Robbies alpine sedan 5cyl swap

[ogbimmer]

Oh and the power comes from the head breathing better with a chip you should be able to rev to 7k

[ogbimmer]

of course =] and i have an m66 six speed box just waiting to go in =[

dudee I would so buy your car. I need a wagon or a suv for my dd. I have been looking at a couple of x5s and I also looked at a e39 540it

but I have a soft spot for volvo wagons just because nobody ever mods them so its cool to see one moded :)

[ogbimmer]

also look to see if your engine is a eta or a super eta. even with the compression lower it will still be faster then a regular eta. heads are really cheap thats the only reason I brought it up :)

[mdlimy]

of course =] and i have an m66 six speed box just waiting to go in =[

[ogbimmer]

And I would say your 850 is well worth the 5k! Is it manual?

[mdlimy]

dont need to buy a motor right now, especially one in nc haha, funny tho, jackson added me to that facebook group so people now think i live there haha.

You really notice some extra power when dropping the i head on the eta bottom end? i know it drops compression to about 8.3:1 but allows for revving, where is the extra power coming from if there is such a loss in static compression ratio? you make me want to do an i head swap sooner than expected, i figured it would be pointless to do without boost bc of the low compression...

[ogbimmer]

1. leave the oil cooler disconnected
2. just run new rubber lines in the engine bay to the fuel rail
3. swap t-stat housing with the one from an i motor and you can use your i cooling system
4. make sure you have the wire harness for the eta motor and the ecu as the eta has two crank sensors
5. you need a coding plug for your cluster for an eta.
all in all you can go to the yard with $50 and come out with everything you need.

There's also a few 885 (325i) heads on here for a few bucks. since you bought a used engine you need to cange the timing belt anyway so I would suggest grabbing a new i head and you will have a stroker motor. You didn't do too bad buying that motor but it sucks that you were misinformed

sry man and good luck. If you need help PM me

good stuff!!!
side note if you want a noticable amount of extra power, and a another 1000rpm till redline you should really look into swapping heads.


Also I have a m20 stoker with less the 5k if you want to buy it!!

[nickflic3]

This man speaks the truth; Good luck OP!

[mdlimy]

1. leave the oil cooler disconnected
2. just run new rubber lines in the engine bay to the fuel rail
3. swap t-stat housing with the one from an i motor and you can use your i cooling system
4. make sure you have the wire harness for the eta motor and the ecu as the eta has two crank sensors
5. you need a coding plug for your cluster for an eta.
all in all you can go to the yard with $50 and come out with everything you need.

There's also a few 885 (325i) heads on here for a few bucks. since you bought a used engine you need to cange the timing belt anyway so I would suggest grabbing a new i head and you will have a stroker motor. You didn't do too bad buying that motor but it sucks that you were misinformed

sry man and good luck. If you need help PM me

Thanks a ton, very good info and makes me much more confident about tomorrow :p i will pm you with a couple other quick questions.
edit: i have a new tbelt to go on the motor, not looking to do the i head swap yet since i just need this to drive asap but i will most likely do the i head/stroker conversion when i am ready to turbo and install the vems, kinda torn between an m20 stroker turbo, m5x turbo or m30 turbo.

[Vtec?lol]

1. leave the oil cooler disconnected
2. just run new rubber lines in the engine bay to the fuel rail
3. swap t-stat housing with the one from an i motor and you can use your i cooling system
4. make sure you have the wire harness for the eta motor and the ecu as the eta has two crank sensors
5. you need a coding plug for your cluster for an eta.
all in all you can go to the yard with $50 and come out with everything you need.

There's also a few 885 (325i) heads on here for a few bucks. since you bought a used engine you need to cange the timing belt anyway so I would suggest grabbing a new i head and you will have a stroker motor. You didn't do too bad buying that motor but it sucks that you were misinformed

sry man and good luck. If you need help PM me

[mdlimy]

ugh, i just want to get the car on the road and driving, i didnt want to mess around with this bullshit.

Kershaw, i got the m20 for just about nothing and i need the car to be drivable, i was told it would swap right in no problems. The long term plans are either turbo m20 or turbo m50 just havent decided yet, either way an m50 swap isnt in my budget yet nor do i have the time for it at the moment, and when i do swap it will be a rebuilt motor.

ogbimmer, i am parting it out, i have most of it sold already and i am happy with what i am getting from the parts and it allows me to keep my vems which will go on the e30. If i had to put a price tag on the car to sell it, i wouldnt let it got for less than 5k, and its still a project(climate control needs work, lots of central locking wiring to be done etc..)

Pick n pull has the 50% off thing going on till monday, i have this eta motor and i dont have the time or money to change course so it is definetly going to be the temperary heart of the car for a while. So what do i need to get from the yard to make this swap happen, i dont want to swap heads tho, im going to do some research to see what i need but any help and tips is definetly appreciated guys.

so far my issues will be

cooling system- what all do i need to make it work?

fuel lines- just need old style fuel lines? or should i swap fuel rails?

and oil cooler- if the eta motor doenst use an oil cooler cant i just leave the cooler disconected?

[ogbimmer]

So i ended up having a real bitch of a time getting the motor to seat up to the trans, the driver side of the motor and trans didnt want to go together, i fought it for a couple hours and then decided on calling it a day, it was hot and i have found in the past that the best thing to do is to just leave it and come back to it, so that i will do tommorow.
My game plan is to put the car on the lift, drop the trans, pressure wash it since it is nasssty and then mate the motor and trans and drop it in from the top as one. Ill get started early so i can beat the heat.

but here is a quick question for you guys, the car is a 1990 325i and it has the original engine harness in it still, am i going to run into any problems when hooking it up to the 86 eta m20b27 motor?

Robbie

The oil cooler lines!! a 325i has a oil cooler a eta block doesn't you can get the adapter from the junk yard.

You should just put a 885 head on it then you wont have to worry :)

[ogbimmer]

dudee that 850 is sweet!!! how much would you sell the whole thing for?

[Kershaw]

yes.

and you're also going to have problems with the coolant system. you're going to have to convert it entirely to the early model cooling system. you're also going to run into a few problems with the fuel lines, iirc.

why did you put an eta motor in it? that is such a fail. :/ if it came without a motor, you should have gone to an m50.

[mdlimy]

So i ended up having a real bitch of a time getting the motor to seat up to the trans, the driver side of the motor and trans didnt want to go together, i fought it for a couple hours and then decided on calling it a day, it was hot and i have found in the past that the best thing to do is to just leave it and come back to it, so that i will do tommorow.
My game plan is to put the car on the lift, drop the trans, pressure wash it since it is nasssty and then mate the motor and trans and drop it in from the top as one. Ill get started early so i can beat the heat.

but here is a quick question for you guys, the car is a 1990 325i and it has the original engine harness in it still, am i going to run into any problems when hooking it up to the 86 eta m20b27 motor?

Robbie