is this a stupid move to do to an E30 ?

[JinormusJ]

is this a stupid move to do to an E30 ?

Don't do it you will fuck the resale value all to bits and everyone will hate how you ruined a perfectly good e30.

Out of the 2 e30s that I've swapped that have even sold; no one batted an eye when I told them it was swapped (after they drove it). When I tried selling the car as an auto for the same price, after I told people I had a 5-speed swap sitting, they said that they would "buy it all day if it was swapped", sooooooo... That's a thing

Not sure where you're going with this unless trolling
(Or referring to s50 swap)

And for people saying not to swap an early eta trans: the transmissions are exactly the same; early eta and late model i are still Getrag 260s; the only difference is the eta trans has two holes as reliefs for the crank position sensors, which, you can leave cut/unplugged/take out when swapping to a late model i car as the CPS is located on the front of the engine on late model m20s. The transmissions are literally identical otherwise.



@OP
I'd swap the auto even if it was a museum 5k mile piece. The autos sucks that much. Seriously.

There is hardly anything to mess up with the swap if you take your time and double-check all your work with the write-ups.

Being an m20 fanboy though, I would keep the original engine at that milagr

[Thizzelle]

I would swap it if you have to take it all apart to fix something. But saying that,
I have a auto and I'm not going to swap it because M3.

[flyboyx]

my rule of thumb is that auto cars are worth approximately 1000.00 less than a like 5 speed car.

as for the s50/zf320, get your ass over there and check the compression. listen to it run if you can. negotiate the price as best you can, buy that shit and install it in this car yesterday!!!!

2200.00 is a very fair price for a complete e36 m3 swap.

oh, one more piece of of advice: if you are going to need to figure out how to work on the car yourself. no matter how cheap the car was, you are never going to be able to afford this car if you have the mindset you are going to pay someone else to do work on it. buy a bently manual. it will be the best money you ever spent.

[Codym42]

Looks like a really nice car. I say keep the m20 and do a 5 speed swap.

[rturbo 930]

Do what you want. Just, for the love of god, don't hackslash it.

This.

Autos suck. Swap it. I'd keep the M20 though. Keep it simple. It may only make 170hp, but it's plenty IMO. If you still want more power later on, you can swap it then.

[McGyver]

No doubt it's a nice car, but it's still a 116k mile car. Swap it yourself for $400-$800 depending on how much "fun stuff" you put in there, here is a guide:

http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108141

google it and you'll find plenty more info.

[Subtle]

Don't do it you will fuck the resale value all to bits and everyone will hate how you ruined a perfectly good e30.

+1 :hitler:

[Polaris15]

Swap it all day long and twice on Sunday.

[heatmakerz]

Looks good for $1500, but I would swap it anyway. I don't think it would hurt resell value.

[helalo]

[Reichart12]

Like everyones been saying, as long as its a nice swap job theres nothing wrong with that. And hey you bought it so do what makes you happy.

[helalo]

yes its a garage queen in perfect conditions, just needs a bit of service update. the old man that had it didnt drive much, it has 116k original miles.

im located in AL, birmingham. is there any place or any person around that has done swaps before i can refer to ? incase my shop didnt like the idea of touching the car originality, which is their opinion.

[slammin.e28]

Don't do it you will fuck the resale value all to bits and everyone will hate how you ruined a perfectly good e30.

[Andy.B]

It's also entirely possible to do the swap without making any permanent modifications. It's pretty much a bolt on job, so if you save all the parts, and every other e30 on the planet is raptured, and Jay Leno comes by looking to buy it, but is disappointed to find that the Vin indicates it's supposed to be an auto, you can change it back and get that big fat check from him.

Otherwise, just do the swap cleanly with correct year parts (ie: don't swap an early eta manual tranny in) and it will be worth more than with an auto.

[nando]

if you got it for $1500 a manual swap isn't going to hurt it's value. automatic E30s are not really ever going to be highly sought after models.