What is going on here?

[B C]

After some more scrounging I found this (yes, a photo for ants)

[damnboy037]

Looks like a lot of unnecessary piping, which robs hp

[straight6pwr]

future plans for twin turbo and decided to do the difficult side first?

[GunMetalGrey]

[Jdesign]

Via Super Street BRUH:

"SFR's Tim Richards and Jon Cutico were in charge of the work. We decided on a top-mount system, but there were issues. Since the motor is tilted towards the exhaust side, it leaves little room to route headers upwards without hacking into the passenger-side strut tower. So we took the idea from our very own Project 951 and decided to mount the turbo on the intake side instead, something that even today-well over a year after completion-is seen on probably less than a dozen E36 M3s throughout the world.

There are disadvantages to doing this, however. Firstly, there's much more piping going from the header to the turbo than on a more conventional turbo kit with a log manifold. Second, because any decent sized turbo will not fit between the driver side strut tower and the stock M3 intake manifold, a new manifold must be fabricated. Third, the relocated downpipe cannot be greater than three inches in diameter in order to clear the steering rod and transmission housing (but three inches will suffice for up to 600 wheel-hp and you could also step up to 3.5 inches after the transmission). Fourth, the power steering reservoir needs to be relocated. Fifth, the stock radiator hose will not fit because of the intake pipe. Lastly, a very hot turbo sits inches from intake manifold."

http://www.superstreetonline.com/how-to/project-car/0612-bmw-m3-turbo-project/

[straight6pwr]

yeah its seen on less than a half dozen because its a bad idea and everyone knows it lol. why did they tilt the engine?!

[HipMF]

I like that the company that did the work provided 6 reasons why it was a bad idea.

Looks like it required a lot more fabrication. Fabrication takes time, and time costs money. As long as you can get the customer to pay for it, it's a win for them...

[Earl]

straight6pwr said:

yeah its seen on less than a half dozen because its a bad idea and everyone knows it lol. why did they tilt the engine?!

All of our inline BMW engines are tilted from the factory...

[straight6pwr]

Earl said:

All of our inline BMW engines are tilted from the factory...

earl, come on now.

it says the motor is tilted, i assumed in some degree more than how it comes from the factory, or why would they bother mentioning it?  i guess i should make my assumption based on them being idiots. so, no, their engine is installed exactly level as designed and the thought of a creatively designed exhaust manifold was too much for their brains to comprehend.

[Jdesign]

Better yet, someone tell me whats going on here?....

Is that a volvo swap?

[B C]

Jdesign said:

Better yet, someone tell me whats going on here?....
 


 
Is that a volvo swap?

On first glance it looked like a 3SGE BEAMS but I think you are right about the volvo in the first pic

[HipMF]

BEAMs would have the exhaust on the drivers side. #JDM-MF

[B C]

HipMF said:

BEAMs would have the exhaust on the drivers side. #JDM-MF

Unless they did a reacharound like in the original post ... [emoji848]

[jc43089]

If you swap a Volvo engine into a BMW you are delusional...

[retoropak]

First pic looks more like audi 5 cylinder. Volvo 5 cyliders have two cam gears up front.

I thought about swapping volvo 4 cylinder red block with 16 valve head into my e21. Its a nice motor. It has timing belt, no leaky timing covers to worry about, 16 valves and 2.3 liter with possibility to stroke it to 2.5 with a crank from the boat( volvo penta) motor. And all this with quarter of the money you would spend on 2.5 liter 16 valve bmw setup (read s14).

[HipMF]

retoropak said:

I thought about swapping volvo 4 cylinder red block with 16 valve head into my e21.

Interesting. For some reason a redblock swap never crossed my mind... makes sense though. Keeps it somewhat "period correct" if that's a thing. Not quite as much of a bastardization as putting a japanese engine from the early 2000s.

Not gonna happen, but it's interesting.