BMW 325 Engine

[Gunter]

Hello all.
I am staring my Haynes roadster and had originally planned on a bmw 318 Donor. Then a 1995 325 happened along with the double overhead cam and single Vanos. This is a beaufifull little engine I have owned a car withi this engine. Has anyone used this engine in a Haynes roadster. It is almost ten inches longer then the 318. I have no problem in changing the dimensions of the chassis. My main concern is, how does it affect handling. Any advise would be appreciated. I looked for relevant threads, but did not find any.
Thanks for the help
Gunter
Ontario Canada

[twinturbo]

There's somone building a locost with an E36 M3 engine on LCB.

Can you get the gearbox further back ( wider tunnel ) gearleaver location permitting?

TT

[AshG]

you should get it to fit quite easily. i built my car with a 1.6 och pinto and there is 30cm infront of the engine so plenty of room for something bigger.

[aerosam]

Chris Gibb's brother (in law i think) built a wide chassis roadster with that engine. I think the thread was lost in the big forum meltdown. Maybe somebody here has a caopy of the pictures?

I'm building a locost with an M60 V8 engine from an E34 BMW 530i, so anything'spossible.

[Gunter]

Thanks for input. I did some further measuring and cam to the conclusion that I have widen an lengthen a little perhaps 2" wider and 4" longer. Does anyone see a problem with that as to how it might affect the handling.
Thanks
Gunter

[twinturbo]

you don't wana mess with the front end, the steering geometry is designed specificaly to place the pivot points of the wishbones in line with the inner ball joint on the rack. Altering this will upset bump steer. you could add an extension to the ball joints inner thread to move them out though.

TT

[Gunter]

Originally Posted by aerosam

Chris Gibb's brother (in law i think) built a wide chassis roadster with that engine. I think the thread was lost in the big forum meltdown. Maybe somebody here has a caopy of the pictures?

I'm building a locost with an M60 V8 engine from an E34 BMW 530i, so anything'spossible.

Hi aerosam.
I looked at your blog. I am envious at your progress. I have a question. Did you use the BMW suspension components and brakes and diff?

[mark]

If you make it longer and wider you will have to make all the bodywork to suit and cut and shut nosecone /scuttle etc

If it was me i would try very hard to leave it standard dimensions so you can fit saturn bodywork without having to try and chop it up to get it to fit

Im suprised it wont fit in a standard chassis as there is lots of room in the engine bay, saying that i have had a few bmw"s and the 6 cyl engines are pretty hefty.

[twinturbo]

Brother in law used to have an E30 325i Sport... The sound of the straight six was wonderful did not look that big , and the M42 in my m8's 318 looks tiny in that engine bay

TT

[mark]

The m42 4cyl ones arent that big, but the 2.5, 3.0 and the 3.2 m3 are all pretty big once you put a tape measure to them, they also sit at an angle which doesnt help

I sold my m3 evo part way through building my chassis and toyed with the idea of finding a scrap one and using it as a donor because i love the 3.2 engines so much, but after measuring it there was no way you could do it in a standard size roadster engine bay.

Also the ammount of extra engineering involed to use the uprights and diff etc would be very time consuming, definately possible if you dont mind putting the time in.

Im to impatient for that though and its taken 15months to finish one using a cvh!