E or I

[91Saleen#15]

If you are planning to swap the engine any way, is there any reason to go for an i over an e?

[asubimmer]

diff

[tonytony]

that diff woudlnt' matter if you plan on using differnet transmissions, personally i woudlnt' buy an e because i hate those hideous diving boards!

[91Saleen#15]

diff

As in differential? And, what's the difference with the transmissions as far as use with an m50 is concerned?

What about weight? Any extra weight added in the i model?

Later bumpers can be retrofited, can't they?

[PУCCKAЯ_e30ka]

what engine are you planning on swapping? if going from b27 to b25 (assum. not stroking?) then b25 has more power, higher revs. If i'd have both engines, i would stroke the 2.5i to 2.7i... same power as 2.5i but better torque.
If youre swapping m20 for m50, then as far as I kno, you can use stock m20 gearbox ie getrag 260. If you have e36m3 gearbox, i'd go with that.
Differentials don't matter, almost any diff can be swapped.
Later bumpers can be retrofitted, but I would go w/ euro bumps.

[325iCabrio]

From what I've seen, 318is are the best, simply because they're the lightest.

The pre '88 bumpers can't be swapped without a lot of work, but euro bumpers could be installed relatively easily, and they look really good in their own way.

[StereoInstaller1]

91Saleen, is your question about which car you should buy?

Look at the bumper shrouds on an 'I' vs. an "e". The ETA bumpers are much more bulbous, the marker lights are more square far uglier, IMHO.

Other than minor interior issues, I dont see arealy difference between an i or an e, asssuming you plan on a motor swap/upgrade.

I believe the "es" has the nicer bumpers/shrouds. It does have the most desirable valence, IMHO.

GL on finding your car!
Luke

[91Saleen#15]

91Saleen, is your question about which car you should buy?

Look at the bumper shrouds on an 'I' vs. an "e". The ETA bumpers are much more bulbous, the marker lights are more square far uglier, IMHO.

Other than minor interior issues, I dont see arealy difference between an i or an e, asssuming you plan on a motor swap/upgrade.

I believe the "es" has the nicer bumpers/shrouds. It does have the most desirable valence, IMHO.

GL on finding your car!
Luke

Ok, this is the situation... I got interested in e30s about a year ago because I thought they would be good in autocrossing. Everyone around here runs miatas and wrxs, evos.. and ricer stuff like that. 2002maniac was the only guy in our area running an e30 and I had't even met him yet. But, I noticed that the e30s seemed pretty nimble and I thought an e30 might be a good car to try. So, I bought an 85 325e thinking it might be a good car.. it had had a small engine fire, so I got a new wire harness at the junk yard and fixed it up. After I got it running, I found this web site and discovered that e's were vastly inferior to i's in the engine department. So I bought a couple of wrecked i's and got one of them running. At the beginning of the summer, I put a complete Ireland race package on it and have raced it all summer long with satisfying results. But, it is a little underpowered, so now I am ready to take it to the next level. I picked up a rolled 95 M3 with an automatic transmission so that I would have an engine to transplant into one of the e30s. The two candidates are the 85 325e or an 89 325i that still has some fender damage to repair. So the question is , is there any disadvantage to using the e over the i, or possible even any advantage? If it's a toss up, I'd probably choose the e so that I don't have to repair the fender damage of the i and also because the e is less valuable than the i. As far as looks are concerned, I really don't care about the bumpers. If the rules allow it in SM, I'll probably ditch them anyway. I'm just worried about things like:

a) is the e transmission as good as the i?
b) is the e rear end upgradeable to an i limited slip?
c) are there any steering differences?
d) is there anything at that I haven't thought of that might make me wish later that I had installed the S50 in the i instead of the e?

[StereoInstaller1]

a) is the e transmission as good as the i?
b) is the e rear end upgradeable to an i limited slip?
c) are there any steering differences?
d) is there anything at that I haven't thought of that might make me wish later that I had installed the S50 in the i instead of the e?

Answers:
a. Same
b. Yes, with or without finned cover
c. No, so go E36 quick turn on either car
d. No, especially if the track is the goal. If you can find a '91 318is, they are supposed to be the lightest E30 ever.

GL!

Luke

[europeanplates]

What about weight? Off the top of my head I would think the 85 would be lighter???

Tyler

[BimmerToad]

transmissions are slightly different between a 'e' and an 'i' IF it's an early 'e'

From X/86 onward, the 260s received updated synchros and IIRC a strengthened selector fork

other than that, they are the same box, though the casings might be a bit different. Same gearing too

[AdironRider]

Well actually the 84-85 318i's were lighter than the 91 318is, but the difference is close to nil and the 91 comes with an lsd, disc brakes, etc.

[91Saleen#15]

Answers:
a. Same
b. Yes, with or without finned cover
c. No, so go E36 quick turn on either car
d. No, especially if the track is the goal. If you can find a '91 318is, they are supposed to be the lightest E30 ever.

GL!

Luke

Thanks, Luke, for the info. It looks like I might be on the right track. I just got word that an 89 325is placed second in D Street Prepared at the Nationals in Topeka.

I wish I knew how he made those flares.

[german g]

I thought that 318s were lighter just because of the smaller engine??

[dirty30]

I thought that 318s were lighter just because of the smaller engine??

no sound deadening ftw