N62 Engines

[Nick P]

M60 is capable for 650 HP, with no problems so far, a friend of mine built a 0,9 bar supercharged M60 with 4.6 l displacement in E36 - bored and stroked, the only forged non-OEM parts he used were forged pistons for 8,5:1 compression rate, even the rod bearings are stock. The car has done 6000 km so far, mostly on race tracks and there were no single issue with the engine, but in this 6000 km he replaced 1 gearbox, 2 diffs, 2 sets of stock driveshafts and 1 propshaft, now he got a heavy duty diff, custom made drive shafts and very stable propshaft installed, also the diff mounting and the floor were reinforced. The S6S Gearbox is also still stock, so he has to shift carefully to save the synchromeshs, but the main shaft bearing seem to be fine even with this kind of power and torque (790 Nm with agressive maping)

He's currently building 2 other supercharged M60 - one of them is ready to be installed in to E36 cabrio, and the other one goes in to 99 Z3 Coupe.

So what Nikasil issues you're talking about? Not to mention, even not the all M60 engines had nikasil coating of cylinder walls. I also know a guy in Austria, who built a ITB 4,5l M60, which revvs up to 7,7 rpm, using full forged internals, this engine showed 440-450 on engine dyno. He got it officially installed and registered in Austria and this engine seem to be more reliable, than S62 with less power and more displacement.

M60 (and also M50) heads have e very good flow rates, which are for sure not comparable with flow rates of SOHC heads, of the engines, which could be more reliable in BMW's history.

M50 as a 2,5 l version with iron cast block is capable of 600 hp on stock internals (exept again for pistons) and such a set up will be reliable for at least km 40-50k.

So that were my reasons to call these 2 engines the best BMW engines ever IMO.