My car is F#$&*(#&$ slow.

[Suspence]

My m20 is pissing me off.

I've done almost a fully rebuilt motor, and I'm feeling sluggish as hell. I'm ready to just save my money and throw in an S54.

Should I just turbo my M20 or save for a swap? I love turbos but I feel like an M50 swap would be a better choice with some S52 cams and a few upgrades.

[Hick]

right there with ya buddy...

[Pantless Spency]

save your money, don't buy that 40 sack ;)

[TimKninja]

I rebuilt my ETA motor. 4 months later I ripped it out for an M50 swap, I suspect that'll happen again. It's inevitable.

[Suspence]

save your money, don't buy that 40 sack ;)

LOL

I want to go S52 swap, but I rather get S54.

Maybe I'll just buy an E46 m3. UGH I hate this so much, I go back and forth every day.

[TimKninja]

Keep your e30. Don't be an e46Fag

[noE30]

I'm in a similar boat, kinda want to rebuild my m20 but I don't want to waste time and money if I'm going to eventually swap it.

[Jafxod]

Coming from someone who has a good amount of swap experiance. The MAIN reason is to go M50 it to have a more reliable, simpler, and more efficient motor, and is worth swapping for just those reasons. I went from an eta to m50 so it was a night and day difference, but thre is definetly a noticable differece from the ride alongs ive had on fully rebuilt m20b25's. S54 and obd2 conversions get expensive fast. If you want cheap power i would go m50/s50. M50 swap is a weekend project if you do your research and have the parts. Its EASILY done for under 1000.

Real power from any of the engines comes from forced induction though. I plan on dropping around 2k for my turbo setup in my already swapped m50.






Or you could be a real driver and appreciate the e30 for the incredible handling ability and balance that it already has haha.

[Suspence]

Coming from someone who has a good amount of swap experiance. The MAIN reason is to go M50 it to have a more reliable, simpler, and more efficient motor, and is worth swapping for just those reasons. I went from an eta to m50 so it was a night and day difference, but thre is definetly a noticable differece from the ride alongs ive had on fully rebuilt m20b25's. S54 and obd2 conversions get expensive fast. If you want cheap power i would go m50/s50. M50 swap is a weekend project if you do your research and have the parts. Its EASILY done for under 1000.

Real power from any of the engines comes from forced induction though. I plan on dropping around 2k for my turbo setup in my already swapped m50.






Or you could be a real driver and appreciate the e30 for the incredible handling ability and balance that it already has haha.

True, the car does handle very very nicely. I just don't have many places to rip corners around where I live, it's mostly freeway where I want to go super fast. M50 is probably what I'll do with a few upgrades, I feel like it's the best way to go. But then I'll want a turbo LOL. M20 isn't really working out for me to be honest. I could either save up for a new motor or a nice down payment on a newer car that I don't have to worry about as much.

[bloodshot-e30]

if u go S54 please let me kno how it goes!...

im gonna boost my M52 soon so u could always go that route ;)

[blocke]

Spence, what do you plan to do about smog if you swap? I'm looking at the same decision...but don't want to deal with smog and the added cost of making it legal. My main motivation is reliability...so is a 100k+ miles M50 going to last longer than an rebuilt M20...dunno

[Jafxod]

True, the car does handle very very nicely. I just don't have many places to rip corners around where I live, it's mostly freeway where I want to go super fast. M50 is probably what I'll do with a few upgrades, I feel like it's the best way to go. But then I'll want a turbo LOL. M20 isn't really working out for me to be honest. I could either save up for a new motor or a nice down payment on a newer car that I don't have to worry about as much.

New cars suck. Half the fun of e30s is that you can make them into whatever you want. You know how many other toolbags are running around in stock e46 m3's.


Turbo m20 would be fast, but m20s fucking suck. I wouldnt do that if you need to daily it. Get a nice reliable m50 in there and then piece together a solid turbo setup

[slammin.e28]

M20 is a troll engine. Timing belts? Problem? No power? Problem?

This is why I bought a M3.

[trackjunkie21]

Spence, what do you plan to do about smog if you swap? I'm looking at the same decision...but don't want to deal with smog and the added cost of making it legal. My main motivation is reliability...so is a 100k+ miles M50 going to last longer than an rebuilt M20...dunno

Smogging an m50 is no problem. It's the m52 and s52 you have to worry about as you aren't allowed to convert from obd2 to obd1

[slammin.e28]

Smogging an m50 is no problem. It's the m52 and s52 you have to worry about as you aren't allowed to convert from obd2 to obd1

SO...how are they gonna tell what engine it is? Unless you take it to some BMW guru, I doubt Joe Shmlo down the street will know the difference in M50 vs M52, unless he is very observant at year changes correlating to oil fill cap locations.