How much did your swap/ rebuild cost?

[Bmwdayz]

Just finished my s52 swap and it added up to about $2200 (I took my time collecting parts and looking out for deals)
Then I sold my M20 and was pay'd to install it. $1200 for install and motor
Guess I came out alright since it only cost me about $1000.

[Steven]

Okay, I'll play.
S50 engine that was in boxes-$800
things to rebuild said engine-$500
e36 m50 wiring harness-$50
DME and Chip-$400
ZF310 trans-$350
Drive Shaft-$50
2.93 LSD-$200
Modified shifter linkage-$40
Misc Hoses-$200
Powder coating valve cover thermo and oil filter housing-$100
e34 oil pan pickup and dipstick-$100
m50 Manifold-$50
Various Sensors-$100
Clutch kit-$300
Flywheel-$50
Motor and Tranny mounts-$100
Throttle cable-$30
Air intake-$40
Pusher fan-$250
Other shit that I know I'm missing~$300
So a total of around $4,000 USD
It's been a fun experience though.

[rickston69]

I learned a long time ago not to keep track of how much money I dump into my cars. It would just scare me! :eeek:

Even with that I have a rough idea of how much I have in my e30 so far. Including the cost of the car sans engine & tranny, cost of the M52 engine & ZF tranny, and other parts I'm probably in the neighborhood of $8K.

[phillye30fanboy]

M50B25TU $500
-came with harness, ecu, all accesories
-133,000 miles
-was originally a mystery motor but it runs perfectly
G260 (was 5 speed swapped at same time, guy gave me the driveshaft as well, put on anew CSB and flex disc that I hadwhile I was in there) $100
-76,000 miles
M20 single mass flywheel and clutch $120 used
UUC DSSR (ordered twist but It didn't come that way, twisted it myself) $129 new
Manual pedal box $20 pulled
clutch slave and clutch master $45 new
Ate Porsche 944 brake booster (shortened and threaded myself) $79 used
E36 mount arms $39 used
E34 throttle cable $23 new
2nd E34 harness because I put a power to a ground........stupid $100 used
Ebay long tube headers $129 new
full custom single 2.5" header back exhaust $200 (I know a guy)
Vibrant 1793 bottle resonator and vibrant 1148 dual 3" tipped muffler (fits exhaust opening at the end PERFECTLY, hella flush bra) $180 new
Mishimoto Aluminum E36 M50/M52 radiator $255 new
tools I didn't have before
-spent probably $100 for various things at harbor freight
-lifting straps which were really helpful because of their ability to fit under the bellhousing and not crush the firewall like a chain would
-load leveler I didn't end up even using
-aluminum racing jack 1.5ton on sale
-crappy tap and die set that I used to chase just one of the 4 E36 engine arms that were non-existent because the E34 uses other mounting locations
-maybe $50 at craftsman for a legit tap and die set that I used for the remaining mount holes and to rethread the Porsche booster
-u-haul trailer to pick up engine $45
3 months of hard work and valubale knowledge I learned priceless

total about $2000, but I would do it all over again and am seriously considering it.

[Sideways87]

Currently at just over $1700 for the following
-M50
-G250
-driveshaft
-E34 oil pan
-engine harness
-harness adapter
-alternator
-MAF
-DME
-New clutch and lightened flywheel
-oil pressure gauge
- about $250 worth of refresh maintenance bits
-Spal pusher fan

and some random bits here and there. I could have cut costs here and there and probably found better deals if I really searched but I accounted for an approx $2k budget and I'll be pretty close to it.

I am going to tell you from experience, just when you think you have everything there will be little stuff here and there. I just finished my M50 swap and after i had "everything" I spent about $500 dollars on random crap that we found as we were finishing.

[Nick_S]

Currently at just over $1700 for the following
-M50
-G250
-driveshaft
-E34 oil pan
-engine harness
-harness adapter
-alternator
-MAF
-DME
-New clutch and lightened flywheel
-oil pressure gauge
- about $250 worth of refresh maintenance bits
-Spal pusher fan

and some random bits here and there. I could have cut costs here and there and probably found better deals if I really searched but I accounted for an approx $2k budget and I'll be pretty close to it.

[Dkoe]

It cost just about 3grand with all the miscelanious if your doing the swap yourself !!!

[dude8383]

We've built three swap cars. The first one was done on a shoe string budget that was around 7k. The two after that? 12k and higher.

If you do it yourself then yeh, its cheaper but when you have a professional doing the work the costs go up.

The reason is because many parts are bought new. If you really want to cheap out on this stuff you can... but don't expect everything to be great afterwards. Working on an E30 with a swap is no longer as easy as it is with a stock motor.

E.G. the blower motor. you have to remove the bloody intake manifold to get to the cowl!! It just makes sense to do things right the first time around!

[jrockbk]

So made a couple of phone calls to some shops in the area about doing this s52 swap I found some reasonable engine tranny options even found a couple of whole donor cars like a 99 m3 runs and drives crashed in side frame damage $3.5k from that car I can get just about everything I need to complete swap including 5lug conversion with exceptions like
Oilpan
Motor mounts and bracket
Brake booster
Drive shaft (not sure)
Ecu ewe flash out
Radiator (not sure)
Full custom exhaust
Even if I'm forgetting some things those extra parts can't come to more than $2k-$2.5k
So far that's around $6k just to estimate plus labor (don't know how many hours this takes) but I estimated this entire process would cost me $7-$8k

According to the last shop I spoke to "you smoking crack if you think you can get an s52 swap done between $5k and $8k"

Am I smoking crack? $15k-$20k for these swaps? Or are these people buying them for that price on crack? For real what's the deal what should this cost me?

[Nick_S]

I have been going through and pricing out what I think I'll need. Pretty sure I found a good deal on an engine and some other bits but I'm hoping to keep this around a grand. Fairly basic M50 swap reusing as much as I can.

[drummerchubbs]

This is sort of my breakdown:

I bought a salvaged 92 325i auto w/ 108k miles: $650 (after paying auction fees)
Bought a e30 rolling shell: $800
ZF320 trans, clutch, flywheel, pressure plate, and driveline: $450 (craigslist)
Refresh parts for trans and motor: $200
motor mounts and trans mounts: $65
OBD1 manifolds: $100
Custom fabricated exhaust: $350
S2.93 diff: $200
Misc: $300

Sold parts from e36 and e30: -$800

GRAND TOTAL:$2,315 (I'm 95% done and besides the exhaust and a few other small things, I did all the labor my self)

*Still have a full interior to sell out of the E36 (est. value $350)

Hope this helps.

[Nick_S]

Research build threads man, junk yards help with buying the engine. Prices range from 200-6k+

This. I'm in the process of going through about every build thread I can find for swap as well as researching the info that is out there. The amount of information out there is enormous but at the same time somewhat overwhelming. So many different opinions and options, it's hard to sort through it.

[ForcedFirebird]

It will be about seven thousand dollars US.
2300.00 engine s52
2500.00 labor
And all the rest for mounts,diff,obd1 stuff,turner chip
Engine refresh.
Don't forget CPU. Dme red label 413

Oil pan, dip stick w/tube, etc..

$2500 is kind of low to have a professional shop do your install unless you had everything (including exhaust) ready to bolt in, and you didn't care about the cosmetics like engine bay steam cleaning, or preventative maintenance such as engine re-sealing, oil pump nut securing etc.

[LittleEcker]

One million pasados.

Just kidding. I guess the price can vary a lot depending on where you get the engine, what kind of engine it is, how many tools you have, how many tools you break, how many parts you break, how many parts need to be replaced, et cetera. I'm hearing around low thousands. Sounds about right to me.

[CrisMac]

It depends if you want NEW or USED parts. For 7k you could have a decently built S52 making great power with new parts. Or for 7k you could build and boost it with used parts. Obviously doing labor by yourself and waiting for parts to show up in the classifieds. I'm in 2.5k with all obd1 swap parts + S52 so far. But that is why building cars is not an investment, but a time consuming hobby for the everyday gear head. The end goal is all determined on what YOU want out of the vehicle.


Sent from my android, jk fuck android.