So I planned on swapping in an m52 into my e21 but after I have purchased engine and $2500 in aftermarket goods I found the engine fits very snug with only room to fit a pinky on each side without radiator. So i'm bailing on the m52 and trading wheresthewagons for his 30k miles m20. Should I go for the m20 with 180+ compression on all 6 cylnders or should I try to sell off engine and parts and swap in s14. With the left over money from selling the parts I could also build up the m20 to what I want. Thoughts

the compression here doesnt give you the real the pic.

Why bail out with this M52. Just modify stuff. Chop, cut ,weld back in place. Should be pretty easy.

i agree....i'd love to see an m52 powered E21.
use a shorter driveshaft (the 83 driveshaft might be shorter than the 77-79?).
and cut the front clip to fit a radiator...u've got a good 4-5 inches of width between the front grill & backside of the front clip.

Ide love to the swap too but I don't have access to welding tools and would have no idea what I was doing with the wiring and drivetrain.

This is probably going to be my route next winter, except its going to be an S52. I have done the swap in an E30 and I dont think its going to be that much worse in the E21.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y87/Mtriple/E30-S50/DSC00305.jpg

My thoughts are that I ain't as smart as German engineers

I like the weight and balance with the m10

I hate always reiterating the same facts over and over again. Basically, join the boost club and build a sick m10 because the are that insane. Throw in the fact that its light and balanced so you can easily build a sick autox monster, track bitch, street machine at a very low cost(you can build a turbod m10 for the price of a stock s14.) A boosted or NA tuned S14 cant and will never touched a well boosted m10...fact is the m10s block is bullet proof.

I hate always reiterating the same facts over and over again. Basically, join the boost club and build a sick m10 because the are that insane. Throw in the fact that its light and balanced so you can easily build a sick autox monster, track bitch, street machine at a very low cost(you can build a turbod m10 for the price of a stock s14.) A boosted or NA tuned S14 cant and will never touched a well boosted m10...fact is the m10s block is bullet proof.


Ummm......s14 uses a modified m10 block!

Umm...
S52 can be done with much mods. I have thought of this, and you need to
chop and shoe horn it to fit...so its major $$..

Basically get either a m10 or m20 and boost it...
I have a built 90 2.8 stroker for my 323i, and someday I will build a NA 3.0.

later,
J