busamad

I have read a fair amount of debate about problems cropping up on BMW performance diesel engines & it begs the question of how best to use these engines, what diesel motors where originally designed for & what we want from them now given the high state of tune these engines are now in.

A diesel engine is at heart a commercial vehicle power plant, best suited to running for many hours under ? in most cases ? high load conditions employing the engines torque characteristics to move heavy loads. These units, given correct servicing, will go on & on. It?s nothing unusual for a quality HGV engine to cover a million plus miles in its life time while operating at the top end of the engines torque rating day in day out, these engines are also subject to the same stringent emission tests that passenger vehicles are, more so give the amount of miles they cover.

So why do we even concern ourselves about one hundred, two hundred thousand miles from our high tech, high torque diesel engines? In the case of a 535d producing enough torque to move three times the weight it has to?

I was doing a maintenance run the other day in my DMS 535d & it dawned on me that in normal, everyday use this engine isn?t getting stretched in any way at all. The only time that it has come close to the original intended use of its diesel engine is on a 500 mile, 100 mph euro run & it - & I ? loved it.

Diesel engines are designed to be used to haul heavy loads & operate to their designed torque rating. I?d be really interested to hear from any traffic police drivers that are using the 530/35s as I believe that these cars are very well thought of by the police. I think that it?s this kind of work that is best suited to these cars not ferrying the kids to school, covering small miles while never really working hard.

So, assuming we aren?t using these engines properly & I know that I?m not the only one who loves his performance diesel, how do we maintain them properly in both use & servicing to keep them healthy for many years? We wouldn?t potter around in a high performance petrol car & expect 20k service intervals, 30mpg. It?s reasonable to think that high end diesel engines will need a little more care than we currently expect to give them.

I?ve listed a few areas of concern to me, some we?ll all know about. Please comment as I would like to get a full picture of how to look after my engine.
? Turbo care - How long to ideal the engine after a hard run / short run.
? Oil changes ? how many miles between oil changes should we really be doing bearing in mind the use of fully synthetic oil.
? Crank case breather ? how often should it be cleaned.
? EGR ? do we need to clean these out?
? Should we be cleaning the in-let manifold?
? Swirl flaps ? a well debated subject, get them out.
? Maintenance runs- How far, how often.
? Heat soak ? how long to get there.

I?m viewing my 535d as a performance vehicle that needs to be well used to preserve it as opposed to not used a lot for highly strung petrol engines. I?m not complaining here!