Auctioning Our S63 Engine On eBay

[Michelin Man]

BIMMERPOST / Classifieds

Asking Price:

Sold

Item Interest

Here is the link to the auction. https://www.ebay.com/itm/234617284812

For sale is a BMW S63 V8 long block. It turns over, and we do not see any holes in the block, but we do not know if it runs/what its history is. We received it from RK Autowerks last year when they “lost” our S63 long block that we had sent them to rebuilt and could not return it to us. What is known is explained below:

How we got this engine:

I picked up this engine from RK Autowerks in January last year. RK could provide no history to me on it. They provided this engine when they said they could not return my own S63 engine to me that I had sent to them to rebuild in November 2020. In October 2020 our 2013 X5 M engine had been diagnosed with leaking valve stem seals (comically huge clouds of smoke under full throttle acceleration). That engine still worked, but needed seals replaced, so I paid a BMW-trained mechanic to remove that engine and ship it to RK for their $9000 S63 rebuild they advertise. (The total I sent them by cashier’s checks was over $10k, because I requested new injectors for my rebuild). I wanted to restart the clock on a vehicle I planned to keep a long time, so I would not just replace valve stem seals, but everything that wears or gets old after six years and 127,000 miles.

So in early November and December 2020 I sent two cashier’s checks to RK ($5000 and then $5835), to return my engine after replacing bearings, seals, etc., as they promise. I meanwhile bought about $3000 of external, new BMW parts: coolant pumps, hoses, gaskets, etc., and spent another $2000 for cat-less downpipes and having the turbos rebuilt locally. January 5, 2021 (weeks later than promised), I received not my rebuilt S63 engine. Rather, dropped off at the end of the driveway of my mechanic’s shop was a non-M N63 engine, still in its factory crate, but with all the paperwork stripped off. If you did not have a mechanic knowledgeable to look at the stamps on the engine, the N63 looks similar on the outside. The $15,000 difference for the M engine is internal. My mechanic recognized it was not my S63 engine, and showed me the lesser “N63” clearly stamped. I texted Mike at RK, and he replied via text, “All S63s have the N63 stamp on them They are from the same cast.”

RK also claimed that in spite of their website selling me a “S63 Stock Rebuild”, they said that does not mean you get your engine rebuilt and the same engine back. I paid via cashier’s checks (their only method accepted), so had no credit card protection. My warning to everyone based on this experience with RK Autowerks rebuilding your engine is: Caveat emptor!

After some heated phone calls, RK offered to refund my $10,835 if I returned the N63 engine, but said they no longer had my S63 engine! They would give me a different S63. On Jan 13, 2021 I drove down from MN to TX with the N63 crate engine in the back of a pickup, and on the 14th received my refund and this S63 engine on a pallet. This listing is for that S63 engine picked up from RK in Texas. It is not my S63 engine whose history I knew, nor is it a new N63 engine.

My mechanic was able to manually rotate the engine by attaching a wrench to it. You can see the heads are S63, and the block is stamped S63 (contrary to what RK had tried to convince me when they shipped me a N63 engine instead). The engine was stored at my mechanic's shop all these months until I could get it picked up and crated.

I came to love the 2013 X5 M—amazing 555 horsepower, awesome in snow with snow & ice tires, weight-defying handling with its active rollbars and 315 Pilot Sport 4S tires, blazing LED headlights—but my horrible experience with RK (a company I thought had a good reputation) left me without anyone I trusted to rebuild the engine. BMW declined to help toward the cost of the engine rebuild, though the vehicle had faithfully had its scheduled maintenance performed at a BMW dealership. So for over a year now, my son and I have been parting out the X5 M, and moved on to a Mercedes E 63 S Wagon.

So this S63 engine has an unknown history, as I received it from RK Autowerks (who apparently did not work on it). I hope someone will rebuild this and enjoy it, and that I can recoup a little from the loss I experienced.

This has been professionally crated. Local pick up in Lonsdale, MN is possible.

[adostrom]

I'm sorry to hear that you were taken - I think it's an all to common issue faced by BMW (and other high-end car) owners. I think there are a lot of shops/dealers that are organized on the principle of attempting to separate as much money as possible from car owners, many of whom have more money than good sense, and/or not a detailed understanding of car repairs. Most don't recognize that if you provide quality service at a fair price you will have repeat business from loyal customers. They also don't understand that one story like yours can lose them many potential customers.

It's really too bad that your X5M got ruined, I love mine like it sounds you did yours. I'm in snow country, too (Massachusetts) and make frequent trips to Norfolk, VA, and I can't think of a better car for me (well - maybe a 2022 X5M, but too expensive for me!). I have a little over 150,000 miles on my 2012 X5M (bought with ~70,000 miles), and luckily it has no valve seal issues yet. I've been told that it is not a big challenge to change the seals with the engine in the car - I'm wondering what prompted you to go for a complete overhaul? (I did just spend $6K to completely rebuild the front suspension and for a set of Conti summer tires, but I kind of expected that with this many miles and how hard I flog it.)

If you still have X5M stuff for sale send me a PM - there are a bunch of things I could use and so many of the auctions on eBay are from Lithuania or California or some other foreign land, and my expectation is that basically they are scams.

Andy

[Michelin Man]

Originally Posted by adostrom

I'm sorry to hear that you were taken - I think it's an all to common issue faced by BMW (and other high-end car) owners. I think there are a lot of shops/dealers that are organized on the principle of attempting to separate as much money as possible from car owners, many of whom have more money than good sense, and/or not a detailed understanding of car repairs. Most don't recognize that if you provide quality service at a fair price you will have repeat business from loyal customers. They also don't understand that one story like yours can lose them many potential customers.

It's really too bad that your X5M got ruined, I love mine like it sounds you did yours. I'm in snow country, too (Massachusetts) and make frequent trips to Norfolk, VA, and I can't think of a better car for me (well - maybe a 2022 X5M, but too expensive for me!). I have a little over 150,000 miles on my 2012 X5M (bought with ~70,000 miles), and luckily it has no valve seal issues yet. I've been told that it is not a big challenge to change the seals with the engine in the car - I'm wondering what prompted you to go for a complete overhaul? (I did just spend $6K to completely rebuild the front suspension and for a set of Conti summer tires, but I kind of expected that with this many miles and how hard I flog it.)

If you still have X5M stuff for sale send me a PM - there are a bunch of things I could use and so many of the auctions on eBay are from Lithuania or California or some other foreign land, and my expectation is that basically they are scams.

Andy

Hi Andy,
We agree with your observations. My dad’s local mechanic (who had recently started his own shop after years at a BMW dealership) had said he could do the work with the engine in the car, but it sounded not ideal. Once we were looking at over $3000 just in labor to remove and reinstall the engine, my dad wondered what else was worn after 120,000 miles. He didn’t want to have to see the same $3k bill again in a couple of years because a hard-to-reach bearing, pump or hose had degraded. Ironically, it was because he wanted to keep the car a very long time that he opted for a full rebuild, which ended up ruining the car prematurely. He also wanted to reduce the heat in the hot V by adding a wrap to the exhaust–steps to reduce the chances that heat-soak problems would occur. In hindsight, of course, it looks different now.
We sold most of the new parts that we could not return to BMW, but have some new and some of the used parts that were still working. Here is a link: https://www.xbimmers.com/forums/show....php?t=1796434

[TTV8M]

i threw the 1st bid on your auction, lets see if it gets any traction

[Michelin Man]

Originally Posted by TTV8M

i threw the 1st bid on your auction, lets see if it gets any traction

Thank you!

[trillypop]

Sorry for your bad experience and that it made you get out of the platform...sucks. I had RK do an engine rebuild for me and overall had an excellent experience. Based on my knowledge of how their service works, if RK had this engine in the queue to rebuild, I would imagine it has something wrong with it and needs to be taken apart and checked out.

[Michelin Man]

Originally Posted by trillypop

Sorry for your bad experience and that it made you get out of the platform...sucks. I had RK do an engine rebuild for me and overall had an excellent experience. Based on my knowledge of how their service works, if RK had this engine in the queue to rebuild, I would imagine it has something wrong with it and needs to be taken apart and checked out.

Yes, we suspect it was sent to them for more than just to increase power. While a person could just want to rebuild for more power, we would not be surprised if valve stem seals or something else would be due for replacement.

[RockChalkKU]

What an absolute bummer and I believe a thread should be started against RK if it hasn't already. Best of luck with that badass E63 - jealous!!

[Michelin Man]

Originally Posted by RockChalkKU

What an absolute bummer and I believe a thread should be started against RK if it hasn't already. Best of luck with that badass E63 - jealous!!

It has been an eye-opening experience, indeed. The AMG M177 motor has been sublime (power, sound, reliability, etc.) in our first year of ownership. We would not mind finding out if anyone else had an S63 "rebuild" that turned out to be a far cheaper (but shiny new, crate) undisclosed N63 swap. It wouldn't hurt to insist on knowing who the actual mechanics are that your "builder" uses, and to see the engine builder's work area with other engines in stages of disassembly and reassembly. Photos of completely assembled engines, it turns out, does not require a wrench!