Engine Conversion Companies

Sun Jul 15, 2012 2:02 pm

Hello everyone

I am thinking of sticking an m3 3.0 in my e30 325i. Does anyone know of any companies that will do the whole conversion? I know it will cost a lot more than doing it myself with a few mates but it will be obviously much quicker and easier.

Thanks for your help.

Sun Jul 15, 2012 2:10 pm

Where are you mate? I am in Suffolk and have done a few s50 swaps.

Sun Jul 15, 2012 2:16 pm

Hi there. That was quick. Thanks for your reply.

I am in north London. I don't mind travelling though.

So do you source the engine and all necessary parts yourself?

Sun Jul 15, 2012 5:44 pm

We can supply and fit, or fit an engine you supply. What is your budget?

Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:42 pm

I haven't giving myself a budget as I have idea how much this will cost, I have only been guessing.

So how much will it roughly cost?

Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:49 pm

PaddyEnglish wrote:I haven't giving myself a budget as I have idea how much this will cost, I have only been guessing.

So how much will it roughly cost?

+1 ...i would be intrested as well.

Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:20 pm

Well...... To do a nice job, including all parts don't expect much change from 8k.

Tue Jul 17, 2012 2:33 pm

Wow, I don't know what I was expecting but that's quite a lot. I obviously dont know much about cars.

I'm guessing the main bulk of the cost is the engine and complete custom exhaust system including the manifold? If an engine costs say £2000 and exhaust system £1500-2000 where does the other £4000-4500 go?

Tue Jul 17, 2012 5:31 pm

The exhaust and manifold can cost up to £2800. £1500ish in labour, a bit more if you want the engine bay painting and nice stuff like that. A sump, dip stick and pick up, service items, a clutch, engine mounts, servo and linkage bar, oil cooler pipes, fan,ect,ect. plus loads of various bits from BMW and there will always be plenty more.

I am sure it can be done cheaper, but if you do it right you do it once

If you have a look around in here you will find a few horror stories with "cheap" s50 conversions.

Tue Jul 17, 2012 6:26 pm

penton08 wrote:The exhaust and manifold can cost up to £2800. £1500ish in labour, a bit more if you want the engine bay painting and nice stuff like that. A sump, dip stick and pick up, service items, a clutch, engine mounts, servo and linkage bar, oil cooler pipes, fan,ect,ect. plus loads of various bits from BMW and there will always be plenty more.

I am sure it can be done cheaper, but if you do it right you do it once If you have a look around in here you will find a few horror stories with "cheap" s50 conversions.

Penton is telling truths here,

Its not cheap, but oh-so worth it...

Tue Jul 17, 2012 6:43 pm

PaddyEnglish wrote:Hello everyone

I am thinking of sticking an m3 3.0 in my e30 325i. Does anyone know of any companies that will do the whole conversion? I know it will cost a lot more than doing it myself with a few mates but it will be obviously much quicker and easier.

Thanks for your help.

Give AMW a call based in south East london his done lots of M52, S50 swaps he did mine and it was done every well i.e wiring, custom manifold the lot!!!

0207 635-6792. Ask for Andy

Tue Jul 17, 2012 10:23 pm

Hi penton. Thanks for that. I wasnt trying to make you justify why it costs so much. I just wanted to understand why it cost so much.

Goosie gander, I have no doubt he will do an excellent job but I dont think the mrs will be happy with me spending 8000 on my car lol.

Rich328i. Thanks for the recommendation. How much did yours cost?

Thu Jul 19, 2012 12:16 am

PaddyEnglish wrote:Hi penton. Thanks for that. I wasnt trying to make you justify why it costs so much. I just wanted to understand why it cost so much.

Goosie gander, I have no doubt he will do an excellent job but I dont think the mrs will be happy with me spending 8000 on my car lol.

Rich328i. Thanks for the recommendation. How much did yours cost?

you will have to speck to andy for the price, total cost is around £1300 with everything done.

Fri Jul 20, 2012 11:14 am

Im guessing 1300 if I supply everything right?

Fri Jul 20, 2012 1:17 pm

PaddyEnglish wrote:Im guessing 1300 if I supply everything right?

For an M52 maybe

Fri Jul 20, 2012 5:23 pm

I thought it sounds too cheap, even if I'm supplying everything.

Fri Jul 20, 2012 5:58 pm

best thing to do mate his give him a call and see what andy says as i really cant remember. but if i'll speck to him later i'll let you know. sorry though it was for a M52 but i'll ask him about the price for doing a S50

Fri Jul 20, 2012 6:46 pm

No problem. Thanks for your help. I still think its going to be quite expensive.

Fri Jul 20, 2012 6:49 pm

do you have the engine already?

Fri Jul 20, 2012 7:01 pm

penton08 wrote:The exhaust and manifold can cost up to £2800. £1500ish in labour, a bit more if you want the engine bay painting and nice stuff like that. A sump, dip stick and pick up, service items, a clutch, engine mounts, servo and linkage bar, oil cooler pipes, fan,ect,ect. plus loads of various bits from BMW and there will always be plenty more.

I am sure it can be done cheaper, but if you do it right you do it once If you have a look around in here you will find a few horror stories with "cheap" s50 conversions.

This is pretty much the way it is. As stated you will be about 8 bags in by the time you have got some brakes on it too, and thats not an 'expensive' conversion.

For an M52 conversion you can have it done for about £2500 drive in drive out if you come to me. Just as useable as an S50 on the road and I would always recommend M52 over S50 for road use

Sun Jul 22, 2012 10:30 pm

To be honest, I am looking more power than that. I already have a 2.5, so an M52 is only going to give me an extra 20bhp.

I am realising that an s50 conversion is not something I will be able to do in the near future as I've been told by the mrs " youre not doing anything before we buy a flat"

Thanks for your help everyone.

Mon Jul 23, 2012 1:25 pm

Get a drive in a properly done conversion and you will have a different outlook, its not all about numbers

Tue Jul 24, 2012 12:22 am

agreed on the above. An M52 may "only" be 30-60bhp more than an M20 but its such a different car to drive.

I've worked on quite a few good 325s now and they still don't hold a candle to an M52 as an all round E30. Even when an M52 is geared quite long, it still is brilliant to drive.

My ideal E30 as a road car would be a good M52 with a 6 speed box and something like a 3.46 LSD. With the usual mods, I wouldn't doubt it to be not too far off half of the S50 swapped cars around the place too.

The S50 is amazing in an E30 but you really need to put alot of thought into the brakes and suspension as if you don't it just becomes something that you can only dart about the place on bits of straight roads when its all clear... fun but the novelty will soon wear off.

I've done and helped with a few M52 and S50 swaps and the M52s always end up about 2-3K done right.
Any proper S50 swap ends up being 7-10K euro once everything is sorted properly as in pretty much a full running gear, suspension and brake over-haul plus the engine and S50s as well as any decent engine are pretty cheap over here to start with too

I'm sure you could do it all for 2-3K all in DIY if you knew what you were at with some shrewd and lucky bargaining of buying a full donor car and selling all the bits but it'll probably end up taking forever and you may just end up losing interest or becoming sick of it half way through :p

Tue Jul 24, 2012 12:24 am

I know what you mean. Ok, so do you think it's better to go for an m52, as if in the future I want to turbo charge or supercharge the engine, I won't have to worry about lowering the compression?

Thanks

Tue Jul 24, 2012 1:06 am

If you want turbo, then go for an M50 non-vanos engine.
Turbocharging one of them is a complete walk in the park and they are good for 4-600bhp with fairly basic work.

Supercharging the M52 would be very nice too of course but then your kind of at a trade off with is it cheaper to just sell the conversion package and get an S50 and stick it in in its place with the extra little bit of work needed or do you spend the money on the charger.

The beauty about the M52s are that its pretty much the same weight as a 318iS engine when all in but a little bit more planted and better power obviously so you don't really have to go crazy with suspension or brake packages for it to be very nice to drive.

Tue Jul 24, 2012 11:14 pm

Is turbo charging cheaper than supercharger? I forgot to mention that I use this car for work so and for commuting. I am just worried about reliability issues with forced induction, especially when I use the car everyday.

Thanks

Wed Jul 25, 2012 5:22 pm

Turbo-charging can be cheaper but it won't be reliable.

Supercharging would be the better option in my opinion for an everyday car.

Wed Jul 25, 2012 5:32 pm

PaddyEnglish wrote:To be honest, I am looking more power than that. I already have a 2.5, so an M52 is only going to give me an extra 20bhp.

On paper it's only 22bhp. But a good m52 will make nearer 200bhp, more peak & useable torque

Add an m50 2.5 inlet to the m52 an and e30 m20 fly wheel really wakes up the engine. The inlet and a re map will take it put to 215bhp and with the m20 flywheel lightened it will be pretty quick, you will not be far of an e36 m3 in a sprint up to 100mph

Wed Jul 25, 2012 6:34 pm

A good engine conversion is more than just numbers

Wed Jul 25, 2012 9:51 pm

Kos wrote:
PaddyEnglish wrote:To be honest, I am looking more power than that. I already have a 2.5, so an M52 is only going to give me an extra 20bhp.
On paper it's only 22bhp. But a good m52 will make nearer 200bhp, more peak & useable torque

Add an m50 2.5 inlet to the m52 an and e30 m20 fly wheel really wakes up the engine. The inlet and a re map will take it put to 215bhp and with the m20 flywheel lightened it will be pretty quick, you will not be far of an e36 m3 in a sprint up to 100mph

I see what you mean. It's all about power to weight ratio. An e30 chassis is lighter than an e36 and the engine from the e36 is lighter than the m20 right? Sounds like a great recipe. So will I be able to transfer some of the m20 parts to the m52?

So I can use bits of my M20 then for the conversion?

Wed Jul 25, 2012 10:05 pm

gearbox, propshaft, diff and fly wheel with the starter thats about really mate. you can keep like the fuel pump and cables e.g

Wed Jul 25, 2012 10:41 pm

If you've a Sport box on the M20, it works very nicely with an M52 as well with a longer 1st.

And a good engine swap is definitely more than just a few more bhp. A well finished E30 with a modern engine is such a brilliant car to drive.

Been driving a friends E30 that I did a M52 swap on two years ago around the last few days as must do some more fiddling with and its just amazing in every situation as a road car.

Wed Jul 25, 2012 10:50 pm

Exhaust also, of course

Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:20 am

What the M20 one?

If you have to only though... some form of a 50mm one would be more ideal

In saying that, they go prefectly well with the 325 systems!

Thu Jul 26, 2012 2:51 pm

This is great stuff everyone. I'm getting quite excited. By going for an m52, it seems like I can upgrade my car bit by bit, instead of all at once like with an s50. It looks like an m52 is a quarter of the price of an s50 as well and I can use bits of my m20.

If I were to give my old engine to the person doing the conversion, would it be worth much to him to take off the price of the conversion or is that engine not worth much?