recently bought an M

[bmwmike]

I havent been around for a while. I recently bought a 91 M5 3.6. Its an amazing car and I couldnt resist buying it. I miss the e30 though. I wanted to swap the m62 into an e30 at one point but i just couldnt get the extra cash and down time of a car to do it.

Recently I was looking at the 535 motors and trannies. Theres a guy on cardomain with a red 535 thats making about 500 whp with a turbo 535. Ive been reading up on swapping the m30 and Ive also noticed that the engines/trannies are really cheap.
You may be wondering how I could be complaining about having a lack of extra cash and buying an M5, but I got a loan for that....
Anyway, I was thinking I could buy an M30 and the tranny, eventually rebuild them, then find parts to add boost and to swap it into an e30. And finally when thats all ready go actually buy an e30 (and maybe sell the M5 if i can let go).

Anyway Id like to see the car making 350-400 whp if I did this (the M5 is pretty quick so if I did something with the e30 Id want it pretty crazy, and considering theres only 1500 e34 M5s in the US, I dont think its worth molesting).

Does the M30 seem like the most reasonable and cheapest route of doing this kind of power? Id probably drive the car pretty much daily as well so reliability needs to be a factor. I know the M30's are strong motors especially if I rebuilt it with the proper parts for boost and had a good tune once its all said and done. What do you guys think?

Also a pictures of the M5

[M3 Ryan]

The M30 is very strong and reliable. They respond very well to boost and 350+whp is not out of the question for a daily driven E30 M30. The swap is pretty involved though, I did it last year with George Graves with his '89 325is and an M30B35 Motronic 1.1 engine. Total cost came out close to $4k for a stock engine at 90k miles, a 100k mile Getrag 265 trans, modified/rebuilt E30 M3 driveshaft, custom fabbed motor mounts (by yours truly), electric fan and work to mate M30 exhuast back into stock E30 system for stealth install.
Turbo setups are around $6k for a TCD turbo setup to make the power you want.
Nice M5, I love the look of the later wide grill and hood, way more attractive than the early narrow grills.

[bmwmike]

The M30 is very strong and reliable. They respond very well to boost and 350+whp is not out of the question for a daily driven E30 M30. The swap is pretty involved though, I did it last year with George Graves with his '89 325is and an M30B35 Motronic 1.1 engine. Total cost came out close to $4k for a stock engine at 90k miles, a 100k mile Getrag 265 trans, modified/rebuilt E30 M3 driveshaft, custom fabbed motor mounts (by yours truly), electric fan and work to mate M30 exhuast back into stock E30 system for stealth install.
Turbo setups are around $6k for a TCD turbo setup to make the power you want.
Nice M5, I love the look of the later wide grill and hood, way more attractive than the early narrow grills.

I agree about the grill. Even though its a 91, the previous owner installed the 95 grill for a more modern look.

[bmwmike]

also, did you rebuild the m30 as well? Or did it cost 4000 just to swap the used motor/trans in as it was?
Ive seen 535 engines for $500 and the same for the 5 spd trannies. Also are certain years better for what Im looking at doing or will all the 80s and 90s be basically the same?

[BMWM5LOVER]

Damn that's a good looking M5. Keep it clean man!

[Werksmini]

s38? WTF IS UP WITH THE 10 CHARACTER LIMIT

[bmwman]

Very nice. Congrats!

[Digitalwave]

There is a E30 with a turbo M30 on eBay right now.

[uflnuceng]

I did the M30 swap and actually have all the pieces you would need (driveshaft, Motronic 1.3 although you would loose that for a turbo setup, 1990 M30 motor with 5-speed tranny, exhaust, radiator, etc.) List goes on and on. You just would need the mounts and I have the E30.de blueprints. Engine is in fantastic condition.

As fas as people saying it is a bit involved... I don't know how. For a motor swap, it wasn't that difficult except for that one part where you squeeze the motor into the car, but if you weren't lazy like me and took off the alternator that wouldn't be a problem. It took about 3 weekends (although there were delays due to part orders which pushed it to about 5 weekends) to do and it was the first time I had ever done anything so big, and I was doing a 5-lug swap at the time as well.

Engine started up the very first time. Read up on the swap at my website. I documented it pretty well. Ran the quarter mile in 14.3s with a conforti chip and that is about as fast as your M5 would be with a chip most like... The engine is just begging to be turboed. It eats boost up in the double digits.

Anyway... that is my $0.02. I thought the swap was a great decision, definitely better than an M50/52 swap and not as expensive as an S50/52 swap... I just didn't have a nice enough E30 shell so I dismantled it and got an M6... but the M6 isn't going to be as fast... I just wanted to get my first ///M car.

[SchnellerVert]

They are uber sleds but man they are not cheap to run in any venture. parts=$$ and gas=$$$$ Insurance=$$$$$

[Digitalwave]

They are uber sleds but man they are not cheap to run in any venture. parts=$$ and gas=$$$$ Insurance=$$$$$

Are you talking about M5's, or M30 swapped E30's?

[hamann318is]

OT, but nice M5. I'm trying to convince my dad to switch out the grilles on his E34.

95 Grille > *.

[bmwmike]

They are uber sleds but man they are not cheap to run in any venture. parts=$$ and gas=$$$$ Insurance=$$$$$

parts arent so bad unless your referring to the engine. The e34 M5's have this notorious problem with the suspension. Great thing about most of the e34 M5s in the US is they dont have this self leveling crap so its nothing to worry about for me. Gas is really poorly rated at 11/20. The truth is (and its not just me you can ask everyone or search the m5board) that they get about 19/26. And insurance is less than the Jag XJR and BMW 740il I recently had (i pay about $115/month, full coverage but $1000 deductible).

As far as the 1/4 mile time you might be surprised. The powerchip claims it adds almost 40 hp. That with the full eisenmann exhaust and intake it has makes it pretty quick. The guy I bought it from said it dynoed at 290 hp and a bit less torque. He put 105 octane in (I wouldnt do this) and ran a 13.10 in the quarter mile. So not too shabby.
The beast is really something you have to drive to believe, I never thought a car that weighs 3800 lbs could handle so amazingly well.

But back to the M30, Im thinking if anything it would make a nice winter project especially.

uflnuceng: pm me with some details on motor/trans and parts and some prices.