Sport Upgrades

[Fastroad]

So I have been considering doing some upgrades on my sport.

1- Without swapping out the original M20B25 what's the best budget upgrades to boost power and is 200bhp achievable without going the 2.7 route??

2- what's required to do a proper 2.7 (crank, cam, etc) ?

[zaust]

No cheap way fella.
Even a lot of 2.7 conversions bearly touch 200.
Get spending or swap out. I spent a small fortune making a high comp 2.5 quick.
And the m30 killed it in power and torque with out mods. But that's were the fun really began.

[polsta]

in 15 years of messing around with e30s surely youd know this sort of thing

[Andy325i]

May as well go M20B2.8 if going for a 2.7 or complete M52.

[Fastroad]

in 15 years of messing around with e30s surely youd know this sort of thing

Always kept my 325i's standard, all the E30 M3's I have had have been very different.

Everyday can be a learning day a˜Š

[LondonTom]

If you car is standard then I'd upgrade the brakes and suspension before touching the engine.

[suedenim]

Look in the M20 section, pages and pages of info to digest before asking such questions

[Fastroad]

No cheap way fella.
Even a lot of 2.7 conversions bearly touch 200.

Didn't the c2.7 Alpina produce around 210bhp, wondering what the difference is.

[Fastroad]

Look in the M20 section, pages and pages of info to digest before asking such questions

Did that first but couldn't find what I was looking for, but thanks

[suedenim]

No cheap way fella.
Even a lot of 2.7 conversions bearly touch 200.

Didn't the c2.7 Alpina produce around 210bhp, wondering what the difference is.

Porting, cam, ecu, research...

[suedenim]

Look in the M20 section, pages and pages of info to digest before asking such questions

Did that first but couldn't find what I was looking for, but thanks

Wiki has plenty too. Is your sport stock then? Thought you had a tasty green track toy?

[Fastroad]

Look in the M20 section, pages and pages of info to digest before asking such questions

Did that first but couldn't find what I was looking for, but thanks

Wiki has plenty too. Is your sport stock then? Thought you had a tasty green track toy?

Have a couple of track toys ( did not go ahead with the green, was tempted but other things stopped that pursuit)

Just bought this 325i sport for a bit of daily driving.

[sunnyr83]

Go fast stripes add 12-15bhp.

[suedenim]

Did that first but couldn't find what I was looking for, but thanks

Wiki has plenty too. Is your sport stock then? Thought you had a tasty green track toy?

Have a couple of track toys ( did not go ahead with the green, was tempted but other things stopped that pursuit)

Just bought this 325i sport for a bit of daily driving.

Tech I or II? Any photos of your sport?

[Speedtouch]

Sounds like you need to fit freeflow's super-duper new ECU - apparently, this will increase power from 164bhp to almost 200bhp on a stock engine!

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... 25&start=0

[suedenim]

Sounds like you need to fit freeflow's super-duper new ECU - apparently, this will increase power to almost 200bhp!

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... 25&start=0

And fill it with some 10w40 snake oil

[Fastroad]

Wiki has plenty too. Is your sport stock then? Thought you had a tasty green track toy?

Have a couple of track toys ( did not go ahead with the green, was tempted but other things stopped that pursuit)

Just bought this 325i sport for a bit of daily driving.

Tech I or II? Any photos of your sport?

Tech2. Will get some pictures up in a build thread as soon as I decide which route to go down.

[zaust]

No cheap way fella.
Even a lot of 2.7 conversions bearly touch 200.

Didn't the c2.7 Alpina produce around 210bhp, wondering what the difference is.

Porting, cam, ecu, research...

And some more. But how many actually made that figure.

[Fastroad]

Sounds like you need to fit freeflow's super-duper new ECU - apparently, this will increase power from 164bhp to almost 200bhp on a stock engine!

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... 25&start=0

Did see this but did not want to delete the AFM

[suedenim]

Sounds like you need to fit freeflow's super-duper new ECU - apparently, this will increase power from 164bhp to almost 200bhp on a stock engine!

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... 25&start=0

Did see this but did not want to delete the AFM

I wouldn't want to delete the contents of my wallet until there was more evidence of the power gains.

[Fastroad]

Sounds like you need to fit freeflow's super-duper new ECU - apparently, this will increase power from 164bhp to almost 200bhp on a stock engine!

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... 25&start=0

Did see this but did not want to delete the AFM

I wouldn't want to delete the contents of my wallet until there was more evidence of the power gains.

I totally agree.

TBH from everything I have read on the zone wiki and comments on this thread regarding upgrading a M20 Engine it sounds like a pointless exercise and waste of money for little gain.

[jimbom30cab]

If you have the cash then buy Lee Parkes B10 conversion kit - 260bhp out the box with a mountain of torque. For the £££ you won't get any better plug and play 260bhp conversions.

[Speedtouch]

Referring to your original post, there are some good 'budget' bolt-on upgrades to spice it up by a noticeable amount, namely, hotter cam, chip, six-branch, BBTB, as fitted by Alpina to the Tech 2 325i Sport, for the C2 2.5 package, which gave around 190bhp.

To get any major gains though, will involve dismantling the engine to improve on what's already a pretty good spec.

[jimbom30cab]

If you wanted max bang for your buck without busting the wallet, then i would

1. Buy one of Speedtouch's chips
2. Get a BBTB off maggspower

This will set you back the cost of a couple of nights on the town and make a very noticable difference to the daily drive

I got 2-3mpg more with the BBTB and it made a really noticable difference, the best £100 i've ever spent on the car, can't recommend it enough.

after this it might be worth fitting a high lift cam and lightened fly both of which would cost a lot more and involve plenty of engine work.

Maybe bigger injectors but i don't know how sucessful this would be on a M20

[bss325i]

No cheap way fella.
Even a lot of 2.7 conversions bearly touch 200.

Didn't the c2.7 Alpina produce around 210bhp, wondering what the difference is.

Nearly every "zone" 2.7 uses an eta bottom end which is the biggest difference.

[bss325i]

TBH from everything I have read on the zone wiki and comments on this thread regarding upgrading a M20 Engine it sounds like a pointless exercise and waste of money for little gain.

To get gains from an M20 costs ££££ but it can be done.

The most powerful M20 i know of on the zone belongs to Reggid.

3.1 and 260 odd bhp.

[jmc330i]

TBH from everything I have read on the zone wiki and comments on this thread regarding upgrading a M20 Engine it sounds like a pointless exercise and waste of money for little gain.

This is why conversions make sense. But for those wanting to keep some originality, it's either make do with standard power or start spending

I'm still trying to decide what to do with my Sport. Originality wasn't a big issue for me (I did fit an S50 after all), but I'm swaying towards refitting the M20, maybe in 2.8 or 3.0 form. On the other hand, a decent M52 conversion will most likely be cheaper than building a 200+bhp M20.

[SHAKEELE30]

supercharge it>>>

[Fastroad]

No cheap way fella.
Even a lot of 2.7 conversions bearly touch 200.

Didn't the c2.7 Alpina produce around 210bhp, wondering what the difference is.

Nearly every "zone" 2.7 uses an eta bottom end which is the biggest difference.

I have seen in a few places the 324td crank is the same as the one alpina used or would this be considered this to be exactly the same as using the Eta

[Fastroad]

supercharge it>>>

Like this idea too

[bss325i]

Didn't the c2.7 Alpina produce around 210bhp, wondering what the difference is.

Nearly every "zone" 2.7 uses an eta bottom end which is the biggest difference.

I have seen in a few places the 324td crank is the same as the one alpina used or would this be considered this to be exactly the same as using the Eta

The eta crank and TD crank have the same stroke, just one is forged and one is cast but thats no the issue.

The main and important difference is that the Alpina 2.7 used 135mm rods and custom pistons where as the "zone" eta based 2.7's use 130mm rods and the eta or 325i pistons.

[Fastroad]

Referring to your original post, there are some good 'budget' bolt-on upgrades to spice it up by a noticeable amount, namely, hotter cam, chip, six-branch, BBTB, as fitted by Alpina to the Tech 2 325i Sport, for the C2 2.5 package, which gave around 190bhp.

To get any major gains though, will involve dismantling the engine to improve on what's already a pretty good spec.

Think I might give this a go for a quick fix while I decide what to really do with it.

[bss325i]

Dont expect any gains from the ebay six branches.

And in response to speed touch, Alpina never used a BBTB or six branch on the C2.5/Sport pack engine.

[Fastroad]

Who makes good six branch manifolds nowadays as buying a Hartge and Alpina ones are rare and expensive?

[bss325i]

BTB.