Curious--History of BMW Engines

[JB_Vert]

Forgive me if this has been discussed.

How often has BMW developed and used an engine for only one car variant? In other words, even though it is a cousin of the S85, the S65 is a different engine, and BMW will have only ever used it in the M3 when it retires next year. Have they done that before? And, I'm not talking about a higher-tuned engine only being used in the M3. I'm talking about a completely different engine (acknowledging the shared parts with the S85) like the S65. It seems like an expensive thing to do, and I wouldn't expect it very often of a mass producer.

JB

[Sandye90m3]

Originally Posted by JB_Vert

Forgive me if this has been discussed.

How often has BMW developed and used an engine for only one car variant? In other words, even though it is a cousin of the S85, the S65 is a different engine, and BMW will have only ever used it in the M3 when it retires next year. Have they done that before? And, I'm not talking about a higher-tuned engine only being used in the M3. I'm talking about a completely different engine (acknowledging the shared parts with the S85) like the S65. It seems like an expensive thing to do, and I wouldn't expect it very often of a mass producer.

JB

I'm useless about giving you an answer, but I love the fact that the engines are different throughout the M-Line up. It really disgusts me that Mercedes uses the same 6L engine with a 6.3L badge for most of their cars. It makes me feel like my M3 is unique to all other m cars, which it is. On the other note, I don't like where BMW us going with there formula of ((Old engine cylinders - 2 cylinders) 2 turbos) = More fuel economy. I mean, do these to the Normal BMW line up, not the m line up. That's my opinion though



Sandy

[mdosu]

i suspect, the S65 has more parts commonality to the S85 than you suspect...it's just how cars are produced these days. I debate how "completely" different the S65 is from the S85.

[shamoo]

This is actually a pretty good resource: Wiki for BMW Engines

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BMW_engines

[aajami]

The S65 is used in the Z4 GT3, but that's not a road-going car so it probably doesn't count. That aside, I do believe that the S65 is the only BMW engine in recent history to be utilized in just one car generation.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by aajami

The S65 is used in the Z4 GT3, but that's not a road-going car so it probably doesn't count. That aside, I do believe that the S65 is the only BMW engine in recent history to be utilized in just one car generation.

Agree. Technically, there was also the P60B40 from the E46 M3 GTR too, a detuned version of which (S60B40?) was used in the extremely limited production roadgoing E46 M3 GTR. However that doesn't really count either since they only make like two of those.

I don't think BMW necessarily set out to produce the S65 with only the E9x M3 in mind. It just happens that as the brand evolved, gas prices rose, and regulations tightened, they decided to go with an all turbocharged engine lineup. This didn't have to push the S65 into an early grave, but with the N63 already there for the series cars, it just made much more sense to go with an M-ified N63-cum-S63 than to try to add turbochargers to the S65.

[Serious]

s62 was only ever used in e39 m5.
s14 was only ever used in e30 m3. (granted it was an m88head on an m10block but still)
s50b30 was only ever used in euro 3.0l m3. (later bumped to 3.2l before being shared with euro mz3's)
s65

aluminum block m52 was only used in 2.8l z3
I also believe the 3.0l variant of the m60 was only used in the 5 series from 94-95.

Im sure there are others as well but that's all i can think of off the top of my head.

[mkoesel]

I don't disagree, but the OP said "And, I'm not talking about a higher-tuned engine...". While that's open for interpretation, the rest of his post makes it pretty clear that he's talking about an engine that is built on its own architecture from the ground up (while acknowledging that of course the S65 is largely an S85 with two less cylinders).

Originally Posted by Serious

s62 was only ever used in e39 m5.
s14 was only ever used in e30 m3. (granted it was an m88head on an m10block but still)
s50b30 was only ever used in euro 3.0l m3. (later bumped to 3.2l before being shared with euro mz3's)
s65

aluminum block m52 was only used in 2.8l z3
I also believe the 3.0l variant of the m60 was only used in the 5 series from 94-95.

Im sure there are others as well but that's all i can think of off the top of my head.

[03BeastCharmer]

Originally Posted by Serious

s62 was only ever used in e39 m5.
s14 was only ever used in e30 m3. (granted it was an m88head on an m10block but still)
s50b30 was only ever used in euro 3.0l m3. (later bumped to 3.2l before being shared with euro mz3's)
s65

aluminum block m52 was only used in 2.8l z3
I also believe the 3.0l variant of the m60 was only used in the 5 series from 94-95.

Im sure there are others as well but that's all i can think of off the top of my head.

The S62 was used in the E39 M5 & the non-Alpina Z8's.

I'd say most M engines were used in 1 iteration. Especially since there are only in M cars, the there used to be just the M3 and M5 (and the rare M6 shark) and they never shared the same engine. With the expansion of M, engines are being used in multiple cars variants.

[mkoesel]

To make the OP's point more clear:

M10 -> S14
M88 -> S38
M50 -> S50
M52 -> S52
M54 -> S54 (though arguably more M50 than M54)
M62 -> S62
N63 -> S63

But for the S65 (and S85)? They were M designed engines base on no series engine. And for the S65, it was only ever used in the M3. The S85 was used in both the M5 and M6 (of course, total sales of the two probably don't even match the M3 anyway, plus the E6x M5 and M6 are effectively just four body styles of the same platform, similar to the three with the E9x M3).