Nikasil

[Bill R.]

Here.....

As a Nikasil owner, I have to inform future buyers/lookers, that I made my purchase anyway, inspite of all the hindsight and handwringing and fatherly advise from the all knowing Maha-Alusil crowd.

I wanted the v-8. I paid between $266 and $400 per leakdown test on three different v-8 Tourings with Nik's. The one Alusil Touring I would have chosen was Green/Tan (least fave comb), had 45k on the clock and was about $8k over what I wanted to pay. Two Nik's had tolerances higher than 5% in two cylinders, so I ate the leak tests and moved on.

I bought a 58k 9/92 build Euro spec Nik. It came to the US in 98 via Jacksonville. The leakdown test showed less than 3% in each cylinder. IMO the linings were well seated, and that damage from sulphur had been avoided acceptably for this auto. It was also Silver/Black, had the integral towing, rear fogs, mechanical heated seats...

It was an informed opinion.

Granted I still spent almost $8k in the first year making it right in terms of suspension, pwr steering, valve cover gaskets, alternator, and some cosmetics etc, but I still knew what I had.....and I sleep damned well at night and confident in my motor and the gas I put in it.

I would still like to put a 3.8//m in it, so every now and then I look for EuroM5's to grab all the goodies from -- like this one that went for $5500 US I would love to break this out and send it over in pieces (to get it past customs)... put that motor and tranny on a stand make it pure while I wait for my Nik to fade.....

But I am still not going to lose any sleep. I am still going to tow my boat. I am still going to drive at 90 mph fully loaded (combi box, dog, clubs, kid, wife) to Houston with the AC on 3 in about an hour.

As much as I love my wagon, I'd still drive it into a ditch if it meant protecting my family. In that sense, it's still just a car.


bitches



Have a good weekend, and hope your kids "treat" you right on dad's day.

[G Feller]

I have always appreciated the articles and edjimacation you share on this issue.

If I had not known about it before finding this site, I know I would have found out here. And I would not have bought a Nikasil car.

But as I said, I do hope all our Nikasil friends here have good fortune.

Oh, and I'm glad I have a manual transmission too.

I keep thinking that if i was wandering through this site for the first time and I was looking at a nice 540 to buy... assuming i knew nothing at all ... Would you rather be informed about the realities of the nikasil motors so you could make an informed decision about whether to buy or not or would you rather read a number of posts from people saying how wonderful their nikasil motors are?

As regards the sulfur ruling.. anyone who really reads the pages and i mean all the pages posted on the epa sites will see that there's no teeth to this rule anyway and through averaging you can't tell what kind of sulfur dose you're going to get... Also since i started looking 5 years ago a very large amount of the information that was posted on the epa and other government sites regarding tier I and tier II sulfur rulings isn't there anymore.. and its much harder to find the info on state by state levels of sulfur

[632 Regal]

I didnt have any clue about this issue when I bought mine, when I found out about it it took me 6 months to finally get the codes off the block and another 2 weeks for me to actually look up the numbers because I couldnt sleep any more.

At first I had mixed feelings but it ran good. As time goes on I rarly even think about it either.

If I would have known about this I wouldnt have purchased the car and wouldnt have had the chance to experience what a nice car these are because I dont think I would have persued one.

I drove by the car 2 weeks before I even stopped to look at it and couldnt believe I could afford it, the intention was to clean it sell it and make some cash. Well...after new tires and thrust arms, a quick tour of Michigans UP with my kid and the way he would say "Bimmer" sold me into keeping it.

Thats my FINAL answer!

[rich in SD again again]

Hey guys, I really appreciate the edjimication regarding EPA rules haha. Your Gummint at work/lunch.
Quick question for you knowledgeable wrenches out there - I'm about to dive into the Nikasil/Alusil swap. Do I have to do it in two pieces (engine out the top, trans in underneath), or can I keep the old/new drivetrains in one piece and do the entire job underneath after moving the steering aside?
I can always hope.......

Thanks again all!!!

[Ian w]

As I did prior to buying my car, lot of potential buyers find their way to this forum.

Presuming bmw offers the same service worldwide , if you are looking at a car , not just a v8 as I understand the same problem affects other engines also. Get the vin number ring bmw customer service they will tell you about any dealer work done on the car and its original spec.
If it was and still is nikasil you should probably load in £2k+ to the asking price and the risk, if you use cheap labour, of it never being write again or £3k+ for a good job.
Most likely they will tell you it's had the job done by a dealer before 100k or it was born with alusil , in which case you can just expect the normal costs associated with a car of the age and size of this one.

Service parts can be a good price, there is a lot of people keeping these cars going so all the usual places (german & swedish, europarts etc in England) do a good trade in the parts and that makes for reasonable prices.

The popularity of this forum should tell you all you need to know about how enjoyable the cars are to own.

Don,t discredit a car for a poor idle , mine's alusil , always had a lumpy idle , goes well.

[632 Regal]

I called the local BMW dealer here and they didnt even have a record of what mileage my Nikasil was replaced with Nikasil...at least I think it was replaced. They actually didnt have much information on the car at all even when I went down there to but my antifreeze (that I havent replaced yet) they couldnt find anything on it...weird.

[Ian w]

The number to ring for any UK cars is 01344 426565 which is BMW GB.

I was given that much info I asked her to skip the minor stuff, would n't imagine it works for cars not first registered here. I got the number from BMW GB website. US , AUS , NZ , Canada should have something similar.

That should keep em busy.

[rich in san diego again]

My So Cal location could be misleading. I've only had the car for 2 years, buying it from a local used lot. No idea where it came from, although it seems to have been very well maintained before I got it as the body and interior are flawless. But the blowby got worse and worse over the last year, until it pretty much cooked the big plastic box of an intake manifold.
I dunno what to tell you guys except that I use nothing but Chevron.
Like the comment about Shell gas going for the gas gauge. yuk yuk.

[632 Regal]

Ahhhh the sweet smell of Nikasil in the morning...mmmmm.

The folks that dont have them just have no clue about it, it's like the smell of a sweet woman you long for, necter in the morning, a fresh flower, a sweet summer breeze, the buttery taste of a fresh taco.... damn I kinda like getting divorced again....mmmmmm