Will a 2015 M5 engine fit in the 1988 M5 body?

Will it fit or would I have to do some major modifications to the body of the at to get it to it?

Anything can be made to fit, but I seriously wouldn't. The E28 M5 is a pretty rare car, I wouldn't use it as a basis for modding it. It's not like you can't find one of the more cooking E28s...

ToxicTurtl3 wrote: Will it fit or would I have to do some major modifications to the body of the at to get it to it?

The real question is why?

BoxheadTim wrote: Anything can be made to fit, but I seriously wouldn't. The E28 M5 is a pretty rare car, I wouldn't use it as a basis for modding it. It's not like you can't find one of the more cooking E28s...

All of this.

I was kinda thinking the same thing about that and I wouldn't mod it but what about the 2002 could u fit some big engine into that like an e30 M3 engine into that a 1988 535i engine. Or what about a tesla engine/ battery from the model s do it would be electric?

E30 M3 engine into a 2002 has been done, it's commonly called an "M2". I wouldn't put a big six in there as it'd make it nose heavy. BTW, M10s take very well to boost...

I doubt you could fit a Tesla drivetrain into one, apart from the cost have a look at the way the drivetrain is integrated into the Model S. Hard to replicate it.

bottom line is that most BMW engines can be swapped into most old BMWs. Pretty much every conceivable swap has been done more than once into 2002s, e30s, etc. You should just go read stuff in the build thread section of r3vlimited forum and you'll get a good idea of how much or how little work it takes to swap into an e30. And most things that can fit into the e30 engine bay can fit into the 2002, e21, e28, e36 bays.

Keep in mind though that "making the engine fit in the engine bay" is the easiest part of doing an engine swap.

For a 2002, I'm personally a fan of either a boosted M10 (the original engine will hold lots of boost on stock internals) or if you want N/A go with an M42/M44 from the early-90s 318i, which give you 40% more power than the stock M10 but don't carry a weight/balance penalty.

ToxicTurtl3 wrote: I was kinda thinking the same thing about that and I wouldn't mod it but what about the 2002 could u fit some big engine into that like an e30 M3 engine into that a 1988 535i engine. Or what about a tesla engine/ battery from the model s do it would be electric?

by the way, the E30 M3 engine (S14) is in no way a "big engine." It's a 4-cylinder that is smaller than any of the bmw sixes.

what exactly are you trying to do with this car? Just want a car and want to swap an engine for the hell of it? doing a track build? drag car? drift car? weekend fun driver? daily driver? What you plan to do with the car will determine what your best choice in engine swap (or staying with the stock engine) should be.

Just pulling some car and engine out of the air and wanting to swap them together without thinking about other factors is a recipe for a crappy car.

I would be very impressed with anyone who could get a 2015 BMW engine to run in anything other than the car it came in. There are probably about a million computers in that thing monitoring the chassis, transmission, engine, the key FOB, what you ate for breakfast, etc, etc that all need to work together or it's not going to run right (or at all).

Short of a really fancy, really well-tuned aftermarket ECU, I don't think it's going to happen. Will it physically fit? I'd say that's one of the smaller issues as stated above.

addendum: I cringe to think how much an S63 complete drivetrain would cost just to get, much less to actually swap into another car.

In reply to irish44j: I want to make this a daily driver that can go moderately fast and would be able to run pretty good if I took it to a track. This isn't really that important cuz I most likely won't drift it very often, but I would also like it to be able to drift if I need it to. With those factors what engine would u recommend? Oh I also woul like to know If upgrading the tranny from a 4-speed to a 5-speed would be worth the extra cost?

I would recommend that the setup for a drift car and a track car/DD are very different in terms of suspension. But again, it depends on what car you get as to what engine is best for it. If you really want to do a swap for some reason, the best chassis to do it in is the e30 since there are a million documented swaps of all kinds of engines into that chassis. If you get an e28, people have done swaps but there's not as many resources and information out there and it may be harder to find certain parts you'll need to do it. And if you take an engine from a car that it didn't come in (e.g. you drop an M42 into a 2002) you'll have to fabricate different engine mounts and things like that, so you'll need some welding/fabricating skill (or money to pay someone to do it)

I have an e30 with an M42 swap (140hp, 4cyl) that regularly beats 6cyl BMWs at rallycross and has great weight balance. It goes "moderately fast" on the street. But dropping an M50 in there would be pretty easy and give a lot more power (but worse weight balance). IDK, depends on what you want. If you want hassle-free, stick with a stock engine (M20B27 in the e30 325i is a solid engine, reliable, with enough power). If you want lots of power, expect to break things (for instance, an e30 stock diff can't handle big-time power in some cases).

Not sure what you mean about the tranny upgrade. Are you talking about an automatic vs. manual? If so, yeah that's a big upgrade. Or do you mean the old 4-speed manual that came in the 2002/e21? If that, you'll have to upgrade if you engine swap anyhow, so it's a moot point.

Tell us what car you are going to use, and then go from there.

Also, how much experience do you have in doing engine swaps - especially uncommon ones?

ToxicTurtl3 wrote: In reply to irish44j: I want to make this a daily driver that can go moderately fast and would be able to run pretty good if I took it to a track. This isn't really that important cuz I most likely won't drift it very often, but I would also like it to be able to drift if I need it to. With those factors what engine would u recommend? Oh I also woul like to know If upgrading the tranny from a 4-speed to a 5-speed would be worth the extra cost?

The stock drivetrain will allow you to go moderately fast, so why bother with all the work and expense...

You can drift, track or drive anything with enough skillz.

In reply to irish44j: the car that I would like is either the 1974 2002, 1986 535i or the 1989 325is. I the 325is and the 535i are good card by the self (I don't want to upgrade those) the one I want you grade and do and engine/ tranny swap on. The engine I was thinking about was the e30 m3 engine and I have no clue about the tranny (but that's not as important). I would also like to upgrade the suspension to be race worthy. Money is no object, this was just a "what if I came apon a big some of money" kind of car. I also have one last Q about engine compatibility, would a BMW i3 electric motor work or Becuase it is electric that means that it's not even a possibility?

if money is no option, there is no limit to what drivetrain you can put into any car. With unlimited money....you can put electric tesla stuff, you can put LS6, and so on and so forth.

S14s don't exactly fall off trees though. Finding one is the hard part. And tranny is the important part, because they're even more rare....And they're very high-strung and (from what I've heard) not a very pleasant "street" engine - though awesome on the track.

Funny you saying that the 325is and 535i are good cars but you want to swap the 2002. The 2002 is a better, more fun car than either of the others by a mile. It doesn't need a big engine to be fun. Keep the M10 or drop an M42 in there and call it a day.

BoxheadTim wrote: E30 M3 engine into a 2002 has been done, it's commonly called an "M2". I wouldn't put a big six in there as it'd make it nose heavy. BTW, M10s take very well to boost... I doubt you could fit a Tesla drivetrain into one, apart from the cost have a look at the way the drivetrain is integrated into the Model S. Hard to replicate it.

I wouldn't do a Tesla drivetrain cuz you spend 50k right up front, wait a couple years, get hit up for another 10k, wait a couple of years... (sorry, had to.)

A number of people have swapped V8s into the e28 chassis - some use the engine from an e34 540i, others use GM LS engines, but I've never seen anything as new as what you're proposing. The first thing you'll notice about a V8 swap into an e28 chassis is the brake master cylinder and booster get in the way, and have to be relocated forward to the front of the engine compartment, like they did in the e34 540i. Also, there's not much room on the driver's side for the exhaust manifold so you'll probably have to custom fabricate a header. However, the biggest problem will be getting all the electronics to work. As mentioned, anything can be done, but if all you're looking for is crazy horsepower there are easier ways to do it.

Instead of doing this I would just get a 535i and turbo the M30 if I were chasing power in E28. There are even kits out there for doing this and the engine is strong and takes to boost well. It's an extremely common build.

He's 14 guys, I suggest a lot of reading before pursuing more questions.

I was 14 once as well. Go buy something that is cheap on gas and insurance so you can actually afford to drive that cute girl to dinner, movie, and hopefully somewhere quiet after ;)

mr2peak wrote: He's 14 guys, I suggest a lot of reading before pursuing more questions. I was 14 once as well. Go buy something that is cheap on gas and insurance so you can actually afford to drive that cute girl to dinner, movie, and hopefully somewhere quiet after ;)

When I was 14, I was worrying about what color to paint the gas tank on my moped...

I unfortunately don't have the money to do any of this right now but I still have a year and a half before I can drive anyways so hopefully I can find and afford a niceish 2002 tii to be my daily driver. Eventually I want to have a badass project car either an e28 or e30 to be able to work on when I'm not at school. Since the tesla motor is out of the picture does anyone know if the BMW i3 motor would work with the 2002?

If money is no object find an m12 engine and stick it in a 2002 or e21, add very big box flares. Good for lots of fun. But it would probably suck as a street car.