Has anyone thought of it?

I have a shell and a buddy of mine has a BMW engine and trans and i have the fc shell.

We just thought about it and wanna try it.

What do you guys think. The bmw guys are making nice power and torque with turbos..

Wanna try it.

 

that would be pretty sick. even if you kept it n/a would still be quick

 

that would be sicker than **** if you could get it making decent numbers.
i love the sound of a turbo itb straight-6.

 

one problem is the slant of the engine, you would have to go dry sump or custom oil pan. which would be good for you to mount the engine where you want it. i don't think you would keep it slanted like factory. my buddy has an e36 M3 and it drives great even stock, put down 210hp and 202 tq on the dyno. his car is a 95 with 180,000 miles on it! the only thing about those engines is the chains, lifters and vanos can be noisy. they do sound great though. if i were to do a bmw swap i would do an S54 out of the E46 m3 and an exhaust. of course the price is ridiculous for those.

 

Yeah i never got the slant..lol

But i talked to zach from intense motorsports and he tells me to go for it.
My buddy is building a turbo m3 now and i have to wait till hes done then we will
start to tear some things up.

Wish me luck. I will keep you guys posted if it does go down..

 

the guy that fabbed my down pipe has 9 second turbo E36, and man his **** is retarded even at low boost. turboing that engine is a pain, when it's in the E36 chassis. if you can mount the motor upright then it would give you tons of room, but you will most likely need an custom intake manifold. oh and the stock M3 trans can hold a ton of power, my buddy put down 800+ to the wheels.

 

Wouldn't do it. I have a bmw 328i with a straight six. I love straight 6's and bmw's. But there are those pesky cooling issues with the Bmw 6 cylinder. Check into and know the high amts of care it will take before you undertake this also.

I am looking to possibly one switch out to a NA 3 rotor

 

I have an FB with a M50B25 in it, it also has an aluminum radiator to help cooling plus the fan is a "push" style and it mounted in front of the radiator to make it fit. Great sounding engine but a turbo would be overkill I think since I am having issues with putting the power to the ground already.

Just got the car so I am just in the beginning of playing with it and researching everything I can about the engine and it's possibilities/pitfalls. Any suggestions are welcome, thanks.

Neil

 

Engine is long and heavy. The M/S50s were iron block up until 99 where the M54 was an AL block. Before the AL block BMW made some heavy 6s. The inline 6 doesn't fit well, but it could be made to happen. The V8 is a much better option as far as space efficiency is concerned. They also make a lot more power so it just seems like an easy choice. I said this over at bimmerforums awhile back...

The FD could have really been a great car with the euro 6 that came in the euro m3... the S50B30 and S50B32... GREAT engines! But now the E36M3s are way down in price so just buy the whole car! They are reasonably light and are great cars.

 

the main cooling issues were the composite water impellers and all the plastic components like water necks, overflow bottle and radiator tanks. most of that stuff wouldn't be there in the swap.
i have a E39 5 series as a daily and i have no major issues with almost 130k on the clock. if you do the research and find the potential problems you can take preemptive measures to ensure that the swap runs smoothly.

i say go for it, bmw makes awesome engines.

 

Being as i know BMW's fairly well myself, i'll throw in my tidbit of info..

depending on the year of the E36 motor. there are ALOT of electronics involved. if you have an earlier E36, its no problem. however if you have a later one. even swapping it into another E36 is a pain in the *** (if you upgrade from an earlier model)

just food for thought.

 

Depends on what you consider a pain? it isn't too bad. I did an S52 into an e30 already and it was pretty straight forward.

 

what year s52?

 

1998

 

This is in regards to the wiring of it. The FD LS1 was a lot more complicated and even that was pretty straight forward. I think it all depends on your comfortability with wiring. Most people aren't too comfortable.

The hardest part of the E30 S50/52 swap is getting the correct tranny mounting and driveshaft length.

 

^^^^this is certainly true however most people that are "comfortable" with wiring still dont fully know what there doing..

 

well i know the big inline 6 e34 engine has TONS of room on the pass side. thats theeeeee.....m50b25 engine and it has 190ish all motor. load of torque and my car is even fast and it weighs 4400 lbs!!! so that would be great to figure something out. i might even be tempted to try it myself if its possible.

 

pillage6 can you post some vids please!?!?!?!?!

 

You will have trouble with the length of the engine and where it will demand your steering rack be placed. Serious hood modification will be needed to fit an inline 6.

 

FC + M50 family would work i think. the common BMW swap is a 2jzgte, if you had a bmw driveline it could be setup just like a 2jz to pop into a FC/FD. the M50 is avail with a couple differnt sumps, e34 and e36 have differnt sump styles (interchangable like 2jz)

the getrag/ZF gearbox is great. stock form the 2.5+ liter cars (325/525/528/328/M3 3.0 and 3.2) - good for 500rwhp, 600 is probably possible.

the BMW inline 6's are like any inline 6- inherent weakness is only head gasket, cooling system, great for boost.

change HG, make sure watersystem is up to par, boost up. even the older 3.5L M30 Motor/gearbox are good for 500rwhp stock longmotor on boost.