137 replies to this topic

[Ren-dog]

Looking 'ing nice mate.

[Adam]

LOOKS


AWESOME!

[Hypnotic]

LUV IT!

[simon]

Nice job looks the shizzz!!!!

[alexGT]

a quarter mile in 14.5 seconds when I was at WSID doing a defensive driving test.

nice wheels! what MPH was the 14.5? ET can change a fair bit but MPH is pretty consistant

[AussieTemplar]

nice wheels! what MPH was the 14.5? ET can change a fair bit but MPH is pretty consistant

Hmnmm I'm not sure. It wasn't anything official, only cause there were some cars there doing practice runs I got to jump in.

[Marv]

Like I said, I didn't mean to rain on your parade, mate. 14.5 is definitely quicker than a stocker - I seem to remember Alexxx's brother Peter doing low 15s in his stock 325i 4dr back in '03/'04.

And to give you a bit of understanding about expected BMW power figures, stock 3.2L E36 M3s struggle to make 190rwKW and stock E30 325i/325is should make around 100-110kW @ wheels. It might be a happy dyno you rolled on (there are quite a lot of happy dynos in Sydney), or it might be horsepower. 197rwhp from an M20 sounds right and is nothing to be sneezed at in a little, 1200kg E30

So this is quicker than an e30 m3?

I wish my tt was this quick.

Would be pretty line-ball. E30 M3s were never straight-line monsters, though.

Drag racing an M3 is like taking a high-class hooker out to dinner. Nice, but not what you got it for.

[AussieTemplar]

197hp indeed does sound about right.

Iain I've been considering in the future possible stroker kits? Is the 3.1L IE stroker kit really worth it? I want more power but I don't want to turbocharge, as I want to keep the car a bit more stockish for future re-sale value. Can you believe I had another guy at the lights offer me $14,000 for this?! Thats like the 3rd or 4th person!

[alexGT]

my brothers car made 105rwkw with 240,000km with just a catback exhaust. did a 15.9, mph escapes me now but i will have to ask him.

[RX25SE]

Can you believe I had another guy at the lights offer me $14,000 for this?! Thats like the 3rd or 4th person!

That's because it's a classic.

Like I said before, don't fark with it.
(well, nothing that can't be easily reversed)

[AussieTemplar]

That's because it's a classic.

Like I said before, don't fark with it.
(well, nothing that can't be easily reversed)

Don't plan on farking it.
I've kept it as original and reversible as possible. Only thing I've done to it are the BBS RS rims (they are period rims though) and the smoked headlights/grille.. which I still have here.
Don't have the superlows in it anymore and I've just got an aftermarket head deck.

[RX25SE]

I thought you did a auto to manual conversion?

[AussieTemplar]

Only because the auto died.

Manual adds value too, and I did it all properly, everything new, except for the gearbox.

[Alex]

Don't stroke it. Less RPM at redline.

I'd consider an E36 M3 S50 conversion.

p.s: why aren't we friends on facey? I need moar bee em dublya to fap to.

[Marv]

197hp indeed does sound about right.

Iain I've been considering in the future possible stroker kits? Is the 3.1L IE stroker kit really worth it? I want more power but I don't want to turbocharge, as I want to keep the car a bit more stockish for future re-sale value. Can you believe I had another guy at the lights offer me $14,000 for this?! Thats like the 3rd or 4th person!

The first thing you need to work out is A) are you going to keep this car for a long time? and what are your power goals, and C) what is your budget?

3.1L Ireland Engineering stroker is going to be a +$20k proposition by the time you're done. Turbocharging the M20 still leaves you up against it for putting it back to stock to sell it, and you won't get huge HP out of it anyway as you're still held back by the M20B25 head.

SR20 is a cheap conversion bang-for-buck, but if you did that to an iS I'd hunt you down and make love to your face with a chainsaw. Other options include 1JZ/2JZ (too long & heavy, hard to put back to stock), 1UZ (not much power, tough to fit properly), LS1 is a fair whack easier and lighter than all those options, but you won't be putting that car back to stock in a hurry. This leaves us with twin-cam BMW motors as they're a pretty simple conversion - the issue is you're not going to get much of a power increase from a stock M50B25/M52B28 over the 190hp M20 you have now. Modified is a different story

Problem with S5x and M50 engines are they're cast iron and you want LESS weight over the front rather than more. A "Euro" E36 M3 S50B30 (NOT a US S50 E36 M3 motor - totally different beast) would be hard to put back to stock, but not impossible. They're expensive to buy, expensive to mod, but oh my god for a driving experience they're awesome. YouTube Carbon S50B30 and turn the sound up. Oh. Mein. Gott. An E46 S54 motor would be the illest way to fly, dawg, but you're talking a seriously expensive swap. It certainly wouldn't de-value the car, though.

At the end of the day, the best option for you - I think - would probably be to build a twin-cam E36 3.0L stroker for your car. Start with a donor M50B25 or M52B28 (I'd go the more expensive M52 due to lightweight aluminium block + larger capacity, with an M50 head for simpler electronics), then fit an M54B30 crank/rods/pistons, some aftermarket cams, injectors, headers and ECU. That'd end up with not only a 250-300hp+ motor, but one with better torque spread and rpm range than the old M20. Timing chain rather than belt makes for less service issues too. To buy the M54 gear and cams/injectors/etc you can get it out of the US 10,000% cheaper than out here, too.

Manual adds value too, and I did it all properly, everything new, except for the gearbox.

Truedat. Auto 325iS are worth SFA.

[Marv]

PS: by that I mean PUT AN S54 in it!!!!!!!!!!!!

[AussieTemplar]

Don't stroke it. Less RPM at redline.

I'd consider an E36 M3 S50 conversion.

p.s: why aren't we friends on facey? I need moar bee em dublya to fap to.

Adding you now, senor.

*Iain's endless bank of knowledge*

I've always thought about this, and when I've thought about it, I mean, I've always thought about doing the best I possibly can, an S54 conversion.

I'm intending to hold on to the old girl for quite some time to be honest, I realise how much a dime a dozen this car really is. This is why I plan to daily it for now, until I find a nice turbo suby once I'm off my P's in about 12 months. That then leaves open the idea of A] stroking the engine, B] turbo-ing the engine C] powerhousing the engine with a bigger engine. (yo dawg).

Money isn't too much of an issue. I'm earning a nice amount right now, and I'm still living with my dad. My next big step is to save for a deposit for an apartment or something, but I guess I can have another 12-18 months of fun with my cash.. (*in b4 forum geriatrics tell me to save*) I don't really go out and the only money I spend is on my car.. and really I'm still saving close to $500/week right now.

I guess I mentioned the stroker kit, as I want more power, and I can't go the turbo route right now because I'm still on my P's.
My friend just completed a 3.0L stroker VR6 engine, with 294 cams, forged internals, bla bla bla and that thing absolutely flies (it's still an N/A). But that was around $10k he blew, on the engine alone, and his old man is a rich *****.

So many ideas in my head!!

Thanks for your help Iain (and everyone else who is contributing).

[Marv]

I've always thought about this, and when I've thought about it, I mean, I've always thought about doing the best I possibly can, an S54 conversion.

I'm intending to hold on to the old girl for quite some time to be honest, I realise how much a dime a dozen this car really is. This is why I plan to daily it for now, until I find a nice turbo suby once I'm off my P's in about 12 months. That then leaves open the idea of A] stroking the engine, B] turbo-ing the engine C] powerhousing the engine with a bigger engine. (yo dawg).

If you can't do 90% of the swap at home, you'll spend $20k+ putting an S54 in your car. If you have a gararge, have tools and a Bentley Manual (cough hehe) you could do any of these motor swaps at home, with a minimum of outside help (you'll need someone to do headers/fab work). Look at the $ spent per kW gained for all those motors and you'll see how expensive an S54 will be - it's the Subaru equivalent of sitcking a full 05 drivetrain/wiring/motor under a Gen1 Lib.

If you're going to be saving for a house and modding the E30, I can tell you won't have the budget for a turbo Subaru (unless you're on mining money). The BMW will cost quite a bit to build properly, as any of these motors will need some attention to be paid to the rear-end and front-end welding to stop it pulling itself apart under stress. Read up on how common cracked front strut-towers and splayed trailing arms are on E30s, particularly big-HP ones.

Money isn't too much of an issue.

I guess I mentioned the stroker kit, as I want more power, and I can't go the turbo route right now because I'm still on my P's.
My friend just completed a 3.0L stroker VR6 engine, with 294 cams, forged internals, bla bla bla and that thing absolutely flies (it's still an N/A). But that was around $10k he blew, on the engine alone.

If you go mental on an NA donk you'll spend big bucks turning a street car into a glorified race car that really is only fun to drive on the racetrack. If you go turbo you'll wind up with a car that's got way too much horsepower for the street. I've driven a few 300hp E30s and they're almost useless on Sydney streets. It's for this reason I'd probably look at building a mild NA engine and enjoying that. If you want to go fast or have a huge HP car, buy an Aristo and make it single-turbo or turbocharge an LS3 Commodore or something. The BMW will be nicest with a well-balanced set-up that compliments handling, braking, etc.

i'll put up a few engine combos for a good street E30 if you're interested?

No worries. Add me on FB if you want - there's a bunch of BMW talk on there quite often, wiht E30 fiends from NZ to the US.

[Alex]

S52 would be economical and not too powerful, no?

Also, it should be legal... no?

I'd love to get back to a Bavarian.

[Ren-dog]

In qld at least, you cannot drive a car on your p's that has a mod plate for an engine.

So modding the current engine with internal mods would be the only way.