BMW to Turbocharge All New 4-Cylinder Engines

[Diver]

Originally Posted by magbarn

A well designed NA engine will always be more reliable than a well-designed forced induction engine. Less moving parts=more reliability. I'm just hoping this N20 will be more reliable than the N54/55 as the N52 is a much more reliable powerplant. The HPFP (I know it's covered with ext warranty), direct injectors, wastegates, and turbos aren't cheap.

Are you sure a NA 6 has fewer parts than a turbo 4? As for the direct injectors, these will be on nearly every petrol engine soon, except at the bottom, of the market as they are good for at least a 10% improvement in fuel economy.

I don't understand all the moaning about turbos. I can remember when the Indy 500 and related races were run with turbocharged 4 cylinder Offenhauser engines fueled with methanol. Tell me that was not way cool. The Bugatti Veyron is turbocharged. The list goes on.

With the new electric water pumps and computer controlled engines the coolant can be circulated after shut down to avoid burning up the oil in the turbocharger's bearings. Besides, we have synthetic oil today. These are not 1971 Saabs.

[magbarn]

Originally Posted by Diver

Are you sure a NA 6 has fewer parts than a turbo 4? As for the direct injectors, these will be on nearly every petrol engine soon, except at the bottom, of the market as they are good for at least a 10% improvement in fuel economy.

I don't understand all the moaning about turbos. I can remember when the Indy 500 and related races were run with turbocharged 4 cylinder Offenhauser engines fueled with methanol. Tell me that was not way cool. The Bugatti Veyron is turbocharged. The list goes on.

With the new electric water pumps and computer controlled engines the coolant can be circulated after shut down to avoid burning up the oil in the turbocharger's bearings. Besides, we have synthetic oil today. These are not 1971 Saabs.

Yes turbos today are much more reliable than previous turbo motors, but since when did a N52 have 2 fuel pumps, wastegate, turbo, and intercooler? Especially the high psi turbo found in the N20, I would be quite surprised to see that turbo last for 150,000 miles. But I digress, the majority of people on this forum will dump their whip before the warranty runs out anyway.

[Rolitto]

Artifical acoustic enhancement of the engine sound may help 75% but for pure BMW enthusiasts who previously used to sit behind the wheel of a nervous 6-cylinder engine i.e. E46 M3, they won't digest it.