Here's a very quick way to check for a nikasil block:
You need to look into the engine bay, from the passengers side of the car, and down the side of the engine toward the middle of the engine where the cylinder head meets the block.
The metal tab you are looking for will be on the face of the block casting that is facing sort of upwards towards you, just along from where the gearbox meets the block (easy to see my nice shiny, new....damned expensive, gearbox on the right of the pic below! )
To help you get your bearings a bit, the black metal support bar you see running from top to bottom across the picture, is the metal support bracket that fits unt underneath the inlet manifold/throttle body area.
A nice SAFE Alusil: block will have the little metal tab on, as ringed in the picture below:
If you can't see the metal tab pictured above, then the engine block is NIKASIL and has not been replaced with the Alusil one.....yet!
and will look like this:
To confirm what block the car has fitted, the best thing to to is to ring the BMW dealer(s) where it has been serviced and give them the chassis number. They should have on their system if the block is Nikasil or replaced with the Alusil - because they should keep a record of if and when it has been replaced.
This check is very handy if you are looking at a car you want to buy, and can't contact a dealer straight away.
Always ring the dealer to confirm this check though.
You need to look into the engine bay, from the passengers side of the car, and down the side of the engine toward the middle of the engine where the cylinder head meets the block.
The metal tab you are looking for will be on the face of the block casting that is facing sort of upwards towards you, just along from where the gearbox meets the block (easy to see my nice shiny, new....damned expensive, gearbox on the right of the pic below! )
To help you get your bearings a bit, the black metal support bar you see running from top to bottom across the picture, is the metal support bracket that fits unt underneath the inlet manifold/throttle body area.
A nice SAFE Alusil: block will have the little metal tab on, as ringed in the picture below:
If you can't see the metal tab pictured above, then the engine block is NIKASIL and has not been replaced with the Alusil one.....yet!
and will look like this:
To confirm what block the car has fitted, the best thing to to is to ring the BMW dealer(s) where it has been serviced and give them the chassis number. They should have on their system if the block is Nikasil or replaced with the Alusil - because they should keep a record of if and when it has been replaced.
This check is very handy if you are looking at a car you want to buy, and can't contact a dealer straight away.
Always ring the dealer to confirm this check though.
