Although not an M3, my brother just bought a 1992 325i for $1500 (cracked head). e36's make great daily drivers and are also sporty enough to enjoy a saturday morning drive. My brother and I can't wait until we complete the engine swap. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to see how that straight 6 performs.

 

You will not be disappointed in the straight-6. I had a 93 325is. It was great. I wish I still had it for my daily driver. If I lived in a snow-free state, I probably would. It isn't all that far from the M3 (primarily just less power). Are you swapping in another 2.5?

Could you imagine if BMW had made a factory M3 Turbo? Let's see, 3.2 liter straight-6 with low-comp pistons + 15psi with a stock like turbo, it would be sitting around 400rwhp. It would have a following similar to our cars. I know you can turbo those cars now, but to do it right, you really need to swap in low-compression pistons and that costs big bucks.

Max

 

It's not that expensive. No need to resleeve the block to drop in forged pistons.

Much cheaper than a 951 block buildup.

 

OK, First off.. The E36M3 lacks the handling of the 944.. At least my S2..

In very similar modifications between my car and my friends there is no question on whos car is the handling king.. The E36M3 is nice but doesnt have the feel in the steering wheel also its not as well weighted (feels like a 911 without the precision). The E36M3 also doesnt feel very 50/50 when you start to throw it around you can instantly tell the rear end is not a weighted as the 944 but it also feels like the rearend of the E36M3 lacks traction. To make it worse you cannot feel what the rearend is doing.

However....
As far as stock pistons good for less then 400hp?

The 3.0l atleast is good for 450crank on stock internals with a turbosetup useing a custom headgasket. (Dynos show around 400whp)
Here is the kit http://www.boostlogic.com/ its cost 8k but you need the headgasket and studkit from AA for another $750.

The main problem is the stock piston Compression Ratio is to high for more then around 13psi (with headgasket) You have to go to low compression pistons and usually rods are a good idea (there limit is around 18psi)


Also your 951 is not stock internals and has a moddified block to get its 460whp.. With moddified block and internals a boosted E36M3 is around 550-600whp..

 

Wow, the e36 block is surprisingly small.

 

an s2cab is ~3100lbs which is a pretty far cry from the m3's 3700

 

E36 M3 is a great car, just too damn expensive to get some real power out of it!

 

M3 only weights in at.. 3175 for 95 and 96-99 3175... (Not much diffrence) the cabs weight 3491 but the M3cabs are not near as good..

 

The E36 M3 is an absolutely awesome car. I drive my dad's at least once daily,the car has yet to show any flaw to me, and I can push it pretty hard(It helps though, that he has 12,000 invested in it.) The M3 is his daily though, and the 911 Targa the Garage/Weekender...The car is a-friggen-mazing. I have yet to see a flaw.

 

I'm getting my info from experience, dunno about other people's kits or their experiences. I worked on the E36M3 that I posted in the above link, and we started getting blowby at around 390whp. The amount of blowby didn't change after a few weeks, so we tore apart the motor to replace the rings. When we inspected the pistons, one of them had developed a hairline fracture at the ring land. Thus, 390whp was PAST our stock block limit. The car still ran fine with the fracture and the worn rings, just some smoke out the exhuast. But to me, that was signs that we needed to upgrade.
My current block is not stock, but I did make my 460whp number (and tons of tracktime) with the stock 2.5L block. I still have my stock block, it's in fair shape, and I failed in attempting to blow it up since I wanted to put the 2.8L motor in.

 

951 is great but not for daily car and expensive for maintenence. I'm looking for a Bimmer
for daily use and keep my 951 for weekend car.

 

I'd love to have an E36 M3. All in all, I'd prefer an E36 M3 to a 951/944S2. Although for around the same price as an E36 M3, you an also pick up a 968. That would be a very hard choice...

 

Rage - did you weigh those 2 blocks when they were sitting side by side?

Also - what holds the mains on that little BMW?

 

I'm glad to see that most think the M3 is an awesome vehicle, it absolutely is. I put about 25K miles on my '95M3 before I went to the '03M3 which I have had for about 1 year and 15k miles. I personally think the ultimate car would be to drop the E46 motor into the E36 body, with a slight suspension upgrade. My early '95 came with a non-staggered wheel setup stock, from'95.5 up, BMW dialed in understeer with the staggered setup. Handling on my '95 was superb and very very neutral, whereas my '03 has a bit too much understeer. One of these days I'll spend the money to go non-staggered and drop in some heavier sway bars, however, that day has to wait since all my car money is being dumped into my 924S track car at the moment.

IMHO, the M3 is the best 4-seater sports car, bar none. Civil enough to be an excellent daily driver, yet still one hell of lot of fun.

 

Yeah, my brother bought a 50,000 mile 2.5L motor from a junkyard. They included the wiring harness and a lot of the accessories, so hopefully we will be able to drop it in this weekend.