BMW M54 Engine Teardown - Dissecting A Windowed Block After A Money Shift

►The last two decades' worth of BMW straight-six engines is a relatively tough bunch. The M50, M52, and M54 have powered countless E36 and E46 grassroots racers through series across the globe and have been pretty successful thanks to their generally solid power, accessibility, and reliability. But like any race engine, they aren't without their rare and spectacular failures. Our Associate Video Editor Stephen Coppola and his Spec E46 were victims of one of those fluke incidents, leaving the pairing with a very ventilated engine block.
But every failure is a new opportunity. The Spec E46 will be back next season with a new engine, and the old engine is getting dismantled for science. Watch as Stephen and FCP Euro BMW Expert Gareth Foley tear down the blown-up M54B30 to find out where it all went wrong.
00:00 - Intro
00:54 - Damage Assessment
03:18 - Removing the Accessories
07:03 - Valve Cover Removal & Exploration of the Cams/Vanos
09:07 - Cams Removal
12:37 - Head Removal
13:48 - Oil Pan & Bottom End Inspection
18:23 - Crank Removal & Block Inspection
22:33 - Our Findings & Best Guesses
24:21 - Wrap-Up
Learn More About a "Money Shift" Here: • DAMAGE of A MISS SHIFT...
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[@mikimiki195]

Great video Real stars of this video are people in background packaging all of our parts getting it ready for shipping. Lets take moment and appreciate all of their hard work 👍🏻

[@fcpeuro]

Day in and Day out they are all hard at work getting our customers their parts as quickly and accurately as possible!

[@MichaelAMangone]

E46 ZHP, ML350, F80 M3, 996 C2, G29 Z4, and a Mini Cooper S all maintained through FCP. Not a single issue.

[@EuphoriaMusic1]

This is the best style of video

[@WarriorsPhoto]

Great video and thank you for sharing. I feel like these engines are good engines. Service, service, and service is necessary with such a high performance platform.

[@josephnappo]

When we realized the issue came from the engine block… my first thought was either the oil pump or bearings. Going to watch the rest of the video to see if I was correct. Just a side note Gareth and mike, Christian and Nathan all contributed in teaching me about automobiles… thank you…

[@eddiepFW2345]

Is there a video of what S54 parts can be used on the m54? Besides the hydraulic timing chain tensioner and some the components of the oil pick tube

[@acefighterpilot]

Petit le mans? More like petit le Gareth! Man's getting ready to race!

[@GarethFoley]

😂 Needed a narrower seat for my E36 in order to get it more centered behind the steering wheel + better corner balancing with driver weight.

[@losttommyboy3391]

Love this! The knowledge shared in this video is just awesome

[@IvanPandev]

Great vid, keep it up!

[@fcpeuro]

Thanks, will do!

[@DirtBikeSessions]

Awesome video.!

[@fcpeuro]

Thanks for the visit!

[@HanifEFIMechanical]

Good job

[@johncoss5604]

Sorry for your luck with the engine but really enjoy watching this type of video.

[@fcpeuro]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@jamesk3565]

The holes in the block are just inspection ports to see the carnage inside the crank case!!!

[@fcpeuro]

Nothing wrong with making things a little more convenient in the end!

[@drewdavis239]

Wish you opened the oil pump looking for scoring

[@georgallasj]

Looks like I should get the oil pump mod done before bringing my e46 to the track…

[@MarioDallaRiva]

As Dobbs used to say: "She done blowed up!".

[@fcpeuro]

😂

[@alimemis3864]

How you can think that over rev can make the piston contact with the oil squirter Ahaha that’s funny Only one think can them contact each others is gap in the road bearing or weared road bearing so if everything is fine even if you rev 15.000 rpm you are not gonna hit the oil squirter

[@SavageBunny1]

It's looks like the money shift caused the fauliure 🤣 the cast piston couldn't handle high RPM's.

[@fcpeuro]

Quite literal reason they call it a "money shift"

[@noshit3407]

Some one needs fo tell my boy to let the hair go.

[@mvb819]

Guy mis-shifts and blames the trans mounts. 🙄