5 Speed Equipped E34 V8: 1995 BMW 530i
If you see a 90s vintage BMW 5-series with a 30i suffix on the badge you might assume it has one of BMW’s sweet sounding 3ish liter inline sixes…but you’d be wrong. For the E34 generation of BMW’s 5-series they started with the 530i with a M30 inline-6 in 1988, but in 1992 they changed over to a 3.0 liter M60 V8. That’s right in 1992 you could get a 535i with a inline-6 making 208 horsepower and 225 ft-lbs of torque or a 530i with a V8 making 215 horsepower and 214 ft-lbs of torque. The M60B30 was a small displacement version of the M60B40 found in the 540i and with a 3.31inch bore and 2.66 inch stroke and 10.5:1 compression ratio it should been capable of making lots of power, but it was under cammed and held back from the factory with a 6500 rpm rev limiter. Here is what you need to do –take the engine apart, coat every rotating component with space age coatings and get a custom ground cam (or four) and some fancy valve springs — open the exhaust and revv it to 8900 rpm. Boom — screaming V8 that nobody else has — and today’s example is one of the few 5-speed equipped 530is I’ve ever seen. Find this 1995 BMW 530i offered for $3,500 in Franklin Hills, CA via craigslist.
