MyE28.com

M30 or M90, it doesn't make 2 shits of a difference. They are both mechanically very similar. A B35, which is an M30 and puts out within 10hp of the M90, will not even come close to those numbers. The E36 M3 can throw those kind of numbers down (on a good day) because it has a higher revving 24 valve engine that pulls past where an M30 falls off...

This motor is putting out almost 40 more hp than a m30 does.

Uh, how about a mid 80s euro 3.5 M30. That one was rated at the same 218 as the vaunted M90. Or other euro M30's larger than 3 liters. And it's 70HP more than a 2500 M30 which was rated at 145 or 150HP depending on the application. Or a B35 M30, that was available here and rated at what, 209 or was it 211. Lots of high output M30s were made.

Nobody seems to remember that the US e28 M5 is a low 15 second car with 256 HP. Do you really think an M30 powered e28 is going to beat that without a second mortgage worth of motor work or forced induction?

turbodan wrote:Nobody seems to remember that the US e28 M5 is a low 15 second car with 256 HP. Do you really think an M30 powered e28 is going to beat that without a second mortgage worth of motor work or forced induction?

Exactly...its just not gonna happen.

turbodan wrote:Nobody seems to remember that the US e28 M5 is a low 15 second car with 256 HP. Do you really think an M30 powered e28 is going to beat that without a second mortgage worth of motor work or forced induction?

Exactly.

turbodan wrote:Nobody seems to remember that the US e28 M5 is a low 15 second car with 256 HP. Do you really think an M30 powered e28 is going to beat that without a second mortgage worth of motor work or forced induction?

I agree with your premise, but I seem to recall the magazine tests showing mid to high 14's. Of course that was thrashing a test car, not something they had to drive home, but still. And 533/535s tested around 16, plus or minus. But I agree, nobody is going to get M power numbers out of a 2 valve engine without a lot of work. A whole lot of work. And M cars had 6 butterflies and headers, to get what they did.

We can argue all day about this but I guess what I'll end up having at the end is a m535 e12. What's the 0-60 for that car?

maximapitko wrote:We can argue all day about this but I guess what I'll end up having at the end is a m535 e12. What's the 0-60 for that car?

7.5 s
www.e12.de

maximapitko wrote:We can argue all day about this but I guess what I'll end up having at the end is a m535 e12. What's the 0-60 for that car?

It'll still be a great car and the swap totally makes sense. It's just not going to turn it into a supercar. Getting the power up over 200 is plenty to have fun in the curves- e28s don't belong at a dragstrip anyway.

So you say...

Bert-Ola wrote:

maximapitko wrote:We can argue all day about this but I guess what I'll end up having at the end is a m535 e12. What's the 0-60 for that car?

7.5 s
www.e12.de

hmm, my stock 533i is listed at 7.7 with 37hp less....there is something wrong here....either way, it will be a cool swap

ismellfish2 wrote:e28s don't belong at a dragstrip anyway.

I don't know about that. I'd love to throw some drag radials on and see what my e24 will run in the 1/4.

I ran a 15.4 with my mostly stock (diff and Dinan chip) 535i.
I'm sure a good driver could run a high 14 in a stock M5.

I personaly think that a 230HP M30 with a lightened e28 body (i.e. no interior, AC, etc) could run a 6 sec 0-60. And probably a 14.8 or .9.

ElGuappo wrote:I have to ask this question even though I feel pretty stupid for it: But would a B35 head fit/work on an M90 block? Is the difference in bore enough to make it not work? Or even if it did bolt on would the increase in combustion chamber size decrease the CR enough to make the end result not desirable?

Haha, I asked that question last week and got this answer...

You might be able to get more air through the b35 head, and the b35 cam is more aggressive, but you'll be lowering your M90 CR to 9:1 from 10:1 and lose a good bit of power.

go4carter wrote:

ElGuappo wrote:I have to ask this question even though I feel pretty stupid for it: But would a B35 head fit/work on an M90 block? Is the difference in bore enough to make it not work? Or even if it did bolt on would the increase in combustion chamber size decrease the CR enough to make the end result not desirable?

Haha, I asked that question last week and got this answer...

You might be able to get more air through the b35 head, and the b35 cam is more aggressive, but you'll be lowering your M90 CR to 9:1 from 10:1 and lose a good bit of power.

I thought that the stock cr for the m90 is 9.3 so going down to 9.1 might not be that bad....I am still researching this option. From what I read here you cannot fit a s38 head onto a b35 block but you can fit it onto a m90 block. This means that you won't be able to fit a b35 head onto a m90. Yet, there is a guy back home who did just that-s38 head onto a m30b35 block so I don't know what the heck is going on...Also, it seems tha according to realoem the size of the intake valves is the same for the m90 and b35....go figure

skip535i wrote:I ran a 15.4 with my mostly stock (diff and Dinan chip) 535i.
I'm sure a good driver could run a high 14 in a stock M5.

I personaly think that a 230HP M30 with a lightened e28 body (i.e. no interior, AC, etc) could run a 6 sec 0-60. And probably a 14.8 or .9.

Is it worth having a gutted interior, no a/c, etc for a 14.9 1/4 mile? And you'd still be dragging ass on the trap speed.

thesixerkid wrote:

ismellfish2 wrote:e28s don't belong at a dragstrip anyway.

I don't know about that. I'd love to throw some drag radials on and see what my e24 will run in the 1/4.

I'm not saying it wouldn't be fun, but it's not really what they're designed for. Other cars with bigger power potential and rear suspensions better set up for hard launches will always come out on top. Even a smaller BMW like an e30 would produce better results for the same effort. Our cars' strong point is that they're solid all-around packages- there are other cars that are better in most any specific category, but the e28 is just a solid performance sedan.

Not to rain on your parade- by all means, tear up that strip, and take a camera!

well I decided to pull the head out on the m90. I'l post some pics layer today but everything seems in a pretty nice shape including the cylinders/pistons. On tuesday I'll do the same with the b35 and compare them. The question is this: I have three cams-b32,b35 and m90. Which one should I go with?

turbodan wrote:Is it worth having a gutted interior, no a/c, etc for a 14.9 1/4 mile? And you'd still be dragging ass on the trap speed.

Why not?

The point of drag racing (as I see it) is seeing how much faster you can make a car from it's stock form. So our cars are supposed to run (stock) a 16.1 or so right? I can run a 15.4...I'm .7 seconds faster...and If I can run a 14.9, I'm 1.2 seconds faster. I think that's pretty cool.

Not to mention the TCD S2 car ran a 12.08. That's badass.

These are fun cars to drag because if you buy a cheap beater 535i and tune up the motor, gut it, and run some decent tires, you can run high 14s and you're faster than all the new stock imports and you have a 20 something year old car that you only paid 1000 bones for.

What do you really gain from a gutted interior though? You've got a 3.73 and a Dinan chip. That accounts for the .7 seconds. You can ravage the inside of the car and have a loud, uncomfortable, ugly e28 that runs possibly two tenths faster.

I was thinking of something else today. My m90 has a cr of 9.3 with flat pistons. Will the b35 pistons clear my m90 head with the m90 rods in the m90 block? Will this bump my compression even more?

Why would you use an M90 head on a B35 bottom end?

Gonna revive a really old thread here.

Did you ever finish the build on the engine? I just recently acquired an M90 and am going to start rebuilding it soon.