How to get 300HP from 525i ????

[wjbell]

I thought about it.. and I'm staying with my 525i.
I took it to mechanic and he was very amazed how the car clean is.
Not a single oil drop anywhere... bottom is like new. It's a CA car from one owner....
I more rather stay with it then buy a car with more miles and rust.. and unknown history. I already found a manual donor that I'm going to use so I'll have other parts also.

The main thing is how to get more power......!!!!!!!
I was thinking Turbo+racing pistons+headers and some other stuff..., but my knowledge is not great in technical side of it.... that's why I asked for help and ideas

Listen to the advice of the people here that are knowledgeable in these things (not necessarily me). You're going to pay through the nose to have this stuff done and end up with a fast car worth less than it is now. Why not just buy a fast car that holds it's value because it's unmodified and spend less doing it?

[Turbo Ready]

Ask JonK to build an engine for you with one of the turbos he has

As the author above mentioned, lots of the guys here give very sound advice and have hands on experience on the cars.

[attack eagle]

yeah, I hate to say it but the less expensive option is to just buy what you want... a 540i6


But since you insist. swap the tranny and diff... autos should have 4.10 rear end and sticks are much much taller.

Stop, see if the car is "good enough" for you.

If not collect up your $5k dollars, and surf the forums for someone selling off a supercharger... I know there was one recently that had already been set up to work on 93-95 e34s and came with the chip as well for around $3k.
Will it give you 300 WHP? probably not but 300 crank is doable.

[Sam-Son]

paah If you like the 525 stick with it! People said I was nuts for wanting to drop major coin to convert my car to stick. You already found a donor car so jsut do the swap. You'll never find another 525 with only 60k miles on it. I'd say go for it...in all honesty it is much easier to get 300HP from a 540 But I like 6 cylinders better.

[repenttokyo]

I'm not trying to ruin what you want to do, but you are really going to spend a lot of money for little gain. From what you are saying, you lack the skills to do the work yourself. You are going to take a very nice car, that will command a premium as it stands and hack it up.

To pay someone to swap the tranny, you are going to be looking at $2000+ for labor.

To do the engine mods you are contemplating, you are talking $1500 in labor if you don't open the engine up. When you discuss swapping pistons, start raising that minimum labor to $3000+. All together you are looking at $10,000 + for what you want to do. When you are all done, you will have a car that is worth less than it is now.

With this, you haven't even discussed suspension, wheels and tires, all of which you will want to upgrade to be compatible with the faster car. Figure another $2500 easy.

Fast cars need better brakes, I won't even add that in. Were at $12,500 on a good day, plus the value of the car, so $18,000 or so.

I know that you don't want to hear this, but at the end of the day it is not worth doing this. Start with something faster to begin with. A nice E39 540i sport is going to have all of this stuff, be as fast, and will hold it's value much better.

it's not up to you to decide what someone else is willing to spend on their project. he didn't ask you your opinion on whether he should do it or not. he asked people to tell him how to do it. so i guess either answer the question or stop posting in the thread.

[Iwo]

Any idea which diff should I use it for the manual swap ???

[Sam-Son]

Any idea which diff should I use it for the manual swap ???

Limited Slip obviously. I have a 3.15 in mine and although it gives outstanding acceleration...I mean really good. It lack at the top end. At 80MPH I'm at 3200 or 3300 rpm. SO I recommend a 3.73LSD

[attack eagle]

What THE Focke?

SInce your 3.15 is too short you recommend going EVEN SHORTER???

OR do you have your numbers backwards, and have a 3.73 but recommend a 3.15 because the 3.73 is too short??

[Barney Paull-Edwards]

If we all took the sensible option then this forum would be full of questions on merits of polishes/detailing! The suggestion of buying is the sane option, but if we were all sane then we`d be in Volvo`s,if Jon K is honest his labour costs will buy an M5,but wheres the challenge in that? Use the forum/net for bits and go for it!!!!!!!!!!

[Dragunov]

Seriously, i agree you shouldn't do it. You have a perfect 525, why dump a lot of money in it to take away its authenticy and value? I'm not telling you not to do it, but you really shouldn't. Whatever floats your boat, but when a whole forum of bmw nuts around the world agrees that it isn't the best choise, you should at least CONSIDER it.