E30 Zone

anyone familiar with this engine spec? or seen e30 with this engine?

Only 7 heads made iirc

probably any of them is in working order any more but just wanted to ask...

I bet their worth alot of money.

Jhonno wrote:Only 7 heads made iirc

and probably none in a rhd shell

Seriously cool engine, Suppose it's one M20 that would have abit of weight in the 4 pot-6 pot debate

Only if they connect the coil lead.

Bavarian_Autotech wrote:

Jhonno wrote:Only 7 heads made iirc

and probably none in a rhd shell

That pic is of a RHD shell (look at the steering )

Is it a 24v head, though, or just a Hartge style rocker cover on a 12v head?

Try clicking the middle picture?

Ah...fair enuff, I'm being slow..Thought it was all one pic!

Nice looking combustion chambers...

pic too small

They open up in a new window on your browser in large pics

Combustion chambers look sweet alright

if it wasnt so rare. . . this head or a 2.5 m50 lump?

M50 would have Vanos which would be better all round I suppose...


But, this head with a 2.8 M20 underneath would be pretty nice

M20 24V or 12V over a M50 for me, old skool is where it at.

24V M20 had 100bhp per litre, thats 280 brake in a nice 2.8L N/A M20.

Ahh, they even had the 2.8 conversion done too!!!

Definitely the M20 in that case

Much nicer to keep the orginial engine in a sport too... 316, 318i and 320s are a deferent matter, lol.

Dave_M3 wrote:Ahh, they even had the 2.8 conversion done too!!!

Definitely the M20 in that case

Much nicer to keep the orginial engine in a sport too... 316, 318i and 320s are a deferent matter, lol.

No sorry RD only got as far as 2.7L in the M20. I just meant imagine slapping that on one of the new 2.8 builds.

i read somewhere that the m50 24v head bolds straight onto the m20 block, however the valve timing etc needs to be configured for it to work.

personally i prefer te silk smooth m20 to the m50 only wished they were 24v now only to realise they were made although rare.

too tired to read what i wrote so excuse mistakes.

87mtech27 wrote:i read somewhere that the m50 24v head bolds straight onto the m20 block, however the valve timing etc needs to be configured for it to work.

personally i prefer te silk smooth m20 to the m50 only wished they were 24v now only to realise they were made although rare.

too tired to read what i wrote so excuse mistakes.

There would be no cooling to the head since the water channels don't line up, don't believe everything you read.

The bolts on but that's it.

There was a thread on an old e21 fourm were one of the guys is a BMW tech who posted a pictures of a m50 head on a m20 block that they had built up in the workshop, nothing but the studs and chambers lined up.

Jason