e46 330 6 speed swap

[cwlo]

I am doing an M54 swap with the 6 speed from the e46 330i. I shortened the shift carrier (about an inch), and mounted it up using the e90 rear mount with a modified Arc Asylum trans mount. So far so good...

It is mentioned that the e36 M3 auto driveshaft fits for this, but that is not correct. While it does mount properly, the splines of the two halves only engage about an inch, which is not good enough for spirited driving. Has anyone else done this swap? Considering it is much more difficult to lengthen a driveshaft, I am wondering if anyone has a combo that works out of the box, or needs shortening to work. Jordan mentioned in his build he used a Z4 front, M3 rear. I am waiting to hear from him on the specifics. Anyway, looking for more info, and posting this to help others down the same path.

Thanks,

Chris

[stonea]

I've heard a lot of people do the e36 M3 auto driveshaft and they never had a problem. It might not be ideal, but its cheap and easy. If it was a track car I'd just get a custom one made, but if its for a street car then I think the e36 auto is fine.

[Shftr8]

Im using the e36 auto shaft with my 330i 6speed behind my S54. Im only about 600 miles into a rebuilt motor so I haven't really driven it hard but so far so good. I guess once this gets broken in and I can drive it to its potential I can give you more info

[cwlo]

Ok, I got some help and can confirm the following setup as optimum:

The optimum setup is the E36 M3 auto rear driveshaft, coupled with the Z4 6 speed manual front driveshaft. the Z4 front is about an inch longer, and it results in the perfect amount of engagement of the splines.

Chris