Bring back the dipstick!

Seeing M539 being mentioned puts a smile on my face. that guy deserves all the attention

Can we just recognize Pete for being such a trooper!

4:15 this is unfortunately not true. On the back of the crank you'll find markings indicating different colours for each journal. Each colour indicates a different bearing clearance, it also states so for upper shells and lower shells. The one size fits all packages which you can purchase simply don't meet the extremely finicky nature of these engines. The crank is also scrap as they are only case hardened and grinding it will result in removing the hardening, attempting to reharden it will cause it to bend, runout on these cranks are limited to 0.002mm. If it's out of spec, you will notice accelerated bearing wear imminent failure. I do believe it is possible to repair the crank, bit I do not believe that it is worth the hassle or stress involved in doing so, the ideal fix would now be to replace the crank. Check the main journals in the block for roundness, bearing failure results in pounding of the main bearing saddles which would also cause a premature failure in the near future.

It was the VAC coated bearings, the coating eats into the clearances between the bearings and the crank. Everyone in the E9x M3 community knows the BE Bearings are the gold standard. Build a stroker.

I would go with BE Bearings this second time around, they're a much more reputable company than VAC & individually measure each set before they send it out.

The question nobody's asking is at 20:01 sitting on the shelf you've got a classic Pole Position arcade machine in a box. Come on guys, set that thing up! Great video, and it's inspiring to see you have a big setback and overcome. Well done!

Never run aftermarket hardware (ARP) without checking and correcting clearances - you do that on junk yard motors that are a dime a dozen not an S65. Your M3 went 162000 km with rod bearings that looked fine, remember that. There is ZERO need for ARP hardware anywhere on this engine.

I have one of these cars and have been running it for over a decade as a daily and have tracked in occasionally as well. I've done endless research about these problems on forums etc for preventative maintenance purposes, and although you will never get an absolute consensus on the boards for even the rod bearings, there is a commonly reported number 1 main bearing failure for the reasons garage 539 mentioned. the crank is very extended past the number 1 bearing and has high leverage on it, so that the dual timing chain setup will cause an exaggerated upwards force on the crank. It's more common to run into the number 1 main bearing failing with supercharged cars, where their power pulley adds additional load (like the timing chains, in the same direction too and at the very tip of the crank with the highest leverage). Also note that when i was looking at main bearings i noticed most specialty tuners like Turner and Bimmer world etc were recommending running the YELLOW (loosest) main bearings for ALL the mains when doing the mains, because like the rod bearings these run too tight a clearance as the oem setup. I did my rod bearings 10k km ago at 172k km and they looked decent, but i was mindful of the number 1 main and decided i'll gamble, seeing how it's pricey at the shop and i don't currently have a place to do it myself. regarding temperatures, these cars also have a lazy thermostat that can show itself at around 85-100k km, but a less discussed one on the boards is the oil thermostat which requires the replacement of the whole filter housing iirc, which can in my experience contribute to the oil being a bit hotter, but i doubt it was oiling related, number 1 main is the most likely culprit.

6:26 I have run into oil starvation on my E92 M3, my car was being run on a Haltech Nexus R5, it happened in low speed switchbacks, I ran my motor on royal purple xpr 10w60, whenever I had oil starvation, the Haltech basically switched the car off to preserve the motor, I had this problem even with VAC's baffle kit installed in the oil pan.

VAC coated bearings impact the clearances and ARP fasteners at a higher torque impact roundness. Also interesting you had the no.1 main failure mode as well. BE uncoated bearings are the move for the S65 as I’m sure others will support. Good luck with the next one!

that's what happens when you change to aftermarket rod bolts and use different bearings without checking the big end is in round at the new torque load and confirming the correct rod to crankshaft clearances

I stand by what I said in the previous video. Running arp rod bolts have caused this. You can run thousands of ks with rod bolts no problem or you can run 5ks with them and destroy engines. They make the rod end go out of round slightly. Dry fit your bearings in the rod out of the block and I guarantee they won't be in spec

I’m half ways into the video and I haven’t heard any mention of the arp rod bolts that were installed. It is recommended to get the rods re bored/shaped when installing arp rod bolts. It’s very possible all the rods were warped and out of round when the rod bolts were installed causing tolerances to be whacked leading to all the bearing wearing prematurely. It’s mentioned the car was fine for 4K kilometers but it was driven hard like on that track day.

Such a bummer guys. Glad To know you’ll rebuild this. Can’t wait until next spring and we get the true showdown!

As a once Euro enthusiast it's cathartic to see that even the more competent among us are not immune to these piles of crap. Every time I want to get back in the game I watch a video like this, laugh, and I'm safe from a dumb purchase for another few months.

Great video! Sad to see the engine is toast but I appreciate how meticulous and upbeat. You are even with bad news.

This was a very cool deep dive into the engine teardown. THANK YOU!

It genuinely believe the aftermarket bearings were not properly sized. Even if all the factory cranks had the same size journals there are still differences in tolerances that absolutely need to be checked. I beg you when you do the rod bearings on this new engine check each and every one for proper tolerances.

I’m sad for your loss, obviously. However this is a GREAT video. Detailed tear down and nicely informed.

Thanks for doing this video. It’s a great reminder that just because we’ve done the bearings everything will be good to go. I does make me question using aftermarket bolts.

The M3 lives on!!! Thanks Pete for being such a trooper and keeping this build alive.

Expensive bummer. Thanks for the update!

Hope you have time to swap over all the sweet Dinan goodies 🤙

few years back at the nybmwcca autocross event we had an almost identical failure. Spun a rod bearing. Oil was within range but also 3/4 of the way from the full line. Luckily this was still within warranty and a new engine was installed free of charge.

You are indeed very chill about this. Glad you got a new motor already. Make sure to swap the Dynin bits.

Keep your head up boys! Thanks for sharing the tear down… disheartening for sure but you guys will push thru like you always do! I also agree with some others here to go with BE Bearings instead. This is not the first time I’ve heard or read of VAC installed motors going bad shortly after replacement. Their tolerances are too aggressive in my opinion. Saw that Simoniz 2300 PW in the background, let us know how you like it! Keep up the great work and see you guys soon!

At the end of the previous video I was going to suggest a collaboration with Sreten (M539) but decided against it because of the time difference and distance. Thanks for taking the time to show us the post-failure engine.

Transfer those throttle bodies to the new engine! "I Do Cars" is another good YT channel for insight into engine failure modes, and he does a ton of work on BMW's too.

Respect for being a trooper and making this sweet video

Thanks for doing a deep tear down on this motor! Good info for the s65 community. Looks like main bearing replacement is a requirement for this motor also. 16:31

Love thid channel 💯 wholesome and informative

Just love these investigation videos, awesome work. What a mystery; brutally strange. Glad you got a replacement, sticking around for sure guys

Introductory Timelapse on pulling the motor, chefs kiss ❤ this channel really it’s the best. Please keep us informed with the issue side of builds this is how we learn people!!!! Be a community dont hate

There’s always the oil bypass sticking open. Depending on the engine it is either in the pump or the block , it can open at high pressure when the engine is cold stick open and reduce pressure while hot.

Usually on other engines ARP bolts have higher clamping force and require the rod to be resized because it causes the journal to go oval.

A collab with M539 would be awesome 🙏🏻

For LS stuff if you swap rod bolts to ARP you really should check the clearances they just aren’t gonna be the same as factory hardware. That + no checking of bearing clearances at all likely how this happens.

Enjoying this series as I own exactly the same car, also in space grey. One thing to mention is that 90% of the time it's the LCI cars with harder tin coated bearings (2010+) that spin a main bearing. Be very careful what type of rod bearings you install as I have read countless instances of mains being destroyed on lowish mileage LCI cars shortly after a rod bearing job.

PT was on a mission to find out what went wrong. Love the commitment

Tip for engine stands. You want the pivot point as close to the valley as possible. Cam centerline on pushrod engines

You are the men, Never give up...

Looks like the #1 main blocled up the oil gallery feed and there it goes on other journals. As long as you put the right amount oil in it and theres no major leaks, no chance of starvation induced by high G. The S65 is rated to 1.4 latG

Thanks!

Sorry about your loss. Glad you snagged a nice low mileage S65 already.

I see you guys like ear protection for the loud power tools. I really love the earasers as a musician, maybe they have something for the power tool frequency’s!

Thanks for the video

That tear down montage at the beginning was awesome.

Hate to see that appen to your beautiful m3, but as a veiwer i love to see this kind of Videos. This is what makes me stick to your chanel, so massiv thanks for keeping your content true to life and showing the teardown and rebuild ❤️❤️ keep up the good work

Thanks for tearing into it!

Stoked for engine build!

It may be worth checking out the main bearing on the new engine

Wow! The guy does both racing and also does all of the mechanical work on the car as well. Talk about being a proper enthusiast.

Is it possible that the Dinan crank pulley is just a pulley and not a harmonic balancer which led to excessive crank vibrations and the wear? It would be a good idea to get a Fluiddamper or other crank pulley that is dampener, even if it's a stock one.

Best auto channel on KZfaq, I still think bmw should hook you up somehow maybe a sponsorship

I have replaced OEM big end bolts on Audi A4 CDNC engines with ARP bolts and found they don't have the same loading as the original as the OEM bolts. I'd imagine when you replaced the BMW bolts with ARP you ended up having a larger clearance, possibly loosing some oil pressure at the big end due to the larger clearance.

I'm not sure if the stock crank pulley has a damper on it, but it looks like your after market one does not. I have seen several cranks fail because the stock crank damper has been removed.

I had the rod bearings and main bearing done on my 2010 M3. The main bearing was very worn while the original rod bearings were still OK. My specialist in Sydney Australia has been finding this more and more often as these cars start aging so I recommend to everyone to get the mains done at the same time as the rod bearings.

M539 (Sreten) is the 🐐!!

Nice, new motor for the bmw! Keep it up!

What is odd to me is the original bearings had very acceptable wear. With no major wear to bearing number 1 But then, when the new bearings were installed, all of them failed. Is it possible that just staying on original bearings wouldn’t have caused the failure? (Fellow e92 m3 owner here)

It's definitely the ARP rod bolts. Replacing bearings without measuring is kind of a risk, but using arp bolts will definitely change "roundness" From my personal experience on a stock 2jzgte with upgraded rod bolts, it didnt let go until it was on the dyno at full load.

Definitely something wrong with the install, when pushed to the limit, the error will show

I love how you didn’t give up or even waste time moping. The engine is still warm and you got the new one in.

As an S85 owner who tracks their car and have just reached 100k km, this is definitely the motivation I need to get my bearings changed 😅 Love the content as always guys 🙏🏼

I hope you will transfer the Dinan parts to the replacement engine.

Hey guys!!! Big fan and sorry about the spun bearings. I’ll take the Dinan Throttle Bodies if you guys want to part them out!

I hope you plan to swap all Dinan parts from the blown engine. Awesome stuff and good luck!

Try using the wako’s 4cr for the track. My friend s65 still stands till today with occasional trackday / touge

Awesome video! The problem is with the belt drive and not the chains. You can check out a video from H2 Motors GmbH at around 34 minutes where they build an S65 for JP. They explain it there. And since this engine already had some different pulleys, it could be just adding more to the problem.

Great video guys…thanks so much for the deep dive into the S62, one of the truly great motorsports engines!

Perfect video

this is extremely common on them, that front main wears even worse if it was supercharged, and the oil feeds the mains first which when trashed will reduce pressure and send metal to the rods next , you got lucky tho if that front main didnt spin at all that block is still good...

Take the valve covers off and have a look at the VANOS covers. They're plastic and they get quite brittle over time and can crack off dumping plastic down into the oil pan. I've also got an e92 m3 which I did the rod bearings on, I used ACL bearings and ARP bolts with zero issue. There seems to be a lot of talk from people about how the ARP bolts ABSOLUTELY killed the engine, but I hardly see anyone who tracks their M3 use anything else.

I’ve had a weird incident like this on a B18C GSR block where I went to replace the pistons with higher compression pistons and in the end I decided to replace the rod bearings with fresh new ACL race rod bearings. Assembled the motor, hit the dyno, made good power, but the motor started sounding a little louder then it use to. I checked the bearings and it had worn badly but not yet spun. Same 10w30 I’ve always been running. My only thing I can think of is, these bearings all have a clearance when all put in new. They all wear together and remain similarly clearances all together. By replacing just the rod bearings, oil might travel to the place of least resistance(main bearings). Like a water hose effect. I’ve built a few motors before this that was my only conclusion and when I saw you doing it, that came into mind right alway. If replacing bearings, do them all or don’t. Now, ARP bolts, big end of rod needs be checked for roundness and reconditioned if running the extra clamping force. It can cause big end of the rod to oval.

Called it, i knew Pete would have a motor already for it😂 I completely agree with the timing chain theory in this case, also dave has that dad strength 😂

Standard bolts and bearings, big itbs as you’ve already got them, and top it off with a carbon airbox.

I do really enjoy engine teardowns. Sorry it happened to you guys. I know M cars are designed to be tracked. It's just unfortunate that it spun bearings, while also confirming/repeating what BMWs are well known for. With my 1JZ vvti Soarer (with twin turbos) I've added a 19 row oil cooler, a Koyorad radiator & TRD thermostat. It's been good so far. Keeps it cool and adds extra liter of oil capacity.

The oil not being topped off is one thing. You did the VAC motorsports bearings, but while you had the oil pan was off you could have installed their oil baffle, which VAC motorsports says is a MUST for the track. Also, if you check BMW Parts catalog there are two part numbers for the bearings, red or blue shell, upper vs lower. So the lower vs upper could have been installed wrong.

I believe Steve Dinan machines the crank on these engines so they can take NASCAR rod and crank bearings. Perhaps worth looking into for the rebuild?

As a former n55 owner that had this exactly same problem on a canyon drive , those engines are a piece of garbage. You don't have to change rod bearings on Porsche's , Nissan , Honda, Chevy's etc. At my engine I was surprised that a 70k car didn't have a baffle on the oil pan.

I guess you can figure out which gave up first by the direction of oil flow, in the crank oil only flows in one direction, if it flows from front to back then the main gave up first and propagated to the first rod, otherwise rod bearing gave up and dragged debris to the main (most probably the case)

Before you start the new engine, remove all the spark plugs and tumble the engine until the oil light goes off, do this many times until you see the oil light goes off as you turn the key, that way the oil pressure is primed up, the reinstall the spark plugs and you're good to go, also get an oil pressure gauge

m539 streten is an absolute legend!! You should do some kind of work together

the wear pattern on those rod bearings suggests ignition timing was over advancing plus the oil looked very black when you drained it, wasn't changed before the track day

I love SA soon much. You guys should be top 10. ❤

The car had 160k km when you bought it and ran perfect. You did the rod bearings and after 4000km the engine blew up. It’s either something to do with installation or a coincidence

Dinan TB! What a hidden gem Hope you swap those throttle bodies over

During an oil change take out the oil pan and clean the inlet side of the oil pick up tube

do the main bearings too

I feel like there is no way around it, the bearings that were put in had something wrong with either them or how they were fit. All of the new rod bearings showed incorrect wear. If it was just one, it would be harder to say, but all of them? The only way all of them could look that trashed other than being improperly sized or fitted, is if there was an oiling issue. However, there are no signs of improper oiling anywhere else here. No failed pumps, no heat scorch outside of the spun bearing, main bearings look fine other than the one next to the spun bearing, which is to be expected when the engine kept running for a short time after the spin, with that much heat and load put on that one main. Bearings that came off the rods looked great, main bearings looked great. For whatever reason, the bearings that went onto the rods were slowly failing. That kind of wear on all of them after ~2500 miles is consistent with being too tight, just not so tight they failed immediately. Got worn down, with the one closest to the timing chain wearing down first, which is common, and then failed.

Msn that edited intro was sick

It always amazes me that this channel doesn't have more subs...

Do both for the next engine pleaseeeeeee, both main and rod bearings!

Easy explanation. With low oil, there is enough crank speed that you essentially aerate the oil. You’ve got a windage tray, but when the oil starts to aerate, the pick up and pump both struggle to pump enough good oil. Imagine a garden hose when it’s building pressure. The bearings getting inconsistent oil then makes the problem worse, and then you spin bearings and wipe out crank. Hence needing to over full the oil level a little. That motor is toast; you’ll struggle to clean all the yuck out, plus the crank is wiped.

Craig from DynoTorque in Birmingham swapped an LT4 into his a few years back with great results for the same reason…just saying!!!

I was an automotive machinist and engine builder for a long time, I disagree with a couple of things said. I always measured all bearings, because one time I did find 1 out of 10 main bearings for a Fiat engine was incorrect, it was .010” oversized. The few extra mins spent measuring with the mic spared a lot of time and machine work had I only measured two. Also main journals feed oil to rod journals, a failure in the mains won’t put “extra stress” on a rod journal. It will cause an outright failure by either pushing debris into the rod journal or starving it if oil. And yes, extra tension from timing chains or even accessory belts on crank pulleys on the crank snout can cause main bearing failure.

Wonder if it was bad gas or a sensor issue causing knock. Hope she is back up and running soon.

Possible faulty oil lever/condition sensor, actual oil level might have been significantly lower while at the track

Budget??? Blown. Whoops. And I agree with the "save the dipstick"!!!