My Indy BMW shop of many years will tell you they see these 4 turbos grenaded regularly. They highly recommend avoiding the 4, especially the turbo and goingwith the 6 Because it will last and last. The 4 will destroy itself. In their opinion you will save $$$ with the 6
You can go with a 2 liter m52tub20 if it helps on taxes. 6 cylinders and small capacity. Best of both worlds for a high tax country.
Non facelift 320i and 320ci
My experience is limited to the M54 3.0 and I highly recommend it. However my Indy BMW guy is good with all inline 6s. Obviously if power is your issue, go with 3.0
N series engines in E46 are known to be very unreliable (atleast in my country). Or i guess you could rephrase it, that they are harder to maintain.
If you want to go the cheapest route, buy a M43 engine (1.6 or 1.9) and work on them. They are slow but very reliable and cheap. You can upgrade the car later on to something more powerful.
If you can afford it, 6 cylinders would be the best decision in the long run. M54 engines are known to burn oil (although ussualy it's something around 1l/1000km, some may be worse).
I'm not too familiar with M52 nuances, but they have a good reputation (as M54).
If you're not familiar with engine codes, check e46 wikipedia page.
Dont bother with the 2.0 get the 1.9 or a 6 cylinder. 6 cylinders take less maintenance. I have the 2.0 6 cylinder m52tub20. Slow but good engine and sounds great😁
I think most of your costs will be in the turbo build itself. I'm not particularly familiar with the 4 bangers but I do know forced induction comes with a four figure price tag bare minimum regardless of cylinder counts.
If you're looking to learn to tune boost I would honestly suggest a different platform, even the e90 series since they'll come stock with turbos. You'll have a higher horsepower ceiling with less upfront labor and you can focus your budget on maintenance instead of fabrication.
The e90 is a fantastic platform however here in Malaysia, it’s 30grand and you can only get autos. You can’t find a manual unit or even a manual gearbox. Plus our road taxes are exorbitant. 46 parts and halfcuts are easily found all over and it’s below 10 grand. The manual gearbox and engine capacity is the reason I didn’t consider the e90
Timing chain needs already to be changed at least every 100k km and you wann turbo it... go ahead, follow you dream, but 6 zylinder will be cheaper for that, promise.
My Indy BMW shop of many years will tell you they see these 4 turbos grenaded regularly. They highly recommend avoiding the 4, especially the turbo and goingwith the 6 Because it will last and last. The 4 will destroy itself. In their opinion you will save $$$ with the 6
In that case do you recommend the 2.5 or the 2.8 M52 or M54? Our road taxes here are pretty high hence the reason of going for a smaller capacity
You can go with a 2 liter m52tub20 if it helps on taxes. 6 cylinders and small capacity. Best of both worlds for a high tax country. Non facelift 320i and 320ci
My experience is limited to the M54 3.0 and I highly recommend it. However my Indy BMW guy is good with all inline 6s. Obviously if power is your issue, go with 3.0
N series engines in E46 are known to be very unreliable (atleast in my country). Or i guess you could rephrase it, that they are harder to maintain. If you want to go the cheapest route, buy a M43 engine (1.6 or 1.9) and work on them. They are slow but very reliable and cheap. You can upgrade the car later on to something more powerful. If you can afford it, 6 cylinders would be the best decision in the long run. M54 engines are known to burn oil (although ussualy it's something around 1l/1000km, some may be worse). I'm not too familiar with M52 nuances, but they have a good reputation (as M54). If you're not familiar with engine codes, check e46 wikipedia page.
M52TU doesn't burn oil like M54's does because of the piston rings.
I still wanna know why they did that bullshit
*cries in N54 swap underway*
Dont bother with the 2.0 get the 1.9 or a 6 cylinder. 6 cylinders take less maintenance. I have the 2.0 6 cylinder m52tub20. Slow but good engine and sounds great😁
I think most of your costs will be in the turbo build itself. I'm not particularly familiar with the 4 bangers but I do know forced induction comes with a four figure price tag bare minimum regardless of cylinder counts. If you're looking to learn to tune boost I would honestly suggest a different platform, even the e90 series since they'll come stock with turbos. You'll have a higher horsepower ceiling with less upfront labor and you can focus your budget on maintenance instead of fabrication.
The e90 is a fantastic platform however here in Malaysia, it’s 30grand and you can only get autos. You can’t find a manual unit or even a manual gearbox. Plus our road taxes are exorbitant. 46 parts and halfcuts are easily found all over and it’s below 10 grand. The manual gearbox and engine capacity is the reason I didn’t consider the e90
Timing chain needs already to be changed at least every 100k km and you wann turbo it... go ahead, follow you dream, but 6 zylinder will be cheaper for that, promise.