E30 Zone

Hi everyone, Im sure subjects like this have been done to death on here, but i couldnt find a deffinate answer or range of answers.

Ive been speaking to Oakey on here about getting 200bhp or a little bit less from a Tech1 sport with and early engine...

Any suggestions to get this for £1500 or less, ive seen people suggest a chip and an exhaust and had that rubbished so please dont suggest that lol.

Try not to get too technical as Im new to this and have little engine experience, so a garage may have to do some of the work, if its internal and extremely complicated.

Cheers for any help, Tom

wild stab in the dark. Turbo?

how about a 6 branch/exhaust, induction kit and professional remap, that should get close to the 200 mark.

You won't be far off that with a healthy high comp lump, cam, BBTB, decent exhaust (inc mani) & probably standalone management. Or you could build a 2.7/2.8 yourself. If you're getting a garage to do the work, that isn't a huge budget though!

Have you considered an m30? More power for similar/less cost, but might not suit what you want from the car...

Hakkera wrote:wild stab in the dark. Turbo?

I wish you could... if you do it DIY it might be possible (just) but you really have to know what you're doing as it involves getting aftermarket engine management.

1500 won't get you 200 bhp. Maybe close though. unless you go the m30 swap route.

spend money on standalone this will release about 10-15 ponies as the management on tech is pretty shody to say the least.
then just make sure engine is in tip top condidtion std manifold is ok flows quite good so it would be the way foreward drop Ant a bell at A-he should be able to sort anything you desire !!!

zaust wrote:1500 won't get you 200 bhp. Maybe close though. unless you go the m30 swap route.

Dunno mate

150-200 - ETA engine
250ish - 325i head, intake and exhaust

This will give approx 185bhp (ish) before mods. Not hard to find 15bhp in mods, certainly easier than finding an extra 29bhp out of a standard 325i.

Leaving £1050+ for remap/standalone, BBTB, freeflow filter, sixbranch.

If your happy to recon the 325i head it would be easier to just whack a uprated cam in there, get a remap and bbtb and ditch the 6 branch until funds allow. That ould be an easier route to 200bhp for £1500.

its entirely possible IMO. In fact now I think about it....

There is a 30bhp gain to be found from a head and cam, cost depends on where you go to get it done. Expect to pay £1500 if you include NEW OE rockers, uprated valve springs etc with larger valves, have the head work done, and a suitable cam. Obviously the ECU will need adjusting, but the gain is there. A good 6 branch will help, but that is an extra cost on top.

Firstly cheers for the help so far everyone, i dont think i will be going down the road of a turbo as it will be out of my league because its not going to be DIY really.

Ill give Ant a message then with some of your suggestions.

What does BBTB mean?
And how much for a cam to allow for the power im after, roughly?
By stand alone management do you mean Megasquirt or something better?

Think i will be shopping for a 6 branch already whatever happens, noise pollution is improved?

Cheers, Tom

e30m3s50b32 wrote:There is a 30bhp gain to be found from a head and cam, cost depends on where you go to get it done. Expect to pay £1500 if you include NEW OE rockers, uprated valve springs etc with larger valves, have the head work done, and a suitable cam. Obviously the ECU will need adjusting, but the gain is there. A good 6 branch will help, but that is an extra cost on top.

+1

Since power relies on getting more air in and getting it out again the BBTB is big bore throttle body, this helps on the inlet side of things.

Cams start at £220, but fitting can easily come to similar costs if you can't play with spanners yourself. Take a look at this article and see if its something you'd be willing to try: http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... lhead1.htm otherwise budget for a pro to do the work, get on the blower and get qoutes.

As for standalone you have lots of options but my choice would be VEMS or megasquirt, as I'd be happy to do the work myself, Again if your not doing the work yourself the costs are higher but there are far more options like emerald ecu's ect ect...

Money spent here will mainly be on mappng everytime you add another mod.

As for 6 branch manifolds theres one in the group buy section for £200 if its not over, else you can get the same one on ebay for £250ish, then theres also one from automac, and the best ones are BTB2, Alpina or Racing Dynamics but these arn't made new anymore so keep an eye on the Ebay.

e30m3s50b32 wrote:There is a 30bhp gain to be found from a head and cam, cost depends on where you go to get it done. Expect to pay £1500 if you include NEW OE rockers, uprated valve springs etc with larger valves, have the head work done, and a suitable cam. Obviously the ECU will need adjusting, but the gain is there. A good 6 branch will help, but that is an extra cost on top.

I think you would be hard pushed to do that lot (not including the 6 branch) for £1500

I personally would go for MS and a lairy'ish cam. Maybe just over budget depending on who fits what but probably the best bang for buck I can think of. Save things like btb(6 branch) etc for later.

Forget the 2.7 route. If you have £1500 to spend then go for the m50. 2.7 is ok when done properly but you really dont get enough for the money and effort.

An old e36 325i or e34 525 can be bought for very cheap, in the case of the e34 around £200. There is some prop modification as far as i know, and some exhaust fabrication. But it has 200bhp, and looks great in the engine bay.

To get 200bhp from the 2.7 you need an expensive cams and funny money 6 branches etc, just seems like a load of aggro to me.

isnt the m30 route a relatively cheap way to over 200bhp? cheaper than £1500?

fuzzy wrote:isnt the m30 route a relatively cheap way to over 200bhp? cheaper than £1500?

3.5 M30 engine gives 218bhp and plenty of torque and I do think you can get them for a fear price now....

What about the Ireland Engineering 3.1 M20 kit? With the dollar being so weak it would cost you a grand sterling plus delivery. I've no idea how much a garage would charge to do the work though if you weren't doing it yourself. And you'd need a new chip too.

Alyman wrote:What about the Ireland Engineering 3.1 M20 kit? With the dollar being so weak it would cost you a grand sterling plus delivery. I've no idea how much a garage would charge to do the work though if you weren't doing it yourself. And you'd need a new chip too.

Wouldn't bother TBH, IE kits are overpriced secondhand parts (cranks anyway!) Custom pistons and a M54/S52 crank would be cheaper and same result.

jonb wrote:Forget the 2.7 route. If you have £1500 to spend then go for the m50. 2.7 is ok when done properly but you really dont get enough for the money and effort.

An old e36 325i or e34 525 can be bought for very cheap, in the case of the e34 around £200. There is some prop modification as far as i know, and some exhaust fabrication. But it has 200bhp, and looks great in the engine bay.

To get 200bhp from the 2.7 you need an expensive cams and funny money 6 branches etc, just seems like a load of aggro to me.

There is the voice of reason

my m30 conversion without the other things ive done aswell comes 2 £850 a that includes having the head tested a skimmed and all new gaskets, engine mounts, m3 prop,m20 loom, gear linkage,rad, and also price of the lump

theres a good looking 525 for sale in one of the BMW mags this month for £500 with mot. you have all you need for the conversion and can sell off bits of the five to get your money back. leaving you lots spare to pay someone to fit it, then beef up your breaks and suspension.

more power is no good without more chassis upgrades

march109 wrote:

Alyman wrote:What about the Ireland Engineering 3.1 M20 kit? With the dollar being so weak it would cost you a grand sterling plus delivery. I've no idea how much a garage would charge to do the work though if you weren't doing it yourself. And you'd need a new chip too.

Wouldn't bother TBH, IE kits are overpriced secondhand parts (cranks anyway!) Custom pistons and a M54/S52 crank would be cheaper and same result.

Point to one company that sells NEW cranks with their kits,
as there are no new ones to be had, bmw ones are refurbished ones anyway.

There are many routes to 200hp, M50 being the dead easiest one.
Buy a complete manual 525i. rest is driveshaft, shifting action, exhaust. can run the standard exhaust. remapped and it´s there.
with a decade of running left if serviced nicely.

with that sort of money you should be able to find the alpina bit required to do the job, will have to look in Germany mind!!!

Another vote for the M50 route from me.... Just seems the sensible option these days with them being so plentiful, cheap, smoothe and in a low state of tune.

bloody good fuel economy even when you nail it, and if randomdave30s creation is anything to go by, they are absolute animals with the right six branch.

Theo325 wrote:

e30m3s50b32 wrote:There is a 30bhp gain to be found from a head and cam, cost depends on where you go to get it done. Expect to pay £1500 if you include NEW OE rockers, uprated valve springs etc with larger valves, have the head work done, and a suitable cam. Obviously the ECU will need adjusting, but the gain is there. A good 6 branch will help, but that is an extra cost on top.

I think you would be hard pushed to do that lot (not including the 6 branch) for £1500

I agree. Mine is looking at being £2500, but that's with a new head, schrick cam, HT manifold and custom remap.

e30bmlover wrote:1500 quid for 200bhp?? clicky!!

I'd go for this, £1k on the engine and you'll be able to get it fitted for under £500 with change left over from someone on here that will do it for you

then you can save that extra dollar towards upgrading the brakes/suspension

stevotheevo is that an Evo 3 You got there mate?

Oh and £1500 to spend for 200 bhp....how good is your tech1? u thought of a supercharger?

A supercharger for £1500?

Oh dear, serious dreamer.

depends if he will be doing the work himself mate. Low comp Mini Cooper S Charger can be had for about £200 + MS then all you need is some custom piping

Onz wrote:depends if he will be doing the work himself mate. Low comp Mini Cooper S Charger can be had for about £200 + MS then all you need is some custom piping

Yeah, IF you can DIY.... for some reason I think you're talking about a 4 pot when the original poster has a 6-pot (correct me if I'm wrong).

I think m30 option is the easiest. Especially if you can find an e34 with tasty morsals on. Take the parts you need and then rape as much profit from breaking the rest as you can!

The other option is to buy £1500 of turbo'ed jap crap. Must be some jap shitter out there, rwd with over 200bhp?

Standalone will not give you extra power.

Removing the AFM will and a some good mapping will.

Near enough 200bhp has been done by quite a few on here already - here's what you need:

1) Good engine to start with
2) Schrick/CAT Cam with 280'ish duration
3) Good 6 Branch - genuine BTB or Racing Dynamics
4) Removal of AFM and a proper MAP (MAF conversion and Standalone will give exactly the same power)

Engine will be far more entertaining to use than you may expect!

However, given M50/M52 prices and the wealth of information out there, you'd be mad not to follow this route.