Aluminum vs. Iron Block...

My understanding on some of the new (high redline) M3 failures (if that's the engine you're referring to - 2001 is confusing me) is that it's a oil pump/lubrication issue limited to the first couple of thousand cars, which the company has apparently caught and solved, with quiet repairs and even buy-backs on some of the cars. Some have attributed it to/say it's exacerbated by use of something other than the 10W-60 synthetic required by BMW and not available for purchase anywhere else at the time the car was introduced.

Michael Yount said:

My understanding on some of the new (high redline) M3 failures (if that's the engine you're referring to - 2001 is confusing me) is that it's a oil pump/lubrication issue limited to the first couple of thousand cars, which the company has apparently caught and solved, with quiet repairs and even buy-backs on some of the cars. Some have attributed it to/say it's exacerbated by use of something other than the 10W-60 synthetic required by BMW and not available for purchase anywhere else at the time the car was introduced.

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Yes i had been following the M3 failures and there are several variations of the theory. The common one that MotorsportGmBH came up with was any oil other than Veedol 10w-60 syn will result in engine failure. But quite some US cars reported failure prior to redline with the use of factory fill Veedol.

So then "they" said proper break-in procedure was not followed and the post break-in 1200 mile tune up was not done. When this was also not the case, they suggested that the machine specs was changed for creating the connecting rods of all Nov.2001-late Dec 01 M3 cars and that it being changed the blow-up's would not occur.
With the last change the blow-ups ceased until someone in Australia reported a blow up for a an early 2002 built M3.

There are discussion threads on this (which are more accurate)in bimmer.org / E46fanatics.com and i am writing from memory.

Strangely though the M coupe which had the same engine reported almost no blow ups but the M coupe 3.2 l is also de-tuned, so in this case I think the BMW engineers tried too extract too much power out of that little 3.2 litre inline-6 for the M3.