Warning about oil pan removal in swapped cars

[MattM]

This is only for people who used a transmission that does not come on a M50 from factory(IE getrag 260) You WILL NOT be able to REMOVE your oil pan without first seperating the tranny. The reason behind this is becuase there are 2 oil pan bolts that the tranny completely hides inside the bellhousing. these bolts are impossible to get to, or even see when the tranny is mounted. The E36 and E34 transmissions have two access slots on the bottom of the transmission to access these bolts, but the getrag does NOT!!

here are the slots i am talking about, ZF tranny from a 96 328I(E36)


and here is the bell housing of the getrag 260


Ive never read about this in any thread, and i believe i am the first to have this issue...

[Wh33lhop]

Huh. Think you could just have at it with a dremel?

[MattM]

probably, but this needs to be done before the car goes together, and there is no mention of a mod of sorts on any board.

[Wh33lhop]

Right. I have heard (no first hand experience yet, but hopefully in a few weeks) of the bottom end not lining up right, but never about this.

Not a huge deal, although the M50 oil pan sits even lower than the M20's. Skid plates are the way to go.

[StereoInstaller1]

Wow, Matt, thanks.

Mods, bump him from Noobie!

i suggest "Northern Pan Basher" as a custom title.

Luke

[MattM]

i had a gasket leak, and didnt see it before installing the engine, thats how i figured it out.. I took the opertunity to switch transmissions anyways.. LOL

[Wh33lhop]

Did you touch the engine before you stuck it in the car? I'd recommend replacing the water pump (metal impeller) and loctiting the oil pump nut on before you dropped it in. Obviously you should replace the oil pan gasket as well if you're taking it off.

[MattM]

kinda beside the point, and no i didnt locktite the oil pump nut beforehand because its an E34 engine, i did do the metal impeller though.

[vivalegreg]

isnt there an issue with the oil pump nut on these cars? they come off over time or something thats why you have to loctite it/weld/cotterpin

[MattM]

the E36's are known to have the nut back off. Havent heard it being an issue on an e34 engine.

[M-technik-3]

Been running mine for 8 years and only wacked once and that was on a frost heave on 60/60mm drop on undersized tires. Takes only once then you generally watch where your going.

[Van Westervelt]

Its the same design. It was motor specific, not chassis. There just happened to be 50 e36s to 1 e34, lol.

Good lookin out on the pan access. This is why anytime I have something out, it gets all new gaskets. I like to be proactive.

I have put over 60k miles on mine and the week after I put on my Raceskids plate, I sat it down on a coastal back road. Would have destroyed my pan. Just some sparks and I kept on e30'n. Gasket is still doin great.

[Uber E30]

When i pulled my s50 apart the nut was just barley hanging on... little more time on driving that and the engine woulda been gone.

[JGood]

Nice. I'm going to slot my trans the next time I have it off.

[mentaleeill]

there's also a problem when running the m20 flywheel/ clutch setup. im running a m52 block with the zf trans, and when i needed to change my pan i couldnt get the socket past the flywheel on those 2 bolts. so i drilled the heads off, pulled the pan, and then removed the remainder of the bolts with pliers. i reinstalled allen head bolts and can easily access those if need be in the future.