E30 Zone

Hi,

Im looking in to the possibility of an engine swap from my 2.7. What are the best engines to put in an E30?

I have been looking at 3.5 but this seems quite complicated with shortening props, customs mounts etc. Is there any direct swaps?

Cost needs to be relatively low but I can of course sell my current engine to recoupe some funds and maybe sell my lsd!

The newer E36 engines appeal to me due to them having more power in the smaller engine sizes”¦..a newer 325i engine would be a nice addition.

What do people suggest?

Thanks

What do you have at the moment?

Rickbmw1984 wrote:Im looking in to the possibility of an engine swap from my 2.7.

Do you have a budget in mind? How handy are you with spanners?

M30 is cheap and easy to do. Just need mounts (beefy on here sells them) and a custom prop (around £100).

M50/52 is not that expensive but the manifold modifiying is the major issue

Budget isn’t a real issue but cheaper the better. Im currently gathering in money from selling my mk2 golf gti (if anyone is interested in it its mint ) selling few bits off my nova and astra and also I could sell the engine from my E30. It’s a M20B27 oh and the LSD.

Just wanting more usable power as all my power currently is top end also wanting more power. I could spend money on my current engine but by the time I got the power I want I would have spent more than I would just by dropping in a better engine.

M30 is probably the cheapest conversion to do and 200BHP . Donor car can be had for around £300-£400, shouldn't cost more than 1k if doing yourself

Quite a few swaps on here for the M30, leeparkes has just finished his

Where are you based?

Based in Leyland near preston.

Yea looking around for a donor car as we speak. I presume it doesn’t matter whether I get a 535 or 635? And auto or manual?

Im currently doing a red top nova conversion and a redtop kit car so im pretty clued up on engine swaps at the minute!. I presume it would be best to get the entire car and not just the engine and loom?

You'll have to keep the LSD if your going for more power, don't sell it.
M30 is an easy job to do, can be done in about 3 days if all parts are to hand.Chech out the sticky on the m30 in the engines,swaps thread.

Rickbmw1984 wrote:Based in Leyland near preston.

Yea looking around for a donor car as we speak. I presume it doesn’t matter whether I get a 535 or 635? And auto or manual?

Im currently doing a red top nova conversion and a redtop kit car so im pretty clued up on engine swaps at the minute!. I presume it would be best to get the entire car and not just the engine and loom?

Best to get a E34 535i manual. Depends if you want an auto or manual really.

Best to get the whole car IMO, that way you have most of all the parts you need

Ill have to keep my eyes open for a full car and in the meantime obtain a prop and engine mounts etc. All the E34 535’s I can see are about £1000 so will need to keep looking!

If you know of any then do please let me know.

Thanks

Manual one's are slightly more expensive as they are rarer, you should be able to pick one up for around £500 i reckon

Just keep an eyeout on eBay and Pistonheads. There are a few on eBay at the moment IIRC

keep the 2.7 and find out what is wrong with it as it must dodgy if all the power is top end
unless it has stupidly high lift cams in it.
Prob duff engine componet as most 2.7 are really grunty engines from 2.5k to the redline.
Are you sure its a 2.7 ?????

yea it isnt running right i know that its on the wrong ecu for a start and needs a service.....but i like the idea of a 3.5! it is still powerful low down but isnt quick....it perks up big time at 5K upwards.

isnt a healthy 2.7 about 200+bhp anyway? not much gain to be had in puting a 3.5 in.

Rickbmw1984 wrote:Im looking in to the possibility of an engine swap from my 2.7. What are the best engines to put in an E30?

Best, well that's quite hard question but M30 and M50 are almost straight "plug'n'play" and cheap.

If i'd be doing easy budget swap i'd pick M50 and get some 2.8 stuff in it + some ecu tuning. => 250hp easily and with relatively little cost

maybe sell my lsd!

No, that's totally wrong place to get money from. You'll definitely need LSD with more power..

250bhp is about the power i want to go for so ill look in to that as well.

Thanks

V8 the fucker

m52 with m50 manifold. that alone is around 230 iirc. plus a few bits and bobs and your looking at a nice little lump. like said before keep lsd!