well, here's a story for y'all. i have a friend who had this old '64 bmw 1600 sedan. he couldn't keep it in his garage anymore. meanwhile, he bought a 2200 dollar L block 3.6l stroker engine. it sat in a local shop waiting for him to pick it up. they were pissed that it had been there so long.

so the deal was made that if i were to store his 1600 sedan for a while (and it's ugly, this ain't no pretty matter), i could take ownership of the 3.6l L block bmw engine for my coupe, along with some other bits and pieces. so i took off work monday and went out to the bay area to get the car. rented a ferd f250 triton v10 super doodie. got the car, the engine, the whole 9 yards.

now, i've got this engine. it's rumored to have 10.5:1 compression, gigantic domes on the pistons at least. here's the story behind the displacement. when the 3.5 liter engine was released, the us model was a stroker, and the european model was bored out more. if you take the euro 3.5 pistons & block and add a us 3.5 crank, you get about 3.64 liters. that's what this is.

well, i have no idea why they did this, but four of the pistons are of type 1: dome w/ 2 valve reliefs (small ones), two of the pistons are of type 2: dome with 1 big valve relief for a large exhaust valve. they both appear to have similar volume, just different face shape. should this cause any problems? the guy who built the engine said it has run fine for over 7,000 miles. and rumor has it (from an independent source who has had a ride in a car powered by this very engine), that it is insanely fast.

i can show you folks photos of it as soon as i find the link (the guy i got the engine from has posted them on the internet already)

y'all have a good day,

jason

man why cant i com across deals like that only for a nicely worked ford 5.0......blah ur a stinker =P im calling schnannagens(sp?) on you =) jk have fun with your new motor

I dont know Jason, all the pistons should look the same. Sounds like some one has been piecing this motor back together after something broke. The pistons should be identical so they all weigh the same, maybe it vibrates insanely?!

I'm with LS4 on this one. I really don't think there should be a discrepancy between those pistions, sounds munky rigged to me. Anything else odd on it? If not, it sounds pretty good

-Ben

yeah i tend to agree. as far as i can tell, it is actually NOT an "L" block (euro 3.5 w/ siamesed water jackets), as there is no thick casting ridge down the front of the timing cover. so now i need to figure out if these are 3.5 liter us pistons or euro pistons. if they're euro pistons in a non l block, i'm going to run the thing into the ground until it runs through a cylinder wall. if it IS an l block, i'll search out two matching pistons for the other four or put the four into a 2002 engine. we'll see.

this engine is definately a perfect example of south carolina trashcanics....

jason

Hey Jason,
If you have a digital camera send me some pics of the pistons and both sides of the block and we can try and figure out what you may have. What do you mean by siamesed water jackets?

well the guy at ireland engineering said that when comparing the interior look of the water jackets between an l block and a non euro block, you can actually tell a difference in how the water jackets are cast. he said they were siamesed, but in the same sentence he acted like that might be the wrong word to use, so it's just that it's a different water jacket setup. i can send you pics in a few days.

jason

there is a large casting ridge on the drivers side of the block protruding approx 1" out of the block, maybe a foot or so long, and the water jackets are siamesed (ie i can stick a wire through one jacket and see it in the one next to it for the same cylinder.)

now, the real oddball part, the bore is the same as a 3.0l. what gives?

jason

maybe he just bored it out

the 3.0 bore is a few whole mm's less than the 3.5 us bore afaik. now...if i'm backwards, and the euro 3.5 was a stroker, this would be normal, and i would thereby have to put a set of custom j.e. forged 11:1 pistons into this block punched a few mm's over to get a 3.6 liter, which is what i'm looking for at this point.

however, i had heard (maybe i wasn't listening too well) that the euro block 3.5 had a LARGER bore than the us 3.5, and that a u.s. crank in a euro 3.5 would yield a 3.6. the clues all point to the fact that this is in fact a euro L block..i just need to know the bore/stroke combos of the euro vs. us 3.5 l.

jason

oh is that all =P lol

Which way does this ridge face, towards the front of the car or towards the drivers side? All US engines have the same type of water jackets, get me some pics when you can. I'll try and get you a bunch of bore/stroke numbers at work tomorrow to see what you may have. Any large casting numbers on the side of the block (cast in the block) or smaller stamped numbers at the top of the block (flat surface) by the starter mount?

i'll just yank it out the crate and photograph the living bejeezus out of it. the thing that yanks my chain the worst is that if this IS a us 3.5, the 3.5 i just bought the rotating assembly for was the L block...as it had a much larger bore. now i have no fucking block they will fit in...i dunno...i'll take photos. my mind is full. been at work for 12 hours straight.

jason