How much is an Engine Swap?

Drive-in Drive-out service at the BC Workshop…

THE most common question we get: “ How much for an engine swap? ” - Well it all starts with the engine. Most of you will have an engine in mind and want to make it work with your favourite BMW. We get it, and we are here to help make that happen. Before we can answer “how much”, we need to get a good understanding of what you want the final product to be. Usually the average set of ingredients zero in on the following combination: A Street car with good power and handling, something that can be taken for a spirited drive against other high performance cars, and the odd track day. Oh, and it must be road legal and engineered. No problem!

To get this done, it is always more than just an engine swap. The entire car needs a re-work to cover the following key areas: Engine, gearbox, suspension, Diff, Brakes, wheels / tyres, exhaust and most important, balance. We will use an E46 LSx Swap as an example below.

What is included in an engine swap?

We will use an E46 330ci Coupe with a 6.0L L98 LS engine in this example, and break down the costs to get the car built and complied. Assuming the car is already owned, the first expense is going to be a ready-to-run V8 engine and manual gearbox. Typically these range depending on market value, of an average price of $11000.00 AUD.

At this point we book you in and supply a complete custom made Swap Kit that we manufacturer in house to facilitate the union of this foreign engine into your European BMW chassis. The list of components we include are: Engine mount kit - transmission cross member - exhaust headers - sump kit with oil filter solution - steering shaft - tail shaft - cooling system - AC solution - Air intake kit - shifter kit - wiring harness solution - CAN Bus interface module - fuel system components. This wholesome solution costs approx. $13,000 AUD. This Kit can also be supplied to any DIY capable enthusiast, or a trade workshop (read below for more about this).

Now we have established most of the hardware costs involved to get a basic swap achieved with OEM functionality and ready to enhance for that ‘balance’ we spoke about earlier.

Labour to build the car varies, but comes in close to 120 hours resulting in approx. $20,000 to build the car using the above drivetrain package and hardware components. The last stage to costing our engine swap is to talk about the supporting mods that need to be looked at for engineering and finalising the balance of the build. For the E46, we provide a custom rear end solution which incorporates the Nissan R200 LSD diff along with custom axles and bracing to allow for a strong, welcomed ratio change that BMW cars just dont seem to offer. These come in 3.69 and 4.11 ratio options commonly, and range from $4200 to $4500 for a complete solution. The 330ci already has sufficient braking for this swap, so finally a suspension package to make the car handle and feel amazing could cost around $2500. With an installation cost of $1250 - this will complete the build and bring us to engineering certification.

A certificate of compliance is achieved with a range of tests and measures that deem the car safe to drive and compliant with Australian ADR rules. This is offered in house at BC and costs $2750. With this certification we can hand over your new build ready for street legal driving.

So where did we get to? This example adds up to approx. $55,000 AUD.

If your response is “Why so expensive?”, you can understand what effort and resources go into building a car that the car manufacturers didn’t.

Is there a cheaper way to engine swap my car?

Yes! The good news is there is a way to get your build done cheaper than the above. How? Well above we mentioned how we can supply the DIY’er with a complete Swap Kit that allows this to happen seamlessly in your own garage with mates. With some careful prep and a few skilled spanner slingin’ buddies, you can build your own car, in your own time. You might find a bargain engine and gearbox combination off Marketplace and have all the time in the world, this can save you at least $15,000.

We understand that paying a workshop to do something you are capable of doesn’t make sense, and sometimes this can be the biggest restriction on achieving your dream build. So our team at Brintech have spent thousands of hours developing complete Swap Kits to unlock this restriction, and allow you or your own local workshop mates to help you get the build done.

Summary of Engine Swap Pricing…..

The same theory and rough costs can be applied to any engine combination in any chassis, with the exception of the engine choice itself, as these range from $500 K24 engines to $20,000 S85 V10 engines. With any tested and repeated combination we have developed swap kits for, this is usually the cheapest and most reliable combination to go with. We get asked for combos that we have NOT yet done, and pricing for this could easily have a 25-50% inflated price due to the R&D and blind navigation to the end that it can take to get the job done. So ask yourself what the key points are for your desired build, and we can help you find a spec that suits you.

On that note, we acknowledge there are a heck of a lot of very capable car building enthusiasts out there, who can do everything themselves, and may just need help with a single particular component or some tech help. Or, you may be someone who enjoys building cars and wants a Man Size “Mechanno set” to play with in the garage on the weekends, to the very other end of the scale who just points at a car and says “build for me, please” and they get one.

Most importantly, enjoy your motoring.