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My friend's got an E36 but...


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It's highly confusing. He says it's a 1997 model. At first he thought it had a 1.6 engine in it, now for some reason he thinks it closer to a 1.9 model engine.

To be quite honest I'm fed up with him going on and on and on and on about it so I thought I'd find out exactly what car he has, and what engine it's 'supposed' to have it.

It's a five door 3series E36, a sports version or something. As far as he's told me. Which is supposed to have a 1.6 engine in it. It's the fact he says it's a 1997 model that get's me. He's just as stumped as I am although he won't admit it. He's got it into his head that his model was one that BMW only produced a few of, not only that but the whole "it's got a 1.9 engine in it" thing, despite the fact the badge on the back (which he says he's removed) said it was a 1.6.

I looked at the haynes manauals to see if it covers any ground in 1997, but it doesn't. It goes upto 1996 for E-series, and then from there it goes from 98 onwards. This leads me personally to believe their wasn't a BMW e-series produced in 1997 and thta his is the 96 version with a simple 1.6 engine in it and he's just talking out of his backside. Am I right or wrong?

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This should help...

Sounds like its one of the last E36 saloons, as the E46 saloon arrived in 1998. The badge sometimes does not correlate with the engine (323i for example was a 2.5 litre), but the 316i was 1596cc / 4cyl with 102BHP and 0-60 in 12.3...pretty weak. The E36 318i varies depending on the year, if its a 1998 318i its 1895cc but before that it was 1796cc. As far as I am aware the 316i has always been a 1.6 litre?

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I`ve found conflicting reports.

Some people say BMW started putting the 1.8 into the 316 and they had a 1.9 which they put into things like the 318iS... However, other sources say both the 316 and 318 had the 1.6 engine toward the end of the range.

Towards the end of the model line, the numbers certainly didnt tally any more. AFAIK, only the 328 always had the "correct" engine for it`s designation.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Over here the new 330 and 325 both have 3 litre engines, just different levels of tuning. 215 and 255hp.

Apparently over here the 323 and 325 both were 2.5 litre and the 328 and 330 were 3 litres.

The smallest capacity BMW will be importing to here next year is going to be a 3 litre.

Not much diesel over here.....yet!

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  • 6 months later...

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