E30 Zone

Hey there, bought a 316i yesterday for cheap money, can anyone tell me what the easiest/cheapest engine swap would be? i would appreciate any feedback,

cheers andy

there is an m42 (318is ) engine on the zone (for sale section)

thats easy enough

not gonna be a big difference tho, is it?

316i has what? 115bhp (or is that the 318i?) 318iS has 135bhp. Easy swap and an easy 20bhp

plus if you tune it properly you could be looking at 165hp, thats a standard 325 beater, or do a 2.5 , which means diff ,brakes, shocks and springs, exhaust etc, ???

318i Is 110bhp so your 316 will be less. 318IS is 138 and is a fair bit better.

its also about 80kg less than a 6 pot

hongkongfuey wrote:its also about 80kg less than a 6 pot

Damn, thats almost as much as I weigh!

hongkongfuey wrote:plus if you tune it properly you could be looking at 165hp, thats a standard 325 beater, or do a 2.5 , which means diff ,brakes, shocks and springs, exhaust etc, ???

Loom,cluster,and probably a few other bits and peices which isnt gonna be easy.
Go m42 there 4 pot so no need to change loom,cluster,shocks or diff so thats already saving time ,effort and money
And all your really missing from having the real thing is the superlightweight galvanised body

Loom,cluster,and probably a few other bits and peices which isnt gonna be easy.
Go m42 there 4 pot so no need to change loom,cluster,shocks or diff so thats already saving time ,effort and money
And all your really missing from having the real thing is the superlightweight galvanised body

While not strictly true armani, you are learning! All IS' are galvanisers

M42 if you car is already a manual will be dead easy. You will need to change the loom as well as find somewhere to attach the coilpack on. ECU will also need changing. If changing auto>manual its a bit more difficult but I have done it so not that hard.

robbo86 wrote:

Loom,cluster,and probably a few other bits and peices which isnt gonna be easy.
Go m42 there 4 pot so no need to change loom,cluster,shocks or diff so thats already saving time ,effort and money
And all your really missing from having the real thing is the superlightweight galvanised body

While not strictly true armani, you are learning! All IS' are galvanisers

M42 if you car is already a manual will be dead easy. You will need to change the loom as well as find somewhere to attach the coilpack on. ECU will also need changing. If changing auto>manual its a bit more difficult but I have done it so not that hard.

I was almost there

well the easiest and cheapest would be the 318i but your only looking a 10-20bhp more or something, but i imagine a 318i with 316i diff would make it a little quicker than the normal 318i

m42 would be the next step, then m20, m30 then m50 then m52

the 316i was 104 bhp but bare in mind your engine is 15 years old or so its proberly more like 90bhp now so a good 318i engine would make a big differance and i think its a strait swap??

No its probably around 98 as BMW are solid engines and go forever

robbo86 wrote:

hongkongfuey wrote:its also about 80kg less than a 6 pot

Damn, thats almost as much as I weigh!

We looked at weights at one of our meets, tech 1 sport and 318is 1580kg, 2dr 325 facelift, 1640kg, 4dr 325 fl, 1680kg, touring was about 1730 and 6pot cab was 1760 ish

1580kg thought it was less than that blimey.