Christople

Alright S2ki, help me out.

Now, whatever I say I can't afford it but its all in theory in the future for me, if it can be done cheaply/easily.


E46 M3, take out the engine put in the twin turbo 3.0L from the 135/335.

Is it possible to keep the 6sp manual tranny from the E46 m3, so that you only need to do engine swaps and not have to buy the whole tranny as well to save costs?


Why would I want to do this?

Well, I like the E46 body style better. It's lighter, and honestly if I was to do any real power on the M3, the swap of the engines + mild tuning to the turbos could possibly make cheaper HP in the long run.

Has anybody considered this?

I've seen Z3/Z4's with the old M5 V8 engine in them, and even seen some extreme V10's in some 3 series cars before by some big name tuner.

To even go farther back for reference, what got me thinking about all this was seeing people take the old BMW 2002 and put a E36 2.5 I6's into them for modern day reliability/power/fuel savings

Besides this M3, I wonder if people haven't already thought of sticking that TT I6 into older BMW's besides the E46....


Thanks for your time and comments

Onehots2k

Do you know that a 335i sedan will outperform an E46 M3 Competition Package in just about every measurable way?

I dont think it would be such a good idea man. Just buy a 335i...


"It danced away from the M-spec two-door in the run to 60 mph by a half-second, stopped from 60 mph 1 foot shorter, and raced through the slalom 2 mph quicker. Since we pronounced the $55,840 M3 "The Best M3 Ever Sold in America," what does this make the $44,270 335i?"

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drive...rticleId=119739

Christople

Yes I know the 335 is quicker and way cheaper/easier to mod...


but lets say if you already had the E46 m3 and wanted to do this swap. Would is be easy/cheap/reasonable to do?

Plus the car will weigh less and for people like me... I like the looks better of the E46

notamaster

If you want a cheap build how bout a e30 with a e46 m engine.

Christople

That would work too, but I like the E46... I guess everybody has forgotten the love and not cared as much about Bangles designs and just care more about the performance numbers...

Vik2000

yup ppl change as cars do

al4t1gbundy

Actually from what Ive read the change is almost as expensive as buying a damn E46. So thats why you do not see as many swaps.

sahtt

If the E46 ends up looking half as old as the E36 does now you might want to stick with your newer body style. BMW's don't age too well IMO.

Penforhire

For less than the price and effort of a swap (I think) I'd add forced induction to the e46's engine.

al4t1gbundy

FI is like 10k to 15k to the E46 engine lol.