Quote:
Originally Posted by Hebrewhomeboy
Although the redline goes up to 8K, I've read in quite a few places that you shouldn't really rev past about 7500, as the engine can't really take repeated redlining.
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I think that depends on the year, and even then I could be wrong. Mike Miller of Bimmer magazines has speculated that the early rod-bearing failure were due to the high redline, partly because the Z3M used the same S54 engine without issue in those early years, but the redline was set to 7800 rpm.
Overall, most of the bases have been covered: get a car from 2003+, plan on replacing the water pump and radiator at around 60k miles, depending on how hard you drive it you'll need to do control arms around that time as well. The valve job is pricey but not too frequent, adn the S54 engine is pretty durable - there are E46 M3s with over 200k miles. In my opinion, it is the last great BMW M division inline 6 engine, and that was a big factor in my choice to buy a Z4 M Coupe (which is essentially a re-bodied E46 M3).