[DeTomaso] Ferrari 360 maintenance costs-- NPC

[boyd casey]

An important fact anyone considering purchasing any BMW powered by the M 60
40 engine (the 4 liter V8 used in the 540, 740, and 840 manufactured between
1993 and 1995 is the problem with these early engines. This is  a copy of
part of an article that describes the problem.
"BMW released the M60B30 and M60B40 V8's with the 93 model year 5,7 and 8
series. These engines ran until the 95 model year. From the 96 model year,
they were replaced by the M62B44. The 3.0L was dropped in the US, but the
rest of the world got the M62B35, a 3.5 litre V8.

There are many rumours about the fate of the M60 engine, but only one is
true. The engines have been known to suffer damage to the cylinder bores
from the excessive amounts of sulphur in the US fuels.

The blocks are made of Nikasil, which is Aluminum impregnated with Nickel
and Silicone. Apparently , sulphur reacts adversely with the Nickel ,
causing very slight blemishes in the top few millimetres of the cylinder
bore. The cylinder bores are crosshatched, which is the name given to a
pattern scratched into the surface of the cylinder wall. These scratches
help seat and seal the piston rings, allowing good compression.

When the cylinder walls become damaged, the piston rings can no longer seal
properly. As a result, the engine suffers from "leak down". This is the term
given for the amount of air that can escape past the piston as it attempts
to compress the air into the combustion chamber. A near new engine , in good
condition, should have a leak down rating of approximately 5-8%. BMW's
maximum allowable leak down , on any engine, is 15%. Anything beyond that
requires repair to the engine.

Leak down can also be caused by poorly seated valves.

The problem in the V8's manifests itself as an EXCESSIVELY rough idle. These
engines, due to their performance oriented cam shafts, have a noticeable
"rock" at idle, this is completely normal. However, excessively rough idle
will cause the entire car to shake, usually unevenly. The problem can also
cause the engine to lose so much compression that it will no longer start."
  There is a performance chip that you can install in the ECU that removes
the factory top speed limit and make substantial improvements to
performance.  This is  some information about the performance attributes of
the chip when used in a 740.This is information I copied from the web not
first hand opinion or experience.
"*Turner Motorsports (Jim Conforti) chip *I have not seen any improvement or
decrease in fuel mileage (I get 19 MPG around town, and 25-27 MPG on the
highway), but the engine chip has made a world of difference in tip-in
response, acceleration, and drivability. The idle is smoother and the there
is more power available throughout the rev range, especially at partial
throttle. In stock form, the V8 doesn't really start pulling until 3000 RPM
and then it quickly loses steam at higher RPMs once beyond the "sweet spot."
The chip dramatically increases low-RPM grunt and continues pulling up top.
Redline is raised to 7000 RPM, and there is no top speed limiter. Turner
Motorsport quotes gains of 19 horsepower and 33 lb-ft of torque at 3000 RPM.
The only real compromise as far as fuel economy is the requirement for
premium gasoline."

Boyd

On Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 4:37 PM, <MikeLDrew at aol.com> wrote:

>
> In a message dated 2/8/10 1:26:05 PM, garth_rodericks at yahoo.com writes:
>
>
> > Agreed. The BMW 840 is already on the list. Remarkable how inexpensively
> > those can be had for now.
> >
>
> About a year ago I was at the Technik Museum Speyer in Germany:
>
> http://speyer.technik-museum.de/node/649
>
> And a BMW 840/850 club had a meeting there.   There were probably 50-75
> cars in a corner of the parking lot; I'd never seen more than one of them
> at
> any given time, and hadn't seen a single one in years.   I spent a lot of
> time
> looking them over; some were very original and some were modified.   The
> later cars had better wheels etc. than the early ones, but all of them were
> very, very nice.   I think most of them sold in the USA had the automatic
> transmission, while the ones in Germany were more like 50/50.
>
> I think John Zeedick needs to get one of these to replace his Pantera,
> until he can get back in the Pantera saddle again....
>
> Mike
> _______________________________________________
>
> Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
>
> Archive Search Engine Now Available at http://www.realbig.com/detomaso/
>
> DeTomaso mailing list
> DeTomaso at list.realbig.com
> http://list.realbig.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>