E30 Zone

Hi all

I recently purchased a 316i 2 door.
I have always wanted to buy an e30 for many years and have finally bought one.
Looking to swap engines.
Which engine would be best.. not too expensive and also an easy swap?


Regards
Adam

Depends quite a bit on what your intentions for using the care are. Daily driver? Garage queen? Track day toy? Serious competition vehicle?
One of the problems with starting with a small engined saloon is that the suspension and brakes aren't suitable for any large increase in power, so one easy swap would be to buy a rusty, basket case 325i and swap in the front and rear subframes complete with everything attached to them.
Popular swaps are M42/44 four pot engines and M50/52/54 six pot engines, but it depends on your definition of not expensive and easy.
The last swap I came across a few months ago was a 600 bhp Mazda rotary engine, complete with massive turbo into an E30, but that was neither cheap nor easy.

this is your cheapest most viable option , i'd buy it if i had a worthy enough project turd to put it in .

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bmw-E36-318i ... 1438.l2649

Hi Adam and welcome to the zone mate, so lets see what you have to do the swap with ???

Mart.

Thanks all for the advice

It wouldn’t be an everyday car more of a weekend car. I’ve been looking at a bmw e46 m3 engine but that costs too much I want something similar to that kind of power?

AdamMotions wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 05, 2020 10:50 pm

Thanks all for the advice
It wouldn’t be an everyday car more of a weekend car. I’ve been looking at a bmw e46 m3 engine but that costs too much I want something similar to that kind of power?

Adding to what Brian said above, it all comes down to what you want out of the car. Runs at Santa Pod, burning people off at lights, runs along some of the shrinking number of good driving roads left or just scene-queen cruising with under-the-bonnet-bragging rights?

M30, S50/52/54 have good power and very tempting but having had E36/46 M3s and still have a 535i I do not want to screw up the handling with that amount of weight. They are large lumps of iron for a light E30, I put all V8s in this bracket too

E30 M3s went 4-pot for a reason, but they never had the torque for me. You could turbo an M42/44 which is both light and good power but probably no cheaper than an S54 and still thin on torque.

M50/52 are getting less common but still available and can be stroked and modded for good power. Probably getting up to S50 power but you start throwing money at it for diminishing returns especially if you turbo it.

Then there are 1001 non-bmw engines that have been used

I have pretty much settled on using the M54B30 (unless I put its M20 back in) It is not without its faults and doesn't have willy-waving amounts of power but it is light, sounds like a good 6, and with DISA and Twin Vanos running as per factory it has a lot of torque. Not a good engine for getting much more power out of though so you pretty much take it as it is.

if it was me doing the swap i would look at the likes of a sr20det (nissan) lump & then look into the brian crower 2.3L stroker kit & uprated turbo, intercooler, etc.

the above would set you back about the same as finding a S5x & getting it fitted & running properly.
but as is always the way with these things, it comes down to budget mainly.

steve_k wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 06, 2020 10:08 am

if it was me doing the swap i would look at the likes of a sr20det (nissan) lump & then look into the brian crower 2.3L stroker kit & uprated turbo, intercooler, etc.

Nah, E30 should have a BMW engine they just don't sound right with anything else

I've got a 4G63 that I have had forever sitting in a shed somewhere, RWD gearbox LSD and a few spare turbos. It is a blinding engine and one day I will find it a home for it but finding an old Mitsubishi that is not a rust bucket and making it take 400bhp makes doing an E30 look soooo easy.......

AdamMotions wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 05, 2020 10:50 pm

Thanks all for the advice

It wouldn’t be an everyday car more of a weekend car. I’ve been looking at a bmw e46 m3 engine but that costs too much I want something similar to that kind of power?

Dont kid yourself that you can do it cheaper, thats the first mistake of an engine conversion