Eta engine with I motronic?

[rs4pro3]

Ok I recently pickedup an 87 325is last Friday, the cylinder head had suffered oilstarvation. I tore the car down and guese what, the Cylinder head was an 885 I head but the internals of the block are 325e eta with an I block casting and all the I fuel injection and manifolds. Now I was thinking of either selling the rolling shell or swap my m30 engine into it. Well the shell has no rust and has never been wrecked so I'd rather not scrap it.
I don't have an I bottom end or an eta head laying around off hand.
But My mom has an 1986 528e that has not started nor run for over a year. It blew the headgasket and I rebuilt a 100k milage eta head I had and dropped it on. Afterwards the car wouldn't start. I traced it to the pickup sensor on the flywheel being broken but after replacing it, and the engine harness the car still won't start. I was thinking of taking that head off, putting the I dual valve springs in the head. The dropping that head on the Eta Engine block out of this car and making it driveable again. With the 528e it has somesort of electrical problem but we are unsure if it's the engine or the chassis. So this way I could have one running car out of 2 non running cars. So what do you think about the eta engine with I valve springs, I manifolds, and full I motronic. How well will it run? I hate the m20 eta fuel injection so I don't want to swap all that or buy the stuff I'd need(unsure of the working order of the 528e's stuff).
Should I even bother with it all? the 528e isn't worth anything but My mom is tired of it sitting there not running.
I have all the parts so it won't realy cost anything except for some gaskets here and there.

[EtaSport]

I say go for it man. I am pretty curious as to how it would work myself. Im assuming that as long as the eta cam doesnt fall off into nothing after 5 grand, it might pull pretty good up top. You can probably get away without opening those ports up, but it might be starving much above 5 grand. I want to try this myself, but with a 375k mile bottom end, I dont want to risk anything right now.

It would be something different, and it would probably have solid bottom end torque.

[rs4pro3]

If I don't sell the rolling shell then I'll do it. I don't realy plan on taking it above 5000 rpm;s basically the car would just be a back up incase the daily ever breaks down or my mom would drive it some.

[modifiede30]

Shave the head a bit to raise compression, otherwise, you'll be running at about 8.3:1, which won't be too great. I suspect it'll pull relatively well, but the compression is too low unless you decide to throw a turbo in it.

[Blaster.]

Eta engine with I motronic? From what i researched and what i remember, the I motronic wont even fit into the the connecters because their shaped diffrent. You could try a whole re-wireing, but im sure that those wireing are diffrent too.

[modifiede30]

If the engine in the car already had the 'i' motronic unit, its already wired with the correct harness, all that needs to be done is mechanical work.

[rs4pro3]

The 87 325is had no engine in it currently. Basicaly I'd have an full eta block, head, crank, rods, pistons but just with 325i fuel injection(i have everysingle part so that's no big deal). I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to do it or not.

[EtaSport]

okay, how can the compression be any lower than what the stock eta engine is? The mechanicals are the same, its just the computer shit is different. It should still be 9.5 or 9.0 whatever the stock eta is. I would try shaving the head if he were putting a 325i head on the eta block. (this would be nice for turbo since the CR would be that low).

The connectors wont match up, but you have to swtich all of the sensors over anyway, im sure ely knows all about that. Cause you need all the sensors, fpr, plug wires, tps, icv, and whatever else from an I motronic.

[modifiede30]

The "i" pistons are matched to the shape of the "i" head as well. This results in a very tight fit. When you mix the eta bottom end with stock eta pistons and an "i" head, the compression will drop since the piston no longer fits into the head the same way. This is also do to the different pin positions in the eta/"i" pistons. The "i" pistons reach higher into the head than eta.

[rs4pro3]

True, the engine has eta pistons with the I head. But since the I head is trash I'll be ussing the eta head.

[mikeedler]

The "i" pistons are matched to the shape of the "i" head as well. This results in a very tight fit. When you mix the eta bottom end with stock eta pistons and an "i" head, the compression will drop since the piston no longer fits into the head the same way. This is also do to the different pin positions in the eta/"i" pistons. The "i" pistons reach higher into the head than eta.

thats not entirelly true! I have 2 heads here at my house, that have a
2.5/2.7 casting on them. and the part number is the same as a 325i head.

[modifiede30]

thats not entirelly true! I have 2 heads here at my house, that have a
2.5/2.7 casting on them. and the part number is the same as a 325i head.

The castings of the heads are all the same, its the pistons and their domed shaped that make the difference. Without a domed piston, the compression drops since the piston doesn't extend above the block deck. WIth 'i' pistons, the crown extends over the deck into the head chamber. Eta pistons are almost flush with the deck of the block.

[Halon]

I also heard that the longblock style of the eta engine (is that right? is it longblock? blah.) can't handle the higher RPM's because its not ballenced for it. Maybe i'm recanting an old wives tale or something...

[Blaster.]

single valve springs, weak cam, weak crank is what i recall. Why did you bring up a pretty old post?

[rs4pro3]

No one yet had been able to provide proof of an ETA Crank breaking at the hihger rpm's.