please help!!!! 325e swap!

[e30joejoe]

Okay I have been doing a ton of research and am not getting all my questions answered.

I have a 87 325e and a donor 91 325i

I have already removed all top end parts.
Head, ecu, harness, AFM, exhaust, mani, intake , throttle body etc
The 87 is auto 91 is manual I plan on swapping the tranny too

Will everything bolt right up?
Power gain?
Worth it?

Thanks so much for your time.

[Marshmellow]

technically everything should swap up, you might have to get a little creative with the coolant tank reservoir as its on the opposite side ;) a quick search should help if you have any more questions. dont forget to swap the ECU.

[e30joejoe]

Yeah I'll figure out the coolant later I'm just making sure hearing I need new pistons or it will crap out on me and not get the full power band....

[Marshmellow]

are you swapping the entire engine or just the head? If you're just swapping the head you will need new pistons, either the SETA pistons which will be cheaper or you can order custom ones. The ETA pistons currently in the bottom end will not work.

[e30joejoe]

See that's what I need to know is it even worth it to swap just the head and get pistons or should I just swap the whole block and tranny from the 91?

[Marshmellow]

its very time consuming and not worth it IMO. Swap the entire block with the head. Since the tranny is already bolted to the block it makes that much easier too. The 2.7l conversion has very little power gain unless you plan on boosting due to the change in compression.

[e30joejoe]

Reading this post it looks like I could actually bolt the head right up but maybe I'm wrong.

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/index.php/Building_a_2.7

He advised using 325i pistons but I mean I'm running out of time for how long I can have this donor in my drive way lol.

How much power do you think I would be looking at if I just threw the head on and boosted it?

[Marshmellow]

You would be making around 180-190ish hp without boost. However there are differences with the tranny in which case you'd be facing problems with that too. mid year ETA trannys have a larger output flange. reference here for differences among transmissions: http://www.unofficialbmw.com/phpBB/v...ic.php?t=33173

[e30joejoe]

I thought if you had a 87+ that's a late model eta so the trans from a I should bolt up? Correct me if I'm wrong. If it was an 86 or below I would have a problem

[Marshmellow]

The trans from the i will bolt up however you have to compensate for the different output flange by using a thicker throw out bearing.

[Steve Corbett]

Reading this post it looks like I could actually bolt the head right up but maybe I'm wrong.

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/index.php/Building_a_2.7

He advised using 325i pistons but I mean I'm running out of time for how long I can have this donor in my drive way lol.

How much power do you think I would be looking at if I just threw the head on and boosted it?

I read that article a few times also. If I'm not mistaken, He is refering to the Euro 325E, Not the US version.

[RCtheRed]

Honestly the entire motor swap would be easier and less time consuming instead of taking each individual part and trying to replace it, especially when the engine you want has the manual transmission already on it. I don't want to sound negative about it, but I believe you'd find it easier to just swap the engine and trans all at once. And unboosted, you might not even notice a difference.

[Kershaw]

It definitely would have been easier to swap everything without separating the engine or transmission.

That said, you're crazy if you think you wouldn't notice the difference in power from an auto eta to a manual i.