nikasil motor info MORE...

[YaoNYC]

im looking at a m-sport 540i, silver on black...
it has the nikasil motor...
the seller actually did some research...

he said that the BMW service manager said it only affected cars:

*Northeast
*cold starts cause oil doesnt get up there
*he said there was NO official recall; bmw replaced cars for free that had the problem
*using wrong gas
*infrequent oil changes

is this accurate?

[angrypancake]

im looking at a m-sport 540i, silver on black...
it has the nikasil motor...
the seller actually did some research...

he said that the BMW service manager said it only affected cars:

*Northeast
*cold starts cause oil doesnt get up there
*he said there was NO official recall; bmw replaced cars for free that had the problem
*using wrong gas
*infrequent oil changes

is this accurate?



Is that the one in Newton, Mass? I believe Artem on this board checked it out. 50 something thousand miles? Theres a thread on it somewhere.


edit: here's the link: http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=16704

[YaoNYC]

Is that the one in Newton, Mass? I believe Artem on this board checked it out. 50 something thousand miles? Theres a thread on it somewhere.


edit: here's the link: http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=16704

Thanks! i guess no matter what is said about the nikasil...its not DESIRABLE and will hurt value of the car tremendously.

[Bill R.]

no official recall, bmw seems to operate under the principle that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, in other words if you didn't complain and complain loudly you didn't get it... in some cases people paid for the replacement motor if they weren't aware of the policy. Northeast is not true, Geography seems to be a factor only because certain states tended to get gasoline with higher sulfur levels, its regulated on a state by state basis. California was the only state with a maximum 30ppm level of sulfur so the odds are that a california car is less likely to have a problem. But by the same token a number of california cars have reported failures with nikasil too so its no guarantee....The wear took place at the very top of the ring travel, i don't believe that cold starts were a factor, Bmw changed programming to make them run hotter in an attempt to burn off any sulfur residue which didn't work, but that had nothing to do with cold starts. Using wrong gas had nothing to do with it either, unless you were extremely diligent and researched the sulfur levels in every gas you bought which nobody did, and the sulfur levels of gas can vary from tank to tank, you have no way of really knowing the levels short of analyzing some gas from each tank. Infrequent oil changes could have been a factor since some raw gas and some exhaust gas byproducts also end up in the crankcase which could have contained sulfur.




im looking at a m-sport 540i, silver on black...
it has the nikasil motor...
the seller actually did some research...

he said that the BMW service manager said it only affected cars:

*Northeast
*cold starts cause oil doesnt get up there
*he said there was NO official recall; bmw replaced cars for free that had the problem
*using wrong gas
*infrequent oil changes

is this accurate?

[YaoNYC]

no official recall, bmw seems to operate under the principle that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, in other words if you didn't complain and complain loudly you didn't get it... in some cases people paid for the replacement motor if they weren't aware of the policy. Northeast is not true, Geography seems to be a factor only because certain states tended to get gasoline with higher sulfur levels, its regulated on a state by state basis. California was the only state with a maximum 30ppm level of sulfur so the odds are that a california car is less likely to have a problem. But by the same token a number of california cars have reported failures with nikasil too so its no guarantee....The wear took place at the very top of the ring travel, i don't believe that cold starts were a factor, Bmw changed programming to make them run hotter in an attempt to burn off any sulfur residue which didn't work, but that had nothing to do with cold starts. Using wrong gas had nothing to do with it either, unless you were extremely diligent and researched the sulfur levels in every gas you bought which nobody did, and the sulfur levels of gas can vary from tank to tank, you have no way of really knowing the levels short of analyzing some gas from each tank. Infrequent oil changes could have been a factor since some raw gas and some exhaust gas byproducts also end up in the crankcase which could have contained sulfur.


great info and thanks! how much would it cost today to get a nikasil motor replaced? even if no problems, this would not sit well mentally with someone who owned a car with a nikasil block.

[Bill R.]

alusil shortblock from bmw for around 2500 or so , then it depends on your area labor charges to swapover the heads,manifolds etc and install it. Winfred may have a better idea of what the alusil currently costs.






great info and thanks! how much would it cost today to get a nikasil motor replaced? even if no problems, this would not sit well mentally with someone who owned a car with a nikasil block.

[Tiger]

If you are serious about this car, I would get a leakdown test as a minimum. I have nikasil engine too... but I am not worried about the conditiion of the engine as it is tested by BMW dealer at my request.

[Kalevera]

great info and thanks! how much would it cost today to get a nikasil motor replaced? even if no problems, this would not sit well mentally with someone who owned a car with a nikasil block.
If your intention is to negotiate the price based on the fact that the car has a nikasil block, I hope the seller is intelligent enough to immediately throw you out of his driveway. If the car is as advertised/mechanically checks out, it is worth every cent of what he is asking and he will eventually find the right type of buyer for it.

Dealer cost on a new alusil block is ~ $1400. I don't know what the list price is, but you'll pay at least two grand for it. A complete used engine should be around 2 gees. Expect to pay something around 11 hours of labor to do the install (with the short block, not a complete engine). Swapping the engine itself should be around 6 hours of labor.

best, whit

[CheapCheap1]

Just wonder how much did you pay the $tealer for the leakdown test ???

If it's not too much, I may take my 540i to get a checkup...


If you are serious about this car, I would get a leakdown test as a minimum. I have nikasil engine too... but I am not worried about the conditiion of the engine as it is tested by BMW dealer at my request.

[YaoNYC]

If your intention is to negotiate the price based on the fact that the car has a nikasil block, I hope the seller is intelligent enough to immediately throw you out of his driveway. If the car is as advertised/mechanically checks out, it is worth every cent of what he is asking and he will eventually find the right type of buyer for it.

Dealer cost on a new alusil block is ~ $1400. I don't know what the list price is, but you'll pay at least two grand for it. A complete used engine should be around 2 gees. Expect to pay something around 11 hours of labor to do the install (with the short block, not a complete engine). Swapping the engine itself should be around 6 hours of labor.

best, whit

thanks for the info.
my intention was certainly not using it as a bargaining tool.
i wanted to get real feel for it. my intention was just to stay away from any 540i that has the nikasil block.
i guess with all the "uncertainty" its not easy to for a seller to get rid of they 540i w/nikasil....

[bimmer guy]

I would not buy a nikasil as a friend of mine bought a 1994 740 used and went for $5K to do the swap. the car was out of warranty so he was screwed. my .02


thanks for the info.
my intention was certainly not using it as a bargaining tool.
i wanted to get real feel for it. my intention was just to stay away from any 540i that has the nikasil block.
i guess with all the "uncertainty" its not easy to for a seller to get rid of they 540i w/nikasil....

[YaoNYC]

I would not buy a nikasil as a friend of mine bought a 1994 740 used and went for $5K to do the swap. the car was out of warranty so he was screwed. my .02

I guess my point is that the UNCERTAINTY and conflicting opinions and information make nikasil a bad move...

[Kalevera]

The problem is that people are idiots and they don't do their research prior to buying.

People sell cars for a reason. They don't sell them because they "bought a new one." They bought a new one because the old one wasn't cutting it, somehow. Boredom, often used as a selling exuse, is a folley of the affluent that may have worked ten years ago on these cars; these days, any punk with a job at mickey D's can afford one. Unfortunately, cars sourced from the aforementioned are typically not well maintained. Finding and buying a good E34 is increasingly difficult.

I would have no qualms about buying a nikasil car that had good compression and good leakdown numbers. There are plenty of them on the road. This is info you get by having a competent party do a competent prepurchase inspection; a necessary step when considering the purchase of a 10 year old, $17 grand car.

Do they still fail? Yes. Saw one last week -- a 530, bought at a wholesaler auction and driven for 6 months before it wouldn't start. HHhhmm, I wonder why it was in the auction to begin with.

Personally, at that kind of money, I'd avoid a V8 E34 altogether. The chassis was never designed for a V8 to begin with, and...nikasil or alusil, it's still an aluminum block, and they wear a lot more than cast iron. My 230,000+ mile M30 crankcase still looks like it did the day it was produced, crosshatching marks and all. Find a maintained M5/it'll probably be cheaper.

best, whit

[unitas]

I guess my point is that the UNCERTAINTY and conflicting opinions and information make nikasil a bad move...
Correct

[632 Regal]

HA! at 184k at least I dont know if mine has a cross hatch pattern or not, cause it's never had to be taken apart...

Your turn.



Personally, at that kind of money, I'd avoid a V8 E34 altogether. The chassis was never designed for a V8 to begin with, and...nikasil or alusil, it's still an aluminum block, and they wear a lot more than cast iron. My 230,000+ mile M30 crankcase still looks like it did the day it was produced, crosshatching marks and all. Find a maintained M5/it'll probably be cheaper.

best, whit

[MTechnik540i]

im looking at a m-sport 540i, silver on black...
it has the nikasil motor...
the seller actually did some research...

he said that the BMW service manager said it only affected cars:

*Northeast
*cold starts cause oil doesnt get up there
*he said there was NO official recall; bmw replaced cars for free that had the problem
*using wrong gas
*infrequent oil changes

is this accurate?

It seems there are quite a few M-Sports on the road with their original Nikasil blocks, my mom's 540ia M-Sport still retains it's original and runs very smoothly at 150+k. Thing with this car it's a single owner and hasn't seen anything by BP/Amoco 93 along with oil changes every 3k with BMW's Synthetic until now where all it 'tastes' is Amsoil sythetics.

We bought the car as nervous as anyone of you guys that are considering the block, I'm with most of you guys in saying have it leakdown tested and if it's all good...just continue taking care of it.