1995 e34 525i V8 crate motor and five speed mods

[Bufford Evans]

Hey guys I'm New round here and have a mind to drop a v8 in her rather than doing turbo .. I think that my options will be greater with a larger heart ... Also would like advise on dropping a five speed in the old girl ..
Thanks for any ideas or input ..
Bufford

[someguy2800]

Its always an option. I am a v8 guy at heart but realistically you can make more power with a turbo M52 than you can make with any naturally aspirated american V8 and for less money, but if you just want like 400 hp at the motor you can do that for not that much money with a small block ford, small block chevy or LS. Any more than that and it gets expensive quickly. A 6.0 LS truck motor with an ls1 intake and cam, headers ect... can make about 450 with a street cam. Anything more than that get out your checkbook. This amount of power is frankly pathetic compared to what you can do with a stock bottom end M52 and turbo. Options are limited for domestic 5 speeds. Ford has some newer tremec 5 speeds in the mustangs but I don't know if they can be adapted to a small block ford. T5's are everywhere but they don't hold much power. Probably the easiest and most economical way to go would be to get a complete T56 trans and either a 6.0L LS truck motor or build a cheap 350 with vortec heads. Put a cam in it and shove the whole thing in there with a 100 shot of nitrous. I suspect if you do some more research on costs vs HP you'll probably decide the grass isn't greener on the other side.

[PowerKraut]

Coming from a 525 e34 its just a few thousand bucks to be in the 500+ club and less headache.