Any differences between 90-91 m42's?

[OKTAY]

Hello Everyone,
I have been mailing Downing Atlanta lately to find out whether they have developed a bolt on supercharger kit for our beloved e30 m42's yet. The reason for that is the well known article on GRM was soooo promising, as you know, the article says DA's Jim Goodroe was there and taking notes and GRM assumed the same bolt on kit was going to be available soon.
Anyway DA did not respond my first two mails and, in their respond to my third mail, they simply say they don't offer a s/c kit for e30's and no mention for any future developing. Then I wrote them that I will buy the kit anyway and Mr. Goodroe said that he remembers that there is mechanically or electronically differences between 90 and 91 e30 m42's. To my knowledge there is no difference, do you guys know anything about it?

[Vladi]

The only difference i see is at the ECU. I've attached a pic. The mechanical part is the same between '90 and '91. (cylinder head, pistons, crankshaft and bearing shells, conrod, camshafts, valve springs, hydraulic lifters, water pump)

[Wizard]

I think he may have been confused....the 90 and 91 M42's should be the same...He was probably thinking of the 92 through 95 M42 which is the same engine also but uses the serpentine belt setup instead of our 3 belt setup...

[Vladi]

92 to 95 isn't the same engine. :) It looks the same, but the part numbers are different for the cams, intake manifold and other important stuff, including ECU's. If anyone needs it i'll make a list.

[D. Clay]

AFAIK all you need is the later model serpentine pulleys for the crank, water pump and alternator and the idler pulley. The A/C uses the same drive as the early models and is a separate belt. You don't need the water pump and alternator as the bearings are the same size. Sometimes the bearings are larger for the extra stress when using a serpentine belt. Not in this case.
From the GRM article, it fits under the hood and uses it's own manifold. Downing does not use any electronic modifications to the later model E36 or Z3. Still, putting a supercharger on tired M42 with over 120,000 miles is a plan - for something bad to happen.

[OKTAY]

Thanks for all your responces,
I really wanted to know has any of e30 m42 owner done this application from this forum or other forums. If nobody has done this yet then it is really hard for me to be the first because, I live far from the states and there is huge limitations in terms of nonstandart applications knowledge and parts here. For example if I will need a different crank pulley or different brake fluid reservoir then without knowing the exact part numbers or which bmw is coming from, I will be lost!

The reason why I started this thread is seeing the demand from others, so maybe convince DA to make a plug and play kit for our cars OR to find someone who has done this already with e36 kit and ask him to show me the route. I guess there is nobody like that yet, and there is not much demand so I will have to wait :(