Where did you get your engine?

[curbsurfer253]

I'd like to get a list going of where everyone is getting their engines and how much they are paying. Where are all the good wrecking yards, BMW auto recyclers, used engine distributers, etc?

[rede30]

Where are you located? going through places like bmr, eurodepot, terry sayther places of this class would be the easiest and safest but you can get better deals, cost wise, by just looking at ebay and through classifieds but then you dont know what your buying. i think the safe price to say s50's are going for is about 3000 and m50's about 500-1000.

[325Projectz]

I bought my old m50 off of ebay, $600 shipped. 150k. The moment I got the motor I decided to rebuild, ran (still runs) like a champ.

[Addissimo]

ebay: $800 shipped across the country. Great engine- will be alot better with my new ecu.

got it from german auto dismantlers... or something like that.

-Addis

[erik325i]

I just bought my 25,000 mile s50 for $2,500. I found it on bf.c
The guy was local, so I didn't have to deal with shipping. Just picked it up from his house.

[joshh]

I found a wrecked E34 525i for $725.00. Got the whole car and sold $200.00 off of it so far. So I got the motor and all for $525.00 really.
125k on the motor but I'm doing an 80% rebuild on it.

[blunttech]

I got my s52 3 years ago from a wrecking yard in new york for 3250 shipped with tranny,ecu,harness,,obd1 intake and throttle body,. motor was supposed to have 32k on it. it actually had 48k on it and he claimed his guys sent the wrong motor by mistake. so to make up for it he sent me a 540hfm and some assorted obd1 sensors to help in my obd1 conversion. in hindsight it was all for the best. my motor was taken care of and turned out to be an excellent motor. the seller was fair and honest with me and went out of his way to help me

[george graves]

My m30 - I paid $800 shipped from OR to CA. It had 90k - and that's LOW for a m30 motor (considering their age, and also it's a 300k mile motor easy).

I can really see if you can get a m50 for 500 bucks that it would make the swap into a car with a tired m20 needing a overhaul really worth it...

[Stu]

Bought a blown to bits '95 M3 engine (5th-2nd, Roabling front straight)...only bought it for crank, accessories, and a few other useful pieces. Used a bare '91 525i block and '99 528i head, '95 M3 cams and '99 M3 valvetrain. Brand new everything else for the most part.

[Jarvis]

I got my s52 3 years ago from a wrecking yard in new york for 3250 shipped with tranny,ecu,harness,,obd1 intake and throttle body,. motor was supposed to have 32k on it. it actually had 48k on it and he claimed his guys sent the wrong motor by mistake. so to make up for it he sent me a 540hfm and some assorted obd1 sensors to help in my obd1 conversion. in hindsight it was all for the best. my motor was taken care of and turned out to be an excellent motor. the seller was fair and honest with me and went out of his way to help me

You sir, got an AWESOME deal.

I should be picking up an M50B25 (non-vanos) this weekend. Local sale - I'll be doing all the transporting myself, with the help of roommates.
Complete motor from an E34, chipped ECU and all accesories/wiring. I think it has ~130K, I'll have to check with Dan again, but it has a fairly young rebuilt head and put down strong dyno numbers in its original car.
Not too bad for $500 I think.

curbsurfer253 - I would also check with local independent shops. Usually BMW-specific shops will have parts cars or come across deals from customers getting rid of their cars. Just let all your local shops know what you're looking for. Can't hurt to just ask.