E30 Zone

im looking at buying a 318is as iv always loved the cars but being used to quicker cars i would want abit more power out of it.
doing abit of research on these, people say they were quicker than the 325 so bmw restricted them how are they restricted?

If there is a cheap way to increase power from the M42 please let me know. 75 BHP per litre from a 25 year old engine is pretty good. If the engine is in good condition, a rolling road remap might get you close to 150BHP.

If you have the money you could look for a pair of Schrick cams.

Welcome to the e30zone forums chap.!

I really don't think an IS can be quicker than a 325i, unless is has some form of forced induction. More often than not it's cheaper and easier to fit a bigger engine than it is trying to extract small gains from a small engine.

If you want the most power from a standard e30 buy a 325i, simple as. If you want even more then why not look at doing an engine conversion, m50/m52 or even the beastly M30 can be fitted. There is a wealth of info on this site and loads of folk willing to help.

go to m42club.com
they have loads of advice how to tune the m42,
and for the person how said that it would never be faster then a 325i they have m42 there with 200hp

if i remember correct,
you need a m47 crank
fit it to some s52 piston and a slight overbore and you have 170 ponies, ad schrink to the mix and you go past that.
and for the exotic under us, do a solid lifter conversion and you can rev it to 7800rpm

A schrick cam alone will set you back 500 quid. I think the work you mention there Remus including engine work would amount to 1,500 - 2,000 quid. All that cash to extract 50-60 bhp? Really?

You could drop an m52 or m30 in there for 300-400 quid and still have more power.

you are totaly right,
that's why i would go for an m52 or s50, but if you really love the four cilinder there are ways.
but the question was if it was possible of course it is

remus wrote: and for the person how said that it would never be faster then a 325i they have m42 there with 200hp

Crap argument, the OP suggested from new/standard he was told they were quicker. If you wanted to go down the route there are folk on here with M20's running over 300 bhp

I would bother buying an IS if I was doing an engine conversion personally, I would just find a mint shell regardless of model/colour/spec. If you want an M42 engine and an IS get one for that reason alone IMO because you will always pay more for an IS over a 316

FYI, an IS shell would make a fine shell for an engine conversion car due to the body being galvanized.!