m20 or m10. Opinions

[KillaCams]

For reliability issues i would stick with an m20 with bolt ons..for now at least, unless you know what you're doing with boost, an m10 boosted may cost you more coin than its worth

[6gen91]

the m10 is clean. 110k, you cant go wrong, but if i drop the m20 in, ill still need the dif, trans, ds, manual radiator and all the other junk. its so annoying i had to get it from an auto.. lol

[87e30]

You can use the diff, just need a trans and driveshaft.

I'd go m20.

[Vince30]

I would say m20 all the way, especially if its the b25.
And are you in the city?

[6gen91]

i live in the city, my car is in hodgkins. i know exactly where crystal lake is, my buddies all live in grayslake. and i think its clear, im going the m20 route. i just have a few questions on how. should i pull all as one(subframe,suspension,engine) or go peice by peice? because i will be taking the whole front suspension off the donor car and putting on my 318i as its almost brand new.

[KillaCams]

Post up pics if you can to help us confirm it is indeed a 2.5 engine.

I would do the whole subframe from the bottom of the car, from what i've seen on the forum the 318 subframe is prone to cracking for some reason. I'm in the process of changing my M20 block in my car and it was alot easier going from the bottom.

I cracked the sub frame bolts but didn't remove them, then i used an engine hoist to support the weight of the engine and trans. Remove bolts and lower everything onto 2 dollies. Just don't forget to unhook the steering joint and the slave cylinder, the soft line on the slave cylinder will break and it's a $30 line, ask me how i know lol also i have a jack and jack stands for a jeep, if you're working with regular car jack stands i would recommend removing the intake manifold for extra clearance, even with my setup i cleared the throttle body linkage by millimeters

[6gen91]

well the engine mounts from the 318 dont matchup to the m20 engine anyways so id have to swap out the subframe. im just weary about it because ive never dropped it from the bottom with everything still attached.

[KillaCams]

As long as you have some dollies to move it around it's easier to go from the bottom, i'll find out next week how hard it is to put back in though lol

[6gen91]

lmao ill find out this weekend how hard it is to put back in lmao.. im probably gunna use the engine hoist and lift the car shell up, then slowly drop it back down onto the subframe. lol ghetto but it works

[KillaCams]

Be careful where you mount the hoist to the body, i would be weary to tweak something. My game plan is to roll the engine back under the car, lower the jack stands and then hoist the engine into place

[6gen91]

ill figure it out and let u know if something blows up lol