Motorswaps.. wtf m8?

[Erick]

You guys should stop crying. At least that money will stick with you for a while. Should I start posting the thousands I've already spent in tires that lasted me no more than 5 minutes per pair? :p

[backtrail69]

Turbos are looking better by the second huh. I love my m20.

[Van Westervelt]

Mine took 20 hours total from m20, to s50. :) First swap ever. I am knockin on the $50k door with this car, and will surpass it by the end of the year.

[m4tt]

What air box is that?

Stock 318i air box

Not bad ...even with the extra doors .

Thanks, at the time i had the 2yo Mod!

Loon, I'm well past $10k and still haven't turned the motor over yet. The swap started late December '07. Just last week I was having a major "why the hell did I start this" moment. It's getting there though. Every small step forward is a great moment, lol. Someone remind me how worth it this swap is????

Sometimes i wonder my self, but there are 2 kinds of swaps, 3k swaps just daily drivers and then there are 10k swaps again Just Daily Drivers... Uhh Yea,, I'm still not sure why we put 10k+ in a 2k car! But its Damn exciting!

Here we go again!

[So Live]

Cost me about 2300. for my M50+ZF320 swap. Took about a month mostly cause i didnt have the parts ready to go. Had to replace the cylinder head and get the new one refreshed (included in price).

I was semi discouraged recently when my car caught on fire..

Its going to be awesome when your done dude. I kinda agree with golde30 with maybe you should have gotten a stock motor running first or maybe done just the suspension first and no tackled the complete car all at once.

Keep thinking about the end result. :)

Oh now, i have about 16K into the car. Still on stock brakes too...

[loonibab325i]

yeah i regret doing the brakes and suspension at the same time, but honestly it wasn't that, that was slowing me down so much.. i think the fact that my car was at a shop for over a month due to my clutch issues is what kinda effed me.

I just hate it, you think you've changed everything that can break and you drive it and the e30 will make sure to find something it can break.. you fix it, another thing breaks.. it gets old!

-Abe.

[Drew325is]

I just hate it, you think you've changed everything that can break and you drive it and the e30 will make sure to find something it can break.. you fix it, another thing breaks.. it gets old!-Abe.

LOL...I think that's just E30s in general :)

[windsor318is]

ill be listing my costs once im done, but i figure im at around 7gs not including the blower. that includes upgrades as well though that i really did not need, like sway bars, pulleys AA exhaust that sorta stuff. but if your gonna do it, might as well do it while the cars down anyways.
i have got discouraged a couple times, and wondered why i didnt pay someone to do it, but ill be mmuch more happy when its done and i can tell people i did it myself. this driveshaft situation really burned a hole in my ass, but i have a new one coming and im almost there, as long as the weather stays shitty im good...when its nice out, thats a different story.

[318isbmw]

Mine was right around 2500 or so. Halfassed a few things, but they work for time being, atleast long enough for me to get the right parts and swap it out. Nothing major, no issues. Took me 5 months to do the swap, had issues for first 3 or so months with motor and what parts I had and what parts I bought, and it was at a friends house. Moved it back home and Funk and I swapped the bad m50 for a good m50 in one night over christmas break i believe it was. Still am ironing out issues, and I'm sure I always am, I'm a perfectionist and I enjoy the working more than I do the driving to be honest. Stick with it, when you drive it once its working good, its worth every penny spent and hour of labor. Had a ton of fun just today passing people on a 2 lane road, also love setting off car alarms in parking lots, those two things for me make it worth it, but everyone's different.

[Fidhle007]

It took me about a week to source the parts, but I was on vacation so there wasn't much actual time spent on that because there were margaritas to be consumed. When I got home it took four days to go from pulling the motor out of the M3 to stuffing it in the E30. The M3 came apart friday afternoon and the E30 was running on monday night. There were a few tweaks after work for the rest of the week (and a strange cooling system issue) but it came home with me by the end of that work week. I've been tweaking my setup ever since but all in all it went pretty quickly. Grand total I think I'm at around $3200 invested (everything including UUC 8.5lb flywheel and M5 clutch) but I still owe some money on the motor so I haven't actually shelled all of that out yet.

[quillbro]

Im just beginning to undergo a swap. Bought the S52, trans, ecu and harness for 3200 and have about 2000 left to spend on accessories. Im thinking my budget is going to be tight so im gonna have to get cheap parts. But hopefully i'll stay within budget.

[Fidhle007]

Im just beginning to undergo a swap. Bought the S52, trans, ecu and harness for 3200 and have about 2000 left to spend on accessories. Im thinking my budget is going to be tight so im gonna have to get cheap parts. But hopefully i'll stay within budget.

Nah, that's plenty to get it done unless you're not planning on doing your own work.

[broke30]

I'm right around $1800 which was my m52, zf trans, all new gaskets, everything. I think the most expensive part of the project for me was the rebuilding of the motor, but it wasn't too bad either. Just do the work yourself...
Max

[Charlie]

All told I'm probably somewhere between 25-3000, didn't go used parts for much, put a lot of new stuff in.

-Charlie

[bad_azz_bmr]

isn't it better to buy a wrecked M3 and do the swap then sell everything that is left over from the wreck?