Last night at the races, i saw an m coupe and was curious if it was an s52 or 54 engine because it ran a 13.5. well while waiting for the race to commence again a girl was sitting in the m in the driver side with her man in the passenger side. I asked the girl if it was a s52 or an s54 and she's like "uuugh it's an m coupe(sarcastically)" dumb girl. her man had to jump in and tell me it's an s54......girls.

 

Simpler to ask what year it is. '01-'02 have the S54.

 

just check the rear badge. if it is flat then it's S52, if it's curved then it's a S54

also check the instrument cluster. if it has the grey face gauge then it's S54.

 

what was changed between S52 and S54?

 

they added 2?

hehe
it's a completely different engine.

S52 = 240hp
S54 = 315hp ITB redline at 8100rpm in E46 M3, 7600rpm in M Coupe

 

she was driving the thing too. yeah, i should have asked her if it was an 01 or up to make her life a little easier h:

 

so I guess the E46 M3 had the S54 from the start?

 

Ya.

The Euro-spec E36 M3 also had ITBs and made something like 286 hp? I forget the exact number.

 

that was only for the first year S52B30, Canada got the Euro M3 for 1995 only but at a cost of nearly 60K

then came the S54B32 a year later with 333hp.