Engine Compatibility

Hi all,

I have a 2000 bmw 328i that i bought at the beginning of the summer. it was had major problems that didn't get picked up by my pre-purchase inspection. anyways i do love the car but it is giving me a headache and in turn i am in the doghouse with my wife.

The car has had two opinions and i have a bad coolant leak into the cylinders. i am dropping cylinders on cold starts and am in need of a new top end. if they can't fix that a new engine. obviously a dealer will only work with new equipment. but i do have a bmw technician that has his own shop who does great work... he is very conservative though and that is why i came here to post my question before i ask him about it.

I believe i want to put a used engine in the car, perhaps a remanufactured on or a used one with a warranty. since i am riding a 328i they were only manufactured shortly before they changed to the 330i. can i swap a 330i engine into my 328i with the mounts that already exist and will it function appropriately with the car???

I greatly appreciate your wisdom but please keep responses to helpful criticism i know i screwed up on the purchase.

by the way there is 77000 miles on the car right now.

thanks
cloin

something dire had to happen to make your motor un-fixable at 77,000 miles, it could simply be a new head gasket and your good! take a compression test and that will tell you everything you need to know. if you can post up cranking psi for me to review

Yeah, I'm with what blackbeard said. Switching engines is a hassle and much more expensive as well as BMW engines will take a beating.

+2
if You want to go all out and just drop the motor in it, that's fine, but there are a lot of intermediate things to rule out first, in order to do the job cost-effectively. Number one would be the head gasket. While the cylinder head is off, the can measure the top face of the block and the bottom face of the head and make sure they're both still true. If not, a trip to the machine shop may be in order.

While You've got the motor apart, it's a good time to inspect things like Your spark plugs and coils. One (or more) bad coils or an overly fouled plug could cause the same cylinder dropping.

But definitely change the head gasket and see if that helps