323i head on Eta????

[Jand3rson]

damn straight. I eat, drink, sleep, think BMWs 4 Life.

I just don't drive one right now......

I'm an E30 Addict.....too bad there's no 12 Step program....only 3 Pedals beeeotch!

My EXACT situation and life's creed. Never lose the faith, Robert!

[bimmerlover]

I had a 323i head that I put on my 325e and it was great, really allowed the car to rev like my 325i does now. The car was definitely quicker and felt much smoother throughout the rev range than it did with the old head.

Ohh.. That's great to know. How hard was it? Any tips or advice?

[James Crivellone]

I had a 323i head that I put on my 325e and it was great, really allowed the car to rev like my 325i does now. The car was definitely quicker and felt much smoother throughout the rev range than it did with the old head.

what ECU/Harness did you run? still the 027? or the 173/153

[cheades]

All that was needed was to swap the head, I used all the stock eta intake manifold, wiring, ecu. You need a custom chip to take full advantage of the swap and especially the extra rpm available with the double springs and good cam. It might be easier/cheaper to find a wiring harness/ecu from an i and install it with that.

[Super Eta]

What kind of chip did u get and how much did the chip cost?

[DaN]

All that was needed was to swap the head, I used all the stock eta intake manifold, wiring, ecu. You need a custom chip to take full advantage of the swap and especially the extra rpm available with the double springs and good cam. It might be easier/cheaper to find a wiring harness/ecu from an i and install it with that.

It doesn't seem like the eta intake would flow very well at the higher rpms, it seems primarily designed for low end torque.
It might be best to get a 325i intake, injectors and ecu and bolt them to the 323i head.

Anyone know the compression ratio created with the 323i head on the eta block with no bottom end changes?

[ETA fro]

i might be way off, but i seem to remember that the compression loss when putting the 323i head as opposed to the 325i, was less but there was stil lloss.
i will try and find it

[ETA fro]

The 2.7 litre rig is basically the same as a 325i block , but
with shorter con rods (the same as those on a 320/6 323i), a longer
81mm throw crank, flatish top pistons (3 types actually- U.S type
deep dished(8.0:1CR), early Brit. type slightly domed ("83-"85)
(11:1CR) and later type slightly dished (10.2:1CR)).The head on a standard Eta is the
same casting as the early E21 323i (tiny ports) but with only
provision for 4 bearings. The thing most people do is mate the large
port 325i head casting on to this engine (lookout for my article on
small six heads on the net coming soon) using the late Brit. 11:1
pistons. With this head this yields a compression ratio of about
10.4:1.This is OKAY but in my opinion the con rods are too short for
a high performance motor when considering the long stroke of the
engine . the concern here is the more extreme connecting rod angle
and resulting increase in piston speed. A stroker engine revved will
show increased piston , ring and rod bearing wear considerably. More
heat is generated at the rod bearings because of the increased angle of
rotation during each stroke of the piston. Oiling becomes very
critical and an oil cooler, always a good idea on the small six ,
becomes a must.

so it says it drops the euro comp from 11:1 to 10.4:1 us standard is 8:1
might drop it alot, so maybe if you could get some brit pistons

[rwh11385]

I just found two more great resources.

http://www.e21bmw.net/graymarket/library/327i.php - E21 Greymarket Website

Instructions for Converting a 323i to 327i


This is a very straightforward and relatively easy upgrade that completely transforms the character of your 323i........

What you will need

A 2.7 liter short block from a 1982-88 528e or 1984-86 325e. This so-called "eta" motor is basically a larger displacement, low performance version of the small-block six used in the 323i. The low performance of the eta motor is due to its low-lift, short-duration camshaft with weak valve springs, small intake and exhaust manifolds, and an economy tuned ignition and fuel injection system.

What to do

The eta short block bolts right up to your 323i transmission, motor mounts, oil pan, and cylinder head. Use the 323i's K-Jetronic fuel injection system (drill and tap two holes in the 2.7 block to mount the warm-up regulator in the same place as on the 2.3 block), the 323i's distributor (remove the plug in the 2.7 block where it mounts), and the 323i's front engine covers and flywheel.

If you want to use the eta motor's head, that's okay (the early eta head casting and valves are identical to the 323i's). But you definitely want to use the 323i camshaft and valve springs or performance will suffer greatly. To do this, you must drill oil passages in the three undrilled eta head's cam journals so that you now have a total of seven useable cam bearings as in the 323i head. Don't forget to use the 323i valve springs as well. Also use the 323i intake and exhaust manifolds for better performance.

http://e21.tricord.cjb.net/forum/view.php?view=2808

Let's see here. There are many versions of the ETA engine, so you need to pay attention which one you're getting because results will greatly vary.

First, you have the earlier ETA engines with early M20 head, casting number 1 264 200. These heads are identical to the E21 323i and 320/6 engines, except that the ETA head has a low-lift, low-duration cam which runs only with 4 bearings (as opposed to 7 for a regular cam). If you are to use such an ETA head, it will need oil passage drillings to make the other three bearings usuable, and you'll need an E21 valvetrain.
In this configuration, several engine types were produced, with compression ratio ranging from 9:1 to 11:1. It's up to you to find the one you best like. Using such a block the modification is almost a simple bolt-on, there is a plug covering the hole to seat the distributor, and it should be allright.

Jason_323i:

HI check out my rough translation from e30.de

http://e21.tricord.cjb.net/members/jason/2.7.zip

Jason - haven't downloaded, but I bet it is worth it

200 ponies should be the average with the conversion. Some have said that 180 is more the realistic number. This is using an updated Motronic engine management.

RDAvena:
I have included a link to Jack Roberts collected notes on the 2.7 conversion.

http://e21.tricord.cjb.net/members/RDAvena/JackRobertsnotes.zip

[M42Technik]

"I'm an E30 Addict.....too bad there's no 12 Step program....only 3 Pedals beeeotch!"

Quote of the day!

And M42's rock out, you're just jealous of our fuel economy!