E30 325i M20 Turbo setup...questions

[X2theZ3]

Who's running custom Turbo setups that you put together on their e30 325i's? What kind of gains did you get? How much did you spend?
I want to put a kit together for my 1990 325i. Maybe 300hp, 400hp I wouldn't mind either. I still want a reliable engine. Can someone give me some information on everything....Details and specifics on what I need and what I need to know?

X2theZ3@aol.com
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[Michael McCoy]

I'm not so sure about 400 hp in an E30 and *reliable*. If you get things running right as far as the engine goes, you'd still be stressing the rest of the driveline a bit beyond what it was originally designed to handle. the first suspect parts would be the clutch and guibo. but after that you'll have to start worrying about the transmission and differential (but mostly only if you're rough when shifting...)
Just saying that reliable becomes a relative term when dealing with *adding* over 200 hp (more than double the stock HP...) to a ~15 year old car. :o)

-Michael McCoy

[JoshQ]

Well I've heard that the getrag 260 trans (E30) will stand up to some abuse. I've heard that some E24 owners put the 260 in there cars as an upgrade. As for the clutch there is a company that sells kevlar clutch kits to stand up to more power, their web address is www.speclutches.com. You can switch the diff to an e29 535i with a little modification and those will take more hp than the E30 units. So I'm sure that you could run 300-400 hp and make it somewhat reliable. Now when dealing with a non-factory turbo on an engine that wasn't meant to be turboed you're always going to be dealing with something from what I hear from other turbo e30 owners. But it all depends on what you're willing to pay (money wise and time wise).
-Josh

[X2theZ3]

Is not true. It doesn't matter what kind of engine really, or at least that's what is says in Maximum Boost. Of course some engines respond better than other. The reliability issue is due to the stress.

But I'm pretty sure that I have decided to go with a late Big Six (3.5L from e34 5 series, e32 7 series, and late 6s) M30 engine swap instead of the turbocharger for now for several reasons. One is it's cheaper and also there's more potential. Somewhere down the rode I will turbo it.

So if anyone knows of or has an m30 engine (the 208hp one)and tranny for sell with low miles let me know.

Charles

[JoshQ]

Sorry, I said that wrong. I didn't mean that it isn't meant to be turboed, just that the BMW engineers didn't design the engine around turbocharging like for instance, the GTi engine. I hope that makes sense and good luck on the swap.
-Josh

[diggin02s]

this car was so fast for it's day(even for today) they had to compare it to a Ferrari Testarossa.Steven
1990 M5
2000 Land Rover DII

[X2theZ3]