setting up my eta?

[toyotatechdrivesabimmer]

well guys,

i live out in springfield, MA (us, obviously) and i just purchased a 1987 bmw 325e. The reason i picked up this car was due to the fact it seams relativley easy to work on the drivetrain/ performance dept. My last car (which i still have and am selling) was a 2000 monte carlo which was all electrical and very difficult to modify for maximum gains, plus it was to new of a car to remove such things as power steering and ac.

anyways, back to the issue at hand. I have had very minimal experience with these cars, and im already diving into it head first. The first day i had the car, the ball joint on the passenger side of the car SNAPPED off the control arm, while the caliper froze for whatever reason. The car veered twoards a curbin, and i only had steering on one side, so needless to say the car hit and ripped off the oil pan, pump, smashed the radiator support and cracked the radiator.

since this accident (about a week ago) i picked up an 86 325e for a 100 US from my buddy and pulled evrything out that i needed. heres a list of what ive done so far:
*replaced oil pump, pan, sending unit and cleaned bottom end of motor
*installed an AT radiator to my manual car (obvoiously didnt hook up and tranny lines)
*removed all components for power steering and filled rack with synthetic RedLine fluids
*removed AC condensor, pump, and majority of lines
*installed custom cold air intake and two electric fans onto the radiator

...so heres the deal, im hoping you guys could all provide me with some good starting points for this motor. I was thinking about swapping in some super ETA pistons/ rod with the "i" head to drop compression and then run a turbo. What do you guys think, any input would be greatly appriciated. This car will be my daily driver, but i want it to be a little more fun.

Thanks evryone in advance
-Brandon

[Ant]

Hey Brandon, welocome dude

For the ETA bottom end, a good and easy upgrade is swop in the 885 "i" or "super eta" head and use the existing pistons, be careful though as some of the early ones will rsult in a high CR and require good Quality gas or she'll ping her arse(ass) off.

to go FI, the eta slugs need modding to drop the CR to 8:1 ish, then you'll need to mod the head for an "i" or cusom FI cam, and add the missing oil feeds for the spare journals.

the carnk is cast on these so 6.4K limit and 11 psi max I'd suggest.

for a cheap FI, ETA block with "i" pistons and 885 head, gives around 7.7:1, no machining required apart from a few mm off the piston skirts ( check this measurement !! ) yoou'll need a big ish turbo to gain the most from it, then add the cost of engine management to suit.... gonna be $$ either way for these last two parts...

do a search for 2.7 info/threads, see what you can find out, there's lots of info on here.

HTH

[toyotatechdrivesabimmer]

well, my biggest gripe with this car is the redline. If i were to keep the car all motor, what could i expect for power, and how far can i boost the rev limiter? thanks!

[WillG]

with an 325 head 7000 is the limit and might still break rockers then. anythin higher you need new cam, springs/retainers, billet rockers and possibly welding, probly also want a block girdle, forged crank and some ARP rod bolts aswell, maybe a balance aswell if youve used a load of parts from different engine. Much easier to just turn up boost for power then raise your rpm on these engines

[blingsta]

ive just got a stock eta bottom end with all new rings and shells etc, and a stock 325 head. just that alone will drop compression compared to a normal 325i, then add turbo.... easy as that!! oh not forgetting engine management

[bottlecapE30]

Hey Brandon, welocome dude

For the ETA bottom end, a good and easy upgrade is swop in the 885 "i" or "super eta" head and use the existing pistons, be careful though as some of the early ones will rsult in a high CR and require good Quality gas or she'll ping her arse(ass) off.

to go FI, the eta slugs need modding to drop the CR to 8:1 ish, then you'll need to mod the head for an "i" or cusom FI cam, and add the missing oil feeds for the spare journals.

the carnk is cast on these so 6.4K limit and 11 psi max I'd suggest.

for a cheap FI, ETA block with "i" pistons and 885 head, gives around 7.7:1, no machining required apart from a few mm off the piston skirts ( check this measurement !! ) yoou'll need a big ish turbo to gain the most from it, then add the cost of engine management to suit.... gonna be $$ either way for these last two parts...

do a search for 2.7 info/threads, see what you can find out, there's lots of info on here.

HTH

ant the US spec eta's use a much lower compresson if he puts an i head on that eta with out using the super eta pistons he will have low compression like 7.75.

Brandon if you want info on this swap check out e30tech.com they have a ton of people who have done this(inculding me) In fact there is so much info it is like a step by step walk through. speeking of such here is a link to one
http://www.strictlyeta.net/technical/328i_1.html
enjoy and welcome to your new obsestion

[toyotatechdrivesabimmer]

well thanks for the help so far guys, i appriciate it.

let me get a little more specific as i have done a lot of reading over the weekend, and maybey i can give you all a better idea as to what im trying to do.

Essentially i want to set this car up as a nice looking extremely fun daily driver. I suppose i dont need a ton of power, but to simply have some more on tap would be really nice. If i could get even just 50hp more, i tihnk i would be happy. and i would also like to keep this a budget install, so any ideas would be well researched. thanks again in advance, so far it seems like the "i" swap would be the way to go