2.7 ETA Performance; Chips vs. Motronic upgrade vs. ?

[Regnar75]

yea Gary Horneck I read your posts and checked out your threads before i went 2.7i. great help haha. i had an 86ES and drove that around for a bit. after about a year i chipped it with a Mark D chip and it woke up a bit but still had a very low rev limit. Having never done a head swap before, i had a buddy help me and we were able to swap heads and convert fully to Motronic 1.3, (i have a extensive post in the 2.7i thread of all the little things i ran into that weren't mentioned in the thread) and am using an Eurotuning.us 2.7i chip because you just couldn't beat the price, i think it was 79$ brand new (kind of a gamble since i never heard of them but i figured the low price was due to it being a new company, and now i just checked the price has gone up since then) and the 2.7i is LOADS faster than my chipped eta. on that note, if you still would rather just chip your ETA and call it a day (its still a worth while option) i have my old Mark D chip that I'll sell you ;)

[digger]

a fresh stock B25 assembled with care makes 125-130ft-lb at 2500rpm, 150lbft peak torque and 150-155whp peak hp. i have several plots in my archives showing as such so gives up sweet fuck all torque at the bottom end and more hp than the previous example

[e30trooper]

a 2.7i conversion is well worth the thought.
From owning 5 e30's ( one that was m10 ) out of all the m20's the 2.7i I made was alot more fun to drive. Matched up with a 3.73lsd it was great from a dig and had tq for days.
Adding a alpina b3 rep chip opened up more doors.

Adding that with just a basic I head conversion , decked head ,chip and 3.73 rear end the car could chirp 3rd gear allday everyday.

[Dakotademon7]

This thread is giving some great info. I don't understand this swap 100% yet but seems to be a route that I may want to go. I may be better off with this then to do a complete engine swap. Thanks for starting this thread.

[Lyfesideways]

a 2.7i conversion is well worth the thought.
From owning 5 e30's ( one that was m10 ) out of all the m20's the 2.7i I made was alot more fun to drive. Matched up with a 3.73lsd it was great from a dig and had tq for days.
Adding a alpina b3 rep chip opened up more doors.

Adding that with just a basic I head conversion , decked head ,chip and 3.73 rear end the car could chirp 3rd gear allday everyday.

Exactly!! Pretty much my exact setup,an with the 3.73lsd it gets 3rd all day long.
It's a drift car and I am extremely happy coming from my old corollas that don't even chirp second gear... Haha

[fiveightandten]

Thanks for all the additional replies.

I think you guys have convinced me on the 2.7i setup. I'm going to look at an 885 head local to me tomorrow. He's only got the head, but at least the other parts are cheaper to ship and less complex to worry about issues buying remotely.

I should be able to piece this together in a few weeks, I would think. I'm sure there will be more questions to come.

[Lyfesideways]

Thanks for all the additional replies.

I think you guys have convinced me on the 2.7i setup. I'm going to look at an 885 head local to me tomorrow. He's only got the head, but at least the other parts are cheaper to ship and less complex to worry about issues buying remotely.

I should be able to piece this together in a few weeks, I would think. I'm sure there will be more questions to come.

find some valve springs and a stock cam or whatever grind you want and you will be set! I had my 885 head completely tore apart and put back together and in the car in less than two days.
not to hard of a job at all.

[fiveightandten]

find some valve springs and a stock cam or whatever grind you want and you will be set! I had my 885 head completely tore apart and put back together and in the car in less than two days.
not to hard of a job at all.

Thanks. The stock valve springs and cam won't be good for this? I'm not looking to rev to the moon or anything (it's a complete head, tanked, assembled and adjusted. Just no valve cover with it). I'll have to do some reading. I've read that people deck this head to keep from loosing too much compression. I've also read not to deck it because the clearances are very tight against the ETA pistons. Not sure what route to go there.

[fiveightandten]

If anyone has any parts that would help me piece together a 2.7i setup, hit me up.

I'm off to a good start with today's pickup...

[Regnar75]

I think that Decking the head is pretty negligible in terms of performance, but may be completely needed if your head has any warping at all. put a known straight edge on the head in any and every combination of angles to make sure its 100% flat (or take to a head shop and have them do it) but i would recommend replacing the wear items like valve stem seals and some other basic plastic/rubber parts (they should come in an e30 head gasket set). if you really wanted to and have the budget to, you can upgrade springs and cam as well but honestly stock runs great as well (im running stock).
start looking in your local junk yards, car parts from e30 owners TO e30 owners are always more expensive than from a yard, to a yard a heads a head (they dont care that its 885, 731 or whatever other e30 head there is) and if you find a full b25 in the yard you can pull everything then and there and wont miss little important pieces like the CPS bracket (i only say this because i missed it)
I pulled the Head, intake manifold, AFM, harmonic balancer, Tstat housing, Full fuel system, ECU, Valve cover, spark plug wires (wire #6 is very important), distributor cap/rotor, upper timing belt cover, and im sure there was some other stuff and i walked out the yard paying 125$ (the wiring harness i had shipped and spent about 85$ shipped because the one in the yard was cut)

[ForcedFirebird]

(wire #6 is very important)

Not really. Unplug it and see what happens ;)

[fiveightandten]

I think that Decking the head is pretty negligible in terms of performance, but may be completely needed if your head has any warping at all. put a known straight edge on the head in any and every combination of angles to make sure its 100% flat (or take to a head shop and have them do it) but i would recommend replacing the wear items like valve stem seals and some other basic plastic/rubber parts (they should come in an e30 head gasket set). if you really wanted to and have the budget to, you can upgrade springs and cam as well but honestly stock runs great as well (im running stock).
start looking in your local junk yards, car parts from e30 owners TO e30 owners are always more expensive than from a yard, to a yard a heads a head (they dont care that its 885, 731 or whatever other e30 head there is) and if you find a full b25 in the yard you can pull everything then and there and wont miss little important pieces like the CPS bracket (i only say this because i missed it)
I pulled the Head, intake manifold, AFM, harmonic balancer, Tstat housing, Full fuel system, ECU, Valve cover, spark plug wires (wire #6 is very important), distributor cap/rotor, upper timing belt cover, and im sure there was some other stuff and i walked out the yard paying 125$ (the wiring harness i had shipped and spent about 85$ shipped because the one in the yard was cut)

Thanks for all the info. I'm putting together a spreadsheet of all the parts I need, and making sure I tack on something any time I see someone mention it (thanks for the CPS bracket).

There seems to be a lot of conflicting info with respect to what parts are actually needed. For instance, you mention the fuel system, whereas those things are listed as optional in the stickied thread. The big inconsistency seems to be peoples' opinions on running the stock ETA bottom end. In reading initially, it seemed like people were saying it would lead to slow starting and lower compression than SETA pistons, but was otherwise fine. Now i'm reading posts that say it's not an acceptable setup.

You mentioned above that you have a chip you're not using. Even though I did buy a head, I think I should experience the car with a chip before I go through with this. Especially if i'm going to have to touch the bottom end (which I did not want to do), I want to make sure I wouldn't be satisfied with just a chip and exhaust. I'm going to shoot you a PM.

[digger]

not really. Unplug it and see what happens ;)

aka sfa?

[squidmaster]

Complete ETA bottom with I head is completely acceptable. It gives the lowest compression depending on your year, but is still a worthy upgrade

[fiveightandten]

Complete ETA bottom with I head is completely acceptable. It gives the lowest compression depending on your year, but is still a worthy upgrade

Thanks for the info.

What would you say the lesser of evils is:
-Motronic 1.3, 2.5i intake components, with stock ETA head and block (higher compression, inferior flow and lower rev limit)
-Motronic 1.3, 2.5i intake components with 885 head and stock ETA block (lower compression, better flow, higher rev limit)

For the tunes you can provide, is either if those a clearly more desirable choice?