Eagle

You can get adaptors to allow you to use a 5 speed flywheel, but 22 spline clutch options are quite limited last time i looked. Probably cheaper to buy another box than a flywheel\clutch combo?, they were about $~500-700 not along ago. The M20 flywheel is going to better and cheaper than most aftermarket options imo. I had mine lightened and balanced with the crank when i rebuilt my old M20B25, it was great with no noticeable added noise.

Yep wrong box, thats late model E46 22 spline. Have to get the common 10 spline one.

Used to be that you would run an M20 clutch kit with the taller E21 323i throw out bearing. Might be other options these days idk. Diff ratio is the same as range the E36\Z3 manual cars, 2.93-3.45. A ~3.15 188 medium case out of a Z3 is a nice ratio and is just about plug and play with maybe some output flange swapping, maybe a bit hard to find one. Otherwise you have to swap gearsets etc over from another 188 diff. Not sure how smaller axles on the 320i hold up behind the M52. 325i used beefier ones.

Down to the use case of the car and budget. From all the dynos ive seen it works well and provides good gains when done along side other breathing mods (ie cams, exhaust, TB's etc) and tuning. Slapping it on a stock engine without tuning results in low-mid range torque loss\flat spot with a minor hp gain in the upper rpm ranges. Personally it think E30's go pretty well with the stock M52 and the money is better spent else where( eg rear adjustable toe\camber) if you dont have an open cheque book.

Probably, not sure who else sells them. They sell the cut down sockets as well if you dont want to make your own. Should be a big metal pipe under the intake which routes a lot of coolant pipes, parts diagram show it whole layout reasonably well. CCV attached to the manifold and has off it 3 pipes - one from valve cover to CCV, one from CCV to oil dipstick for drain, one vacuum line from CCV to FPR. Factory CCV setup should last the life of the car at this point provided decent parts are used and is set and forget. To me a catch can is more hassle in many ways and i never liked the aftermarket look and layout of most setups i see. Preference thing really

Vanos seals are fairly easy with engine on the stand, there's a way do to it by leaving the gear on the cam so no need for timing tools. New CCV valve and pipes couldn't hurt since its all apart.

$1 reserve\low reserve on trademe is the way to go these days, they tend to always fetch a fair price and drum up interest, especially on something better more special. The average car is overpriced for the market, plenty of buyers out there for the right price. Lots of delusional people still trying to sell cars with covid era pricing. Ive seen 3x average 130i auto's sell in a quick time frame for 4-4.5k.

Whoever it was seemed like he really wanted it. Me and @hqstu looked at it along with 2 other people before us according to the seller, buyer was probably one of those. We reckoned you'd spend at least 10k to get it back to a decent standard, namely cosmetics. Shame he left the thing outside for 10 years without care, cost himself lots of money in lost value.

Wasting all the money on a 6k car in a few years is a great way to become the license plate, Ill give him credit for that.

Its just mainly a firmware update isnt it? Probably could do it yourself for way cheaper or find the relevant one on Aliexpress with some work Seems to be a lots of places selling them though. Here's a few i found: https://www.djwwautodiagnostics.co.uk/product/bmw-k-dcan-lead-switch-enhanced-firmware-bimmergeeks-protool-07---23 https://www.bimmertuningtools.com/product/btt-cable/ https://www.chaoscalibrations.com/store/CHAOS-BMW-K-DCAN-INPA-OBD2-USB-Cable-p410327542

Yep. ZF's recommends 80-100,000 or 8 years for normal use, which ever comes first. First drain and fill you drop the pan, inspect, clean magnets etc and change filter and gasket. Depending on how bad the fluid looks you typically do 1-2 more drain and fills to get most of the old fluid out. Buying a 20L container of suitable ATF (eg Penrite ATF FS) is the cheapest way to go.

Transmissions are real weak point in my opinion - Cost of a rebuild is ~5k if it fails bad enough, they can fail suddenly too. They were all the 'lifetime' fluid those days so most didnt get serviced which contributed to the weaknesses. Plenty online about them. Rest is the usual wear and tear and old car problems namely plastics and electrical failures. ABS module is probably the biggest electrical $ item to sort, other stuff isnt usually too bad.

Preventative measure is usually doing the chain tensioner. Its nice having piece of mind with new guides but they can last along time (or not) So nany variables to their longevity which are hard to truly know most of the time. The Non vanos M62 guides seems to hold up better as they ran a cooler t-stat, less cats and no vanos probably help to some degree, smaller sample size though compared to vanos so not going to see\hear about them as much if they fail. Id replace the tensioner and run it. You get plenty of warning when they start to go.

As is id take the M44 over the B20 for sure. Id rather do a M50\M52 conversion on a M20B20, i love the B25 but engine prices seem ridiculous to me for what you are getting. M44 vs M20B25 is a hard choice for me because they got their both strong points. M44 is probably the cheaper option with less maintenance. IMO they are more fun to wind out (in stock'ish form at least) with a light weight flywheel, more modern EFI, DOHC and decent factory headers. Modding support for M20 is greater but both can be made into N\A screamers if you want to dump money into them. Drive a few different ones and im sure you will a better idea though.

Genuine BMW parts do have quite bit of markup on certain items + business markup. Aftermarket gaskets made by the same company (ie Erling) can be had for cheaper. Main issue with people supplying parts is supplying the wrong parts which isnt that much of an issue with BMW because they have a proper database and part numbers. A Spareto order using bmwfans.info for the Erling brand stuff is probably going to save you a bit.

Exactly. The cost to drop into another chassis wouldn't be very economical. Just should of used an msport car.

Sounds a bit expensive, but i dont what the average labour rate is up there and what parts they are using. I wouldn't recommend doing it yourself based on that, even with tools and some experience there is plenty of stuff you can easily damage and break on these engines.

They are probably saying to replace the entire valve cover and gasket because they are known to develop small cracks, they also contain the PCV valve built into the cover which can fail. If you just do the gasket there is chance that it still may leak to a crack, not so bad if you can DIY but if you paying someone if can be expensive if you have to re-do the job. Changing the valve cover gasket means you usually do the motor gasket and eccentric seal and the same time since you are removing the motor. An additional $350 is way too much for the just the motor gasket, $100-150 at the most since you already in there. Doing the that job by its self is 30-1 hr labor being generous and a ~$60-80 gasket if its genuine and they arent marking it up heavily. What are they charging you do the other valve cover and oil filter housing?

I didnt get the impression from the photos and description but i haven't viewed it. Why is it worse?

2 different cars. The E12 is much more rarer and manual, no idea what the actual market value would be though. The E28 is way overpriced given its an auto.

This one has extensive mechanical history with lots being replaced\refreshed. Yeah unfortunately the guy left it outside for years with no protection so exterior has suffered, it was apparently quite tidy on the exterior in the past. It's still leagues above the other one, im sure will go for min 30k and wouldn't be surprised to see 40k given its mostly a paint job that needs doing.

"Gosh some of the questions just pure stupidity! Hey good luck with your auction, I hope you get a very good price for it. We have the same car currently for sale with very similar circumstances. All the best" From the same guy wanting 35k for NZ's worse condition E39 M5

Surprisingly no mention of the transmission rebuild and timing chains being done

I've put over 20k thru them since 2016\17 when i added it up. To me it feels like classic case of enthusiast startup > corporate profit prioritized with all their changes. Exactly 2 months today and i still havent received my '3 business days' parts.

Tell your wife not to be so fixated on mileage, very bad way to buy a older premium vehicle especially a 'premium' brand. Many of these 'low k' examples are actually worse because they are largely original 20 year parts original parts or done may have done high engine hours in sitting traffic. At your budget all that really all the matters is condition and maintenance history, if that checks out then a get pre purchase check at somewhere the know what to look for if you dont have the ability to work on your on car.