Tuning an e30 316?
Discussion
I might be able to get my hands on a relatively tidy 316 e30, this is the 1.8 carb model with around 90hp.
The obvious answer to making it go more quickly is to drop in a straight six but just wondering if it is possible to do anything with what is already there? Cams, exhaust, twin webers perhaps? I guess this engine was used in the e21 3 series?
Anyone able offer any advice or pointers?
The obvious answer to making it go more quickly is to drop in a straight six but just wondering if it is possible to do anything with what is already there? Cams, exhaust, twin webers perhaps? I guess this engine was used in the e21 3 series?
Anyone able offer any advice or pointers?
I'm in the same situation having just got exactly the same car. It must be quite easy to tune since in F1 cars this very block was making 1500bhp. 
As far as I can tell the easiest thing to do to unlock some extra horsies is to ditch the standard carb and fit a weber 32/36 DGV instead, with a performance filter. That'll let the engine breathe properly. After that you'll be wanting to get the exhaust back out again, so a sporty exhaust would be in order. Then maybe a cam. And then things start getting really, really expensive.
As far as I can tell the easiest thing to do to unlock some extra horsies is to ditch the standard carb and fit a weber 32/36 DGV instead, with a performance filter. That'll let the engine breathe properly. After that you'll be wanting to get the exhaust back out again, so a sporty exhaust would be in order. Then maybe a cam. And then things start getting really, really expensive.
Hi there,
I had many, many E30's back in the day and its where I, and alot of us Mid 30's lot first got into 'BMW' !
The last point made is the crucial one, you'll spend lots and lots to gain any type of useful gain from the engine, and that money would be much better spent on doing an engine swap to a bigger one with the power already there. I had this conversation at a recent meet with a young 21 year old enthusiast who's building up his no claims etc and runs an E30 everyday and has a few other E30's for restoration or breaking etc. He's just picked up a very well specced D plate 316 with some interesting options and it's very very clean (sport leather, mtec 1 kit, 15 inch BBS cross spokes, leather steering wheel if i remember correctly) and we got onto this topic. He wanted to put on a stainless steel manifold, and then put on a full stainless system, the uprated carbs (I don't know too much abotu this!) better air filters etc etc. So from going from whatever power it makes and by spending X he'll get perhaps 20 bhp more? 25-30 if lucky?! and for around £650-1000 spent. So I suggested he wait a little while longer, ring round more insurance places etc to find out the price of insurance after sourcing a 2.5 litre unit and dropping that in. Maybe he'd spend a tad more than a grand getting the right bits together - he knows how to fit etc so he'd save there - and he'd have potentially 171 bhp right there. Perhaps re-building the engine for reliability and uprating it at the same time might help as well. Else, he'd spend £1000 ish on getting a minimal amount, and then in a few years time, he'd have to re-spend it when he does drop in a bigger engine into that very clean and nice e30!
In the early 90's, prior to internet days, I had a full 3.5 litre engine and box to drop into my E30 at the time, found out the major hassle was fabricating a steering box for the right hand drive and steering column (from memory!) thing. I had a contact who'd have rebuilt the engine and added Schrick cams and some other bits and bobs and I'd probably seen around 250-260 bhp all for around £2K fitted. Sold the car and it never came about. However a little while later I had a subsequent 2.5 engine re-done to 2.7 and loved that! Now that things have moved on, and speaking to a number of young E30 owners, I'd suggest dropping in the E36 2.8 litre or the 3.0 later variant. The engines are cheap and plentiful, have more power than the early 6 cylinder units, parts are all over the place and makes for a tidy and 'relatively' straightforward swap for perhaps around the £2K mark all finished (very loose estimate!)
If I come across and have the money for one, a nice E30 I know which engine I'll be dropping into it!
Cheers, Dennis!
I had many, many E30's back in the day and its where I, and alot of us Mid 30's lot first got into 'BMW' !
The last point made is the crucial one, you'll spend lots and lots to gain any type of useful gain from the engine, and that money would be much better spent on doing an engine swap to a bigger one with the power already there. I had this conversation at a recent meet with a young 21 year old enthusiast who's building up his no claims etc and runs an E30 everyday and has a few other E30's for restoration or breaking etc. He's just picked up a very well specced D plate 316 with some interesting options and it's very very clean (sport leather, mtec 1 kit, 15 inch BBS cross spokes, leather steering wheel if i remember correctly) and we got onto this topic. He wanted to put on a stainless steel manifold, and then put on a full stainless system, the uprated carbs (I don't know too much abotu this!) better air filters etc etc. So from going from whatever power it makes and by spending X he'll get perhaps 20 bhp more? 25-30 if lucky?! and for around £650-1000 spent. So I suggested he wait a little while longer, ring round more insurance places etc to find out the price of insurance after sourcing a 2.5 litre unit and dropping that in. Maybe he'd spend a tad more than a grand getting the right bits together - he knows how to fit etc so he'd save there - and he'd have potentially 171 bhp right there. Perhaps re-building the engine for reliability and uprating it at the same time might help as well. Else, he'd spend £1000 ish on getting a minimal amount, and then in a few years time, he'd have to re-spend it when he does drop in a bigger engine into that very clean and nice e30!
In the early 90's, prior to internet days, I had a full 3.5 litre engine and box to drop into my E30 at the time, found out the major hassle was fabricating a steering box for the right hand drive and steering column (from memory!) thing. I had a contact who'd have rebuilt the engine and added Schrick cams and some other bits and bobs and I'd probably seen around 250-260 bhp all for around £2K fitted. Sold the car and it never came about. However a little while later I had a subsequent 2.5 engine re-done to 2.7 and loved that! Now that things have moved on, and speaking to a number of young E30 owners, I'd suggest dropping in the E36 2.8 litre or the 3.0 later variant. The engines are cheap and plentiful, have more power than the early 6 cylinder units, parts are all over the place and makes for a tidy and 'relatively' straightforward swap for perhaps around the £2K mark all finished (very loose estimate!)
If I come across and have the money for one, a nice E30 I know which engine I'll be dropping into it!
Cheers, Dennis!
DennisCooper said:
Hi there,
I had many, many E30's back in the day and its where I, and alot of us Mid 30's lot first got into 'BMW' !
The last point made is the crucial one, you'll spend lots and lots to gain any type of useful gain from the engine, and that money would be much better spent on doing an engine swap to a bigger one with the power already there. I had this conversation at a recent meet with a young 21 year old enthusiast who's building up his no claims etc and runs an E30 everyday and has a few other E30's for restoration or breaking etc. He's just picked up a very well specced D plate 316 with some interesting options and it's very very clean (sport leather, mtec 1 kit, 15 inch BBS cross spokes, leather steering wheel if i remember correctly) and we got onto this topic. He wanted to put on a stainless steel manifold, and then put on a full stainless system, the uprated carbs (I don't know too much abotu this!) better air filters etc etc. So from going from whatever power it makes and by spending X he'll get perhaps 20 bhp more? 25-30 if lucky?! and for around £650-1000 spent. So I suggested he wait a little while longer, ring round more insurance places etc to find out the price of insurance after sourcing a 2.5 litre unit and dropping that in. Maybe he'd spend a tad more than a grand getting the right bits together - he knows how to fit etc so he'd save there - and he'd have potentially 171 bhp right there. Perhaps re-building the engine for reliability and uprating it at the same time might help as well. Else, he'd spend £1000 ish on getting a minimal amount, and then in a few years time, he'd have to re-spend it when he does drop in a bigger engine into that very clean and nice e30!
In the early 90's, prior to internet days, I had a full 3.5 litre engine and box to drop into my E30 at the time, found out the major hassle was fabricating a steering box for the right hand drive and steering column (from memory!) thing. I had a contact who'd have rebuilt the engine and added Schrick cams and some other bits and bobs and I'd probably seen around 250-260 bhp all for around £2K fitted. Sold the car and it never came about. However a little while later I had a subsequent 2.5 engine re-done to 2.7 and loved that! Now that things have moved on, and speaking to a number of young E30 owners, I'd suggest dropping in the E36 2.8 litre or the 3.0 later variant. The engines are cheap and plentiful, have more power than the early 6 cylinder units, parts are all over the place and makes for a tidy and 'relatively' straightforward swap for perhaps around the £2K mark all finished (very loose estimate!)
If I come across and have the money for one, a nice E30 I know which engine I'll be dropping into it!
Cheers, Dennis!
Thanks for the reply Dennis! I agree with what you're saying about the engine swaps and power for the money. If I was going to just use the car on the road then this is definately what I'd do. However I'm probably looking to build the car into a rally car, road rallies initially and then maybe tarmac stage rallies. Keeping the 1.8 would keep the car in lower classes and hopefully it would remain competitive. It seems fitting twin 40s has been done, and along with a cam and exhaust would probably make a decent enough amount of power. There is of course a series called the rwd challenge for 325s which I'll consider too.I had many, many E30's back in the day and its where I, and alot of us Mid 30's lot first got into 'BMW' !
The last point made is the crucial one, you'll spend lots and lots to gain any type of useful gain from the engine, and that money would be much better spent on doing an engine swap to a bigger one with the power already there. I had this conversation at a recent meet with a young 21 year old enthusiast who's building up his no claims etc and runs an E30 everyday and has a few other E30's for restoration or breaking etc. He's just picked up a very well specced D plate 316 with some interesting options and it's very very clean (sport leather, mtec 1 kit, 15 inch BBS cross spokes, leather steering wheel if i remember correctly) and we got onto this topic. He wanted to put on a stainless steel manifold, and then put on a full stainless system, the uprated carbs (I don't know too much abotu this!) better air filters etc etc. So from going from whatever power it makes and by spending X he'll get perhaps 20 bhp more? 25-30 if lucky?! and for around £650-1000 spent. So I suggested he wait a little while longer, ring round more insurance places etc to find out the price of insurance after sourcing a 2.5 litre unit and dropping that in. Maybe he'd spend a tad more than a grand getting the right bits together - he knows how to fit etc so he'd save there - and he'd have potentially 171 bhp right there. Perhaps re-building the engine for reliability and uprating it at the same time might help as well. Else, he'd spend £1000 ish on getting a minimal amount, and then in a few years time, he'd have to re-spend it when he does drop in a bigger engine into that very clean and nice e30!
In the early 90's, prior to internet days, I had a full 3.5 litre engine and box to drop into my E30 at the time, found out the major hassle was fabricating a steering box for the right hand drive and steering column (from memory!) thing. I had a contact who'd have rebuilt the engine and added Schrick cams and some other bits and bobs and I'd probably seen around 250-260 bhp all for around £2K fitted. Sold the car and it never came about. However a little while later I had a subsequent 2.5 engine re-done to 2.7 and loved that! Now that things have moved on, and speaking to a number of young E30 owners, I'd suggest dropping in the E36 2.8 litre or the 3.0 later variant. The engines are cheap and plentiful, have more power than the early 6 cylinder units, parts are all over the place and makes for a tidy and 'relatively' straightforward swap for perhaps around the £2K mark all finished (very loose estimate!)
If I come across and have the money for one, a nice E30 I know which engine I'll be dropping into it!
Cheers, Dennis!
The other things to work on are the suspension and brakes. Do bigger brakes from say a e30 325 or maybe a later e36 simply bolt onto an earlier 316?
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