Alpina M50 engine?

[bss325i]

Sorry, I havent even had a chance to fart today. Only just got home as well!

I'll find out tomorrow.

[leeparkes]

No problem Barry, no rush.

[bss325i]

I got out parts department to ring up Nottingham asking them if they could confirm that the chassis number you gave which matches a reg i got off out view data system, was a genuine Alpina model and which one.

Waiting for a call back after they have checked their archives but one of the option codes on the View data system was "Alpina transmission"!

[Simon13]

its too early for switch-tronic? they appeared on the 3.0 cars i thought. Maybe they had an uprated auto box from stock? Mind you the 325's of the time used the little gearbox like the 320 and 323's had? hmmmmm

[leeparkes]

Good work.

[Andyboy]

The car it came from was a B 2.5.

Built from a Mauritius blue 325i Coupe, converted by L&C Tunbridge Wells (now Cooper) and registered K608VKN on 11/9/1992. The tax ran out June 2007. It had an LSD of course.
It says 'transmission for Alpina use'. There was no Fagtronic this early but I'm pretty sure what it means is that they fitted the big Getrag 310 gearbox at the factory. Early 325i's used the Getrag 310/320 but after 6/91 they replaced it with the smaller ZF 250 box from the 316i-320i.
The one I broke (K37GSF) had the big 310 box that was not fitted to the 325i Coupe.

Does this donk come with a gearbox? If it has the 310, that'd confirm it.

[bss325i]

How did you find out Andrew? Still waiting for sytner to ring back our parts.

[Speedtouch]

I can supply an excellent M50B25 non-VANOS chip if you find it runs rough with the one you have.

[Andyboy]

How did you find out Andrew? Still waiting for sytner to ring back our parts.

Local dealer parts dept. Just gave them the VIN and that's what they came back with. They got the reg no from the VIN, entered that intio DVLA and there's the info showing 2494cc so it's an educated guess tbh. If it were a 2.8, Sytners would have done the conversion and sold the car, and would have had a new engine capacity.

[leeparkes]

Nice one.

So its confirmed its a cammed up beaut! well the ECU at least is related to one...

Ill pull the rocker cover off tomorrow to see if there's any unusual markings/stamps on the cams to be certain its still the same lump related to the ECU, you never know!
Sadly the gearbox didnt come with it.

Thanks again lads.

[DanThe]

There wont be any markings on the cams Lee, in terms of casting and numbers they are exactly the same as a standard cam, you will need to compare the lobes to a standard to be sure

[Simon13]

And they won't really look any different to stock cams.

E30 alpina cams certainly have a red paint stripe on them, i don't recal the cams having any markings on the B3. The exhaust cam is stock on this engine

[leeparkes]

So its just the inlet thats different, are they a higher lift or is it just duration? or both?

[leeparkes]

are they a higher lift or is it just duration? or both?

Anyone?

[Simon13]

no no yours has alpina inlet and exhaust cams. It seems only the later 3.2 donk like mine uses a stock S52 exhaust cam and alpina inlet.

The 2.8 and 3.0 plus your 2.5 use alpina cams on inlet and exhaust.

[leeparkes]

Ah, i miss read your post.

I do have another M50 NV out of an IX i pulled apart last year, problem is its buried amonst other engines and all sorts of scrap and dont really fancy exhuming it if i wont be able to tell them apart visually.
However if Alpina put some lift on the cams i could measure the one i have here then try and dig the standard engine out to compare the two?

[DanThe]

While were on does anybody know the officially quoted power/torque figures for the B2.5 engines? Vanos and Non Vanos different figures?

[Simon13]

i'm pretty sure its 212-215bhp torque i don't know, i imagine not alot different from stock.

[Andyboy]

Sytners didn 't do all of them. The idea was that the B2.5 was a kit of parts that any dealer could fit. The one I broke was done by Grassicks in Perth. **** me that one was rotten.

I just found the handbook pack for it. It was JB00758, Lagoon green first registered as K898FNU and sold new by Bridgegate in Derby so it was done by them or Sytnerrs, not Grassicks like I thought. It ended up in Scotland though (lots of Harry Fairbairn action in the service book) before coming back down here, bringing a lot of rust with it. It had a private plate at some point and ended up as K37GSF.

[leeparkes]

Do you know any details on the cams Andy? ie if they had more lift or if it's just duration?

[Andyboy]

I don't, no. You'll need to compare your cams with stock 2.5 ones.

[leeparkes]

Bugger.

[Simon13]

264 rings a bell