E30 Zone

Okay the time is finally right to build a phoenix from the ashes that are littering my driveway..... [Sorry this is a bit long winded, but there is a lot to do. ]

My "is it real or isn't it" 1984 C1 2.3 is going to need some expensive body work.

Last week my other half put my beautiful 1986 525 ETA into a ditch in the snow: so it's now a right off with a well-maintained 80,000 mile engine.

A poke around my turning-green-on-the-drive 318i proves it to be surprisingly sound and dry.

So here's the plan:

1. 525 block and pistons mated to 323 head [lumpy idle and 4000 rpm + power band lead me to suspect a decent cam] = 2.7 clover. 323 manual transmission and [LE Jetronic?] ECU to be retained.
2. 323 alpina running gear, ICE and interior into 318
3. 'new' 2.7 replaces old 1.8.

Questions:
a: The 323 head should fit the ETA lump without fuss, but as the ETA is from an auto, I suspect I'll need a mod for the manual box: will this require a spigot bearing? [What is a spigot bearing???]
b:What mods to the 323's ECU will I need?
c:I beleive the Motronic 525 uses a timing picup on the crank case: how is this taken care of on Jetronic?
d: I dearly love the early 80's dreadnought-style Alpina front valance: can the late model e30 be made to wear this with early style thin bumpers? [Perhaps cheaper to get a later Alpina valance and keep the big bumpers?]
e: The 323 has a standard non-alpina exhaust but it's quite recent: as a stop gap, can the standard 323 exhaust go into the 318?

thanks in advance for any replies

Jon B

The spigot bearing is a small bearing that gos inside the crank like the very centre u should c it once you've pulled the torque converter off it will fit in nice and snugg!! i bought a new bearing from bm's cost is pitence

I have heard that alpina did some pretty heavy modification to the combustion chambers (hemi-style?) requiring custom pistons - a chap on r3vlimited posted a photo of an m20b23 with some funky pistons, possibly alpina... I cant give you any definite facts, only going off bits and pieces i have seen and heard - maybe somebody here knows for sure. i might be totally wrong

if they did go nuts on the chambers, and you have an alpina head then you might run into problems with the compression ratio bolting it onto a stock eta block.

The current LE-Jetronic probably wont be up to the task for such a motor, did any of the early alpina 2.7's use the jetronic? if so you might be able to find out exactly what bits they used - maybe an ecu and some injectors would swap straight over to your setup. aside from modding the l-jet you could convert to motronic, or run something like megasquirt which would definitely get you more power and probably run better too

check this: http://www.strictlyeta.net/technical/328i_1.html

Thanks fellas.

Sytners [UK Alpina] have no record of converting the 323 so I suspect it's been done privately - standard looking rocker cover and no tubular exahaust manifold. But compression ratio is an issue - how is it measured?

How about using the Motronic from the eta with a remap and better injectors [I've heard that those from an e36 M3 are a straight swap and effective]???