BMW M3 swap
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I would agree with Thrash. For NA purposes the M52 is probably going to be the best bet. If he ever went turbo, the M50 would be the better choice due to its more turbo friendly design, although as Thrash said, it's gonna be heavier. Parts are also going to be cheaper for the non-M engines as well. The S54 would be a crazy expensive swap and a wiring nightmare. I have also heard of people swapping F20Cs and SR20s into the E30 chassis.
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I generally frown on Chebby V8 swaps because
- you're going from a BMW I6 - one of the worlds smoothest engines -- to a GM OHV V8, a considerably less smooth engine
- the big-low-torque of the V8 and low redline change the character of the car. A normal BMW engine is biased slightly towards top end horsepower whilst still maintaining good torque
The m50 swap really is getting cookbook simple. And if he ever did want to go FI, TCD (turbochargingdynamics.. specializes in full turbo conversions on 80s BMWs..) is finalizing their M50 kit.. which they say will work in an M50-into-E30 swap. Expect 400hp on stock internals and a basic setup.
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Doesn't your E46 have non-factory wheels?
So much for no-mods on the BMW:)One reason i bought my E30 was so i wouldn't have to cut up my M5 for track duty. BMW's are a fanastic car to mod for speed because the chassis dynamics are so fundamentally good, the engines are so flexible, and they're extremely well made. When you consider all the weight you can drop by gutting all the luxury features out of them, they're almost the perfect track-rat conversion.
Comparatively, Honda makes exactly 4 interesting cars for North America:
- NSX -- too expensive, and cutting one of these up is a sin..
- S2000 -- not much to dislike, except that it's a soft top
- the IT-R -- pure drivers car, inspite of being Wrong Wheel Drive. Too bad they spend more time getting stolen than they do in your garage
- the CRX -- anything this light is a good time, even if its WWD, and even if you do have to rebuild the entire car with parts from newer/better Hondas to make it worth driving...
And all of those cars are "reasonably" rare these days (and around here)
On the other hand, every BMW ever sold on this continent is either RWD or RWD-biased AWD. Every single one of them is fun to drive -- even the big ones. Every single one of them since 1984 has 4 wheel disc brakes (and pretty damn good brakes, at that). All of the "s" models had factory LSD's.
We've even had a 7 series at the track before.
Any BMW you see besides a 7, X3, or X5, is a great starting point for a track car. The BMW club is very active at track events all over the place, and the events are extremely well run.
Modding for "modding's sake" or appearance mods are mostly dumb IMO, and if that's what you're talking about, then i agree. But modding to go faster is fantastic, and BMWs are a great starting point if you want to go faster. The cars are quite good out of the box, there are easy to get parts when you run out of car, and there is a great club organiaztion that helps the driver catch up to the car at all stages of driver OR car development
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ok, that will be the S50USB32.
That means "S50 engine" (E36 m3), "US version", 3.2 liter displacement.
The 95 m3 had the S50USB30, which was 3.0 liter. In 96 it changed to the B32 variant, with a 200cc displacement bump. This motor doesn't actually make omre power, but it has moderately more torque in some parts of the power band. The bump was needed to keep the car competitive under the 96 and later OBD2 rules.
A 98 would be an OBD2 engine, which limits your tuning possibilities a little. It may also complicate the retrofit.
An OBD1 retrofit kit is available for the OBD2 motors.
check out the following:
http://www.treehouseracing.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4&Itemid=34
http://www.treehouseracing.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6&Itemid=32
http://www.zionsvilleautosport.com/store/shop.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=6134&Category_Code=CKE
These guys have a lot of stuff you need, including instructional software for every stage of the conversion.
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