E30 Engine Swop

[E30DBN]

[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Hi all,[/font]

[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]I recently bought my first and only  dream car a E30. I have a 318i but looking to change the motor. Im looking for something that packs a punch, cost effective and easy maintenance. Ive been looking at the E36 328i M52B28TU motor. Can anyone give me some advice on this motor or  any other motor that would be well suited for the E30, Thanks.[/font]

 

[TBP88]

Tons of E30 engine swap options. People have done pretty much every BMW motor into the cars, currently the en vogue option is N54.

There are even some N52 swaps being done. But M52 is common and there's plenty of info, even M54 has been done and is well documented. For more exotic you can consider any M car engine, most commonly S54.

 

[Nikhil]

Any naturally aspirated 6 cylinder is a pretty decent swap. Your easiest option is to buy a donar car and transfer everything across and then just fabricate a few custom parts such as mountings and exhaust system.

Given the scarecity of clean E30s I would probably lean towards an M20 or an M30 engine swap to keep it period correct

 

[Captain_Stealth]

Such a cool car with so many options, my favorites are in order

S38
M52b28 (M52 for NA, M50 for Boost as the M52 is lighter)
M30b35
S54
S50

 

[badboizn]

[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Hi all,[/font]

[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]I recently bought my first and only  dream car a E30. I have a 318i but looking to change the motor. Im looking for something that packs a punch, cost effective and easy maintenance. Ive been looking at the E36 328i M52B28TU motor. Can anyone give me some advice on this motor or  any other motor that would be well suited for the E30, Thanks.[/font]

All depends on your budget, [font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]"packs a punch, cost effective and easy maintenance" m50 range of engines should suit your needs but my advise is to not cut corners and do it right the 1st time .


Have a look at my tread, BMW e30 turbo Build. Completed the M50b25 engine swap, will be turbo in the future.
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[E30DBN]

Ok thanks bro, will do that. Thanks for your reply

 

[Maljan]

As Nikhil says, a clean E30 is worth serious money these days. Swopping in something like an M52 would kinda destroy the collectors value. I would just drop in an M20 and put a 325i badge on the boot. Not quite as many horses but it will be period correct.

Keep in mind that if you are putting down serious horsepower on the back wheels, a lot of other things will have to change as well. This will affect originality as well.

Whatever engine you decide on, get the gearbox that came with it. The brakes might not be up to the job anymore. I am especially looking at those drums in the back. I'm not sure about the E30, but on the E36 the four and six cylinder engine models had different diff ratios. The sixes had longer legs.