S42 Engine

[ShepsEvo3]

There is one for sale on www.touringcarspares.com website.

I have no way of putting pics up so before I got shot down in flames by the mods, I thought I'd put it here

No connection to seller, but at £12k it won't sell quickly.

Click on Parts for sale, then engines, its the 1st one on the page

Looks quite sexual

[Chris-W]

[march109]

I've read a good (albeit highly strung) s42b20 is 220BHP but I've also read they make 150-160rwkw on race fuel which is probably about right! 110BHP per Litre! They have no torque below 4k rpm and generally get rebuilt after every quilifying session and after every race, even the endurance racers would only get 2000km before a rebuild. Titanium valves don't last long at 8200RPM and can rev to 9500RPM if allowed but not for too long before !!BOOM!!

EDIT - have just looked at them a bit more and just read at the end of BTCC these engines were making 300BHP and ran on a full dry sump oiling system. The pistons had a static compression ratio of around 12:1.

[Morat]

So, thats a pure race engine then? or were they ever released on the road?

[GrindCulture]

Never released on the road as far as I'm aware, they replaced the S14 as BMWs race engine.

I want one...

[suzie650]

No one in his right mind would want that in a road car.
As for the price, it's a bargain for a properly built engine of this spec. Do you know how much an F3 engine costs? (multiply by ten...)
Even a duratec FFord engine (which is basically a bog standard blueprinted duratec with controlled cams from ford) costs the best part of 6 grand, without the dry sump pump...

[march109]

No road going car fitted with it as standard, it didn't strictly replace the S14 engine as it was never fitted to an E30, it was fitted to the E36 mainly for Touring Cars championships but used in other series' too, it was sub 2Litres as per series rules where as the E36 M3 obviously came with a 3Litre which would have not qualified for the series.

It was based on the M42 block but the heads were vastly different having more in common with the S50 with a solid lifter valve train and individual throttle bodies.

[Simon13]

the S14 was fitted to the E36 touring cars briefly before they made the S42. BMW built some limited edition 4 door 318is E36 road cars so they could go racing with the S42 in a 4 door

[Jon_Bmw]

I saw an e36 318is multiple door on ebay yesterday and thought it was slightly uncommon. Having no interest in more underpowered scrap, i didn't click the link.

[jaistanley]

The four door 318is (or was it a 320is I can't remember now). Was a seriously cool car! I can remember seeing a magazine feature on one years back. Didn't they come with M3 running gear too? And a cool little plaque on the dash?

I've always fancied making a 4 pot dual VANOS S50 type of thing using an M42 block taken out to 2 litre, and fitting the head from an S62 (the V8 M5). Of course it'd need custom cams (unless the S62 is a flat plane crank engine which I dont think it is) and a whole load of other CNC'd bits, a mega expensive ECU; and be completely pointless and expensive but I'm a petrol head. What can I say?

[jmc330i]

I know someone with one of those in a Mk2 Escort built for rallying. Im sure its an S42, its got slide throttles and is making around 300bhp, but its missing the BMW inlet as it needed a custom one to fit the Mk2.

[ShepsEvo3]

I know someone with one of those in a Mk2 Escort built for rallying. Im sure its an S42, its got slide throttles and is making around 300bhp, but its missing the BMW inlet as it needed a custom one to fit the Mk2.

Who is he? I wouldnt mind looking him up for a look

There was also a 2.5 version of the S42 I heard, but this could be utter rubbish. Apparently making 350bhp + and 9000 rpm

12:1 CR? They were not very brave were they

[Morat]

12:1 at that sort of engine speed is pretty bold, I'd say...

[ShepsEvo3]

12:1 at that sort of engine speed is pretty bold, I'd say...

Turbo it

Some of the big power Mitsu Evo engines are atleast that CR

Having said that, they have to run on special fuel

[Morat]

Lol, go for it mate

[MrDazzle]

No one in his right mind would want that in a road car.
As for the price, it's a bargain for a properly built engine of this spec. Do you know how much an F3 engine costs? (multiply by ten...)
Even a duratec FFord engine (which is basically a bog standard blueprinted duratec with controlled cams from ford) costs the best part of 6 grand, without the dry sump pump...

Bah, you can get a naturally aspirated Cosworth 3.5 V8 with 700bhp (i.e. an Indycar engine) for a piffling £65,000.

[ShepsEvo3]

Even a duratec FFord engine (which is basically a bog standard blueprinted duratec with controlled cams from ford) costs the best part of 6 grand, without the dry sump pump...

And for little if any gain!

[suzie650]

Even a duratec FFord engine (which is basically a bog standard blueprinted duratec with controlled cams from ford) costs the best part of 6 grand, without the dry sump pump...

And for little if any gain!

They do go better than a standard lump, but I suspect that it's due to the skyford ECU, FF inlet and cams more than skills of the engine builder... Bet you David/Andy could do better over the winter. Scholar and Premier Power...

About your >12 CR in big power evos, they don't last very long at that level, and that is if they stay on the ground and don't take off and land into scared mechanics faces

Oh, and while we're talking about turbos and big CR, I'm wondering in what state the engine of that Seat is now? Did you hear the thing detonating it's walls off all day today?

sorry for the O/T

[ShepsEvo3]

[
About your >12 CR in big power evos, they don't last very long at that level, and that is if they stay on the ground and don't take off and land into scared mechanics faces

Oh, and while we're talking about turbos and big CR, I'm wondering in what state the engine of that Seat is now? Did you hear the thing detonating it's walls off all day today?

sorry for the O/T

Yes, big CR and high boost doesn't allow for reliability.... but if the engine is built right it can actually be reliable

The Seat? I didn't here anything out the ordinary today, but then I was ranting the ass off another VAG on the dyno today... Audi S3 with 1.7bar of boost

[suzie650]

nice!
Normal you didn't hear anything, then.

[Turbo-Brown]

Don't forget that lairy cams can drastically reduce the CR of an engine which is why race engines always seem to have such a high static CR.

[tim_s]

The four door 1994 STW e36 homologation 318is was called the 318is class 2 (unimaginative, I know). cheap in germany, didn't make it here in rhd which is a shame. they're not the same as the 4 dr uk cars which are facelift m44 engined.

Simon's right about the engine info. In the BTTC which adopted the supertouring rules early, the S14 was used in 2l form, when BMW had to get serious cos of the creation of the STW, they built the S42 to replace it. IIRC in the first season (94) only BMW factory teams ran the s42s and other teams still ran the s14, as both were legal.

s42 head is an m42 casting, bares the same casting number, same combustion chambers etc, also ran the same front timing housings, even still runs the duplex chain, so doesn't really have more in common with the s50 (although s50b30 has pretty much the same dimension inlet ports as m42), although did have silly valves and seats (beryllium for the ti valves used 95 onwards), shim under buckets etc. Block is generally the same as M42, but a nikasil block was available in the later seasons.
Other stuff CR is actually 12.4:1, crank's 85mm, pistons 86.5mm.

Most parts are still available from BMW, I have a motorsport catalogue with the part nos, prices can be silly and why you'd want to i don't know though, pretty useless on a road car.

[Dave_M3]

Mmmmmm......

I want it so much!!!

[jaistanley]

People should be tuning the M42 IMO.. In standard form they're a bit limp but with a bit of engineering the have so much potential. Worked head with solid lifters (raid the BMW parts bin perhaps, do S50 valves and lifters fit?), forged pistons and H beam rods, nice long duration cams, a nice set of tb's and perhaps oe of these diesel cranks. With a dynamic balance and a nice hike in RPM that lot should be good for a healthy power increase no? I'm just dreaming. I should get my S50 done first eh? LOL

[Turbo-Brown]

Fourbangers are wrong!

[pacerpete]

People should be tuning the M42 IMO.. In standard form they're a bit limp but with a bit of engineering the have so much potential. Worked head with solid lifters (raid the BMW parts bin perhaps, do S50 valves and lifters fit?), forged pistons and H beam rods, nice long duration cams, a nice set of tb's and perhaps oe of these diesel cranks. With a dynamic balance and a nice hike in RPM that lot should be good for a healthy power increase no? I'm just dreaming. I should get my S50 done first eh? LOL

What sort of sick twisted puppy lies in bed dreaming of 4 pots ?

[ShakeyC]

Even a duratec FFord engine (which is basically a bog standard blueprinted duratec with controlled cams from ford) costs the best part of 6 grand, without the dry sump pump...

where you get that info from

[GrindCulture]

People should be tuning the M42 IMO.. In standard form they're a bit limp but with a bit of engineering the have so much potential. Worked head with solid lifters (raid the BMW parts bin perhaps, do S50 valves and lifters fit?), forged pistons and H beam rods, nice long duration cams, a nice set of tb's and perhaps oe of these diesel cranks. With a dynamic balance and a nice hike in RPM that lot should be good for a healthy power increase no? I'm just dreaming. I should get my S50 done first eh? LOL

I'd love to build a high powered M42. I mean Metric Mechanics manage to squeeze over 200bhp out of them, and they only used a single throttle body and a piggyback chip designed to use the low octane petrol they have in the states.

[suzie650]

Even a duratec FFord engine (which is basically a bog standard blueprinted duratec with controlled cams from ford) costs the best part of 6 grand, without the dry sump pump...

where you get that info from

From what we paid last year. Why?