After selling my Corsa 2.0 16v I wanted something more... uhm reliable and RWD and 6 cylinder so after some searching I found myself a good deal finding a 1995 BMW 320i Touring (engine M52B20, 150HP) for just shy off 1100euro. I bought it in april 2015 with 244.xxx KM and I am currently at 258.xxx KM.

When I bought it:


It had some slight problems, but that's the reason it wasen't expensive. It needed new brake pads on all four corners, cracked windshield, bald tires, slight rust on the trunk and left rear quarterpanel (known E36 problem), some dings and dents on the front left quarterpanel, bonnet and grill. Those were the bad things.

Good things are: power windows, sport seats, AC, central door locking, alarm, not towing hook! and no roof rails! (rare to find a touring without those) full booklets and a BMW Z3 short throw shifter with aluminium OEM knob.

Before bimmerfest 2015 I did the brake pads with uprated ATE pads to find out the front brakes weren't stock but drilled 325i rotors!


Brake pads were shot...


Then after driving it for a while I got myself some OEM BMW Style 160 17 inch wheels (made by Ronal), and yes those are winter tires in mid summer...


Ran those for a few months before going to my going very bald stock wheels and tires up until I had my MOT this month.
Got some E46 steelies with almost new tires for a steal (140euro).


For the MOT I had to replace my cracked windshield, got a good deal on that too (265euro for the windshield and placement) and my rear shocks were shot... So then came the decision to upgrade the entire suspension, because to replace the shocks with OEM replica it would've cost me 160euro...

So after reading and getting some advice I ordered a Bilstein/Eibach B12 Sportline suspension kit! Because if I'm going to replace it I better upgrade it too! (specs are B8 dampers on all corners with 30mm front and 45mm rear lowering)

I dont like turbos that much, i prefer N/A. But dont worry ive bought a 328i Touring donor

Turbo is more expensive unless you're buying ebay parts, which if you do buy ebay parts and run them- that's fine on an M50 because they're pretty much bulletproof engines.

Every 6 cylinder in a E36 Touring is M52 because they are all facelift models (the engine M50 found in the coupes and early model E36 are cast iron blocks with alloy heads).

But since the M52B28 from a 328i accepts small mods very well it's a good base, plus it's plug n play with my car (so is an M50 but it is way heavier and max 2.5L). The M52B28 stock has 192HP, with a M50B25 (2.5) intake and exhaust manifold and a remap this has been dyno proven to deliver 230HP to the wheels, and if I want to go further I could replace the exhaust cam with another intake cam for even more flow but that is not a really proven mod.

I've got it all figured out, its just a matter of throwing money at it to revise the engine and get the parts from an M50 that I need. The donor car is there for the engine, leather interior, some more interior stuff, driveshaft, differential, axles etc.

Sad update, my toy 4th gen civic got stolen yesterday



So today I gave my BMW some love

How are you going to recover it?

Fuck off people with these "do a turbo build".

Added later:

Fuck off people with these "do a turbo build".