E30 Zone

Hi, Just wondering what peoples opinons are on S14 rebuild times etc. Im going to be doing some work on the front end of my M3 over winter possibly taking the engine out, and if i do might get a rebuild.
The engine has done 50,000 miles since its last rebuild when a big end bearing went.
Cheers

come on son, use your own brain.
depends on whose doing it and what needs to be done

and what spec the engine is.

in theory, sticking a new set of bottom end shells in shouldnt take more than a few hours. it depends what you consider a 'rebuild' to be.

and 50k since the last one? what sort of use has it had? normal road spec m3 engines maintained properly don't need rebuilding every 50k. compression test, chain inspection, shim setup and throttle balance and setup should see it well for the next few years.

you probably can strip the engine completely in around 4 hours...

to build it up again will take approx 8-12 hrs.

the bit in between is the variable...what engineering work needs to be carried out or replacement parts need to be ordered.

What have you done to it to make it need a rebuild after only 50k ???
Or was it built badly ???
Or are you doing it because you are board and want to waste some money ???

It has just been used for road use and a few track days, I has a little oil leak which involves the engine being taken out to fix.

Just checking really is there anything worth while checking/ replacing on the engine while it is going to be out of the car, that people may have experienced. Shouldnt have put rebuild in the original post.

Im an engineer so I know what im doing, asking about this engine as im used to working on honda/mugen and ford duratec race engines in sports cars. Ive never worked on a BMW engine.

About the engine had the car since new its a 1990 E30 M3 2.3 220BHP UK spec.

The engine needed a rebuild after 45,000 miles as the bottom end bearings went. So was fully stripped and rebuilt not by me. But by a friend of mine that did BMW race engines. Only priginal BMW parts were used.

The Reason why I am asking is that the engine has just done over the same mileage as it had done before it siezed last time.

cheers

Sounds reasonable to me.

If it works fine albeit has a little oil leak i would be inclined to leave it and spend the money on something else.

I'd fix the leak and leave the engine as is, my S14 has done 179k km without a rebuild and is still going strong.

Yours is a 215 bhp model not 220.

vanos wrote:I'd fix the leak and leave the engine as is, my S14 has done 179k km without a rebuild and is still going strong.

Yours is a 215 bhp model not 220.

yeah ill sort the oil leak out, and yeah its the 215 bhp model just checked that today

busterm3e30 wrote:

vanos wrote:I'd fix the leak and leave the engine as is, my S14 has done 179k km without a rebuild and is still going strong.

Yours is a 215 bhp model not 220.

yeah ill sort the oil leak out, and yeah its the 215 bhp model just checked that today

As its a UK model it wont have a cat and will be 220bhp.

215 are EU cat equipped models.

bss325i wrote:

busterm3e30 wrote:

vanos wrote:I'd fix the leak and leave the engine as is, my S14 has done 179k km without a rebuild and is still going strong.

Yours is a 215 bhp model not 220.

yeah ill sort the oil leak out, and yeah its the 215 bhp model just checked that today

As its a UK model it wont have a cat and will be 220bhp.

215 are EU cat equipped models.

Mines a German import but has a Milteck and decat.

vanos wrote:

bss325i wrote:

busterm3e30 wrote: yeah ill sort the oil leak out, and yeah its the 215 bhp model just checked that today

As its a UK model it wont have a cat and will be 220bhp.

215 are EU cat equipped models.

Mines a German import but has a Milteck and decat.

Then in theory yours should have 220bhp but like most old engines it will have no doubly lost some ponys over the years.

The 195/215 thing are not model identifiers just the two different power outputs for cat equipped 2.3 engines with non cat being 200/220.

^ Not strictly true, there is more than just a CAT that gets the extra 5hp and late UK cars came cat equipped.

What else is there Andrew?

Exhaust Manifold, Pistons and ECU map.

Demlotcrew wrote:Exhaust Manifold, Pistons and ECU map.

Between a 215bhp cat and a 220bhp non cat engine?

And the same for 195bhp cat vs a 200bhp non cat engine?

Without going in to much detail, there were only a handful official designations of M3'

M3 (Early Model KAT) - 195hp
M3 with Evolution Engine (non KAT) - 200hp
M3 Evolution (non KET) - 220hp
M3 Special Editions (Cecotto etc with KAT) - 215hp / Europameister - 195 hp (with KAT)
M3 (Late Model KAT) - 215hp
M3 Sport Evolution (with KAT) - 238hp

All had very unique states of tune and no umbrella rule of thumb can be applied to them.

What about early model non kat? Ie 200bhp?

You still haven't answered my question. What's the difference between kat and non kat early engines ie 195 kat/ 200 non kat?

bss325i wrote:What about early model non kat? Ie 200bhp?

You still haven't answered my question. What's the difference between kat and non kat early engines ie 195 kat/ 200 non kat?

In the US, there is the air intake arrangement and ECU, in Europe its only the ECU, nothing in the engine is different till we get to the "with Evolution Engine" which was 200hp with a KAT and a 215hp Head.

Cool. Thats what i thought, as in no internal difference between kat and non kat.

Same for 215 Kat /220 non kat right? (evo 2 aside)

For the early cars yes, no internal differences, but there were intake differences and the KAT was an option on them and almost all US early cars were KAT cars due to regulations, in Europe not so much, however all the late M3's sold in Europe were KAT cars and only 215hp (except the Evolution or as most call it the Evo II which was non KAT and 220hp).

The only S14's not to come with KAT's from factory were the 320is, Evolution and Early M3's (it was however an option on the Early M3). The only exception is some Countries required Evolution models to have KAT, I think it was Sweden or Switzerland (cant remember off the top of my head).

Cool. Interesting stuff.

I always though Kat's were an option on all UK spec E30's up to '92.