Hi, I have a 1990 E30 325 with basically a stock M20b25 engine, all that was ever put onto it was an induction filter, and rebuilt the bottom end in May 08(mains and big-ends) but now the camshaft needs replacing due to wear.I was thinking of a Fast Road Cam or I've seen these come in kits, would anyone have any advice on these or what route could i go now, will probably get the head ported and polished aswell since the cam has to be changed.
Thanks
Hello Stevie,
Good car the old E30 325 Sport.
The 1988-on engines weren't as good as the older M20 B25 E1's fitted in the 325's up to the end of MY1987 though. They had 9.7:1 static CR instead of the then cat-friendly 8.8:1 of the face-lifted cars. introduced as mentioned in '88.
The best bang for buck IMO with these cars is to fit the 81mm crank from the 325e/525e models. In fact the South African E30 325 Sports had 2.7 engines as standard from the factory.
The crank is a straight fit and you get an increase in CR as a bonus.
(Mine went from 9.7 to 10.45:1).
The stock camshafts are 264 total advertised duration and althought there are aftermarket cams (Schrick for one makes/made them) of 272* and a 282* total duration. They both provided both more lift also. But the increased duration is only desirable if you are track/circuit racing the car. makes the car feel more soggy below 4,000 but gives better power above about 5,000 which most would feel isn't much help for a road car (especially in Ireland where the straight roads are short in length and few and far between!)
The 264 cam is the best all-rounder as I found out (I discussed this with BMW Motorsport in Munich)
Though if someone does a 264
with more valve-lift that would be ideal.
The stock heads flow well as they are, but a good 3 or 5-angle valve seat job wouldn't do any harm.
You can get a good ECU chip from Superchips for these and also BBR used to do an even better one if they still have any stock left.