harness swap question from 318is to m50

[rattlsnak]

Im looking at getting an m50b25 engine from a 3/525i complete with the harness and ECU. It will be going into a 318is that had the m42 motor. Ive read thousands of threads about swaps but most of them seem to start from 325s. In those cases it appears that you splice the engine harness into the existing body harness and swap ECUs. But in my case, would I need to install the complete harness into my body since mine was a 4 cyl?

And what about the ECU? Both engines I'm looking at are coming from Automatic cars. Do they need to be chipped, or does anything need to be done to them electronically so they will work properly on a manual trans car?

TIA...

[MattM]

yours is the same, the only difference is to make your tach read correctly you will need the coding plug from an M20 equipt E30. the coding plug is basically a little chip that plugs into your cluster on the back side. pull out your current one for the 4 cyl, replace with new one. no wiring involved.

my engine was from an automatic 92 E34 525i. no additional wiring needed...

[MacBudd541]

yours is the same, the only difference is to make your tach read correctly you will need the coding plug from an M20 equipt E30. the coding plug is basically a little chip that plugs into your cluster on the back side. pull out your current one for the 4 cyl, replace with new one. no wiring involved.

my engine was from an automatic 92 E34 525i. no additional wiring needed...

its on the front, not the back. you dont even have to remove your cluster to change it. on the right side if you are sitting in the drivers seat.

[MattM]

its on the front, not the back.

i stand corrected, thanks

[Jean]

early clusters = back
later clusters = front right

[gregslow318i]

early clusters = back
later clusters = front right

this guy knows clusters....
pm me if you need an adapter

[SamE30e]

early clusters = back
later clusters = front right

+1

I've never got a solid answer, do they interchange?