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Project Overly Ambitious

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    Project Overly Ambitious

    Here's my story.

    My dad bought an Alpine 318i sedan back in the late 90s. As best I can remember, he put Bilstein sports and an Eibach pro-kit on the car and did a some HPDEs at a few of the tracks in Norcal. Then, eventually he got bored with how slow the car is, sold it, and bought an E36. What he bought was a 96 318i automatic sedan.



    Immediately he regretted it and the hunt went on for another E30. Fast forward a few years and we saw a clean Alpine 318i sedan parked at the curb near our house. We ran home, wrote a quick note with our contact info and slipped it under a wiper. Six months later we were eating dinner and the phone rang, the lady was ready to part with the car. We went to take a look at the car the following weekend and went home with it. Turns out that she had purchased the car here in the Bay Area but was moving to Germany for a year, so she picked the car up at the factory and drove around on an orange temp plate for a year.

    A few years later I start driving the car and get into the E30 community. I realize that the Eibach pro-kit that he again installed on this car is actually kind of a shitty setup, so I got some IE3s and threw them on the car.



    Not low enough. So I pulled the springs back out, cut the dead coil off the top of the fronts, threw in some drop hats, installed a RaceSkids M42 plate and drove around with the horrible ride quality that followed for a year or so. Then I said fuck it and got a set of BCs back in 2010 when they were first hitting the E30 market. Then I got kind of caught up in the moment:



    I broke the low hanging aluminum M42 pan through the RaceSkids plate, so I pulled it off and installed John Hickerson's Severe Duty skidplate: http://www.hikfabrication.com/arvixe...2-m52-s14.html

    Then I found some Rondell Type 57s (manufactured by Borbet as their Type Ts, different finish):



    Then I got bored and bought an E39 M5 (this is where the V8 affection comes in):



    Then had so sell my Rondells to fund the M5 gas bill. After a year and a half of M5 ownership, I decided that I better sell it before it stuck me with a $5000+ repair bill.

    In the meantime, I had purchased an S52 + ZF and almost everything else I needed to put it in the E30. All that stuff sat in my dad's garage for about a year and a half when a buddy of mine crashed his 97 540i/6. Naturally I saw that Garagistic makes the swap mounts and decided to buy the car and sell the S52. This brings us to now.

    TL ; DR: I've had the E30 for a long time, gone through multiple suspension setups, had a 24v swap planned, bought a wrecked E39 for the M62B44 and sold the S52.
    Last edited by jpod999; 02-28-2017, 09:59 AM.

    OBDI M62B44/6 swap
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    #2
    I sold the S52 etc. to a buddy of mine who has an S50 in his Z3. He bought the S52 so that he could swap out the S50 and get the car through the California BAR process. We worked out a deal where I knocked a couple of hundred bucks off the S52 and he helped me pull the M62 out.

    Here is an in-the-process shot:


    So now the motor/trans is in my dad's garage on a furniture dolly waiting for my Pelican order to come in. I'm replacing the waterpump/thermostat, bolting on an X5 oil block, and a bunch of assorted gaskets. From Garagistic I have the mount arms and mounts, second diff mount, chassis strengthening weld in plates, and RPM module. I think I'm going to go with their boosterless brake setup as well, which unfortunately because my car is an airbag car requires that I swap the column from a non-airbag car.

    The car has a 474 DME, but I couldn't get to the EWS module, and Pick n Pull took the only key I had when they towed the car away...so I think I'm going to have to either get a DME/EWS/Key set on eBay or convert to OBDI and get the corresponding DME/harness. I am completely open to input here! Anyone know if EWS can be flashed out of the 474 DME?

    I'm looking to pull the M42 either later this month or early in February so I can start getting the chassis ready. While the motor is out I want to do an E36 rack swap, no better chance in terms of access! I talked to my dad about getting a pre-1975 2002 after we finish the V8 swap to put my M42 in- again a little overly ambitious.
    Last edited by jpod999; 02-28-2017, 09:58 AM.

    OBDI M62B44/6 swap
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      #3
      Cool story, looks like you have a plan all set in place. After driving a friends m5 I got bit by the same v8 bug. Converting to the obd1 harness and using a 404 dme is the way I went and I think it's much simpler. Looking forward to some progress!
      Last edited by Zacm829; 10-11-2016, 03:26 PM.
      1987 325i-M60b44 swap

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        #4
        Thanks!

        I'd love to keep it OBDII so that perhaps I can get through the California BAR but that seems like it would be super tough.

        OBDI M62B44/6 swap
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          #5
          Emailed Ergen Motorsport about building me a harness. After reading through MonkeyMadness's thread for a second time though it's likely I'll be going OBDI swap like ZacM829 mentioned. From what I've read, it's best to find a 93/94/95 530i manual harness yeah? I have the 6spd tranny with the hole so I am going to look into running the crank sensor off that.

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            #6
            Got a lead on an E34 530i manual that just came into a local yard. Going to run down there tomorrow and try to get the DME and harness.

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              #7
              I went and pulled the 404 DME and the harness from the car I mentioned above. It turned out to be a 1995 6spd manual 540i. We got to the yard about an hour and a half before they closed and were seriously cranking at the end trying to finish up pulling everything. When I pulled off the spark plug covers I saw that there were fairly new looking Bav Auto coil packs, so I grabbed those too. Anyone ever heard anything about these? I figured that if nothing else, these are newer than the original coil packs I have; I'll probably keep the stock ones laying around just in case.

              I also pulled the fuel rail because it looks like the harness packs mount to it and I couldn't remember if my engine has that fuel rail.

              I'm looking forward to buttoning up the engine!

              OBDI M62B44/6 swap
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                #8
                So I got an M62 water pump before I decided to do the OBDI swap, but after some reading it looks like I might need a M60 water pump. I haven't really been able to back this up though, can anyone shed some light?

                Edit: After more research it does indeed seem like when converting the M62 to OBDI the M60 water pump and thermostat is required.
                Last edited by jpod999; 01-17-2016, 03:10 PM.

                OBDI M62B44/6 swap
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                  #9
                  Got a bunch of stuff done today. After receiving a couple of boxes of parts from Pelican I decided it was time to get started tearing into the motor.

                  Here's what we got done today:
                  -Removed OBDII harness
                  -Removed fuel rail/injectors (going to send them into bmwstone: http://bmwstone.com/)
                  -Removed intake manifold
                  -Removed water pump/thermostat
                  -Removed coolant transfer pipe and tubes
                  -Removed valley pan cover and valley pan
                  -Removed crank pulley
                  -Installed new spark plugs

                  The objective of today was to continue dressing down the engine and getting some cleaning done. Here's a shot, I'm pretty bad about taking pictures...I always forget!

                  You can see my wife going to town with the toothbrush and degreaser, you can also see my dad's sweet yard shoes :roll:



                  Going to pull off the alternator next weekend so she can finish cleaning. I need to return the M62 water pump and thermostat and order the M60 versions. I also need to order spark plug connectors, coolant tubes, knock sensors (separate connector version). Next weekend I am going to try and raid the same E34 I got the harness from of it's coolant transfer pipe and crank pulley.

                  I'm excited with the progress, can't wait to get this engine finished up!

                  OBDI M62B44/6 swap
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                    #10
                    man this is awesome! i know that e30 is gonna be a blast! deff subbed.
                    e30Ls1 Swap IG: 1dirty30

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by Reyhan335 View Post
                      man this is awesome! i know that e30 is gonna be a blast! deff subbed.
                      Thanks!

                      OBDI M62B44/6 swap
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                        #12
                        This looks like a great project.

                        How serious are you about getting the car Bar'd because you might run into some pretty big obstacles doing an m62. first is that it starts off as an OBD2 engine which means you would have to convert the e30 to obd2. You could try to get it bar'd as a m60, which would be pretty hard mostly because of the crank sensor being in a different place on an m60. Depending on the bar ref you take it to they might automatically DQ you for the crank sensor either being in the wrong place or having a welded on crank sensor holder on the front.

                        Another thing is what harders are you planning on using? The x5 headers will most likely not get by a ref either for two reasons. One they are off an OBD2 motor, two they are off a truck and you can not use truck parts an a car you are getting bar'd. Modifying the stock harders is also a crap shoot de-pending on which Ref you take it to.

                        (Gotta love California)

                        We are also in the bay area if you ever need help or want to go for a ride.
                        My CA legal M60 swap

                        The happening in our garage

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by 36brua View Post
                          This looks like a great project.

                          How serious are you about getting the car Bar'd because you might run into some pretty big obstacles doing an m62. first is that it starts off as an OBD2 engine which means you would have to convert the e30 to obd2. You could try to get it bar'd as a m60, which would be pretty hard mostly because of the crank sensor being in a different place on an m60. Depending on the bar ref you take it to they might automatically DQ you for the crank sensor either being in the wrong place or having a welded on crank sensor holder on the front.

                          Another thing is what harders are you planning on using? The x5 headers will most likely not get by a ref either for two reasons. One they are off an OBD2 motor, two they are off a truck and you can not use truck parts an a car you are getting bar'd. Modifying the stock harders is also a crap shoot de-pending on which Ref you take it to.

                          (Gotta love California)

                          We are also in the bay area if you ever need help or want to go for a ride.
                          Thanks for the input, I was pretty jealous when I saw you guys got your car BAR'd. At this point, I've given up on that ever happening. I have friends that will help me get around that one. And if anything ever happens I figure I can just source an M60 and drop that in seeing as how the car will be setup for the V8.

                          I may take you guys up on your help offer, at the least we should get together when I get this thing on the road so we can do a photoshoot. Where in the Bay Area are you? I'm in Martinez but the engine is at my dad's in Walnut Creek as he has more garage space than I and no HOA to deal with.

                          OBDI M62B44/6 swap
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                            #14
                            Originally posted by jpod999 View Post
                            Thanks for the input, I was pretty jealous when I saw you guys got your car BAR'd. At this point, I've given up on that ever happening. I have friends that will help me get around that one. And if anything ever happens I figure I can just source an M60 and drop that in seeing as how the car will be setup for the V8.

                            I may take you guys up on your help offer, at the least we should get together when I get this thing on the road so we can do a photoshoot. Where in the Bay Area are you? I'm in Martinez but the engine is at my dad's in Walnut Creek as he has more garage space than I and no HOA to deal with.
                            That sounds like a good plan of attack.

                            We are located in San Mateo (a little far) but let me know. I could see the HOA looking down on your little project haha.
                            My CA legal M60 swap

                            The happening in our garage

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by 36brua View Post
                              That sounds like a good plan of attack.

                              We are located in San Mateo (a little far) but let me know. I could see the HOA looking down on your little project haha.
                              My wife's family lives in El Granada just over 92 and we are over there all the time. I'll have to try and get my wife on board to swinging by your place to check out your car soon!

                              OBDI M62B44/6 swap
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