1972 Bmw 2002 Engine Swap
By the Editorial Staff
March 16, 2026
engine and drivetrain BEST ENGINE SWAP- Bang for your Buck? By 752dbl02, May 15, 2008 in BMW 2002 and other '02 Share. When BMW rolled this 1972 2002 out of the factory it had a 2.0 L inline-four engine. Since then some very meticulous Southern California builders completely overhauled this classic and upgraded every component making it a modern performer.
The team that created this masterpiece was Paul Cain, his brother Joe Cain, and Tom Rakestraw. Paul. I'm about to buy a friend's rust-free 1972 BMW 2002 but it has no engine or transmission.
I was originally thinking I would put the 1.8L & 5-spd out of my '83 E21 320i parts car just to make the car drivable. If cost were no object I'd swap in an E30 M3 engine or a Downing-Atlanta supercharged Z3 1.9L, but cost is definitley an object, so I'm looking for other good. Bimmerforums is the preferred online BMW Forum and community for BMW owners.
At Bimmerforums, you will find technical how. In this video, we continue fabrication to get the unmodified E46 (~2001 BMW 325i) subframe into our 1972 BMW 2002 racecar project. The coilovers we are using are from a 2019 BMW M4 (F82 chassis).
Discover insights and facts about the best engine swap for BMW 2002, including popular choices, costs, and community support. There are plenty of engine swap projects that can afford to go extreme, but the results can be cars you wouldn't want to drive too often. Hi guys does anyone know if a 1996 bmw 3 series engine will fit in a 1972 bmw 2002? or like the inline 6 from a 328 will it fit in a 72 bmw 2002? I am trying to get more power around 200-250HP.
You can make anything fit in anything. It's matter of cost, fabrication skills and what is the desired result at the end. Do you want to increase the performance of your BMW? Well, you can consider getting an engine swap.
When you swap the old engine of your vehicle with a new one, your vehicle gets an upgrade with a boost of better performance. We upgraded the drivetrain to a 2.5 liter fuel injected M20 engine from an E30 BMW ('89 325i), installing a 5.