E36 m60 swap
 

Ok so I have a 94 325i sitting in my driveway with a blown motor and a 97 740i sitting next to it with the trunk smashed in to the back seats....and I was going to do the m3 conversion but while looking at both I thought this would just be cooler...so I have the shell and the motor already....how can I make this happen.

Welcome to the 'fest!


http://lmgtfy.com/?q=bmw+e36+m60+swap

My name is Joe and I support this thread. :thumbup:

joe supports fast bmw's.....he just doesn't *own* them......:angel:


op, welcome to the fest. if you do this swap, please post pics of the process. we like that sort of thing.




df

Subscribed!

Is there room?

I looked into it previously when a used motor was available locally. It's a tight fit with a some custom fab work required. It's not easy to fit a big dohc v8 into there (compared to a pushrod gm v8). But it's what you gotta do to get the bavarian v8 powah.

I dunno df, I think swapping in a 1.0L 3cyl from a Geo Metro would be more Joe's style......:rofl:

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Yeah, you gotta be committed to it, because there are certainly less expensive and easier ways to make more power in an E36 than using an M60. They're large, heavy, complex, and not really that powerful.

E36 m60 swap
 

Yea like I said I was looking into a full m3 conversion but I want to do somthing that not a lot of people do and still have a daily driver and a fun track car....any other ideas if not the m60 that has similar if not more power/performance bolt-on options with ought having to change my head gasket and boosting it

GM LS V8 all day long, except that a GM LS engine has a gazillion bolt on mods that are cheap and make huge power (unlike any BMW engine). The LS engines fit without any major surgery, too.

Or, sticking with the v8 them e36v8. This is probably the easiest/cheapest way to get a v8 in your e36.

dunno...i mean, there are lenty of kits available to do a sbc, and no doubt it'll produce more power at a lesser price. i have seen m6x e30's though, so i am sure it will fit.

for me, i would probably drop in a german v8 over a domestic, as absolute highest hp is not my end game. i'd rather have something that looked factory and handed well.

besides, no swap like this is ever 'easy'.



df

Yeah, since handling is important, I always recommend the LS V8, since they are lighter than both the iron-block SBCs (which are cheap, but super heavy) and the super complex and power limited M60. And yes, you can get an M60 to fit in a Yugo (or an E30 or E36), but it's going to take crazy amounts of fab work. Not really worth it IMO when there is already something out there which is lighter, more reliable, has more power potential, easier/cheaper to maintain, and fits without any requiring any major fab work.

Which small block Chevy engine are you referring to? The sit I linked to was talking about a small block Ford engine that fully dressed weighs about the same as the stock straight 6.:dunno:

Does it have aluminum heads?

No.


"The Ford 5.0 is very close to the weight of the M52 six-cylinder engine. Both weigh around 480-500 pounds fully dressed with accessories, transmissions, and oil. Toss some aluminum heads on there to save about 50 lbs (and add up to 100 horsepower)." - e36v8.com

Yea I thought about the ls but I want to keep it euro I bought the BMW for the good handling and clean look so I'd like to keep it in the same brand....don't buy a Honda and swap in a ka24...and il look into supercharging it down the road also plus I'v been doing a bunch of searching and have found a couple companies that make mounts for the e30 which I have been told is similar if not the same engine mount location as the e36 I just might have hood Clarence issues but how slick would it be to have a carbon fiber hood with the intake manifold cover flush with the hood like a hemi would be

We may be late to the party but we have a solution for your e36 m62 swap:

http://store.garagistic.com/ocart/m6...0-motor-mounts

http://store.garagistic.com/ocart/im...0_mounts_1.jpg