Advise

[flyinE30]

Well I will be building another E30 and I'm having a hard time choosing what power plant to use. The car will be strickly for drifting. I have been running my m20 for about 3 years at 300hp and it has been handling the abuse pretty well, untill SWD round 4. I'm getting a ton of blow by now. So I decided I'm going to freashin up the motor with rings and stuff to buy me time till my other e30 is done. I hate long builds with no drifting. So I plan on sliding this e30 till the other is done.

My question is what do I put in the new drift project? M50? 2JZ? Suggestions?


One of my main concerns is to balance $$$ and availability. 2JZ's have crappy trans, so I'd spend close to 6k and probably blow it. Go M50 cheap$$ Probably be just as solid as a 1Jz, and pull them out the junk yard. I dont wanna do a swap then have a hard time finding parts if i brake something (which will happen)

My Goal is about 500hp.

I'm open to any suggestions.

[BigC986]

Id say the m50/2 route would probably be the easiest and cheapest. Both are reliable, produce great numbers when boosted and parts are readily available. Not an expert on the 1jz or 2jz,'s but i feel like parts aren't as readily available considering their age and how rare they are today and not to mention how much fabrication/customizing you'd have to do to get everything working the right way.

[flyinE30]

Id say the m50/2 route would probably be the easiest and cheapest. Both are reliable, produce great numbers when boosted and parts are readily available. Not an expert on the 1jz or 2jz,'s but i feel like parts aren't as readily available considering their age and how rare they are today and not to mention how much fabrication/customizing you'd have to do to get everything working the right way.

Yea that's what I being thinking also. I just need to hear from others. I've also thought about the Chevy inline 6 from a trailblazer but then that's just a lot of custom work that may not be worth it.

[Jamdun17]

Parts are actually really easy to get for both the 1jz and 2jz, the 1JZ headgasket and major seals are kind of hard to find if you want them immediatly but if your willing to wait a week or 2 for shipping you can get what ever you want. Most parts are interchangeable with the 2jz and timing belts if from an IZUZU truck. The V160 is a monster trans so im not sure if you thinking about that one. The R154 is probably the one you thinking of which is still strong in its own right. Just hates to be shifted fast with high power. If it breaks you can buy a brand new one from GM since the solstice/sky use the same trans. They are hit and miss with reliabilty but imo i think most of the cases of breaking are from mis-repair and trying to push the engines power without the supporting mods first. 1jz in particular sound AMAZING and will rev to the moon if you want with some around here revving to 8500 rpm + (balanced, Ferrera springs and retainer and of course a set of cams to justify revving that high). The stroke ratio is made for it and just stock it screams. I dont at all regret putting in this motor and i have driven boosted E36 M3s and honestly im astounded how good the motor is just out of the box.

That being said the M50 will be cheap, more then likely an easier swap with lots of support. Shameless plug: You could go bigger and buy my s50 with trans :-D, both need to be rebuilt but it runs and drove me daily to work before i pulled it. Give it to you for a good price too. PM me if your interested.