BMW E30 engine transplant

Hey guys,

Looking for suggestions for a suitable engine to transplant into my E30 BMW Would prefer a non BMW unit (just for the sake of being different) and have seen 2l 16v vaux lumps slotted in these regulary

anyone care to offer any thoughts or suggest suitable engines to fit

thoughts in the mix already include

Rover V8 with manual 5 speed

Ideally i want something that will give a fair amount of fun and be easily modified to give performance at least on par with a 325 (circa 170 bhp)

please feel free to offer any thoughts or comments as looking to start this as soon as i can settle on a suitable power unit :) oh and i dont do diesel or anything that involves REALLY complicated wiring(VR6 engines etc)

regards

Rob

apologies for the bulk posting

just a crap newsgroup reader :)

Nothin' beats cubic inches:

I saw an E30 for sale with a Rover V8 last year, so it's possible!

You sick, sick puppy...

The BMW straight six, as fitted to E30s, is one of the finest engines I've ever encountered. Ok, it's not a v8, but it's still a great engine.

And you're considering vauxhall and fiat s**te??

Supercharged VVTi Toyota lump? Supra 6 cylinder Engine? Mr2 Twin cam from an earlier one, either turbo, or Supercharged?

cool - but you would have to replace it every day!

MeatballTurbo ( snipped-for-privacy@bouncing-czechs.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I've got a spare 2cv motor - it'd be *really* economical, much reduced risk of speeding tickets, and you'd easily be able to get the right badge for the resulting BMW 306.

Ahhhh, what are you doing here?

Detune it and it could last a month they do a lot of miles in a weekend at silly revs. Just don't drive it hard (or a lot).

I was wondering the same - only a loon would replace a nice beemer lump with a Vauxhall 16v !

A bigger BMW 6?

Gee, do you really want something as complicated as an alternate make engine swap to end up near the same HP figure? You'll end up with something that's not as smooth and probably have half a dozen electronic/computer issues you can't solve, resulting in dead instruments or missing features. For hundreds of hours of work and little performance gain.

About the wildest swap I've heard of is the guy that put a Corvette LS1 in an E30. Another that put the BMW V12 in there. Either gives you 300+ bhp. Before tuning.

Why not just put an M50 in there? Grab the project Orca CD from Koala. Still smooth, still BMW, no transmission change, electronics sorted out, more power, nice complete parts list to start from. Put forced induction on it if you want a challenge. And a ton more power.

The mod snipped-for-privacy@yahoogroups.com list can give you better advice than me though.

-Russ.