E30 Zone

now for all ye smart arses 500ccs wont do
a lad is trying to sell me a "sport" cheapo. says its down as a 320 on the log book but that it has a 2.5
what chassis no identifies a sport/325
looking at the engine is there an easy way to know the difference
thanx all!

oil cooler is 1 sign look at front behind valancecheck ecu under panal above ya knees
if its a 325 it should be 173 320 is 172 hth Daz

yes the oil cooler is a good sign, you might want to check the ecu part number and the AFM part number. Or find the VIN number and go to this site and follow the instructions

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/select.do

good luck

Except from the oil cooler and ECU, think the easiest way to spot it is the injectors, 325i ones are grey/blueish, 320i items are yellow.

325i block also has a bigger intake system (everything, basically), but this is hard to spot if you can't compare directly. (then it's suddenly pretty obvious)

I figure he has dumped a 325i block in a 320i, if you want to check, the 325i 'shell' should have rear disc brakes (320i too if it's got ABS, but that's rather rare) and the battery in the trunk as opposed to in the engine compartment.
325i also has an anti roll bar at the rear.

Ofcourse, there's also a fair difference in performance

intake mani is the most obvious, unless he put a 20 one on there to style it, which i dont think would even work.

325i engine


320i engine


the 25 is "rounder"

the 325 also has 2.5 on the block next to the second spark plug, look from above under the spark plug heat shield just above the exhaust manifold.

thanks for all your info guys. 10/10 again.
and no smart comments either...wow

sorry to butt in...

does it only have 2.5 written between the spark plugs? mine has 2.5 over 2.7, are they all like that?

Cheers

think they all say 2.5 / 2.7 its because the 2.7 shares the same block but with different con rods etc.

mrlee