N20B20 in an E30?

[Motheye99]

There's also the dual weber setup, 1200$ I think pretty good and offers roughly 10hp over mototronic. My friend has a e21 with a 2.1L and it sounds nice and it's quick.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[hozzziii]

Bummer, i was going to suggest Honda F20C with its transmission.

There has been some chatter on other BMW forums (2002faq, a while ago)
about the latest 4 cylinder engines. There are several serious challenges that boil
down to pretty much:

Packaging- getting all that PLUMBING to fit is not trivial.

Control- convincing all the electronics to work has not, as far as I've seen, been done
yet on a scale that would be posting on a bulletin board. Convincing the
ECU to let the engine start takes a LOT of conditions now, and meeting those conditions
in a different chassis will be a lot of work.

I'd say it's about a 9 banana job, on a scale of one to 5...

...and I'd guess it'll be a few more years before the control systems are hacked far enough
for us mere mortals to stand a chance of getting one going 'with some help from the internet'.

<edit>
I agree with Nando- build a relatively high- compression 2 liter M10 and inject it. I don't expect you have
to meet stringent smog, but even if you do, you can hide a LOT of modern electronics inside the
M10B18 injection system. 150 hp and 140 ft/lbs isn't hard. Then there's always a turrrbooooooo...

just my take,
t

I find your thoughts and Nando's very... arousing.
But getting back to serious thoughts and the ecu part, I totally agree that it is pretty much impossible at the moment to get these new engines to start and THEN work properly.
Liked your banana scale too xd.
You know M10's are cheap too, maybe I could find an already injected 2 liter, then start modding it out of the car, while I daily drive what I have, test that turbo idea...:devil:
Sounds like a dope party!
Or we could just keep what we have and use the very well maintained M10B18 right here, huh
I remember I saw kit about making the M10 injected, it had manyyyyy parts tho, but then again that was probably to make it with factory ecu? I think
So Megasquirt might need different stuff to make it happen, hmm
Seriously my pulse is rising right now

[hozzziii]

Can you build a 2 liter M10 stroker? It would be way cheaper, the M10 is bullet proof and you could always run in on something like Megasquirt. If I'm not mistaken, the early 316i is carbureted?

The N20, ehhh. It sounds like a tractor and has poor reliably. I guess 255hp would be fun, but a swap would probably not be so simple.

Well, I would have to find some internals to make it, but sure, not that complicated.
And yes it is carburated as I said in the original post. I'd have to source a kit to find the correct wiring and sensors to make it doable for Megasquirt.
I like your idea very much.

That N20, hmm, shame, sounded very promising.

[TobyB]

Bummer, i was going to suggest Honda F20C with its transmission.

There has been some chatter on other BMW forums (2002faq, a while ago)
about the latest 4 cylinder engines. There are several serious challenges that boil
down to pretty much:

Packaging- getting all that PLUMBING to fit is not trivial.

Control- convincing all the electronics to work has not, as far as I've seen, been done
yet on a scale that would be posting on a bulletin board. Convincing the
ECU to let the engine start takes a LOT of conditions now, and meeting those conditions
in a different chassis will be a lot of work.

I'd say it's about a 9 banana job, on a scale of one to 5...

...and I'd guess it'll be a few more years before the control systems are hacked far enough
for us mere mortals to stand a chance of getting one going 'with some help from the internet'.

<edit>
I agree with Nando- build a relatively high- compression 2 liter M10 and inject it. I don't expect you have
to meet stringent smog, but even if you do, you can hide a LOT of modern electronics inside the
M10B18 injection system. 150 hp and 140 ft/lbs isn't hard. Then there's always a turrrbooooooo...

just my take,
t

[nando]

Can you build a 2 liter M10 stroker? It would be way cheaper, the M10 is bullet proof and you could always run in on something like Megasquirt. If I'm not mistaken, the early 316i is carbureted?

The N20, ehhh. It sounds like a tractor and has poor reliably. I guess 255hp would be fun, but a swap would probably not be so simple.

[hozzziii]

Honda K20

Looked it up, seems they used it on either fwd or awd cars, and I don't know how we can make it work on the E30 cluster too?
Also, are you suggesting a Honda engine in the E30 forum?
What blasphemy is this?
Jk, I know they're very reliable ;)
But seriously I would like to keep it BMW, thanks tho <3

[Danny]

Honda K20

[hozzziii]

Hello everyone
New to the forum here

So here is the situation, I have an 85 316 sedan, burgundrot metallic mind you <3. It's in OK condition, runs daily, no major issues, the occasional maintenance here and there. And it's pretty much all stock, my father gave it to me, he's been the previous owner, he kept it in pretty great condition and all is well and she runs to this day. Oh and I am still running the original Pierburg 2BE carburator, we've had some issues over the years but so far, still works.

But a 316 never had much power to begin with you know. And it's probably lost a few horses over the years too. On top of that fuel economy for a 1.8 is not that great either. And cold starts are a b**** really.

So let's just say, if I am legally obligated to have a 4cyl 2liter car (I don't live in the US) what would you suggest?

My two important factors that would be great for me are power, and reliability. Which I understand you can't have too much of one, without sacrificing the other. Also fuel economy is a welcome plus.

So I've been looking around, and found that one of the more recent engines BMW have made that makes exciting power is the N20, the one that goes in 28i cars and makes around 255hp stock, if I remember correctly. But it also seems reliability isn't really great (timing chain guide, oil pump etc.), at least compared to the M10 I already have. Plus with a few mods, it seems pretty okay to get over 300whp out of it, which seems a lot of fun.
But this is just an option I thought looked interesting, if any of you thinks there are other engines that might be better candidates, by all means, tell me.

Remember folks this is just a discussion, I really like the idea, so I thought it will be very nice to get the conversation started with the people in the biz. I would really like to hear your thoughts on how do you think it would turn out, will it be worth it or not, do you think it's doable? etc.

Also side note:
I have seen people do all kinds of swaps in the E30 as you all know, but couldn't find any N20 swaps though. Any ideas on how to make it work with wiring? And the analog cluster? Do I have to do a stand alone DME? Can we keep vavlvetronic and vanos? Would love to hear some insights on this as well.

Yours truly,
Hormoz