BMW has been a leading force in automotive applied science for years, particularly on the electronics side. Their engines are no exception.

The "New Generation" engines incorporate the virtually cutting edge of these innovations. This commodity will basically cover BMW'due south 6 cylinder engines, impact a fiddling on their V8's, and we'll take a poke at a V12.

Beginning let'south get a little techno speak. BMW uses iv unlike letters in their engine identification codes.

  1. G – for standard production engines
  2. South – for Motorsport engines
  3.  N – for "New Generation" engines (all the current engines in utilize are now Due north designated. It has get the production lawmaking alphabetic character)
  4. P – for prototype engines (accept never seen, heard, or read of one. Surely they are well guarded).

The second grapheme or first number designates the engine type.

  • 2 – V6
  • 3 – inline half dozen
  • 4 – inline iv
  • five – inline 6
  • half-dozen – V8
  • seven – V12
  • eight – V10

The 3rd digit specifies the engine technology. There is no real key to go along with this 1.
The inline 6 cylinder engine has undergone abiding optimization starting with the M20 6 cylinder . This engine was produced from 1976 – 1994 and constitute in E21, E30, E28, and E34 vehicles.

m20
M20

The M20 used just two valves per cylinder with a timing chugalug for the single camshaft and adaptable valves. Sometime school! The M30 , was the first "big half-dozen" and was produced from 1968 – 1994 for E12, E28, E34, E24, E23 and E32 cars.

Connected

bmw m30
M30

Still only a 2 valve per cylinder and an adaptable valvetrain, only upgraded to a timing chain. Timing chains are at present used on all BMW engines. They are much more than accurate and reliable than belts. There is also no maintenance interval for chains similar there is for changing a belt every 60,000 miles or the catastrophic consequences with this common failure.

The first technical innovations came with the arrival of the M50 in 1989. Production ran until 1995 and came installed in E34'southward and E36's. These included 4 valves per cylinder, dual overhead cam valvetrain, direct stationary ignition (RZV) or coil-on-plug, and fully sequential fuel injection. Still modest engineering compared to today's standards. A technically upgraded (M50TU) version came in 1993.

This saw the introduction of VANOS. The VANOS system was initially only used on the intake cam to provide a variable duration of valve timing to improve engine efficiency and ability delivery . The "TU" variant also featured cylinder selective knock control, HFM (hot pic meter) air mass sensing, and secondary ignition monitoring .

The M52 followed in 1996. This was developed to comply with OBD regulations at that fourth dimension. What we at present know equally OBDII. Mechanically similar to the M50, the M52 basically introduced a new engine control system to comply with the regulations. A slight horsepower increase and a large increase in torque were beneficial side effects of the new management system. In 1999 the M52 received a technical update. The M52TU introduced nearly of the technology and laid the basic building blocks for the venerable M54.

The M54 came out the following year in 2000 and production continued until 2006, powering E46, Z3, Z4, E39, E60, X3, and X5 automobiles. The major mechanical change (in North America anyway) was from the M52TU's iron crankcase to all aluminum crankcase and cylinder head. Technical innovations included an electronic throttle (throttle cables were completely eliminated from the M54 onward), variable intake runner length (this will exist referred to as DISA), Double VANOS (now intake and exhaust), and new emissions control devices that included "almost engine" catalytic converters, and secondary air injection.

M54 cutaway
M54 cutaway

Then "new generation" engines will exist the main focus of my engine technical manufactures. For 2 reasons; these are the engines I am personally most well versed in and spend the nigh time working on, secondly; they have the newest innovations which includes all of the aforementioned ones.

Just since I don't want to overload yous with too much information at once, I'll stop here simply tune in this calendar week when I will talk about the latest, exciting BMW engines.

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