Of course, it could be a one model year only thing because starting in September 2006, the EPA will mandate that all gasoline and diesel fuels have no more than 15 parts per million of sulfur compounds in the fuel, probably the strictest standard in the world. That would allow the true 2.5-liter "high-tech" I-6 to finally be sold in the USA, probably starting in the 2007 model year.

 

Right but then you get back to the point I already made about the "low tech" 3.0 liter having more torque than the "high tech" 2.5 liter, and the American market tends to like torquey motors.

 

This still reminds me of the 2.5-liter I-6 Eta engine from the middle 1980's, like I said earlier. Does anyone know what the maximum torque of the 2.5-liter "high-tech" I-6 engine? Is it less than 185 foot-pound of torque of the new 325i engine?

 

do you not read all the posts? the eta wasn't even a 2.5! it was a 2.7L!

 

To be slightly off topic, how is Lexus going to get away with the supposed 2.5L engine in the upcoming IS250? Preliminary specs have it running at about 220hp~ or so (based purely off speculation from magazines), but I would suspect that the same problems preventing BMW from offering the 'high-tech' 2.5L must plague Lexus as well. Any thoughts on this?

 

no idea. maybe they will make it lighter? or not compete with the E90 and go after the likes of A4?

 

By the way, from reading the April 2005 issue of Motor Trend, I have a hunch that the 3.0-liter "low tech" I-6 that will be on the E90 3-Series for the North American market could be built similar to what BMW did with the 2.7-liter I-6 eta engine from the 1980's--higher than normal compression ratio and special engine computer programming for more emphasis on fuel economy than performance. My educated guess on fuel economy per EPA rating: 24 mpg city, 34 mpg highway, similar to what Honda did with the K24 2.4-liter I-4 engine used on the Honda Accord.

 

well it's not. it wont have the trick head (ala valvotronic) and thus it will lack the electronics that control valvotronic.

the e90 330i is rated at 21/31 so 24/34 is not out of the question but with 40hp less it's not that hard. lastly bmw will most likely "tune" the performance with rear end diffy ratio rather than what you suggest. why do i say this? because that is what they've been doing for the past 10 years. aka e36, e46, e39, etc.

 

I don't get why you always keep coming back to the old BMW eta stuff. You've posted it in a bunch of threads and now this one.

The "low tech" vs. "high tech" 3.0 liter engines are very much analogous to Honda's K-series engines of the same displacement but different power levels.

Take for example the base RSX 2.0 liter versus the RSX Type-S, or the Accord 2.4 liter versus the TSX; in each case the higher-powered car has a higher compression ratio, a more sophisticated valvetrain, and a spiffier intake manifold.

So really, that's all BMW is doing here as well. I highly doubt the "low tech" 3.0 liter is going to be some kind of specific efficiency-oriented engine like one which was produced almost 20 years ago. It's just a lower powered version of a techno-spiffy engine with less techno trickery.

And please, since we've already been down this road before, please refrain from discussing the particulars of the engine program in this thread. There is another thread specifically oriented to the topic. If you really must do so you may find that one with the search function, but like I said, the topics been done to death.