, from the passengers side of the car, and down the side of the engine toward the middle of the engine where the cyling head meets the block.

The metal tab you are looking for will be on the face of the block casting that is facing sort of upwards towards you, just along from where the gearbox meets the block (easy to see my nice shiny, new....damned expensive, gearbox on the right of the pic below!)

To help you get your bearings a bit, the black metal support bar you see running from top to bottom across the picture, is the metal support bracket that fits unt underneath the inlet manifold/throttle body area.

A nice SAFE Alusil: block will have the little metal tab on, as ringed in the picture below:


If you can't see the metal tab pictured above, then the engine block is NIKASIL and has not been replaced with the Alusil one.....yet! :wink:

and will look like this