M20B27 Chinese Food Delivery Build?

[Freakshow]

change your 02 sensor and see if that helps a bit saving mpgs.

[squidmaster]

Dang, 17mpg? That's pretty poor.

Change that diff, and let me know if you want an economy-only tune for whatever engine you go with.

[cferb]

Hey r3v, I've been having some ideas bouncing around in my head, and I'd like to run it bye you guys and see what you think. I am 18 years old, about to graduate high school and moving on to college in the fall. I'm a delivery boy at a local Chinese joint, so between that, driving to school, hanging out with friends, my girlfriend, and any other running around town I may be doing I drive between 400 and 700 miles a week. Currently gas is KILLING me. I fuel up a few times a week between 10-50 dollars, but I'm too scared to add the cost up. Currently I have an m20b25 in my car with a lightened flywheel and (I believe) a 4.10 diff. Car hauls, but it's getting me like 17mpg, with a lot of highway miles. .

Anyways, I bought a parts car for $200 hundred bucks, an 85 325es automatic. The car runs good when it is started, but it needs to be jumped every time, (changing the battery does not help). So my question to you is this. Since the engine in that car is already mine, would it be cost effective to yank it out, refresh it, and throw it in my 325i? I've seen some people claim to get almost 40mpg highway with an eta, and 30mpg around town. That would be a godsend to me right now. Plus I've never heard of a late model with an ETA engine in it. What do you think r3v? Should I do it, or am I getting myself in way too deep?

Those people are liars.

If you wanna save money on your driving buy an old CRX. Or if you still want an e30, sell the 325 and look for a 318

[15Michaeljoseph]

M20B27 Chinese Food Delivery Build?

work at a bar/restaurant or something. you'll make tips, or valet cars

pick up 2 jobs. Use the cars that you valet to run deliveries for the chinese food joint. boom, double profit, get to keep both e30s and the gf, problem solved. ;b

[Nick_S]

Ditch the GF, get a different job = Profit

[fiveightandten]

Forgot to mention the ETA is ugly as shit paint wise and has rusted rotos. no interior electronics working, steering wheel is basically tape. An engine swap would be 10x easier than making the ETA DD worthy. And I will actually be driving more when I go to college. As college is further away than my school, and I'm keeping the job.

With tips I make $10-$15 an hour depending on how busy we are. I'm still making up the cost of gas and then some, I just wanna make more money

Drive the car and the rust on the rotors will clean off. Who cares what the paint looks like? Use the thing for work and run it into the ground like the other guy said. Get a leopard print steering wheel cover for it from Pep Boys.

Do you know how to swap an ETA into your 2.5L car? It's a big job. It'll be easier to find the blown fuse and get that ETA on the road. You will have to pay for tags, but you will still be saving money over what you're spending now, without bastardizing the 2.5L car.

Where are you going to put the 2.5L engine? It's going to sit for years while you're in school? It won't be good anymore after the internals rust out and all the seals dry. Even if it is, then you have to swap it back into the car. And it's not just the engine, BTW. The entire exhaust, drive shaft, diff, engine electronics...all that stuff has to be swapped over.

[efficient]

work at a bar/restaurant or something. you'll make tips, or valet cars

[ndfspd67]

Change diffs for a living instead.

Someone get this man a cookie


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[anabolice30]

Use it as your work car and run it into the ground. Who the hell cares what it looks like.

Replace rotors, figure out electrical issues (Which will be an easier fixes than you think), run into ground.

Much less work than downgrading a 325i. It should also be noted that the 40mpg car is an M42, not M20.

Also, change diff.

Yea, but if I want a work car i have to insure it, get tags, and register it. All costing $$$ especially when all I bought it for was the glovebox, gonna be parting it out soon. Also I care what it looks like. If I didn't care what my car looked like I'd have a VW rabbit or something.

ill trade you my 325e non lsd diff for your LSD diff.

Already have an LSD diff, but thank you!

[Lake]

ill trade you my 325e non lsd diff for your LSD diff.

[TurboJake]

Forgot to mention the ETA is ugly as shit paint wise and has rusted rotos. no interior electronics working, steering wheel is basically tape. An engine swap would be 10x easier than making the ETA DD worthy. And I will actually be driving more when I go to college. As college is further away than my school, and I'm keeping the job.

Use it as your work car and run it into the ground. Who the hell cares what it looks like.

Replace rotors, figure out electrical issues (Which will be an easier fixes than you think), run into ground.

Much less work than downgrading a 325i. It should also be noted that the 40mpg car is an M42, not M20.

Also, change diff.

[Quinthirty]

I would suggest that you look for a job that does not require you to drive around a lot so as to prevent you from spending much on gas and maintenance expenses. I am sure that you can find other 'jobs' out there that will pay better, but you need to look harder. Question is, do you know what you really want to do, or want to be?

But if you choose to stay in your current job, the best thing to do is to maximize your earnings by going on different modes of transport, namely:
a. a bike
b. public transpo
c. motor cycle
d. a hybrid
e. a Honda or Toyota

As you can see, there are a number of better options than the E30. You can consider these types of transpo depending on location, travel time, but most importantly, cost. The savings that you will get is something that you can use for other things too i.e. an education i.e. fixing cars, an investment in a small business, etc. Start early and save. Prudence and delayed gratification will go a long way in letting you enjoy an E30 in the future. E30s are not cheap to maintain and run daily. The best ones we've seen here run about 22-28mpgs, so 30mpgs are a stretch, and 40mpg is a pipe dream. Quickest solution as mentioned is to change differential, perhaps to 3.73 or even a 3.25, but we're talking minimal savings compared to what you'll spend.

[anabolice30]

You'll only be driving that much for the next 6 months or so. If your math is correct, you'd save between $2 to 3K in fuel over that time, as a very rough estimate.

It seems to me that it would be far easier to just fix whatever is wrong with the ETA car and drive that. Then you'd also have your 2.5 unchanged. You'd still save on cash over what you're doing now.

Forgot to mention the ETA is ugly as shit paint wise and has rusted rotos. no interior electronics working, steering wheel is basically tape. An engine swap would be 10x easier than making the ETA DD worthy. And I will actually be driving more when I go to college. As college is further away than my school, and I'm keeping the job.

Have you considered getting a different job that wont have the cost of driving everywhere?

With tips I make $10-$15 an hour depending on how busy we are. I'm still making up the cost of gas and then some, I just wanna make more money

[BobombETA]

Change diffs for a living instead.

[TheTacoMan]

Have you considered getting a different job that wont have the cost of driving everywhere?