£2500 budget to spend on m20 engine!

[hoggie]

Hi all
I have a a budget to spend on my standard 325 M20 engine and would like to extract as much power from it as possible using this budget.Has anyone any suggestions on the best way to do this with £2500.I live in Ireland but can bring my car to the U.K. for any work it needs.

Thanks
Hoggie

[maxfield]

PM Ant I'm sure £2500 will get you a nice turbo or a nice 2.7

[CHRISP]

Pm ANT and talk to him the will get you alot of bhp for that amount off £

[m3ben05]

Its all very well saying you want maximum power but i would allocate half your budget to upgrading the suspension and brakes so the car can actually cope with the power!

Just mp 2p

[hoggie]

I have fitted EBC pads and discs and it already had a lowerd suspension fitted (Koni) when I bought it.It also has a strut brace up front.Ishould have said the engine is standard.

[m3ben05]

Personally i would think about getting better brakes to cope with the kind of power you will be adding. Your car, your choice though mate

[maxfield]

Personally i would think about getting better brakes to cope with the kind of power you will be adding. Your car, your choice though mate

The brakes will be fine. I think power is the next step up.

[hoggie]

This will be a long term project the brakes can wait,depending on what can be gained from the engine.I just want to focus on the engine for now,upgraded brakes are on my shopping list for the future .

[Andy325i]

Do yourself a favour and look at the gains that can be had from a 24 valve engine (£ for £) before putting it all into an M20

Just my 2p

Andy

[M5pilot]

2.8 M52 would have my vote.

You can extract 230+ bhp out of them with well over 215 lb.ft.

They are reliable and also very economical for what you get.

I don't think £2500 is going to get you very far on the turbo route.

Evo-S

[Ant]

2.5K is not gonna net you a rebuilt M52 engine + conversion cost.

for that £Â£Ã‚£ a stroker 12valve with a complete rebuild would be my choice, old tech for sure but reliable, proven and powerful regardless of being out of fashion.


FI on that budget is a non stater TBH, the cost of the required parts will exceed that figure without even starting to fit it all up.

[Hadrian]

I'd do an M20B31

[320Touring]

Do yourself a favour and look at the gains that can be had from a 24 valve engine (£ for £) before putting it all into an M20

Just my 2p

Andy

BOOO HISS! down with 4valve wrongness! Actually, the m50/52 are nice to drive

for that £Â£Ã‚£ a stroker 12valve with a complete rebuild would be my choice, old tech for sure but reliable, proven and powerful regardless of being out of fashion.

.

I agree with this- well built 2 v per cyl m20 of 2.7 litres- lots of low down torque and still plenty uptop, assuming you let ANT build it

[snoops]

^^^ ^ +1

[ed325i]

I would build a 2.7 or 2.8 for that sort of money.

[hoggie]

What about fuel economy with a 2.7 or a 2.8 is there much of a difference in fuel consumption compared to a 2.5

[daimlerman]

Are you building this yourself?If I were you(which I'm not)I would look at the 2.8 crank in the 325 block.Ed325 is doing a similar build at the moment and may be able to help.The other option is the later 24valve engines,done properly,these look very neat.I looked at two at the meet at Sherburn last Friday(look in the meets section for the piccys)the main engineering snag to overcome is the exhaust manifold.My 2.7 is now running a 3.64 diff and I return 34mpg.But I am an old codger who does not nail it everywhere.Main benifit of the 2.7 is the big increase in torque,above 50mph there is little gain in changing down to overtake.

[fuzzy]

Personally i would think about getting better brakes to cope with the kind of power you will be adding. Your car, your choice though mate

your brakes should cope fine. i use the ebc discs with ebc red ceramic pads and they handle my power easily with hard abuse a regular thing

[oguz327]

What about fuel economy with a 2.7 or a 2.8 is there much of a difference in fuel consumption compared to a 2.5

Fuel economy will be better than a 2.5 m20, at worst the same, a good 2.7 wont have to work as hard to be brisk.

[dazleeds]

i have a block n head for sale

see for sale section

[jaistanley]

I also vote for a 24v swap. The power is effortless, smooth and a joy to drive.

Dont get me wrong, the M20 is a great engine (I just fitted one to my 318is and was really suprised, it sounds amazing and drives really well) but once the engine swap is complete you'll have more/same power as your developed M20 engine but if somehting goes wrong, you can spend 500 notes on replacing the engine.

Jai

[ed325i]

I also vote for a 24v swap. The power is effortless, smooth and a joy to drive.

Most will be way down on power by now and need a rebuild.
A rebuilt m20 2.7 - 2.8 will put out 190 +

[ste]

My M52 cost me £300. I think throwing 2 and a half bags on an M20 nowadays is lunacy.

Over it's life my 2.7 M20 had more than that spent on it. I can't remember the figures but it made about 215bhp / 220lbft ? Don't get me wrong it was a great car to drive, but a standard M52 with just the M50 manifold swap and bored TB will crap on that and be much more efficient in the process.

Break your £2.5k M20 (I've blown up 4 x M20s) and you'll need to spend the same to rebuild it. Break your 24V engine and you're looking at £300 or so to buy another.

[hoggie]

Are the M52 plentyful in supply,do you have to change wiring looms,ecu.

[march109]

you need the ECU for the M52 out of the donor vehicle, and the wiring loom (engine side only IIRC)

[ste]

M50b25 here doing £102 with 4 hours left... 192 bhp in the E36. Fit it to an E30 with a better exhaust and no viscous fan and you'll have good M20 2.7 power...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/bmw-2-5-24v-engin ... dZViewItem

[Andyboy]

My M52 cost me £300........Break your 24V engine and you're looking at £300 or so to buy another.

If only that were true. A good running M52 2.8 is still an £800 engine as breakers know exactly what they're worth unless you stumble across one at a regular scrapyard. Trouble is, you don't see many post 1998 BMW's (post Nikasil) in regular scrapyards. You were very, very lucky to get one for £300 - they're worth nearly that as scrap for the crank.

I'm not a fan of the M52 (or M54) with the alloy block. The Nikasil problem is well known of course - less well known is the propensity for the alloy to sink between the liners on steel lined blocks, blowing the head gasket. The engine is then scrap unless you remove and strip the engine and have the block skimmed. It's very common on the 2.5 and 2.8/3.0 engines with the 84mm bore, almost unheard of on the 2 litre and it doesn't happen on the iron block. Nobody knows as yet whether the problem is caused by the head gasket going or it causes the gasket to go, but my money is on the latter.

The M52 is okay but it will not tolerate overheating in any shape or form. The head bolt threads are already a bit marginal for stretch bolts (they should have used studs and nuts) and one good 'in the red' moment and the threads will almost certainly weaken. I've just seen an X plate 325i M54 having an engine change because of the aforementioned block problems. That's 5 years old and the engine is junk.

Spend £2500 on an M20? I wouldn't personally. My £2500 would rebuild a 3.5 M30 (a solid 240 bhp with a cam) or an iron block 2.8 with US M3 cams and a similar 240 horses.

But if you can find one that isn't shagged, a good 2.8 M52 is okay as long as you realise it's a 'do not reuse' engine. Once the head has to come off, you throw it away as tney generally are not repairable once cooked.

[Andy335Touring]

I didn't know the M52 was any thing other than a sturdy/durable engine.

You learn some thing new every day on forums.

[lenny-d]

i'm thinking this is all sence, everyone has a fair point, a m20 with 140k+ underit's belt having a load more stress put on it with a cam, bbtb, etc can't be good

yes they are a strong engine but some are over 25 years old

an m52 engine yes you may loose e30 ness out of your car but if i was going to put any engine in it would have to be an e36 m3 evo engine. if you're going to do it do it right, save an extra couple of quid and go for that imho

or just do wot the hell you'd like (i would)

[jaistanley]

Of course: do what you like! Tuning an old engine is very rewarding, the M20 especially. It makes such a great sound.

I think what people are suggesting though is whats the best value for mony for £2.5k... I still vote for the 24v swap. The alloy block cant be that weak? There are loads of guys ragging around in 328i sports still, but if that is the case and you'd want to err on the side of caution the 2.5 can easily be made 2.8 or even 3 litre with some american M3 parts (bit heavy to ship a crank here though). I say spen the money on the conversion, get the same power and torque you'd have from tuning the M20 and there's still scope for upgrades later on. With the tuned M20 you're already at it's max realistic power output.

As for fitting an E36 M3 engine for that money: No way Hosé.. It gets expensive, quick. Trust me!

Just my two pence worth you understand!

Jai