Hello all! I am currently interested in purchasing an e30 and doing a full restoration and m50 engine swap (plus a few other mods like full audio system). I have been on these forums for weeks now building interest and gaining insight. I have spent countless days learning all about the M50 engine and the requirements for the swap. This is my first post here on r3v...never thought to make an account until now. Just thought I would start my own thread not only to guide everyone through my build, but also in the hopes of receiving some help and input from others who have already performed the swap. I am currently looking at a 1987 325e for my donor chassis. I have also found several people in the Baltimore, MD area selling M50's. I hope to buy the donor car in the next week or two to get started! I plan to take full documentation of everything I do so that others can benefit from my build as well. Look forward to meeting everyone, and thanks for bearing with me on this build! I am sure I will have many questions.
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Our builds will be going on at the same time. I just bought a 91 318i. I finished the audio a few days ago, and I'm pulling an s50 in about two months. I'll be using the car as my daily and gathering everything I need for the swap. Once I have everything and the s50 is rebuilt I'll be taking a week off work and doing the whole swap. -
That sounds like quite the plan! I wish I had the money to do an S50 swap...I hope you document everything and post pics. Id love to see all that you do with it. After lots of research and browsing on Craigslist, I might even consider buying an e30 with an M50 swap already done. I found a posting from a couple weeks ago, contacted the owner, and it seems like it might be worth the money. He has a 1991 318i that has an M50 swap in it that was performed by a BMW technician. Its got S50 cams, S50 headers, a Turner motorsports chip, lightweight flywheel, no cats, brand new polyurethane differential bushing...takes a lot of the time and money out of it. I would love to be able to start from scratch and do it all myself (I am very OCD when it comes to my vehicles and how they are serviced) but it may not be practical for my current situation. I only have one car at the moment: a 2006 Audi A6. To pay for the e30, I will first have to sell my Audi. Based on practicality reasons, I may need to purchase an already swapped e30 M50. Although this may be true, if I can get it for the right price and if i sell my Audi for about 9-10k, I will have a good chunk of change to do all the modifications that I want to do. I will definitely be doing a full audio system with a budget of about 1k (I love my music). I plan to do a full JL audio install. I currently have two JL 10" subs powered by a JL 360/2 amp...the setup bumps! As for interior, the 318 that I found has a near perfect interior. The leather looks like it is straight out of the factory! Cant complain with that. I also have a Valentine1 radar detector installed in my Audi which I will be installing in the e30. I plan to do a hidden setup with a secondary control panel installed in the dash for a more stealthy look. The exterior on the 318 is no where near perfect. It will definitely need some tlc. I will probably need to get a new front bumper and will also need to do some fender repair on the passenger side. After ll is said and done I will do a full repaint! I cannot wait to get started on this baby! What all did you to with the audio in yours? Id love to hear what others have done to give me an idea of what I might do. Id like to install tweeters in the front for sure.Originally posted by theycallmebrown View PostComment
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