Engine Swap Help and Theory (needed) ! (archive)

Hey guys,
this question may not be appropriate but I have friend in the wholesale parts business who , in conversation mentioned he had the doghouse of 1990 M5 on blocks in his garage. Seems it was a working auto show display that there was little known about other than the fact that it has an engine, trans and fenders on it.

The motor runs, and has no road miles on it as it was a display for some show or something.

Story goes that the rest of the car was involved in a Rail Car collision and the rest was destroyed. BMW NA turned it into an auto show presentation for the technology on a 1990 M car. It has no VIN by which to back this up nor does it have an engine stamp to validate that this was ever in a car. This in and of itself is suspicious but this guy is a friend of the family and is nowhere near creative enough to make this stuff up.

At any rate. Is this a drop in for my 89 535 automatic. Are major mods required ? If mods are required, I probably will still grab this engine as he is a close friend of my family and I'd love to build an M-GoKArt. LOL Also, seeing as how available the 318i cars are from the E30 days, would this go in that car ? How about an E36 from 1992 ?

Any suggestions would be great NO OFFERS TO BUY PLEASE.
I want to at least flirt with the idea before i try to profit from this gift. All i have to do is caulk his garage floor to wall joints in his 2500 sq.ft; garage and the engine display is mine.
Any info you can offer RE: links on engine swaps would be helpful

Thanks

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