my e28 is goin up for sale

[bjh102]

328thats getting s super cool motor swap

[Schieldrop]

Crossing fingers for S62.....

[bjh102]

lol i wish it was an s62. actually maybe now you mention it .

i was planning for an euro s50b32. i know they are regular for you in europe but here not so much

[Schieldrop]

How much would an engine like that cost for you guys? Found one on the net here in Norway a week ago. $8000 for a complete car with right hand side steering (UK car). A little banged up, but fully driveable.

[bjh102]

i found some one who can ship one over here with a sixspeed transmission for $6500 usd.

[Schieldrop]

i found some one who can ship one over here with a sixspeed transmission for $6500 usd.

Sounds like a good deal. Since the shipping must be just fucking murder.
I bought a 3.2 once dirt cheap for around $3000, sunk $600 worth of parts to get it up and running, was gonna put it in my old E36 touring.
But never got around to it. Ended up selling it for about $4000, so at least i made some money on it. Personally I like the 3.0 version the best.

[bjh102]

Sounds like a good deal. Since the shipping must be just fucking murder.
I bought a 3.2 once dirt cheap for around $3000, sunk $600 worth of parts to get it up and running, was gonna put it in my old E36 touring.
But never got around to it. Ended up selling it for about $4000, so at least i made some money on it. Personally I like the 3.0 version the best.

ya shipping i think is right around $600usd. not too bad.

why do you like the 3.0 better?

[Schieldrop]

Number one issue I have with the euro B32 is that it rarely, if ever, puts down the 321bhp that BMW claim. Most of them put down about 300-310. The B30 almost always lives up to its claimed output. And if you run a B30 with the original 17" wheels against a B32 on 18" wheels the B30 will keep up with the B32 in a straight line.

There are other things too, like the B30 has single vanos which is less complicated and less expensive to repair if it fails, the gear box on the B30 is the same as the 328i so replacements are cheaper. And if I remember correctly some other service parts are also cheaper on the B30. The B30 is generally considered a more solid unit.

But the main thing is that the B30 feels like a more finished item.
I like its mid range pull better. For me the B32 is like an prototype S54.
It's good, just not as good as the one before and after it.

This is of course only my personal view. A well maintained B32 can and will run just as good and just as long as a B30, but having driven them both on a track in standard cars, I would go for the B30 everytime. That being said, the M3 GT S50B30 is my favourite e36 engine of all time. It does everything the others can, only a little bit better.

[SeanDub]

Factory horsepower numbers are at the crank not the wheels, which is why it would put less power to the ground..

[Schieldrop]

But still, why does the B30 put down closer to the factory numbers than the B32?
The B30 has been know to have a few more horses than standard numbers even.
Maybe it's different on the US engine, but on the euro spec S50 this is common knowledge.

[bjh102]

i have herad alot of people saying how good the b30 is. but never heard a reason why. i sure ove an m52 both of the motors are going to feel amazing haha. if i had an OBD1 car i would go with the b30 but i dont so i need to go with the b32. but thinking about it im going to have to pay off smog anyways so i guess it doesnt matter if its OBD1 or OBDII. maybe something i should look more into before i take the plunge.

thanks for the info on it man anything i can know will help me alot.

[Schieldrop]

Always happy to help
Guess the biggest thing for me is the fact that BMW had two-three times the amount of warranty issues and call backs on the B32. One thing that makes people sceptical towards the rumour of the B30 vs B32 is that they think they are almost the same engine. That the B32 is only a stroked B30 with dual vanos. This is however not true. They don't ever share the same block. A friend of mine has a Z1 with a B30 in it, and a co-worker of his asked him to build one for him aswell, only with a B32. I remember being over at his house helping out one night, and we noticed that the B32 had a "slimmer" block and therefor fit better in the tiny Z1. The wireing was also worse with the B32, which is always a bitch.
But the general consensus seems to be that the B30 is the stronger unit. Haven't run either of them myself, but this can't be a coincidence. One way to look at it is that most people here in scandinavia that turbo charge S50s go for the B30.
The biggest issue with the B32 though is the vanos. Since your getting a secondhand engine you can't really know how it has been maintained, and the dual vanos failure is seriously costly to say the least. One guy I read about in the UK had an S50B32 Z3 M-Coupe. By the time it had passed 60.000 miles he had had his vanos changed out twice. This is off course an extreme case of bad luck, but still.
Knowing that the engine you get has been maintained regardless of cost, and that it has had its vanos checked regularly is the only way I'd go B32 instead of B30.