Well you've gotta figure it's a fairly large engine to start with. Another thing to remember is that the OBDII robs the M3s of power. The 95 M3s are 3.0s, making 240 crank, the 96+ is 3.2 with 240. The ONLY difference is the OBD. I'm taking the old OBD and putting it on a car with .2L more, in addition to the turbo, which will either be a T60-1 hybrid or GT30R/GT35R.
Jason, the guys at AA know what they are doing, I've never heard of an AA tuned car blowing.. and many of their cars are using stock internals. You will not blow the shit up if you stay under 9 on stock internals.. I'm the 3rd owner of my car so I don't have that kind of faith in the engine, and frankly I dont want to be nervous every time I hit boost.. so I'm throwing in the forged pistons.
And you're wrong about me randomly deciding to turbo my car, I've been reading about it for 4+ years on the fourms. I know what I'm talking about (in the bimmer world anyways.) I'm also well aware of the hidden costs, which is why I said spring.. it's going to take me that long just to save up enough money.
I hear what you are saying about building the engine though, I'll probably do the opposite of most people and build the engine up this winter and add a stage 3 clutch/ltw flywheel before I even decide what turbo I'm going to run.