BMW e30 m50 swap

[guuskolo]

Hello!

First thing first, i bought this beauty a few months ago:http://imageshack.com/a/img924/8706/SrG8hT.png

inside is a M10 B18 engine, nothing special.

Now I’ve spent the first month of ownership repairing some rust issues, and now after my first few weeks of driving I noticed that is was quite sluggish (topped out at around 150km/h and acceleration wasn't what I was used to from 100hp to 1000kg). after doing a compression test it had poor compression on two cylinders, and below poor on the other two.

Now I’m thinking of doing an engine swap. I’m going to be using it for everyday driving so I’m not looking for power, but a little bit more than I had wouldn’t be bad. Because of the fact i’ll be using it for everyday driving, with fuel economy in mind I would like a more modern engine.

Now my BMW knowledge and purse content points me toward a m50 engine, more specifically a m50b20, 150hp 190Nm and with a light right foot 7L/100km. I live in Holland and there are a lot of running e34’s for sale in Germany, they don’t cost a lot (generally around a thousand euro’s for 100.000km car).

With those details in mind follows my question. What parts/skills/tools will I be needing when I’m swapping a m50 from an e34 to a m10 e30? I’ve read some guides on swapping an m50 from scratch but I’ve never seen one where they have the whole car available.

[Tommek]

Don't take my word for this, but i think you'll get better fuel economy at about the same power from an m42.

[ross_jsy]

I would pick an m42 over the heavy, thirsty 2 litre m50 any day. An m50b25 or m52b28 are different and make for a great car for the same amount of effort as the 2 litre swap.

There is an engine swap section for m50/52's. Have a read through their and the wiki

[guuskolo]

thanks for the replies! will do that