IE Stroker Kit vs S50

[Unearth078]

on your budget i really couldn't see the stroker being done. as you know theres going to be alot of modifications needed to be done to the head to support the bottom, schrick cam, enlarged valves etc.

power maybe dissapointing as well, while you may make 200 hp (optimistically but doable), the s50 has a little more in store right away, sure its a little out of your comfort zone tho

if you shop around for the swap parts i think you can do it without hitting 5k.

[Wh33lhop]

If you're going to throw a motor together from scratch don't forget to choose a cam--and I'm not sure if 19#ers will be enough for you. Select few that I'm aware of have actually put together an aftermarket stroker (if any on here), so you'd be one of the first and you'd certainly have a unique car.

You say you've owned your E30 since new--how old were you when you bought your car?

Edit: Good point, I read right over the ITB plans. The Dbilas ITB setup goes for well over a grand if you can get your hands on them (last I saw was priced at $2k), either way that's a huge expense on its own. You have probably figured this out by now, but as with everything, you're going to spend a lot more than you expect on this if you actually go through with it.

[Justin B]

Not sure exactly how they'll line up side to side, but I bet the S50 will still have some sort of advantage. On top of that, good luck staying under 5k, ESPECIALLY with some custom ITB's, unless you're going to just use motorcycle throttles. You could piece together your own IE kit for either less OR more depending on what components you use, and what you ultimately replace in the engine during the rebuild. My bottom up engine build building my own "kit" with the S52 crank and Metric Mechanic bits, I'm already well over 5k without machine work, new rockers, or ITB's.

[TexasTerp]

I'm working on putting together a worksheet for an engine build I would like to build next summer/fall. I am considering an S50 swap but I came across Ireland Engineering's Stroker kits and am intrigued. I'm particularly interested in the 3.1L Kit. They claim that you can "Turn the 2.5 liter 325i (m20)motor into a 3.1 liter for performance beyond a E36 M3. The additional torque allows the engine to pull strongly below 3000 rpm. Kit includes crank shaft with 89.6mm stroke, light weight forged Pistons, piston rings, high strength wrist pins, and main bearings." You can use your "i" rods or buy new high strength ones. All for 2k.

I would like to limit my budget to anywhere between 5-7k, preferably on the cheaper side as I still need a paint job and suspension first. So here's the thing, if I stick to 5k in parts I could either buy an s50 (an engine that I have limited experience working on) or I can have my spare block machined, honed and bored to spec and build a "new" 3.1L m20 (one that I've worked on my whole life, literally) with supposedly the same power output and have multiple upgrades on top of the kit.

Here's the build I was thinking of based on approximate pricing at 5k:

IE 3.1L Stroker Kit
M42 Radiator
Miller WAR Chip and MAF
Custom ITB Build
Custom Fiberglass Airbox for ITB
8mm Performance Ignition wires
19lb Fuel Injectors
Performance Headers (Ebay? BavAuto?)
Electric Radiator Fan
Scorpion/Stromung/UUC/Supersprint Exhaust (or Custom build)
Wideband 02 Sensor

now clearly I'll need plenty more little things like new motor mounts etc. The biggest advantages I have with the stroker kit is it's a direct drop in, I've owned my m20 325i since it rolled off the lot in 87 so I have far more experience with the engine, I can still use the Motronic system inline with the WAR chip and have it custom tuned (saves me from having to deal with a more complicated MS system) and I'll be able to do the entire swap without any major worries since I've never done an m/s50 swap before and have no desire to fuck anything up (which would mean me paying someone else to do it), I've rebuilt an m20 before.

So what do you guys think? 3.1L Stroker or S50? Has anyone ever bought an IE Stroker Kit??