2.5 to 2.8 engine swap and FI questions!

[CaddymanLNL]

I am here to ask advice from ye Z gurus!

the situation

I have a running 2000 2.5 manual Z3 w 140k miles on it, Oliver. Pretty much stock other then an intake i made for the noise and a resonator in place of the muffler. Pics attached cause yay pictures.

I have a wrecked 2000 2.8 auto Z3 with 70k miles on it, Greg. Bone stock. Was my kids car, she got rear ended and pushed into the car in front of her, pics attached. I bought it back from insurance to harvest for parts. No leaks at scene of accident, I am assuming the previously very healthy motor is still healthy.

the goal

Get the not wrecked car to maybe 300HP or so and spend very little if anything. big bonus if i can swap the 2.8 low mile mill into it. the 2.8 was sentimental to my daughter and if Greg could live on through Oliver it would make her happy.

the plan

I suppose the engine swap would be fairly straight forward but would like to hear any pitfalls that may arise or links whatever of people doing it, my buddy does ls swaps all the time i already prepped him for this. i have worked on BMW's for years and have several, never done and engine swap though by myself.

then i would have the 140k mile 2.5 engine to sell along with the rest of the wrecked car except the hood, bumpers, and maybe the trunk. a non exhaustive list of comps on ebay that i low balled today gets me to $4600 to spend on go fast parts.


so if you have a healthy 70k mile 2.8 (M52TUB28?) 5 speed and $4600~ to spend, what would YOU do. Free Labor other then tuning I suppose.unnamed (2).jpgunnamed (1).jpg

[BimmerBreaker]

The swap is simple as those are the same engines, you will just use the 2.8 engine and flash your existing DME for the 2.8. Easiest route is to keep the engine harness attached to the engine

Getting 300hp cheaply is a lot harder though. For your goals here I would look into supercharger kits

These parts also don't move terribly quickly so it will be a long time (if ever) before you see $4600 back out of the car. Keep in mind between eBay/PayPal fees you will lose about 10% right off the top, not to mention the added cost of shipping. Make sure to look at completed/sold listings to get a clearer picture as to what to expect for actual values. A lot of parts will be listed high but the ones that are actually selling are much cheaper. It will also show you the sold date, so you can judge how quickly those parts sell on average

[z3forlife]

Sounds like a good plan and you should have everything you would need to do it. As far as go fast parts you’d be looking at FI of one type or the other and that would mean lots of mods to do it right & maintain reliability. Still you’d be slow compared to all the new fords/mopar/Chevy offerings. I’d do the swap but probably keep it relatively stock just for simplicity sake.