The same mental argument I’ve been having with myself for the last few months. I’m 99% sure I’m going to go M52 now, it’s 80% of the performance for literally a 10th of the price and to your point can always change it if it does get boring.
Half the fun would be adding breathing mods/cams etc as well of which there would be plenty of budget for if not using an S54.
Trust me, **** it off. It's **** on old BMW's and cars in general. I have had 5 E36's and 2 of them I gave the chance to ABS and nearly had 4 of the most pathetic slow motion crashes in the wet/black ICE, stuff I could and have prevented in my other 3 E36 by just modulated the pedal myself on an ABS deleted car...
Yeah M52 FTW. Just make sure you bleed it properly, they can be a dick for that, you'll think you've done it, then cook it, and it's an ally bottom end so bye bye if not done right, due to the reservoir not being the highest point in the system, we like to lol lift the front up with an engine crane when they're being dicks haha, they soon bleed nicely then!
If it was me, I'd far rather have the M52 over the S54. As keef says, you can rag it, forget to change the oil, and only do minimum maintenance and it will keep on banging. M engines need a lot of care and sympathy.
Yeah, and even stock let alone just a M50 manifold/map, one in a E30 will literally give a 3L E36 M3 a fright up till 130ish - something I've witnessed in person, one with cams/exhaust properly tuned and with some weight reduction, will hold it's own neck and neck - something I've also seen.
Oil change wise, before I drifted my last one, I'd change the oil every 3k without fail and even the sparkplugs, I used £60 worth of posh racing spec Castrol LSD oil (for obvious reasons) and flushed it regularly, along with only using that £56+vat's worth of OEM BMW gearbox oil.
I always let the car warm up for atleast 15 mins never taking it above 2500RPM, and kicked it's head it for 24 thousand miles and never even had to change a sensor or anything else, however it had all new everything when I put it in my last coupe, so all new metal impellar waterpump, ally thermostat housing + low temp stat, brand new coolant hoses+rad, multiple coolant flushes, brand new LUK OEM clutch, HEL braided clutch line, rocker cover gasket, intake boot, removed the traction control plate and it's restriction, modified an M50 fuel rail cover properly to fit the M52 like OEM, so no risk of water getting to the injectors, decent coil packs etc etc... Was bulletproof...
Sold that E36 after just shy of 5 years and exported it to Germany to some rich American who has 4 other RHD cars (all mad JDM imports like 180sx/Chaser/Supra/Skyline/RX7) and it's used as a Nurburgring practice car - I figured what better of a viking death/send off, than sending it back to the motherland where it was built, versus some chav folding it round a roundabout over here
