What is the difference between a US spec M50 and UKspec M50?

[86325e]

Are there any differences between a US spec M50 and M50 from the UK? I know the S50/52 are different. I'm asking because I have an oppurtunity to puchase one M50 complete with everything and 5 speed transmission (70k miles, ecus,harness, alt, ps, waterpump, starter, manifolds, thrtl body, everything.. I'll ask them to include the down pipes) from the UK. The price of this with shipping included to my door will be cheaper than if I went to a yard here and bought the same thing here in town. I think the M50 market is inflated here in the Dallas area after hearing what you guys can get M50s complete with tranny for swap in other areas of the country. Anyway from what I gathered mechanically the engines should be the same but I'm not sure about the ecu(s). This engine/tranny is out of a E34 and I was told it had 3 ecus from the breaker? If they still use leaded gas there will I be required to change any seals (valve guide seals, etc)? I'm planning on replacing the gaskets (head gasket, rear main, oil pan, etc) anyway and put a fresh water pump on it.

[BavarianBimmer]

Leaded gas in the UK ????
I don't think that leaded gas is still available for many years in the UK
the fuel companies stopped distributing leaded fuel in the mid 90's here
most (Euro) engine's are equipped for running on unleaded fuel in the early 90s
'caus cars with a catalyc converter needs only unleaded fuel ;)

[M-technik-3]

Re: What is the difference between a US spec M50 and UKspec

Are there any differences between a US spec M50 and M50 from the UK? I know the S50/52 are different. I'm asking because I have an oppurtunity to puchase one M50 complete with everything and 5 speed transmission (70k miles, ecus,harness, alt, ps, waterpump, starter, manifolds, thrtl body, everything.. I'll ask them to include the down pipes) from the UK. The price of this with shipping included to my door will be cheaper than if I went to a yard here and bought the same thing here in town. I think the M50 market is inflated here in the Dallas area after hearing what you guys can get M50s complete with tranny for swap in other areas of the country. Anyway from what I gathered mechanically the engines should be the same but I'm not sure about the ecu(s). This engine/tranny is out of a E34 and I was told it had 3 ecus from the breaker? If they still use leaded gas there will I be required to change any seals (valve guide seals, etc)? I'm planning on replacing the gaskets (head gasket, rear main, oil pan, etc) anyway and put a fresh water pump on it.

Did, I not give you correct answers this morning? The amount of money that you will shell out for changing valve seals and dealing with differances might not be worth the differance.

Not only that what are you going to do if your UK specific car needs a UK specfic part? Special order it? The US engine was tuned for US driving styles aka 0-60 streetlight driving. Good TQ base and more than adequate HP for E36's. So like I said you can buy a M50 for as little as $575 delivered.

Good luck with your swap since you seem to be convinced on the route you are going.

[86325e]

I checked out the link you gave me. The link you gave shows engines for as little as $575 but upon calling they want an addional $450 to deliver it to me plus extra for the ecu, harness, accessories, starter, transmission. Plus I'd still need to purchase a e34 oil pan, sump, oil tube items. Locally a M50, which ends up being a long block after calling them, they ask $1300. I then ask them for a complete one with everything minus transmission asking price is $1800 through that source. Another local source wanted $1950 for complete M50 with tranny. Both the sources were quoting 325i engines they didn't have any 525i engines. All sources were over 120k miles. This setup I'm looking at will cost me $1200 with shipping to my door. I'm done shopping around and I've found what I want.

Searching the net last night I found that the horsepower and torque numbers are identical. I haven't seen a dyno sheet of either US spec or UK spec so I don't know if they were tuned differently or not. From here I found they don't use leaded gas. So far it looks like all M50's are built the same and only the US and Euro S50/52 are different. At least I haven't seen any specs yet that say otherwise.