[Petah78]

Originally Posted by OkieSnuffBox

That's a bit like saying the answer is Yes or No.

That's exactly the point of UOA. That's why Blackstone Labs has been around for almost 4 decades. Incredibly popular in the BMW crowd who have cars with S motors known for eating rod bearings.

Engines like the S54 in the E46 M3 are notorious for this. Some speculation is that bearings are too narrow to carry the HP and RPM load of the engine, since it has the same bore spacing as the old M20. A 6k 170hp engine, not an 8400rpm 333hp engine.

Some of the pro's think the reason is guys beating on the cars before the oil is fully up to temp.



I'm more curious about build dates, so far it seems most of the ones reported have been 11-12/21 build dates.

Yeah, I am just not ruling anything out. I just feel that UOA can provide some cheap insurance, though cannot completely eliminate the problem.

Build dates are definitely interesting. I don’t think there is an established pattern for RTV. And I don’t think there are enough samples with engines failures to establish a pattern?