Australians: are you sick of Jap engines in BMW's?

[rob101]

straight forward question, to me i am getting a bit sick of people trying to justify this by saying BMW's performance leaves alot to be desired (because they bought a bottom of the range car) and that its cheaper to put a jap engine in their car when compared with buying an M or similar.

To be honest I just think these people are ignorant people who've grow up with the active jap modding scene and think that BMW engine are crap because they don't come stock with snail on them.

or is it just me?

[wingman]

Mate just clarify please. Are you saying that people buy a 318i and say that BMW are crap compared to a WRX or are you saying that we always get the detuned verions of Jap cars? I want to be precise in my answers as I hate whingers and want to have a good hit at this one:D

[mattyb]

mate id be right with ya on this one if I knew what you were talking about. do you mean that folks are putting jap engines in BMW?

[Nick.Hay]

Bastardising the marque by dropping another breed engine in is nothing short of Sacrilige (spl??)...

You must always remember that people are dickheads!! They are gonna do stupid **** like this, and step on the toes of us BMW purists... And there isn't a damn thing we can do!! :( They see BMW as 'just' a car, so ****ing with it is not an issue to them.

I have even seen a 318i with a carby-fed 351c with 3sp auto... WTF!!??

All we can do is protect our own, make sure that our cars remain true to the marque, and preach the word of BMW-4-LIFE!! Those machines we save, and convert to the cause are the luck ones...


How do you think Jaguar/Aston-Martin purists reacted when the crew from "James Bond's Die another Day" movie stripped $12m worth of DB7 and XK8s to fit 351s and Explorer running gear??



I feel sick....

[genphreak]

Yea, this practice is rife. Since you can buy relatively new jap cars and parts - (there is a lot of import performance stuff shipping direct from Japan these days) a lot of people do the math and like the numbers.

If my motor blew I would try my hardest to source and fit an S38 or an M60 + a manual tranny. Let's say I had time on my side I might be able to cobble it together along with a decent rebuild (the way I like it) for maybe $8,000.

Apart from the cost, it would take a long time to do and require a full rewire of the dash. I could handle that now, however I know how hard it would be- and how long it would take.

Now I can buy a long six Jap motor, with a turbo and gearbox for $2k. Add some mod costs, fit the thing without a rebuild for say $3k. Since the time taken would be only a few weeks and the total cost $5k I'd be interested. However when you consider the labour would be done by someone else and the fact that I could hire a limo for the time the car is in the shop and still pocket a big difference. If I relied on the car as a daily driver this would be a big plus, but also there are 2 other things- do I have the facilities and am I confident of handling the job myself any other way....

If the car was not special (a 318 is a good example) I can see the sense in this. However I am not very interested in Jap motors or have the patience to deal with Japanese (non-)documentation to risk battling a BMW's instrumentation difficulties, let alone registration hassles/road-worthies and so on.

My experience makes me prefer a different compromise; a less expensive Bimmer engine, stock, keep the feeling and avoid the headache potential that would be a Toyota Turbo or a Skyline motor, shoe-horned by ba mechanic contracted at a 'job rate' into my Bimmer... :) Nick

[rob101]

Mate just clarify please. Are you saying that people buy a 318i and say that BMW are crap compared to a WRX or are you saying that we always get the detuned verions of Jap cars? I want to be precise in my answers as I hate whingers and want to have a good hit at this one:D
not really, well there are a few people who are taking supra or similar engines and plonking them into a 5er (also a e30 with an SR (but since e30 m3s are mostly LHD there is not alot of alternative so i understand that)) because they feel that their 520i or 525i wasn't as fast as their rice rocket skyline or whatever (GET AN ///M IDIOT). it is becoming more common place, but to be honest i think it is just a case of australians wanting to put jap sr's rb's 1jz etc. etc. in everycar in existence... then they sell for a ******** loss of cash(well duh! who wants an e34 with a jap engine) then turn around and say it is cheaper to do so......

BMW makes engines that have the same output as jap turbo engines without even needing a turbo. i guess BMW engines must be **** then after all turbos are much better race engines than NA. which is why all the european supercars have turbo engines........ oh no wait. they don't!

sorry wingman about the ambiguity of my original post, i was in vent mode lol:p but i have fixed it up so maybe it makes more sense

[rob101]

bump

[wingman]

I haven't heard of this practice. What I have heard of regularly is the fitting of Chev or Ford V8 engines into Jaguars. This upsets me greatly. If you want a Jag buy a Jag. Part of the (older) Jag experience was its tendency to leak oil and have bodgy electrics (Lucas-the prince of darkness!!!). Live with it or just go and buy a Commodore. Oh so you want to be 'classy' by being seen in a Jag? The kind of person who does this obviously has no idea about class and will have it parked in the driveway of their housing commission house in Minto anyway. WTF??? A classic example is there is a bloke here in Goulburn who's fitted a V8 of some discription to a series 1 XJ6 Jaguar. He lights it up going around round abouts and generally hoons around, arm out the window, 2 packs of winnie reds on the dash etc etc. Real classy. Ceasing vent .......now.

[shogun]

How about this one:

1989 BMW 750iL 8 SEATER LIMOUSINE

http://carpoint.ninemsn.com.au/used-car/BMW/750iL/Victoria/1631216.aspx

If you look at the spec, it has only 6 cylinders. That car was some month already for sale, it has a Ford 6 cylinder installed.

[GJPinAU]

The good ol' Chevuar
At least with the V8 in it he can take it for a drive. Saw a Jag the other day at a car rally and said to the owner "so that's what they look like with the bonnet down", then bolted :D

[genphreak]

...a classic example there is a bloke here in Goulburn who's fitted a V8 of some discription to a series 1 XJ6 Jaguar. He lights it up going around round abouts and generally hoons around, arm out the window, 2 packs of winnie reds on the dash etc etc. Real classy. Ceasing vent .......now.Friend you are just forgetting the quantum leap we have enjoyed with the BMW product compared to GM or FoMoCo fare.

He has gone half way, migrating from such things to a car that has (had?) some class but will never rival a bimmer on so many fronts. He has cause to be happy tho; combining some engineering that actually works enough to output some real power reliably and get (what he percieves as a new height in the auto experience) takes considerable effort.

The only thing is that a road-going Jag saloon has very little class these days, esp. beating out a V8 gurgle. It's meant to be a quiet limoesque car with some style- or a real sports car- but never an in-between. Jag never made the grade here, and eventually along came Ford who left the detritis and poultice to take just the brand and history to feed it to their team of (some of the world's worst) marketers.

A Jag is really a heavy steel chariot, never built for the highway (after all one can easily end up too far from home to return without a tow-truck).

I know it sounds trite, but the interiors and English development is just so awful you have to ride in one to see what I mean. We'd need to be smoking something too to get something out of it!!! Lowered and plumbed with a old 350 Chev it's a shame to say it but an XJ saloon is simply more suited towing a trailer to the next caravan park than provding a decent driving experience...

[Incantation]

who gives a shxt you only live once do what you want and spend your time better than concerning it with what others do

sick? don't be dramatic like a woman dude

[rob101]

who gives a shxt you only live once do what you want and spend your time better than concerning it with what others do

sick? don't be dramatic like a woman dude
thanks for that gem of wisdom.;)

[Nick.Hay]

OK.. got one for you:

850CSi with cragars, 350 chev and a 2 sp powerglide. ;)

Do you feel sick??

[rob101]

OK.. got one for you:

850CSi with cragars, 350 chev and a 2 sp powerglide. ;)

Do you feel sick??
thats almost like buying a dino and putting a buick v6 in it!

[RX7guy]

I am generally against swapping of other manufacturers engines as well, but I must say the 4-rotor E36 is really sweet. 4 rotors, twin T77 turbos, estimated 1500hp.

http://www.mazdarotary.net/queenstbmw.htm

[Gene in NC]

Oh Yeah, and the guy who screwed it the worst was Carrol Shelby when he raped that sweet little Ace by stuffing that awfwul Ford engine under its bonnet.

One of the best XJs ever was the '73 short wheelbase XJ12. First thing I did to mine was to replace the ignition with the Allison optical loaned from my '68 '02 and the worlds first optical disk, custom machined for the Jag/Allison.

Second thing was to add a blueprinted Chev 350, 4s AT, and electric fans. Now, that was a real car. That Jag handled like a BMW. The engine made it fast, reliable. economical and low maintenance. Isn't that what you would like from your car?

One of the first realities of BMW ownership is the many opportunities for repairs, large and small and the risk of breakdown far from home and service. One of the realities of low production, semiexotics is the reality of long rides behind tow trucks because there are no parts or expert service around.

In the US, the great appeal of the Chev Jag was wide availability of parts and experience. Buddy did a swap w/o rebuild and replace of "let you down beside the road" parts like fuel pump. First trip to the beach, the fuel pump crapped. Two miles away was service and part. Bang, Bang, done.

[wingman]

We all know that I'm a purist. The Jags that I've travelled in have been wonderful. You don't actually drive them you 'move them through the suburbs'. In my humble eyes, someone driving an original Jag of any vintage and probably worth less than the change in his pocket gets more kudos from me than the latest Clubsport R8 or whatever they are. And as far as technology goes when has a pushrod V8 been on at the forefront of progressive technology? Surely the twin cam multi-valve XK engine was way ahead of its time. This engine in 3.8 ltr form powered the first production car to beat the 120mph barrier and that was in 1948 (or around there). If Jaguar had of learned to make gaskets and used Bosch rather than Lucas electrics these cars would not have suffered the woes that killed most of them prematurely. For mine, putting another makers engine in a BMW is similar to those jokers on BMW nightmares who stick BMW badges on Hondas. They just want the supposed kudos that the badge will bring.

[sKilled]

Soft grumble of straight 6=good
High pitched prebubescent whine of a rotary (ooohh look at me)=annoying, therefore bad.

[Nick.Hay]

Luckily, its only hypothetical...

Just trying to get a rise out of incantation!! ;)

[trumpetr]

Almost wants to make me go find a beat to **** '90 honda civic, drop in a bmw 318 4 cyl,,,turbo it,,,,hell,,twin turbo, put on an obnoxious potato shooter exhaust,,, "carbon fiber" (yeahright) emblems on the hood and trunk, way too big wheels with way too thin tires.

Putting the BMW marque on anything other than a bmw, is like putting lipstick on a pig.

[Nick.Hay]

Very common practise with older Mercedes.... the 6cyl Ford conversion.

[sKilled]

Not if you have a diesel Merc. But Merc sucks at 4 cylinder engines - a top engineer at Merc said so himself, just not so plainly.
And at manuals. They apparently have a tendency to stick and wear out prematurely. They rock at making automatics. World class even. That's why if you even see a manual Merc in Germany, it ain't worth dick.

[RX7guy]

Soft grumble of straight 6=good
High pitched prebubescent whine of a rotary (ooohh look at me)=annoying, therefore bad.

I'm not sure why you even posted that unnecessary remark about rotary engines. I never said anything negative about your or any other BMW engine.

I am sure that you have no idea what you are talking about. FYI, my rotary isn't high pitched at all, and it will run circles around your BMW.

[bimmerd00d]

I'd kill to throw an LS1/LS6 into an E34. Motor that weighs less than any six cylinder, or 8 cyl V8 produced by BMW, that can make 400hp and still get 25-30mpg. Sign me up.

[ryan roopnarine]

I'd kill to throw an LS1/LS6 into an E34. Motor that weighs less than any six cylinder, or 8 cyl V8 produced by BMW, that can make 400hp and still get 25-30mpg. Sign me up.


surely you are being hyperbolic. the m50 weighs about 427, the m52 about 389, the m60 about 462. i won't include the m30 because that's 1960s technology (the same way the m50 is late 80s technology). the ls1 and ls 6 weigh between 450 and 490 dependent on auto/manual--about same as LS7, IIRC. i won't dispute that the motor is an excellent deal cost/fuel consumption/hp wise, but they are working with 350-427 inches there, it wasn't ever rocket science to get a motor that big to go fast.

[BigKriss]

It's your money and car and you spend it how you want. But I don't think it's worth the money spent. Too much mucking around. Have a read here;

http://forums.eurocca.net/showthread.php?t=14933