The 6 Most Reliable BMW Engines Ever

6M54 Engine

M 54 is a naturally aspirated straight-six engine that was founded somewhere in the years 2000 to 2006. These engines are often found in the E46325 variants or the E395 series cars. You can also find them in an X3. These engines were somewhat more advanced since they were naturally aspirated. It is a simpler engine without a turbo. Simple doesn't mean they were boring. You can get engines with 168 horsepower in 320, 329 horsepower to 325, and a massive 228 horsepower in 330.

It is what a great engine selection entails. It is also very dependable with strong, smooth, silky smooth linear power back wonderful engines. To this date, many people talk about the reliability of these engines.

5N52 Engine

This engine is among the most advanced since it is a naturally aspirated straight-six engine available in the BMW market. It's the most developed, has the highest output, and frankly the most refined all of the naturally aspirated straight-six engines that BMW's ever produced.

This engine was available from 2004 to 2015 where turbocharged engines finally replaced it. They are often known to be found in the BMW E.93 series and the E.636 series cars. It replaced the M54, and it is the first water-cooled engine ever to be made from magnesium and aluminum.

Some tweaks and tunes from these engines are gradually developing over the years. For example, in the 325, you found outputs ranging from 174 horsepower up to 201 horsepower and finally 215 horsepower from the 325 in E90 generations; those are all the 2.5-liter displacement cars.

The 3-liter engines in the 330 produced either 215 horsepower or even up to 268 horsepower in its final and most developed form. These cars were potent and auto, so you didn't need a turbo because buying a 330 gave you all the performance economy and reliability you could ever ask for and a silky smooth drive train.

This truly is one of the best BMW straight-six engines of all time.

4S62 Engine

This engine is a naturally aspirated 4.9 liter or close enough to 5 liter V8 that produces 394 horsepower at about 369-pound feet of twist. The BMW has proven that it can create power and reliability in one package, and this engine is known to do that. This engine comes with some tweaks. For example, eight individual throttle bodies, 11:1 compression ratio makes it an enormously punchy, snappy engine.

It also has a double-row timing chain, which we all know could be a problem for those cars that run the single role of skipping or breaking and causing a catastrophic engine failure. Nevertheless, this engine doesn't have that. It has hollow camshafts, dual intakes, and a semi-dry-sump system often found in many other BMWs, for example, the E60 M5 with the F1 derived V10 M5 engines.

These engines were developed for the M. 5 and ran from about 1998 to up to 2003, and these engines are just so popular by duties because of the performance, simplicity, and they were created from a time when BMW did over-engineer a lot of their cars.

3M50 Engine

This engine is a naturally aspirated or ordinarily aspirated inline six-cylinder engine. It came in various states of displacement from 2 liters, 2.4 liters, and 2.5 liters. These engines produced anywhere from 148 horsepower in a 2 liter, up to 185 horse in the 2.4 liters, and 189 horsepower in the 2.5 liters.

These actually were the first engine that featured the VANOS, which is again BMW's variable valve timing system. They were double overhead cam four valves per cylinder; they had an iron block, and an aluminum head made it up. These engines were real workhorses.

These are the epitome of straight 6 BMW engines. You can find these engines at E34 that's the 520, and the 525 Is as well as the E36 generation of 3 series cars. These engines are indeed the epitome of BMW's durability, and they are significant engines.

2M20 Engine

The M20 engine is an old-school straight-six naturally aspirated engine. These engines had varying degrees of displacements along the years from 2 to 2.7 liters and ran from 1977 to about 1993 when the M50 in the E36 cars replaced them.

These engines featured a single overhead camshaft naturally aspirated; it had an iron block with an aluminum head attached to it. No VANOS system, thus meaning it was old school, but they were basically found in E30 generations of the BMW's. You can find them in the 320, 323, 325 and as well could be found in the 520 or the 525 that's the E. 28 generation 5 series cars.

This was from a generation when BMW was really honest; they did provide the true driving experience, the simplicity, durability, fun factor, and if you have to fix something, it's not going to be costly. As a matter of fact, it's a real do-it-yourself car as well. The only unfortunate part is that great cars of this generation are becoming very difficult to find and values are rising.

1B58 Engine

The BMW's B58 engine is a turbocharged straight-six engine, which began production in 2015. The B58 replaced the N55 and was launched in the F30 340i.

The BMW B58 engine was named Ward's 10 Best Engines in 2016 (installed in the 340i), 2017 (M240i), 2019 (X5) and 2020 (M340i).

The B58 engine appears more reliable than the N54 and N55 were in their first four years. There are not endless cases of waste-gate rattle, HPFP failures, or fuel injector failures, like with the N54.