E9 vs e28

readie

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I need some advice.. this is a bit of a story so bear with me...

Ok where to start...I am in the uk and my ‘daily’ driver is the e28 m535i, dogleg box. It my usual car and basically use it for stomping up and down a motorway for about 100 miles at a time a couple of times a week. The rest of the week it just sits around.

have got a better cam on it and a few other bits and bobs so it goes pretty well, occasionally getting a track outing which mostly goes well. My approach mostly being, drive it like you stole it, break it, fix it again but upgrade if you can.

i am lucky enough to have an e9 I am doing up. It’s a csl which I have had for years. With the e9 whilst not a stickler for originality, I don’t want to do anything which cannot be ‘undone’ I had intended to get the E9 engine rebuilt and put a different cam maybe pistons, possibly triple Weber’s. In effect period stuff.

here’s the quandary.

Having thought about it and with one eye on cash, I am thinking of putting the e28 m535 engine and box into the e9 and then maybe putting a e39 m54 into the e28

basically I have been quoted gbp 6000 to ‘sort’ the e9 engine into something good power wise (perhaps about 250bhp) but I sort of have it already in my e28...

it it also means I get a six speed box in the e28 for up and down motorway....

views appreciated, would I be fecking up both cars ?

help...!!
 
Your best bet with the CSL will be to keep it as factory spec as possible. You will actually devalue the CSL by swapping (or modifying) the motor even if it gains performance.

Save that engine swap cash for another daily driver while you drop that monster motor into your e28.
 
Your best bet with the CSL will be to keep it as factory spec as possible. You will actually devalue the CSL by swapping (or modifying) the motor even if it gains performance.

Save that engine swap cash for another daily driver while you drop that monster motor into your e28.

+1
you do not want to ask that question or
you are not an e9 guy or
you are an e28 guy
there is nothing wrong in any of that statements
you just have to choose one
;-)
 
CSL is best kept original. I'd leave the E28 M535i alone. Either sell the E28 & buy an E39 or add the E39 to the 3 car stable.
 
It would not be hard to find an E28 3.5 engine to fit into the E9 if you wanted, I have two or three in the UK, one currently in my E9 CSiL about to be removed and the original engine rebuilt and refitted, I see no benefit in fitting an M54 engine (3.0?) to a 535i E28, the M54 is a great engine and lighter but not better, a lot of work and money to not really improve either car, Fit a 5 speed O/D box into the E9, or a dogleg as you prefer, an engine swop is a far bigger and involved job than first envisaged down the pub, I once fitted a 635csi engine and 4hp22 into a diesel Bedford CF Mk1 camper, together with E36 PAS and an E32 steering column made to tilt, yes it can be done BUT,
I used to take it to Le Mans, never knowingly passed a petrol station but was fast, engine swops are not the sort of job to pay someone else to do, you could end up with two parts cars...... and remember we have new rules next year that would make your E9 loose it's road tax and MOT exemption if converted, Pat
 
It would not be hard to find an E28 3.5 engine to fit into the E9 if you wanted, I have two or three in the UK, one currently in my E9 CSiL about to be removed and the original engine rebuilt and refitted, I see no benefit in fitting an M54 engine (3.0?) to a 535i E28, the M54 is a great engine and lighter but not better, a lot of work and money to not really improve either car...

Good advice. For some reason I missed that the e39 wasn't an M5.
 
comments noted all, thanks for the feedback.....
Pat, good to see you on the site...hopefully you will remember both my cars as you did quite a bit of work on both of them over the years....life treating you well ?
 
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