coolguycar

well i have a 93 325 BMW and the motor is blowin up in the car and i was thinking about putting a M3 motor in it but i dont really know anything about BMWs cus i am a honda guy. my one major question is can i use the M3 Motor with the transmission from the 325 motor? and what parts would i have to buy to do the swap. any help would be great thanks.

EF_LEGOMAN

search a BMW forum.

Abysalone

www.Bimmerforums.com is the place.

elements018

for your answers

your best luck is to find a bmw m3 parts car. The swap is pretty straight forward. If you get the s50 (3.0), its a odb1 motor so everything will just connect right up, pretty easy swap. If you get the s52 (3.2) the motor is a odb2 motor and you will need to get some minor parts to convert it to ODB1, and you'll need a custom chip tune for the motor to run correctly.

If price wasnt a big concern, definately get the 3.2. But if your on a budget, Get a 2.8L bmw engine, the m52 (odb2 motor), you can find those motors for less then 1000. The m3 motors go for around 3k average. A odb1 2.8 will beat a stock m3 anyday.

good luck! pm me if you need help, I've done these swaps before at my shop in Herndon, VA

lutex1

yea what element018 said is good advice...i put an M3 engine in my 94 325i and i used the S50 and it bolted right up.you can also use the 325 tranny even though the M3 tranny has a lot better ratios...my only advice to you is that you should definetely invest on the M3 diff when you swap because all that torque on a open diff sucks...especially in the rain

coolguycar

thanks that helps alot ill prolly be going to you for more help later when i go to do the swap.

WishIHadaSilvia

I believe you can also put the Pistons and Rods out of a M52 into the M50 (the motor in the car already) and some S52 cams and make some decent power out of it. Just a thought as a S50/S52 swap is around 6k isn't it? I was looking in to this crap when I was going to get an E30, so I know the swaps are more expensive because you need to buy way more stuff to make it work.

elements018

unless you bore the motor out to M52 specs, you can't use the m52 internals in a m50. M52 is a 2.8L. M50 is a 2.5L. You'd be better off getting a used M52 motor. I picked up a perfect m52 a few months ago for $800.

But yeah, what Lutex said, the M3 tranny and diff will feel alot better, with that you'll need to get the m3 drive shaft also (has different flanges that connect to the diff possibly depending on what you have).

You could probably pick up a totalled M3 for around 5k if you look hard enough. that way you can harvest all its parts (brakes, supension, tranny, diff, motor)