Engine ID

From an old Technical reference information bulletin. The attachments referenced do not show the newer engines.
Sort of matches the one on my S54 engine. Vin LK60049 manufactured 05/01. Production day doesn't make sense.
On the S54 engine the number is on the right hand side of the block below the headers where it meets the oil pan.
My engine:
6 104 2 493
32 6 S4
Anyone else have the numbers on their S54 engined car?

not to take away from the info , but im wondering if the Steyr in austria which is the company that will be doing the bmw X3 project is the same Steyr Augh that makes high end weapons

Originally posted by 01silber
not to take away from the info , but im wondering if the Steyr in austria which is the company that will be doing the bmw X3 project is the same Steyr Augh that makes high end weapons

Yes, check the link below.

http://www.bmw-werk-steyr.at/

From an old Technical reference information bulletin. The attachments referenced do not show the newer engines.
Sort of matches the one on my S54 engine. Vin LK60049 manufactured 05/01. Production day doesn't make sense...
...Anyone else have the numbers on their S54 engined car?

I don't know what mine means either. To the untrained eye (mine), it looks as though my engine has a lower number than yours.

Someone stopped by yesterday to do some things. One of the things we ended up doing was to check his engine serial number.
Turns out it is the one just before mine. How about that.
If you S54 guys get a chance, would you check yours and let me know.
Trying to correlate engine serial number to engine failure.
The following is what I have so far. Not much.

Dale---6 103 2493 LJ80138 04/01 EPC, 05/01 B pillar
Ron----6 104 2493 LK60049 05/01
Al------6 120 2514 LJ80291 06/01
Randy--6 086 2554 LJ80510 08/01

Originally Posted by Ron Stygar

Someone stopped by yesterday to do some things. One of the things we ended up doing was to check his engine serial number.
Turns out it is the one just before mine. How about that.
If you S54 guys get a chance, would you check yours and let me know.
Trying to correlate engine serial number to engine failure.
The following is what I have so far. Not much.

Dale---6 103 2493 LJ80138 04/01 EPC, 05/01 B pillar
Ron----6 104 2493 LK60049 05/01
Al------6 120 2514 LJ80291 06/01
Randy--6 086 2554 LJ80510 08/01

I'll post mine next time I'm under the car, presumably next week.

Off topic, new jackstands arrived today, but I'm still waiting on the new floor jack. When it arrives, the carrier arm you sent me will go in, along with the shifter from Randy and final checkups before the HC voyage. I had a heck of a time finding someone to ship me a DK13HLQ before HC... apparently there's only one importer and they're waiting on a shipment. Steve (Ultimate Garage) had one in stock but only for pickup, ASE had none in stock and a lead time of several weeks, etc. Finally found All Tire Supply in TX had a few in stock and would ship on Thursday.



Any way you might make me a set of jackstand adapters for these if I sent you one of the posts? Or maybe you already have something that'll work? I know about your jackstands, I just really like the AC units and they were reasonably priced from Steve.

Originally Posted by dwm

I'll post mine next time I'm under the car, presumably next week.

You'll probably want to stash the panel under the engine. It prevents the jack from finding the front XMBR and you won't be able to read the engine number with it in place anyway.

Ron keeps his in a spare bedroom and mine is stashed in the basement behind stacks of wheels, hardtops and M Rdstr exhaust systems.

Originally Posted by Randy Forbes

You'll probably want to stash the panel under the engine. It prevents the jack from finding the front XMBR and you won't be able to read the engine number with it in place anyway.

Ron keeps his in a spare bedroom and mine is stashed in the basement behind stacks of wheels, hardtops and M Rdstr exhaust systems.

Last time I had it off, I just put it back on when I was done. So you leave yours off all of the time? It is indeed tedious to remove/replace with the car on jackstands, but being on a gravel road, I figure it's helping me keep dirt and stones away. There were some decent nicks in mine the last time I had it off.

I have the crossbeam adapter coming for the jack too, but I've yet to try to figure out if it's going to be usable on the roadster. Ultimately this is all mostly temporary in terms of using it for the roadster, there's a 4-post lift in my not-too-distant future so the jacks will be relegated to those times when I need to unload the suspension.
It's just a hell of a lot easier to push a button and lift the whole car at once. The 220 and subpanel were installed earlier this year, I just haven't bough the lift yet because I keep pondering which one to buy (I want the Bend-Pak, but it'd be nice to have a center decking option and they don't appear to offer it and I don't know if others will fit or if I'll have to make some). The crossbeam adapter will be usable on our truck, and probably the A4 should I ever need to get under it (it's leased, no mods going on there).

Nice jack stands! You are going to love the jack. It took 2 trys to get me one in good shape, but I believe they've since improved their packaging methods. Fingers crossed for you. If that doesn't pan out, I know that Kinesis (the wheel company) is now the (one of?) AC importer.

Back on topic, I'm pulling my underbody shield tonight and not putting it back. I'll check the engine serial while I'm at it and report back.

Originally Posted by DannO

Nice jack stands! You are going to love the jack. It took 2 trys to get me one in good shape, but I believe they've since improved their packaging methods. Fingers crossed for you. If that doesn't pan out, I know that Kinesis (the wheel company) is now the (one of?) AC importer.

Steve warned me about scratch-and-dent jacks. Hopefully mine will arrive in good shape; I'll be a little riled if it arrives next week with a leaking cylinder, after all the runaround I had to do to get one in time for the HC trip, buying from a vendor I've not bought from before, etc. Thanks for the ifnger crossing!

Sorry to get so far off topic.

Here's mine (12/01 build M roadster, model year 2002):

60712655

So now we have:

Dale---6 103 2493 LJ80138 04/01 EPC, 05/01 B pillar
Ron----6 104 2493 LK60049 05/01
Al------6 120 2514 LJ80291 06/01
Randy--6 086 2554 LJ80510 08/01
Daniel-6 071 2655 LJ82311 12/01

It'd be nice to get some from E46 folks, and some more from the 'dreaded' build period.

Originally Posted by dwm

Here's mine (12/01 build M roadster, model year 2002):

60712655

So now we have:

Dale---6 103 2493 LJ80138 04/01 EPC, 05/01 B pillar
Ron----6 104 2493 LK60049 05/01
Al------6 120 2514 LJ80291 06/01
Randy--6 086 2554 LJ80510 08/01
Daniel-6 071 2655 LJ82311 12/01

It'd be nice to get some from E46 folks, and some more from the 'dreaded' build period.

It would be nice to know what those engine numbers really mean.
The 6 prefix remains constant but the next three numbers seem to count down (though Al's doesn't follow this) while the last four numbers count up.

Originally Posted by Randy Forbes

It would be nice to know what those engine numbers really mean.
The 6 prefix remains constant but the next three numbers seem to count down (though Al's doesn't follow this) while the last four numbers count up.

Looking at what Ron posted and by what I've seen before, the 3 digits (serial #) after the assembly line designator start over for each production day. So the 3 digits that really tell when an engine was manufactured (& whether it's newer or older than another) are the 2nd set of 3 after the factory designator. Just a guess that these 3 numbers correspond to a successive production run day of a specific coded engine or possibly a production day at a specific factory & not a code for a day/month/year. BMW would be able to find the month, day & year from checking their "secret" records and seeing that the 463 production day run of a particular S54 was whenever, but we wouldn't have a clue. I think today's manufactuers don't want us to easily find out when specific parts are made anymore so we can't say, hey I've got an engine or part that was made the same time frame of these others they're having problems with and then go to the dealer or hire a class action product liability attorney... So they've moved to this type of coding for their production lines.

So looking at the posted numbers with my interpretation:

Dale---6 103 2493 LJ80138 04/01
Ron----6 104 2493 LK60049 05/01
Al------6 120 2514 LJ80291 06/01
Randy--6 086 2554 LJ80510 08/01

Dale & Ron's engines were made next to each other on the same production day (493). Al's was the 104th produced on the 514th production day. Yours #86 on the 554th production day. So yours would be the newest & Dale's & Ron's the oldest of the group. You need to get some engine numbers off the bad engines and try and compare them to the last set of 3 numbers to see if any of you guys are close to the suspect lot...

Adding mine...

Dale---6 103 2493 LJ80138 04/01
Ron----6 104 2493 LK60049 05/01
Dan----6 111 2495 LK60113 06/01 (b-pillar)
Al------6 120 2514 LJ80291 06/01
Randy--6 086 2554 LJ80510 08/01

Somehow mine got dropped...

Dale---6 103 2493 LJ80138 04/01
Ron----6 104 2493 LK60049 05/01
Dan----6 111 2495 LK60113 06/01 (b-pillar)
Al------6 120 2514 LJ80291 06/01
Randy--6 086 2554 LJ80510 08/01
Daniel--6 071 2655 LJ82311 12/01

This is just slightly off-topic. My S14 engine block has the following on it:

60034093
23 4E A

According to the info that Ron posted, here's what it means:

6: S14
003: Serial Number
4: Munich
093: Production Day

23: 2.3 L
4E: 4-cyl fuel injected
A: USA?

Anyway, what does Production Day mean? Day of the year? It was built in 1987, which wasn't a leap year, so day 93 would have been April 4. That doesn't exactly match the rough production date of my car, gathered from the VIN. Hmm..

Originally Posted by Jetfire

Anyway, what does Production Day mean? Day of the year? It was built in 1987, which wasn't a leap year, so day 93 would have been April 4. That doesn't exactly match the rough production date of my car, gathered from the VIN. Hmm..

Production Day is measured from the first day of production, which almost never coincides with the first day of the calendar year (first production day is usually in the summer or early fall). I'm guessing your build date was in early winter?

Originally Posted by dwm

Production Day is measured from the first day of production, which almost never coincides with the first day of the calendar year (first production day is usually in the summer or early fall). I'm guessing your build date was in early winter?

I don't have the exact build date, but based on the VIN and the production numbers I have read, I believe my car was built sometime in March of 1987. The car was delivered in June 1987, so this makes sense.

Originally Posted by Alex Baumann

Yes, check the link below.

http://www.bmw-werk-steyr.at/

Great site! I would love to tour that plant one day. Is that possible?

Here's mine. My camera sorta sucks...

Dale---6 103 2493 LJ80138 04/01
Ron----6 104 2493 LK60049 05/01
Dan----6 111 2495 LK60113 06/01 (b-pillar)
Al------6 120 2514 LJ80291 06/01
Randy--6 086 2554 LJ80510 08/01
Daniel--6 071 2655 LJ82311 12/01
JonM---6 115 2557 LK60238 08/01

sorry to but in here being that this is more of a M// motor thread, but does anyone know if all bmw z3 engine's came from the steyr plant, as in the 3.0 as a example

max

Originally Posted by 01silber

sorry to but in here being that this is more of a M// motor thread, but does anyone know if all bmw z3 engine's came from the steyr plant, as in the 3.0 as a example

max

Max,

That is my belief. But if I'm wrong, twenty people will correct me...

Has anyone contacted the shops that campaign the s54 engines in the big series'. Don't the chilli pepper guys use s54's? They would likley know about the s54 problems. Bimmerworld, turner etc. just an idea.