BMW and Toyota are usually on polar opposites of the excitement scale. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe candidate however is so wild a mix of those two makes that its hood can’t even contain it. Will your excitement over its price be equally unbridled?
Also a menagerie of two, yesterday’s Pinto-powered Baja Bug may have been taxonomically confused, but there was no mistaking its 67% Nice Price win. Sure it was rough, but at two grand, it was also pretty ready.
Keeping on the theme of whose engine is it anyway? today’s 1993 BMW 325 comes with yet another surprise mill, not just under its hood, but popping through it as well. In ’93 the E36 could be had with any one of a panoply of great BMW engines, from the M42 four of the 318 all the way up to the stormin’ norman S50B30 of the mighty M3. But for some, that’s obviously not enough choice.
Imagine if you worked at 31 Flavors and someone came in only to dismissively remark, is that all you’ve got? That’s the kind of dissatisfaction with the societal status quo that drives people to do something zany like drop a Toyota mill in a BMW coupe, as was done with this 1993 former 325 which is now an E36 32JZ.
Actually, the ad notes that only the lower half of the engine is 2JZ, the head having come from a 1JZ, making this a giggle-worthy 1.5JZ according to the light hearted seller.
Bolted to the aft end of the DOHC Toyota six is what’s claimed to be an R154 5-speed, also from the house of Kiichero Toyoda. That box is common in the Japanese company’s big guns so it should be able to acquit itself pretty well here in the Bimmer.
Part of where this JZ gets its poop is from a biggus maximus turbo, specifically a Precision unit and one whose placement just atop the exhaust manifold likely offers a pretty rapid spool-up. It also makes for a hole in the E36’s hood. But hey, that’s some pretty good advertising.
Hopefully the seller hasn’t been running it the way it appears in the pics with the turbo inlet unprotected by even the simplest K&N cone. That may look tough, and is a good way to snap bikini tops off of unsuspecting girls - fun tip! - but it’s not good for the longevity of either turbo or engine.
Despite all the work that has gone into this hybrid, and the list of upgraded parts to help get it to run, there’s still a bunch of work needing to be done, and some choices that you might make in a different fashion.
First off the ad says that the ECU - which is from a Supra - is running the stock maps, despite the car having massive injectors and a bunch of other switcheroos. Next up, the power steering is presently by armstrong, and finally on the inside, the shift boot looks like a pair of the seller’s girlfriend’s old panties. Ewww.
Come to think of it, you might take issue with the litany of minor missing parts - passenger side mirror glass, side molding, etc - as that may make the car look a little too hillbilly. Likewise the black primered fenders and curb-rashed M Double Spokes' say park it on the lawn, ain’t nobody gonna’ mind.
But there’s a lot to like here too, and this is neither the first BMW we’ve seen with a JZ behind its twin kidneys, nor is it the first NPOCP with holes in its hood. It may be the first one with all those attributes and a $7,500 price tag and it’s now up to you to say where that’s a deal or not.
What do you think, is this JZ-powered E36 worth $7,500? Or, does that price make this Japanese/German alliance as bad as the last one?
You decide!
Minneapolis Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to TDiDriver for the hookup!
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For $2,000, Bajallelujah
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