BMW E30 325 2.8L Stroker

Description

Up for sale is my 2.8L M20 E30. This was my daily driver for many years, and was almost all highway miles under my ownership. I spent a lot of time driving to my work in Clinton, NJ (45 minutes) or to School (30 minutes) or a combination of the two. It has also taken a few trips to and from Vermont, Connecticut, as well as North Carolina. This has been a very fun car and everything I’ve changed to this car has been for the sole purpose of making it a better driving experience, if you test drive it you will understand. Smooth shifts, no clunking, predictable weight transfer, and power at all RPMs, good gas mileage, comfortable. The body is not in the best of condition. I’m not taking it to concours d’elegance. My philosophy is if you have a car with a purpose, it should be used for that purposed, if I had a Ferrari I would daily it. I did not baby this car and will make no such claim, but I did put a huge effort in upgrading and maintaining this car.

Engine: The engine is a stroked 2.8L. This is a combination of a lot of different parts. I used a 2.8L crankshaft from an e36 328i, 130mm connecting rods from the original motor, and late model short skirt m20b25 pistons. Everything was balanced before installation. This idea for this stroker build came from an older article in the Roundel where it features a whole article on what parts fit and what don’t. I basically copied the recipe and then added an Ireland engineering billet 272 camshaft and SSquid tune to finish it off.

You might be wondering what qualifies me for building an engine… 2 years of Vocational School (Auto Tech), Associates In Automotive Technology, 6 Years in BMW maintenance and Repair, 2 years of high performance engine building and custom installation at a performance shop, and 8 years of overall experience as in auto tech in various shops.

Important things worth noting, all wear items were replaced when rebuilding, piston rings, journal bearings, rod bearings, piston wrist pins, piston wrist pin bushings, pistons wrist pin clips, head gasket, valve seals, head gasket bolts, intake/exhaust gaskets, water pump, fan clutch, crank seal, rear main seal, and everything else that would be a maintenance item in an engine rebuild.

Have over 20,000 miles on the engine with no issues, I’ve driven it to and from Vermont and North Carolina and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.

I always used Mobile One 10W-40 synthetic for every oil change except for the break in.

All of the following have been added, modified or replaced in the last 30,000 miles:

Engine:

All seals, rings, head bolts etc. (as mentioned above in the engine build overview)

Fluids:

Engine: Mobile One 10W-40

Coolant: BMW OEM Coolant

Transmission: Redline MTL

Differential: Redline 75W-90 Synthetic

Steering:

Rack Doctor E36 M3 Steering Rack 3.2:1

Garagistic Swap Kit

Lemforder e36 inner and outer tie rods

Front Suspension Axle:

E30 M3 Powder coated Springs

FAG Front Wheel Bearings

Bilstein Sport Shocks (All new hardware)

Lemforder front shock mounts

Lemforder Start Bar Links

Lemforder Control Arms

Power flex Offset CABs

Powder Coated Red CAB housings

Rear Suspension:

E30 M3 Powder coated springs

Bilstein Sport Shocks

Ireland Engineering Rear Trailing Arm Bushings

Rogue Engineering Rear Shock Mounts

AKG 85A Sub frame Bushings

Cooling System:

Behr Radiator

Rein Coolant Hoses

Behr Thermostat

Saleri Water Pump

Engine/Drivetrain:

Goetze Standard Size Piston Rings

Victor Reinz Head Gasket

Victor Reinz Head Bolts

NGK Plugs

Green Top Injectors (17.5 lb)

Gates Kevlar Timing Belt Kit

Beck/Arnley Fuel Injector Pressure Regulator

GPS Powder coated intake manifold

GPS Powder coated valve cover

GPS Ceramic coated OEM headers

Stock 325i Exhaust

S2.93 LSD

BMW OEM Engine Mounts

BMW OEM Transmission Mounts

BMW OEM Diff Bushing

ECS Short Shift kit (Z3 1.9 Shifter with all new hardware)

Lemforder Flex Disc

Rogue Engineering Delrin Shift Knob

Diff Cover Powder coated Red

Brakes:

Front Zimmerman Pads and Rotors

Rear Power Stop Z23 Drilled and Slotted Rotors

GPS Braided SS Brake and Clutch Line

Wheels/Tires

Set 1: Yokohama Avid Envigor 205/50/16 on ASA AR1 16X7 ET38

Set 2: Bridgestone Blizzaks on Bottle caps for snows

Exterior:

Shadow line Trim (Missing one piece so there is a chrome piece there in instead)

Bumpers Tucked using convertible bumpers

LED License Plate Lights

Euro License Plate Filler

Cow Catcher Lip

US Ellipsoid Headlights

Interior:

Ox Blood Driver Seat, door cards, and one rear panel (the passenger seat is out of a cardinal vert and the other rear panel is from the original tan interior, I never got around to sourcing the rest of the interior pieces.)

Alcantara Shift and E-brake boot with M-tech stitching

Oil Temp, Oil Pressure, and Battery Voltage Gauges (Only battery voltage hooked up)

Kenwood CD player

Rockford Fosgate Prime R152-S 5.25 Component Speakers with Tweeters (Front)

MBQuart RKM113 5.25” Reference Coax (Rear)

Kenwood KSC SW11 Powered Enclosed Sub (Mounted on the ski pass behind seat)

WeatherTech Floor Mats

BMW pedals aluminum Pedal Set

Alarm system with remote and other cool features

Ares requiring attention:

The paint is original and shot. Still shines up nice with some polish. Who cares, you can’t notice a thing when you’re standing 20 feet away. This is a go car NOT a show car.

Car has some rust spots pictured. The spots on the fenders I just lightly sanded away the rust and sprayed with a sealer. The paint first started to peal on the fenders when I lightly rolled them, I used to have OEM Style 5’s 16x8 with 25mm adaptors which required just a hair of added clearance

Body has some dents

Someone keyed the car’s driver side when the previous owner had it

I will say I loved having a car without a nice paint job because I never had to worry about someone scratching it or anything. I drive all over the place so not having to worry about those things helps you breathe easy.