At the moment I am working on a 1984 528e and i want to bring it back into better driving performance than it was when stock 20 years ago. So if you have any helpful responses please let me know. Thankyou

Suspension can be done the same as any E28 (shocks, springs swaybars) and the motor can.....well, be swapped out for an S50 ;) . Or, barring that, you can put 325i cam in there, drill out the extra oil holes and add the "I" intake, injectors and computer and headers and get a bit more power out of it. Of course, then you defeat the original purpose for being of the ETA which was fuel efficiency. Id swap the S50 or leave the motor stock, with maybe a chip for Conforti.


At the moment I am working on a 1984 528e and i want to bring it back into better driving performance than it was when stock 20 years ago. So if you have any helpful responses please let me know. Thankyou

tylerbourne - Welcome to BFC from a fellow Hawaii member. As Catfish said, work on the suspension as the motor is a poor choice to mod. The eta motor has lots of low end grunt, but runs out of steam at 4500? I used to have a 528e w/ 5 spd and I had suspension work done to it. It handled great, but the motor just didn't have the hp.

Are you planning to keep the car or just flip it? If you flip it, looks for either a 533i or the 535i. Those cars will leave a smile on your face with it's performance.

One easy way to increase acceleration would be to change the differential to a 3.25 or 3.46. Better acceleration, maybe less mpg. There is a chip for the eta. It's kind of an anemic little engine, but if you keep the timing belt serviced it should go and go and go...