BMW M60 / M62

BMW's first modern V8s — the M60 of 1992 at 3.0 and 4.0 litres, and the M62 that replaced it at 3.5 and 4.4, in the 5, 7 and 8 Series, the E53 X5, the Z8 and, under licence, the Bentley Arnage.

The M60's Nikasil story is the one to know, and it is a fuel problem rather than an engine problem. Its bores were plated with Nikasil, which the sulphur in some markets' petrol attacked — the plating wore, compression fell, and the engine developed a hot-start misfire and eventually would not run. BMW replaced a great many blocks under warranty and switched to Alusil on the M62. A poor-running M60 with low and uneven compression is this until proven otherwise, and a car sold in a low-sulphur market may well never have suffered it. Check whether the block was replaced before assuming either way.

On both engines the timing chain guides are plastic and they get brittle, so a rattle at start-up is a chain-guide job rather than ordinary noise. The valley pan gasket beneath the intake leaks oil and coolant into the vee, where it is invisible until it emerges somewhere misleading — and on the M62's VANOS the seals harden and cost low-end response before they set a code.