Transmission woes

[SwiftE30]

bought a 97 M3 S52, Im in the process of a swap and wnat to know what tranny i have. Are there markings on the transmission that will tell me this, or did the cars only come with certain transmission for specific years?

[jlevie]

I believe that will be a ZF transmission.

[SwiftE30]

How does the zf compare to the getrag260 and 240 in reference to strength, reliabilty and performance.

[jlevie]

Since one tends not to hear of lots of problems with E36 transmissions, I'd say they are comparable to a Getrag. Keep in mind that 5th on the ZF is 1:1 where the Getrag 260 is .82:1, so to keep engine revs reasonable at highway speeds you need a lower ratio differential. Say something around 3.15.

[SwiftE30]

Yeah i've been reading about the diffs and it seems like the 3.25 LSD is the way to go. I have a 89 325i vert I'm doing the engine and trannyswap into, but I'm not sure what diff ad tranny are in it right now. Are there any markings on the diff ad tranny in the 325i i could look for?

[jlevie]

If your car has a manual transmission it will be a Getrag 260 and the differential will be a 3.73. If it has an automatic transmission the differential will be a 4.10.

[SwiftE30]

Yeah it's a manual. How well do you think the 3.73 would hold up? And I'm gonna need to get a driveline from an e30 if M3 correct? Or at least that's what I've been told.

[jlevie]

The diff will hold up. The problem will be that you'll be turning about 3750 at 70mph if you use the transmission from the M3.

[SwiftE30]

well im pretty sure im gonna stick with the M3 transmission, and just change the diff. 3750 at 70 just doesnt sound all that fun. What else is salvageable or worth swapping from the e36 to the e30? People recommend 5 lug swap but that seems to be about it.

[jlevie]

That is about it.

[SwiftE30]

k thanks for the info man