E30 Zone

I have a rather lovely 1989 320i convertible but would like a lit more get up and go from the engine. I have been mulling over swapping in the 2.5 or more, but do not want to overpower the car or need to get an LSD etc, so have come back to the idea of exploring ways of getting a bit more from it.

It has 96k genuine miles on it and full service history.

I do not want to do anything over the top but wondered if there are some easy wins out there to breathe some life into it.

No is the simple answer. There are things you can do but the returns are pretty much zero. You could fit the throttle body from a 325i but that requires opening up the intake on the inlet manifold, which is a lot of work and you won't really notice any difference. Likewise fitting an uprated chip to the ecu is meant to be an easy way of releasing a bit more grunt but again the difference is negligible, I speak from experience! Enjoy the 2.0 for what it is or go the engine swap route.

a fat vert needs a mild 2.8L stroker, nothing racy or lairy just a solid build

by the sounds of it you have a low mile chromie (i have one of the same year). Theses are only going one way price wise and an original car with stock engine will always be worth more.

Unless you going to get a full on conversion by the likes of Danthe an engine swap will likely only devalue your car and cause you headaches for insurance purposes.

If you want something with more power keep the cabby for the summer and get a modern daily to smoke around in.

aimlessrock wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 21, 2019 12:11 pm

by the sounds of it you have a low mile chromie (i have one of the same year). Theses are only going one way price wise and an original car with stock engine will always be worth more.

Unless you going to get a full on conversion by the likes of Danthe an engine swap will likely only devalue your car and cause you headaches for insurance purposes.

If you want something with more power keep the cabby for the summer and get a modern daily to smoke around in.

Mart.