You know it's true! I'm just waiting to be in a place where I can build another car. A V8 in an E30 has been at the top of my 'want to build list' for far too long. I had the chassis and swap kit. And then I got scared.
For now I'll just live vicariously through your build
Well, let me say this. E34s look badass, and ride awesome/have good power when they're all said and done, but they're big and bulky, so they tend to require a ton more attention than E30s. I bought my E34 to use as a reliable daily and not put work into, and it was the total opposite, so I was pissed.
However, if you got a 540i/6MT E34 and treated it as a slow project that you liked working on, I think you would really enjoy it.
In a three months span I had to do tie rods, ball joints, center tie bar, struts, control arm bushings, tires, strut mounts, subframe bushings, trailing arm bushings, water pump, intake boot, front main, rear main, motor mounts, and the list goes on. Every time I fixed something a new leak or clunk would appear.
God forbid your Nikasil block wasn't replaced with an Alusil block early on, you'd need to do a motor too.
That car only had 175K on it.