Looking for everyone's thought on swaps.. read this please.

[Danny]

No fucks.

[Link]

Thanks for everyones thoughts so far, give's me more sides to look from. And please explain Danny why this isn't a general discussion? I want people's opinions who don't only think about m5x/s5x swaps.

More thoughts welcome guys, thanks!

[Danny]

Jeez today has been a bad day to be a mod.

[ak-]

Jeez today has been a bad day to be a mod.

not till you had to use your AK

[straight6pwr]

m50 was a way better motor than the m20. more torquey, smoother, etc. i've had both in my e30s. a 2700lb car with 200 hp is a great ratio. not underpowered where you feel like its a 4 banger and not overpowered where you are shredding tires/driving way too fast. plus its more likely that the s50 from an m3 has flogged and the m50 attached to an auto from a 325i didnt get worked that hard.

i drove my m50 swap with 3.73 LSD, followed by an s50 swap with a 3.25 LSD and i wasnt like OMG i need an s50. it wasnt that much faster.

[Link]

I have a 3.25lsd in the car, and use to have a 4.10lsd but drive highway a lot so i switched and love the feeling of the 3.25lsd.

Keep the thoughts coming, really appreciate it.

[karmatose]

For what it's worth I was facing this scenario last year. I didn't have a motor at all for my car and was deciding what to do. I was stuck between M/S5x, SBC, or SR20DET.

I ended up helping a guy install a bunch of go fast goodies into his car in trade for a SETA M20 and a G260. I drove his M50NV swapped car (with 4.10LSD) for a while and thought it was great. Instant torque and enough power to get into trouble. I instantly dropped the idea of the SBC and SR20DET and decided the M/S5x was what I wanted to do.

At that point I put the M20 I had got in the car and drove it for about 6 months before deciding I absolutely enjoy the old school charm of the M20. It's not fuel efficient or particularly fast, but it makes the right noises and is dead simple to work on. Not to mention very cheap to keep running. I'm now accumulating parts to build a fresh 3L stroker motor that should make near S50 power with no additional weight and complication.

Plus... With lots of people M/S5x swapping, M20's are becoming cheap and plentiful.

[deac0n]

Ignore me, I went back and hijacked my own thread

[Skunkworks]

it might not be what the cool kids would do but I would Freshen up what you have, maybe a nice mister-e performance head, and a fresh drive train, it will feel like a new car. Smog legal and 100% depenable.

A motor swap is great but the rest of the car is likely worn out..

[N2MYE30]

I swapped out my good running M20 for an M50NV in my coupe. No regrets. It has been totally reliable and as said above, plenty of power to get in trouble if you want. I did the swap because I wanted to do some hotrodding. It was fun and not too expensive but then again, I have a couple of car as a backup if needed but has not been needed. Its been my DD for 1.5 years.

But I will say from the what you have posted, just mend your M20. My cabrio still has an M20 and I am completly happy with it. It gets me down the road just fine, just not as fast...or loud. :/

Fix what you have until you really can afford a real upgrade. Personally, I think that boost is the one of best upgrades. Try to get with some e30 buds around you and get spin in theirs. It will give you an idea what you have in store. Be carful of getting into a boosted car, it will force you to spend more monnies.