i love my car but, its getting a lot of mile on it. so, im trying to get info on engine swaping. if anyone could help me that would be great, i know nothing about this subject. i guess what im trying to find out is... whats the biggest engine i can put in? where is a good place to find one?

I think you can stuff a V12 in there.
But anything from a 2.5 to 3.2 will fit. An E36 chassis is an E36 chassis.

The most common engine swaps are with the 6 cylinder 2.5 and 2.8 liter engines and the 3.0 and 3.2 liter M engines.
And yes, I did read a story of one company who put in the 5.6 V12 from the 8 series into a 3 (there goes any semblance of 50/50 weight distribution).

I have done the swap to a 3.2 in my car, and have a helpful document available to assist the instal.

I've been extrodinarily busy lately (I still owe a form out now... sorry)

but if you would like a copy, I will TRY to get you one as well.

J!m

yeah i would love a copy. im in iraq right now so i'm not going to be doing any of this anytime soon but, im trying to do as much research on it as i can while im here.

Hey there J!M I would like a copy if you could send me one too. Thanks :)

For the biggest swaps I haven seen it would be with Hartge that does the 5.0 conversion on E36 and e46 compacts.

I kinda wouldn't mind a TurboDiesel, that would be different.

i can just throw a 3.2 M engine into my car??? what about the tranny, can it handle that??

Not for long. If you do the engine you need to do the tranny. Eventually the diff will go too.

Diff goes in short order. Tranny holds up well, if oil is changed frequently.

I am in the process right now doing a engine swap. I have a 3.0 eurospec motor s50 from europe. It will have 300hp with the minor upgrades. This is one serious motor.