3L crank into M52B28 alloy block.

[SpecM]

call Pete @ Precision Performance in Winston Salem SC.

-Winston-Salem is in NORTH Carolina. Sheesh ;)

-But yeah, call Pete McHenery. He knows his stuff and isn't stingy with info

[atomic]

-Winston-Salem is in NORTH Carolina. Sheesh ;)

-But yeah, call Pete McHenery. He knows his stuff and isn't stingy with info

X2 on Pete

[chuck90m3]

-Winston-Salem is in NORTH Carolina. Sheesh ;)

my bad, typing to fast

[moatilliatta]

some guy on bfc went to 86.4 on an aluminum block with new selves, I wonder if 87 is possible????

I herd 87 is max on the m50/m52 block... I doubt if it would work on the aluminum block... might be worth a shot.

[Stu]

With an aluminum block, I would stay at 84mm bore max on a street motor. The best example of this was my fathers E30 M3 that I only got to drive once briefly before his death, but the new owner let me borrow it for the funeral and some time afterwards. I got about 100 miles of very enjoyable seattime in it.

This cars setup:
'88 M3
Aluminum block 2.9L, slightly over 11:1 compression
Heavily worked cylinder head, M3 cams
Choked exhaust -- stock SS manifolds, 100k E30 M3 cats AND muffler (He wanted the car to stay quiet)
8# flywheel, Getrag 250, 3.46 rear

That car left me with the impression that this setup was the ultimate iteration of a street-driven M50 swap. Out of all the 2.5/2.8/3.0/3.2 swaps I've driven, nothing compared to the balance of handling and power that that motor had. The gearing was near perfect for the engines characteristics and it would pull to 7500 with relative ease, I never once took it to the 7700 redline.

Another note -- We had an M3 with a similar engine build but was 89.6x86 (3.2) with an open exhuast that did 250 to the rear wheels. From 40-100, he couldn't pull away from the small-bore aluminum block M3 with a relatively choked exhaust.

[chuck90m3]

hey Stu you haven't seen any of the aluminum z3 engines around have you?

[Stu]

hey Stu you haven't seen any of the aluminum z3 engines around have you?

Hey Chuck,

I checked about a year ago and I think BMW had one block casting in the country. I havn't checked the boneyards but I'm sure there is a '97 Z3 out there somewhere.

Stu