E30 Zone

Has anyone seen a bmw with one of these engines in ? Have the idea rolling around in my mind as i have the car and a good toyota engine. Bellhousing/Gearbox would probably be the difficulty. Am i right in thinking the 320 and 325 use the getrag 260 box? whats the Hp limit on the box, anyone ? JJ

Not seen one yet, but sounds like a great idea if you can get the box to fit (or antoher box, they put those engines in supras sometimes so its definately possible to run them RWD on the toyota box)

Would definately make for a very quick E30 with a few engine mods though as they are fantastic engines.

JJ - what engine is that toyota lump out of? Supra MK4?

I had been playing with the idea of doing a transplant with a 7M GTE engine out of the MK3 Supra 3.0L Turbo, plenty available cheaply, I had thought about retaining Supra box as it is tough as old boots and then keeping BMW rear end after being advised the diff will take it.

Way I see it, is that here with the 7M you have 230bhp & similar torque out of the box for not much outlay, but with almost limitless tuning ability. These engines run over 500bhp on standard internals.

My idea is still a dream at the moment, maybe's later in the year when I have some proper workshop facilities and the old man handy!!

No this is the smaller celica/mr2 4 cylinder 2.0 turbo engine he is on about.

These engines came in the jap/american turbo MR2`s and the Celica GT4. 4 pot 2 litre twin cam turbo. Thought it was a good choice because the power to weight not really being different from an m3 but the tunebilty and strength of this motor is excellent. Mine is out of a rev 2 mr2 and is 230 bhp standard. The mr2 had a "minor" incident with a muddy road and is no more but the engine has only done 70k and is in good order. I like the idea of keeping the bmw box because it makes the job so much simpler.

not sure its going to be that much simpler as i cant for a minute imagine it will all just bolt up.

fair easier to make a different prop than to make an engine fit a gearbox that it doesnt.

great engines though, so hope you do go through with it

400bhp+ on standrad internals is pretty realistic from what ive seen.

you could probably mate it up to the bmw box, but the question is how much would it cost to do? almost anythings possible if you can chuck loads of money at it

seen a bmw with a rover v8 on throttle bodies so its just a case of how much you have to spend on the conversion

weegaz22 wrote:you could probably mate it up to the bmw box, but the question is how much would it cost to do? almost anythings possible if you can chuck loads of money at it

seen a bmw with a rover v8 on throttle bodies so its just a case of how much you have to spend on the conversion

Was that on a bmw box or did they use a T5 box or similar?

chip-3door wrote:

weegaz22 wrote:you could probably mate it up to the bmw box, but the question is how much would it cost to do? almost anythings possible if you can chuck loads of money at it

seen a bmw with a rover v8 on throttle bodies so its just a case of how much you have to spend on the conversion

Was that on a bmw box or did they use a T5 box or similar?

cant remember mate, was in revs magazine, probably about 1998 ish

if i remember correctly it had an M3 kit(either that or it was a M3 shell, think it was used as a demo vehicle for the guys that built it

surely the easiest way would be to use the toyota engine and box, and chop and join the two propshafts together to keep the bmw diff? if you have a complete donor car then youve got all the bits needed

dont know if the gte engine would mate up to a rwd ae86 box?

I cant say if the gte block is the same as any other toyota block as far as gearbox fitment. I know the gte itself has allways been mounted transverse even in the 4wd GT4 which used a splitter box of some kind.

isnt the mr2 rwd?

yes but its a mid mounted engine, still transverse.

i forgot about that used to be onto toyotas before my e30, had a rwd celica

i doubt the bmw bell housing will bolt onto a toyota block...if your willing to spend the money and get the block bored and tapped in the necessary places for the 'box to bolt into, but that seems a lot of hassle when a prop shaft is easier to get butchered to fit...as some one has already said, chop and weld the 2 shafts together.

r_9ore wrote:i doubt the bmw bell housing will bolt onto a toyota block...if your willing to spend the money and get the block bored and tapped in the necessary places for the 'box to bolt into, but that seems a lot of hassle when a prop shaft is easier to get butchered to fit...as some one has already said, chop and weld the 2 shafts together.

another way is you can have an adaptor plate made up to mate the block to the beemer box, flywheel would need spaced out the same thickness as the adaptor plate though

not sure how you would go about using the mr2 box as its basicaly a Fwd box with an lsd, the ratio would probably be wrong as you would be driving it through two differentials(one in the box, one on the back axle)

only way you can use the mr2 box is to make your E30 either mid engined, or fwd ;)

i would scrap the toyota engine and go for the SR20det or Ca18det from nissan sx's , think its easier to get it in there as its a common conversion in oz and nz and they very easily tuneable... also i think the engine sits pretty far back to allow for a V mounted IC for less lagg and also will offer better handling... just my 2 cents and what i would do to it

cefiro_drifter wrote:i would scrap the toyota engine and go for the SR20det or Ca18det from nissan sx's , think its easier to get it in there as its a common conversion in oz and nz and they very easily tuneable... also i think the engine sits pretty far back to allow for a V mounted IC for less lagg and also will offer better handling... just my 2 cents and what i would do to it

I think the point is that he already has the 3S-GTE engine and wants to use it.

Personally, if I had one kicking about I'd either a) flog it - loads of people want the tubby conversion, or b) (assuming some mechanical knowledge.....) whack it in a mini, mid engined stylee!

I would like to reach old age of some degree you know ;)

Iv`e been investigating this a little more and i think the best method ive seen so far where by i want to keep the getrag box is via the spacer plates shown here.

http://autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/A_026 ... larArticle

http://www.rodshop.com.au/transmissions.htm

Although the australian company doesnt list one for my requirement its nothing very technical so thinking i could make my own, i already have the blueprint shape for the getrag and toyota bellousings. I have access to a plasma cutter. The added benefit of this setup means i can keep the high inertia starter of the toyota.

Did you ever get anywhere with this?

I've seen the 3sge engine in kit cars so I'm assuming someone has made a bellhousing to mate to a ford gearbox or something...

I personally love those engines but I'd go for a 200sx (SR20DET) eninge because you wouldn;t have to iron out these creases and people have done it before. Already being longitudinal helps loads.

Jai