★ ★ Project Glacier | Make the E30 a Daily Again ★ ★

[Echo30V]

My fav is still the S54.

[TeXJ]

If I had the money I would be doing an LS3 swap...for now I have an m52b28, and I like it.

[wworm]

well that changes everything...if i had access to an M60 id hop on that train in a heartbeat. TORKSSSSS BRUH!

yeah now you have another option to throw in there. I recently decided to lean towards an m30 instead of the (probably cheaper) m52 donor car I could have bought because I wanted the car to maintain that single cam character while still getting power and torque down. The m52 just never felt right to me although nothing sounds quite like revving out a 24v i6...I dont know just throwing my opinion in here to confuse you even more lol

[Danny]

If I lived in a state which did not require smog checks I would have forgotten about the entire swap completely and just turbo'd the m20 my car had in it. Parts are cheaper, easier to work on in the E30 bay, and the horsepower goals I actually want for this chassis would be super easy to attain.

Basically, I wish I didn't have to smog my car because then I would have just added a turbo instead of swapping an S50.

[MrBurgundy]

There's something sweet about an m20. I don't think I could bring myself to take swap mine for a dual cam straight six. The noises it makes, man. Those delicious, sweet noises.

[ak-]

M20 turbo. Easy, affordable, and sensible power for a street e30.

People who break them are usually the ones who are senselessly trying to shoot for the moon in power without the hardware to back it up, fudge up tuning, and/or don't set safety parameters like boost-cut thresholds or temperature cut offs.

I enjoy mine at 12psi more than 17psi.

[2mAn]

There's something sweet about an m20. I don't think I could bring myself to take swap mine for a dual cam straight six. The noises it makes, man. Those delicious, sweet noises.

Are you talking about the valve ticking?

[MrBurgundy]

Are you talking about the valve ticking?

Lol

That plus those injectors; it sounds like an American Apparel sweatshop. A glorious sweatshop


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[lambo]

Ok. I’m back on the M20 hype train. Selling all the 24v stuff I accumulated should put me in a good spot to do some nice things to the M20.

[MrBurgundy]

You can get a diamond encrusted timing belt


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TeXJ]

#lsswaptheworld #justsayin

[AWDBOB]

I had the same battle as you and this is what brought me to 24v land:

I really think that if this is your forever car, then doing an M52 swap is creating yourself a foundation upon which everything in the future for your car will be "better". Your modifications will go further with an M52, and your car will be entirely set up for 24V so the sky is the limit, really. Doing an S52 in the future (from an M52) will be as simple as dropping it in. Even doing an S54 is a simple swap once your car is already 24v (gas pedal, harness, etc). Turboing the M52 you have a stout-er platform to work with, too IMO (spool, power capabilities).

Going with an M20 and putting performance parts on it (high milage at that), seems like a good idea now, but there isn't much of a place to grow from that foundation in the future (besides turbo, but you don't want to turbo a 300K motor (maybe you do, I donno)).

Say two years from now you want to upgrade, spend $3K and build a stroked M20 to make 200whp, spend $2K more and buy ITBs to make 215whp and then realize you could've just bought a $1500 S52 if you were 24v, plugged it in and made 240whp, while scanning your fault codes on your phone.

When I did the motor on my iX I went the "full bolt on w/headwork and cam" route that you're contemplating and wish I would've M52 swapped it, which is one of the huge reasons why I decided on 24v with the iS.

Another thing too, you don't have to nickel and dime yourself on the M52 swap with small mods that cost a ton that don't really do much. If you (like me) open the can of mod worms it gets crazy expensive, but don't forget that a stock M52 will rip compared to an M20 all day, and that part can be done extremely cheap.

just my .02

[lambo]

I had the same battle as you and this is what brought me to 24v land:

I really think that if this is your forever car, then doing an M52 swap is creating yourself a foundation upon which everything in the future for your car will be "better". Your modifications will go further with an M52, and your car will be entirely set up for 24V so the sky is the limit, really. Doing an S52 in the future (from an M52) will be as simple as dropping it in. Even doing an S54 is a simple swap once your car is already 24v (gas pedal, harness, etc). Turboing the M52 you have a stout-er platform to work with, too IMO (spool, power capabilities).

Going with an M20 and putting performance parts on it (high milage at that), seems like a good idea now, but there isn't much of a place to grow from that foundation in the future (besides turbo, but you don't want to turbo a 300K motor (maybe you do, I donno)).

Say two years from now you want to upgrade, spend $3K and build a stroked M20 to make 200whp, spend $2K more and buy ITBs to make 215whp and then realize you could've just bought a $1500 S52 if you were 24v, plugged it in and made 240whp, while scanning your fault codes on your phone.

When I did the motor on my iX I went the "full bolt on w/headwork and cam" route that you're contemplating and wish I would've M52 swapped it, which is one of the huge reasons why I decided on 24v with the iS.

Another thing too, you don't have to nickel and dime yourself on the M52 swap with small mods that cost a ton that don't really do much. If you (like me) open the can of mod worms it gets crazy expensive, but don't forget that a stock M52 will rip compared to an M20 all day, and that part can be done extremely cheap.

just my .02

Damnit. That makes a lot of sense too... I already have the S52 cams and M50 intake for the M52 as well...

[MrBurgundy]

Having an m20 in an e30 helps you stand out :rofl:


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rturbo 930]

I've gone back and forth between the two quite a bit. I love the sound the M20 makes, but I really don't understand why they're so hard to get power from. There seems to be no shortage of people getting 300hp from the L series motors that came in my Datsun (not cheap, but not outrageously expensive), whereas it seems like no one, save for a few Aussies, has gotten that kind of power from an M20, despite it being better on paper. I don't really see the point in building an NA M20 for what most people get out of them. But the M20 does seem to do well with boost, which is the current plan for my E30, assuming it doesn't grenade itself again.

As for the M52, well, it seems to be pretty easy to get good power out of it, and it responds even better to boost, but - and I might be in the minority here - it sounds like shit. It might be the worst sounding inline six I've ever heard. The sound the engine makes is a large part of what makes a car enjoyable to me, so that's just not going to work. Also, in terms of weight, I would think an NA M52 would weight about the same as a turbo M20, and in that case the M20 has way more power potential.

Then, of course, there's the timing belt vs timing chain argument.