I am in the market for a BMW, however I was looking for an E30. The other day an E21 1979 Euro 323i came up for sale, and for starters I loved the look of it. The car has super low kms at 120 and it has a newly installed engine. The engine was the 2.7 liter 325e engine with EFI, mated to a 5 speed out of a 325i. I have never owned a BMW before and I have a small amount of maintenance experience (mostly fixing up my old GTI, or reparing cosmetic defects at a dealership I used to work for). My question is this, would this car be good for me, plain and simple? I am in college and working, so the amount of time that I am capable of dedicating to working on a car is small, just as is the amount of money I am capable of dedicating to the car. Please let me know what all you experts think, any feedback is appreciated as long as it's honest.

I am in the market for a BMW, however I was looking for an E30. The other day an E21 1979 Euro 323i came up for sale, and for starters I loved the look of it. The car has super low kms at 120 and it has a newly installed engine. The engine was the 2.7 liter 325e engine with EFI, mated to a 5 speed out of a 325i. I have never owned a BMW before and I have a small amount of maintenance experience (mostly fixing up my old GTI, or reparing cosmetic defects at a dealership I used to work for). My question is this, would this car be good for me, plain and simple? I am in college and working, so the amount of time that I am capable of dedicating to working on a car is small, just as is the amount of money I am capable of dedicating to the car. Please let me know what all you experts think, any feedback is appreciated as long as it's honest.

So, it replaced its engine with an eta?
Ok is it and eta head and block and fuel system, or just the existing 2.3 323i head fuel system with a new eta block?
Find out specifically what the deal is...

The biggest thing you have to check is the timming belt. M20s are prone to messing up the head when it goes, so get that replaced or checked.

Next its stuff like sport shocks and springs. If you owned a GTI at one point you are in pretty good company as a lot of us over here also have roots in VWs. I own a 86 Jetta and 2003 GTI 20v turbo..both which have some mods.
DJproffessor, and other guys also have or modify VWs.

hands down easier to work on than a VW. laid out much better (as my friend who was a vw tech that swapped over to bmw has found out as well). not prone to as many problems........HOWEVER, that being said i would find out the history of your swap like jay was asking. you can swap the bottom end of an eta in there lickidy split, or you can go the full monty and swap over the entire eta motor with fuel injection system....i would find out who did the work, what exactly was done, and how long ago it was done.......you could have a diamond in the rough or a heap of sheit depending on answers to those questions.

oh and post up some pics, that way we can give further opinions........

Thanks for the info, if the swap is the most important thing than I will get that info for sure. Also how much maintenance would I expect from an E21 with that few miles? Maybe if you guys could tell me what kind of problems yuo have had with a similar car? I'll get back to the forum after I get a response from the seller in regards to the engine swap. Is there anything else that is typically defective on cars of this genus?

Thanks for the info, if the swap is the most important thing than I will get that info for sure. Also how much maintenance would I expect from an E21 with that few miles? Maybe if you guys could tell me what kind of problems yuo have had with a similar car? I'll get back to the forum after I get a response from the seller in regards to the engine swap. Is there anything else that is typically defective on cars of this genus?

Not really.
With an M20 its the timing belt.
With the stock 323i sometimes the fuel distributor goes out and thats costly.

Then there is the negative camber in the rear, when you lower it.

All of these are fixeable. But you have to Check the timing belt.
Thats critical.
Replace it. I know a guy who blew his while motor back in the 80s when his timing belt went. When it goes in the m20 it bends the valves in the heads, this is why its so castrophic.

Then its just the typical manitence stuff. Look for rust in the rear shock towers, and in the floor boards their are circular depressions that seem to collect rust. Check the rockers and underneath the windows...etc.

You have to find out the details of the engine swap, and the tranny.
If its a whole swap, chances are he may have ran into a timing belt issue that neccesitated the swap.

later,
J

In the ad it does specifically enumerate that the engine was converted to a "stroker" engine. I know a lot about cars, And I hear engines referred to a lot as "stroker" but honestly I've always been too embarrassed to admit I had no clue what that was.

In the ad it does specifically enumerate that the engine was converted to a "stroker" engine. I know a lot about cars, And I hear engines referred to a lot as "stroker" but honestly I've always been too embarrassed to admit I had no clue what that was.

Ok. Here we go again. Stock 323i is a 2.3 liter, to effectively increase performance retaining the stock head and injection is to graf an 86 or so eta block and to get rid of the 2.3 block that the 323i had.

Since the displacement, stroke and crank is different in the eta engine, the stroke is now 81mm, we call this a stroker engine.

Other ways to stroke an engine for a 323i, would be to take a 90 or so 325i 2.5 liter, bore it out to 85mm or more (MM makes forged pistons) and use either an eta or 524 td crank.

This is now a 2.8 liter stroker, and with the 885 head, the flow design of the manifold and valves are better than that of the 200 series eta head.

In stock form the 323i, has a 200 series head, if you look at the casting number on the head.

My advice is to call or email the owner, ask what type of engine it has,
if its just the eta block then you have the stock 323i head, and injection with this. Its a 2.8 liter stroker.

If its a full eta conversion, you could do a little more to it. Some people have put "I" 885 heads on eta blocks but to do this you need to revamp the CR of the engine with different pistons.

It's the original 323i head, I drove it and I think I am going to buy it. He is asking 4500 for it