Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines BMW Straight 6

I was helping a female friend of mine yesterday--her '87 BMW needed a new starter. And I got to looking at that BMW engine... 3.4 liter... straight 6... 12 port head... fuel injected... and I went Hmmmmmmmm!

Anybody here ever hotrod one? Or swap one into an old Chevy?

Steve O. and I had a little discussion about that recently. Are these and others(Honda,Toyota) the inline future of Inliners International? Food for thought.

A shop here in Houston campaigned an SOHC 3.4L BMW in a front engine econo class dragster for a couple of years. With 3 500CFM Holley 2BBL's on a sheet metal intake and many other mods she made about 450HP at the crank at around 8000+RPM, if memory serves. Lots of head work and many other mods. Laid the engine almost completely on it's side in the chassis. They're slanted kind of like a Chrysler slant six from the factory.

They still have it but switched to different class with a bent 8 in another chassis.

Never heard that BMW run. They said it sounds amazing.

My son drives an M3 convert with an inline six. Awesome. He said he would loan it to me to rewrite the Inliners Record Books sometime. He and his wife recently went to Germany to get her a BMW 4-door cruiser (I forgot the number - maybe 335???) They took it out on the Autobahn and clicked a cool buck-fifty and he said it was solid as a rock at those speeds.

I've owned a couple of E30 series BMW's and just got done doing head work on an '88 325i convertible. They are sweet little engines. I've got an extra head sitting on my workbench with 3 bent valves in it (broken timing belt)

Here is something to seek on a net.
Opel Omega Lotus made in UK
Uses 3.6 liter inline six from Opel/GM.Twin cam,twin turbos.Corvettes six speed manual trans.

Top speed - 177 mph (285 km/h)
Peak power - 377 hp (281 kW) @ 5200 rpm
Acceleration - 0-60 mph: 4.9 s, 0-100 mph: 11.5 s
Peak torque - 419 ft·lbf / 568 N·m @ 4200
Engine displacement - 3615 cc
Engine type - Twin turbocharged straight six-cylinder
Configuration - Front-engined, rear-wheel drive
Transmission - Six-speed ZF manual
Production - 950 units

And here are competitors of that time european super cars.

1989-1994 BMW / Alpina B10 Bi-Turbo - 360 hp 0-60 mph - 5.6 s. Top speed: 182 mph (291 km/h)

1989-1995 BMW M5 E34 - 315 / 340 hp 0-60 mph - 6.3 / 5.9 s. Top speed: 155 mph (250 km/h)

1991-1995 Mercedes / Porsche 500E W124 - 326 hp 0-60 mph - 6.0 s. Top speed: 155 mph (250 km/h)

My "other" car is also a BMW. It's a 1985 3 series(e30) with a 1998 2.8 liter twin cam engine(m52)transplanted. Its an absolute BLAST to drive this car, good power and awesome handling. I have a m50 intake(bigger diameter runners)and pair of Schrick cams waiting to go in also.
Engines are pretty much bulletproof, but do watch the timing belt replacement intervals. Mine has a chain - no worries.

I am actually accumulating the parts to put a twin turbo 2JZ out of a Toyota Supra in my 56 Chevy. I want something I can drive my kids around in reliably, but still put some stank on when they're not in the car. I thought long and hard about a 250 with a 292 crank, various versions of head swaps, but the almighty dollar and my nephew constantly whispering in my ear made me buy the big bag of rice. I can get 600-800hp way cheaper with this engine than the 4.2, and use tuners with lots of experience. Oh, and listen to lots of fast & the furious jokes.

Slow and the Curious? Just kidding, that sounds like a heck of a project. Should do quite well when it's 'done' (are they ever really?).

As for the BMW 6, I was into the euro car thing for quite a while and I never heard of anyone having problems with one (aside form owner induced, no oil, burst radiator hose and kept driving, etc.). So I would expect with the typical German (the Bavarians do it too) overbuild it should have plenty of meat to hotrod.

If you are looking for a factory hot rod (that maybe you could get on the cheap) the Audi inline 5 turbo always had lots of low end grunt, and being turbo you should be able to pump up the power fairly easily. My mom had two of those and the early 80's 5000T's had crummy turbo's (changed twice in 120K mi), which you wouldn't care if you were swapping it (should get it cheaper if it has a bad turbo). Of course if you were looking for a HUGE project you could swap in one from a Quattro, with the whole drive train, All Wheel Drive anyone?