Hey- I'm new here, looking for some advice. I have an old (88) 528e that has a blown engine. It was never a very entertaining drive from an acceleration aspect, but it came set up with a Suspension Techniques spring/bar/damper setup, with nice wheels, etc, so it has SOME redeeming value...sort of. ;)

So, I know it;s next to worthless, but, should I:

Put another 2.8 eta engine in it, sourced from a junkyard...(a couple hundred $ I'd guess)

or swap something that can actually move and rev that would be cheap and simple. The question is, what would that be?

Or, part it out/throw it away?

I can wrench fine, as I've rebuilt all my 911 motors and such, but hate spending time on projects that I know are losers, so I'm willing to do some work, but nothing to complicated....this project is most definatley bordering on a loser! (Still, if I could get a good handling, decent looking car with a semi decent motor (the eta engine fails in this regard!) for reasonable time and money, it might be worht it.)

Thanks for any and all suggestions!

if its a super eta (3/87-12/87) slap on a fresh 325i head, regrind the cam at ireland enginnering, get the dual valve springs, AFM, FPR, TPS, throttle body, bellows, injectors, ECU, vacuum line from throttle body, and you will be set with around 185 HP.
if you are looking for bigger power do the M50 swap.

Thanks...I've been researching furhter, and have found the 3.4 litre motor from the 535i version to be available at reasonable cost, with the needed ECU. I think thats an M30, right? What is an M50?? Is it a simple plug and play deal like the 535i motor swap should be?

I think a m30b35 engine would be your best bet.

The easiest/cheapest solution would be to source a 2.7 'e' block and a m20 2.5 'i' head to create a sort of stroker engine. This would give a little more tope end horsepower than your original engine while needing only the 2.5 ecu and wiring harness (I beleive, but maybe also the manifold/afm).

Your next option would be the m30s. The e28s came with m30b34s which made around 189/195. The m30b35s come from e34s, 7ers and late 6ers, and make either 200/215 hp/ftlbs tq or 215/200 hp/ft lbs tq. That swap would be the best bet for making more power, but would obviously require the full engine, wiring harness, custom exhaust connections and maybe special engine mounts. This swap may also require the m30 trans/ new mounts to work with the current trans. I think the m20 trans will work with the m30s, but I'm not too sure about this.

None of this is jsut 'plu and play'

The m50 is the 2.5 liter from the e36s, which makes about the same and less hp as the m30s, witha godd chunk less tq. i would stay away from this one.

And yes to your last post, the engines from e28 535i are m30s.