Engine swaps. Good or bad idea?

[hightcn]

Alright my dad's boss is having him do some engine swaps on a few of his cars before he gets into a racing school and whatnot. He's putting an e46 m3 engine and putting it in an e30 convertable and taking a eurospec e36 m3 engine into an e30 m3 to race along with his m3 lightweight. The e46 engine is coming out of his wrecked m3 (which in my opinion is beyond repair) and the eurospec is coming from God knows where. You think this is a good/fun idea or just plain insane?

[KNanthrup]

Not insane... just timely and costly. If you got the money and the will then sure. The only other aspect of it is authenticity... some guys like to keep the E30's and other donor recipients with their original equipment.

[postmaster]

may i ask why he is putting an S54 into a vert

[Suneal]

Wow, S54 in an E30 'vert. He'll be spending a pretty penny for that.

[Scorp965]

Originally posted by hightcn
Alright my dad's boss is having him do some engine swaps on a few of his cars before he gets into a racing school and whatnot. He's putting an e46 m3 engine and putting it in an e30 convertable and taking a eurospec e36 m3 engine into an e30 m3 to race along with his m3 lightweight. The e46 engine is coming out of his wrecked m3 (which in my opinion is beyond repair) and the eurospec is coming from God knows where. You think this is a good/fun idea or just plain insane?

Post pics when he gets them done... It sounds interesting to be sure...

[hightcn]

pic will be up as soon as that engine gets in from wherever he ordered it. originally he had a hardtop e30 m3 and then i think it was a 318 convert.(e30 as well) and was gonna do an engine swap cuz he said that there were never any e30 m3 convertables in the US due to safety issues or something. all this changed after he went to some race weekend a few weeks ago. gonna be exciting

[Greg]

More money than brains.

[bimmerboy12]

sounds good

[eMed_out]

If im not mistaken..the S54 in a E 46 M3 uses a drive by wire system correct?...so ummm?...an E 30 vert you say?...hmmm

[PrinceE30]

I'll see it when I believe it.

Unless this guy is a mass millionare and has money to burn, I don't see it happening. Really, the only people qualified to make a decision like this are people who are part of the BMW community and know the severity and cost of such a project (or complete and utter fools who have too much money).

If he had any brains he'd toss the S54 in the M3 and S52 in the vert. I mean, get real...

-Prince

[postmaster]

Originally posted by PrinceE30
I'll see it when I believe it.

Unless this guy is a mass millionare and has money to burn, I don't see it happening. Really, the only people qualified to make a decision like this are people who are part of the BMW community and know the severity and cost of such a project (or complete and utter fools who have too much money).

If he had any brains he'd toss the S54 in the M3 and S52 in the vert. I mean, get real...

-Prince

or sell the vert and drop the S52 in a 325iS

[hightcn]

money isnt in an issue for this guy. in the past year he has bought 3 e46 m3s, a z8, a jag xkr, 330i, 330ci, 2 x5's, a z4, 2-3 2002 turbos, the M3 lightweight, a few 3.0 CSLs in excellent condition, an 850 csi and assloads of e30 cars. this is chump change to him.

[Radar]

I want to work with this guy. ahh 850csi.. and a M3 LTW.. thats class baby...

[240sxSR20det]

damn, what does this guy do? thats probably around $500,000 or more. engine swaps in my experience can be a pain....i had a whole mess of various problems swapping in my sr20det.

[PrinceE30]

If you have the COMPLETE engine and harness, etc there shouldn't be as many problems. But when you piece things together is when it gets tough.

The cost would be probably around that of a new M3 (engine + labor to install, tune, and troubleshoot).

-Prince