difference between the m57 and the m57n engines

[sonny007]

Hi, just wondering whats the main differences between the m57 and the m57n engines?

Which is more reliable?

[X5Sport]

M57N engine is 218bhp output on the E53 as against 185bhp on the M57 unit.  The 'N' engine is the later version fitted to the face lifted E53 and with a higher state of tune, better economy and lower emissions.

Other than that it's pretty much the same lump.

I would have said that both are equally reliable based on the few failures that I know of.

The current N57S engine is just a cleaned up M57 with a few mods, twin turbos and tuned to 306bhp and meeting EU4 regs, but underneath it's still the same in line 3.0l IL6 diesel.

Richard

[sonny007]

Thanks for the detailed response 

[mikem]

I think its a bit more involved than that, M57 and M57tu have different displacements and the N57 is an all alloy unit.