2.7 for a 2.5 swap??

[samboatman]

Hi everyone.
Im new to the Bmw scene. I have a 87 325e. The car is mint. There a re a few things that need to be attened too, leaking head gasket,It needs a good tune up, rotor cap wires. The clutch is on its way out. Otherwise good...lol I can buy a 88 325i with 255k. My question is....Should I swap complete drive train, for the more powerfull 2.5. I need to do a timing belt water pump change on my 2.7 anyways, so i'd rather do it on the 2.5 if its worth it. Does the 325i have a lower gear ratio and a lhs???? How can I tell if its and lhs?? Are most or all the sensors interchangable???? Is the rack and pinion interchangeable?
Would I need too change computor some of wire harness??
Can someone please post a link for engine swap, or point me in the right direction!!!!
Thanks all
Sam

[jlevie]

Your 87 should have a 2.93 differential. The 88 should have a 3.73 it it has a manual transmission.
It may, or may not, have limited slip.

If you do the swap you'll need to want to swap in the complete drive train, engine harness, and DME. You will also have to modify the engine harness to make it compatible with the car's wiring.

[samboatman]

Both cars are 5 spds. Are the cyl heads. injecters, mass air, struts, altenator, starter interchangable?. The drive drive train would be do-able only if its worth it....
help!!!!!

[unrlmth]

Why not swap the good stuff over to the 325i? Then you could also have (easy) plastic bumpers, and not have to deal with swapping engines and drive trains.

[jlevie]

Both cars are 5 spds. Are the cyl heads. injecters, mass air, struts, altenator, starter interchangable?. The drive drive train would be do-able only if its worth it....
help!!!!!

The struts are probably, but not necessarily, the same. While the transmission in the 87 car can be used in a later M20B25 engined car, the reverse isn't true. The engine, cylinder head, injectors, etc are different between these two cars.