89 325i have potential?

[808BMW]

would it be worth it to just have the engine and tranny rebuilt? im not looking for a really fast car so im prally not going to go through with the engine swap. im going to have to stay all motor too. so if i can rebuild the motor a little more performance that would be great...is this possible? then do all the bolt ons i can...exhaust, intake, ignition and everythign else i can think of...suggestions?

thanks
devin

Put that money torward a good suspension setup is what I would do. If you want a lot of power, either engine swap or turbo.
If you dont want to spend the money for "a lot" of power, then do some other stuff to make it fun. Bolt-ons wont do much. An m20 is pretty fun, I say either leave it stock, or go all out with something else. Putting a lot of money down for not too much power isn't as fun as a nice suspension, a short shifter, or some driving schools.

[capitan-d]

what is a "nice suspention" links and prices would be sweet! how about short shifter, nice suspention and then bolt ons? :) how much should i expect to pay for a stock rebuild?

thanks
devin

[808BMW]

what is a "nice suspention" links and prices would be sweet! how about short shifter, nice suspention and then bolt ons? :) how much should i expect to pay for a stock rebuild?

thanks
devin

We have gone over ALOT of suspensions on here, you should search around. What kind of money do you want to spend on a "nice" suspension?

Short shifter would be about $80. Theres a parts list floating around here :P

A stock rebuild? Maybe $500? If your going to do a rebuild, that is the time to decide what this motor will become.

Like I said, bolt-ons won't do much. Maybe get a chip, but anything is kind of a waste of money IMO. You can spend grands and grands and still only come out with 200rwhp.

Just remember: Whatever you need to replace, consider going with an upgrade rather than the stock part. I rebuilt my motor before I knew anything about e30's. If I knew then what I know now, I would have went with a low compression 2.7i stroker, rather than a stock 2.5 rebuild. Would have only cost a bit more at the time, but now there really isn't a point ripping my whole motor apart to do a stroker, when it was just rebuilt like 15k ago.

[capitan-d]

little bit more? how much more? and what would be the hp gains?

thanks
devin

[808BMW]

Fred Kim's website: http://www.strictlyeta.net/index.html

He has a great article on the stroker project. I plan to turbo, so my 2.7i stroker would be cheap, since I don't plan on milling the head/block to bring compression up, or go with custom pistons and stuff. You should really start thinking of how much money you will spend, and where that money will go. Once you have some price ranges, it's easier to decide on some stuff to do, since you know what you can afford, and what your best bang for the buck mods are.

[RBBJ325is]

those would do just fine for alittle more umph under the hood. That what im going to do. I have the Ansa muffler and center section,K&N cone filter. then i want to add the schrick 272 cam. then spend most of my attention and money on brakes,suspetion and paint.

[capitan-d]

how much should i expect to pay (range) for a complete rebuild with and without the stroker...and what kind of hp numbers am i looking at? and then with bolt ons?

thanks
devin