The Perfect E30

[Huk]

Hello everyone!

I'm in a little bit of a predicament. So I have found my dream car and obviously as posting on this thread it's an e30. After going through a few cars to find out what I like I finally got a 1987 325e. I loved that car and I loved driving it, I had a lot of plans for it. Unfortunately, some guy pulled out at a T intersection when he shouldn't of, panicked and stopped in the middle of the road with a line of other cars on my opposite lane. Pretty bad wreck, car was a total loss. Got 3k from it and moved on.

Now I bought a 91 318i with an 87 635csi engine in it. Nice conversion, I liked the power and looks so I bought it. Was the best I could afford since I'm only a college kid. The car has a good amount of mods in it including brand new BR coilovers I put in and a turner motorsport chip.

Anyway, I think I can finally get to the point. I know I love e30s, most beautiful car in my eyes. The only problem is the car I want isn't close to the car I have. I want a car that's a manual of course, 350-400hp, gets good mpg(nothing crazy, at least over 20 since I know it's asking a bit with the hp I'm also asking), a ride where the body doesn't fly around but comfy enough for someone to fall asleep in.

Basically, I'm asking for my perfect road trip car.

Here's what I'm fighting.

1. I'm currently unhappy with this engine, I'm currently repeatedly getting 12 mpg. This is usually most city as I live in Atlanta. I took a trip to Florida awhile ago and the best I got was 22 with all highway.

2. With the chip, it probably makes about 260 hp which is what I'm guessing. I can't turbo it cause that'll ruin the mpg even more which kind of forces me to an engine swap. I heard people with ls1 swaps can get up to 30 mpg so I was kinda leaning towards that.

3.There's too much noise coming into the cabin, I was planning to dynamat the interior and also put in a spare black interior I got with the car and vinyl paint the rest.

There's a bunch of other small projects but these are the reasons that keep making me look at other cars even though I won't find something better, not without money that I don't have.

Anyway, I'm posting on here because I'm looking for suggestions on possible engine conversions and anything people would like to inquire about.

Thanks,

[whoismaxjulien]

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

[phreshkid]

It sounds like what you really want is not an e30 at all.


Like, at all.

[mr2peak]

Go buy a mustang, you're 100% the correct market for one. SN95's can be had all day for E30 money.

Cheap, RWD, manual, somewhat comfy, a decent sports car. 350-400hp with bolt ons no problem. Ok milage for what it is.

Do you know how much of a handful a 400hp E30 is?

[AWDBOB]

What you're looking for is a headache car that is a turbo 4banger, not an e30.

Your pockets need to be deeper to get what you've requested.

Why do you need 400hp in such a light chassis?

It sounds to me like you should buy an SRT4

....and then realize that it's not an e30 and buy another e30 wishing you hadn't sold your last e30 for a turbo 4cyl rattling econobox piece of shit.

Keep your car.

or do a sick kustom XW30 swap (prius)

On a serious note, my compromise vehicle was a forester sports XT. 240hp, awd, ultra lesbian, 26mpg. I've gone through the same battle as you, and after owning two evos searching for that 'compromise' vehicle, i realized that i was only kidding myself the whole time. Now i have lesbian daily and e30s.

[george graves]

30 mpg in an ls1? That can't be even close to being correct.

I have an e30 with a m30b35 in it, and I get terrible gas mileage with it too. I should have kept the factory sound deading on the engine side of the firewall when I did the swap, but it was falling apart - so my e30 is too loud on the free way to even have a speaker phone call. But I still love it. Maybe an e30 isn't for you?

[phreshkid]

30 mpg in an ls1?

bahahahahahhahahahahaha

You are a classic cyber bully

[c0rbin9]

Sounds like you want a powerful GT car, not an boxy 80s sedan.

[flyboyx]

if you can afford to do an ls1 swap, you don't care what your fuel economy is.

seriously, do you have any idea how much it costs to put a gm v8 in an e30? at the very minimum, i would say 8 grand. realistically, probably 12k

that is one hell of a lot of gasoline to make up the delta.

if you are a college kid and you like the car you have, you should probably just stick with it and be happy or sell it and buy another car that suits your perceived needs.

by the way, college student, high horsepower, good fuel economy, and e30 do not go together unless you have a LOT of money to throw at it. making an assumption, but from what you said above, i am going to say that you are in the "pie in the sky" zone with this thread.

[Vincent Brick]

30 mpg in an ls1? That can't be even close to being correct.

My parents had a '99 Corvette when new and even being an automatic 'vert it averaged ~30mpg on trips. Stock LS1 with a T-56 has enough torque to roll highway speeds in 6th barely off idle, 4th is 1:1 and both 5th and 6th are OD.


I agree that an E30 is not the best car for a student looking to make a quiet 400hp with decent economy. Its not really the best platform for "perfect road trip car" either if you ask me, more like "perfect back road car." The aforementioned SRT4 is far more comfortable on trips than any E30 with factory seats. OP should save his pennies and get an E46 M3, or the Mustang if he's impatient.

[straight6pwr]

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

this says it all, as have everyone in this thread. what you want is a pipe dream.

what you actually need may be attainable. really, a tuned s52 e30 is comparable to the heavyweight 350/400 hp cars of today as far as power delivery. with the appropriate gearing, you can be doing mid/high 20s gas mileage. stock interior, quiet exhaust, yeah someone could fall asleep in it.

also, your chipped m30 isnt making 260hp. how did you get from 210hp stock to 260?

[george graves]

My parents had a '99 Corvette when new and even being an automatic 'vert it averaged ~30mpg on trips. Stock LS1 with a T-56 has enough torque to roll highway speeds in 6th barely off idle, 4th is 1:1 and both 5th and 6th are OD.

The base 1997-2004 Corvette was powered by a Chevrolet LS1 V8 engine. It produced 345 hp, which was upgraded to 350 hp in 2001. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), this engine achieved 16 miles per gallon in the city and 25 mpg on the highway with the 6-speed manual transmission.

OK - 25 according to the EPA. More then I expected to be honest.

Not too far off topic.....I worked with a guy that was all excited to install a ls1(carb'ed) into his El Camino. He knew nothing about cars, and his shady mechanic sold him on the swap promising better MPG - so he spent about $5000 on the swap. He told me about it after the car was already in the shop getting the work done(I wish he had asked me!). I mentioned to him that he'd need to run 91 pump gas, and could expect about 15MPG - his heart sank. He just spent $5k and now was going to pay more for gas then before. (He was one of those tight wads that would drive across town, and waist the better part of an hour to save 10 cents on gas)

To add insult to injury, he gets the car back, starts driving it and is only getting 8-9 MPGs. Turns out the used carb be got from a junk yard was was pissing gas into the manifold - that washed away the oil in the rings, and destroyed the motor. So several more thousands were spent on the replacement.

Chasing MPGs is silly IMHO. You never really win.

[Blau]

I'll take your M30 if you don't want it.

Would even consider throwing in my gf and an M20 to sweeten the pot.

[Stanley Rockafella]

OP should swap in the stock motor and supercharge it.

[Huk]

I can understand your guy's propositions but there just isn't a car that I love more without spending a ton more money. My estimate of 260 hp is probably off but the turner chip claims a 43 hp increase so that's where I got it from.

I've read the ls powered e30 forums and they say that 30 mpg is achievable on highway and 20 overall. Way better than I'm getting with a lot more power. That LS has to barely work to move an e30.

S52 is an option, the only reason I keep leaning towards LS is because any swap is gonna need some saving up and it seems that I can get the swaps with similar costs.

I'm open to other car ideas, just haven't found anything I like better.