E30 Zone

guys i have decided to go from a jap 6 to the more traditional m3 engine. now i have looked through countless posts about this conversion what i needed to know was what engine and transmition mounts did you guys use for the install? stock ones or custom its got me stumped thanks

mrgtsx wrote:guys i have decided to go from a jap 6 to the more traditional m3 engine. now i have looked through countless posts about this conversion what i needed to know was what engine and transmition mounts did you guys use for the install? stock ones or custom its got me stumped thanks

Assuming you're looking at a UK/Euro spec engine, then it'll be an S50 (either S50B30 or S50B32). The S52 was a US only engine, and was basically a large capacity M52 with lumpy cams and only 240bhp.

Regarding the engine and gearbox mounts. You need to use E28 M5 rubber mounts, and the original E36 S50 alloy mounting arms. Gearbox mounts depend on the gearbox used. If using a regular E36 5 speed box, then the standard E30 gearbox crossmember is used with E36 rubber mounts. If you go for the 6 speed box, you will need to fabricate a custom gearbox crossmember.

Cheers,

Ian.

thanks for that info. what is the s50 rated at for hp out of curiosity

s50b30 is 286bhp

s50b32 is 321.. however 305 is a good figure for a standard one

S50B32 = 320 BHP

BMW were a little generous with the figures for the S50B32. Again and again people have got 305-310 horses out of theirs in the E36. 320 has been heard of but only rarely.

There's more power to be had but with careful and expensive tuning. They do have bags of torque though and the VANOS keeps it over a wide rev range.

With the BTB manifolds and a nice supersprint exhaust I hope to get 320 horses out of mine but we'll see.

Jai

mm thats sounds very tasty i would be extremely with 300bhp with extractors and a full exhaust system. im used to japanese cars with turbos, so this is going to be a big change for me. i dont even think any of my cars had near 300bhp