New Engine project for E28 528E

[slammin.e28]

By diesel what i meant was a small diesel engine. I believe BMW made some in the e30/e28 era for Europe only.

M21 came in the 524TD for the US and Euro market.

I'd ship an M51 over here and throw it in. Om nom.

[einstein57]

I have a 524td. Did a 5 speed swap because they all came auto in US. Not easy to find and almost everything has to be purchased new and special ordered. I wouldn't mind a small fist gen dodge ram 6 cylinder swap.

[E28boy]

I see everyone's point. Well I guess back to the drawing board. Dont know what I will want to do now.

[iamsam]

have a think as to why you want to swap out a motor in the first place, and that will tell you which direction you need to go.

[JW767]

Eta and SETA already get excellent mileage.......If you want simple, cheap, power and economy..M30

[einstein57]

I've never heard of anyone getting good fuel economy with an m30

[JW767]

Its all relative..My daily driver is a Ford SuperDuty. Depending on how its geared and how easy you drive it an M30 E28 can avg. low 20's. On the rare chance I get to drive mine I always have my foot buried and it still gets 14 or 15 mpg. I was pointing out that it is a great mix of respectable power and fuel economy as well as being cheap and simple. So to the OP, ditch the 4Zyl and bolt up a B35.

[ColdAccord]

m50. hydraulic lifters, straightforward swap from an m20. inexpensive, better fuel economy than an m20 (though b27's are pretty decent on fuel. last time I owned one was a good 8-9 years ago but I remember it being pretty damn efficient).

m20b27, or m50 if you want to be a pain in the ass to yourself

[xxx-Lost-Soul-xxx]

Its all relative..My daily driver is a Ford SuperDuty. Depending on how its geared and how easy you drive it an M30 E28 can avg. low 20's. On the rare chance I get to drive mine I always have my foot buried and it still gets 14 or 15 mpg. I was pointing out that it is a great mix of respectable power and fuel economy as well as being cheap and simple. So to the OP, ditch the 4Zyl and bolt up a B35.

The 3.46 is great for DD,but I get 20 MPG average,and thats with some heavy footing,while when i run a 3.25 i can get around 25 mpg.

[JW767]

The 3.46 is great for DD,but I get 20 MPG average,and thats with some heavy footing,while when i run a 3.25 i can get around 25 mpg.

Nice,.. The 15 mpg I get is balls out with a 3.73. I'm going back to 3.46 whenever I put a V8 in it. Lost-soul, is your engine a B35 or B34?

[slammin.e28]

I've never heard of anyone getting good fuel economy with an m30

I get 26 highway with my B35'd e28 and a 3.25LSD.

Not bad, I'd say.

[VinniE30]

To comments above about the M30...

I get about the same gas mileage in my m30 e30 as I got in my m20 e30.
There's lots of false info that get repeated about m30s.

Lets look at an objective, fair comparison between them.
According to fueleconomy.gov (EPA numbers)...
In the same chassis (E34) - M30 vs M20
M30 gets 14 city, 16 combined, 21 highway
M20 gets 16 city, 18 combined, 22 highway
The difference is very insignificant.

Of course only use those numbers for comparison to others on the website.(not to what you're actually calculating yourself or new car window stickers) They are far off what you would actually be getting; very very conservative (low) compared to real world numbers because of the way they were tested and also the adjustment to modern EPA testing.

[xxx-Lost-Soul-xxx]

Nice,.. The 15 mpg I get is balls out with a 3.73. I'm going back to 3.46 whenever I put a V8 in it. Lost-soul, is your engine a B35 or B34?

I have a Dirty B34.

When i had a 373 in a green B34 it was around 15 miles MPG for me too.

[JW767]

I have a Dirty B34.

Sweet, just for clarity mine is B35.

[xxx-Lost-Soul-xxx]

Not to mention the M44 is (IMO) the worst little turd of an engine BMW ever made....I'd rather have a Nikisil V8 with 500k miles on it than an M44.

Thats saying something,because no nikisil would make it to 500k lol