m50 pre-swap questions

[JT325is]

For you guys that has experience with an M50 swap. I can get my hands on a 95 m50, already has a tranny, ecu, harness.. I know that I need an E34 oilpan. What else do I need? My question is what have you guys done to the M50 before planting it in your E30? Just want to know some basic info and knowledge beforehand and any ideas, suggestions, or input is much appreciated.

- James

[Matt-B]

go the the 24v section, it says, read this if you wanna swap, please read it, I did

[328ijunkie]

Search Please.

[brokenbimmer533]

Lets see, before I put the engine in my e30. I replaced:
Crankshaft
Connecting Rods
Pistons
head studs
every gasket and seal on the damn thing
many new bolts
water pump
all three timing chains
all four timing gears
all timing tensioners and guides
belt tensions
all three belt pulleys

All completely necessary.

[!kid]

^ why the crank?

[2poor2tune]

Lets see, before I put the engine in my e30. I replaced:
Crankshaft
Connecting Rods
Pistons
head studs
every gasket and seal on the damn thing
many new bolts
water pump
all three timing chains
all four timing gears
all timing tensioners and guides
belt tensions
all three belt pulleys

All completely necessary.

not if you find a good running m50....

i did the oil dip stick o-ring, oil filter housing gasket, radiator hoses, new mounts of course, oil pan gasket, valve cover gasket, all the little things that will leak eventually if they don't already. i wish i had money like the guy above though haha

[brokenbimmer533]

I built a stroker m50. Crankshaft was out of an s52 with an 89.6mm stroke. Bored out to 84.5mm with new wiseco forged low compression pistons and new Integrated Engineering connecting rods. Currently an M50B30:D.

I had collected parts for about a year, all building up to this point (pulling the eta May 13th). Looking for deals and taking my time putting it together. Almost everything on the engine is new besides the head but that got a 3 angle valve job and new stem seals.

Really though I would replace any and every gasket you can afford. If you put it in to find out its leaking oil, you will be kicking yourself for not replacing gaskets while it was out and easy to get to.

Head gasket can be expensive cause you have to buy new head bolts as well. If you are not looking to spend that much money I would at least do a compression test or a leakage test to determine the condition of the current head gasket. Harbor Freight has leakage testers for like $40.

I have an extremely bad case of while-im-in-there disease. A year and a half ago my plan was to put a stock m50 in my e30 and now look at where Im at.

Like others stated before all this information has been covered. Build threads in the project section can be beneficial if you find a thread similar to what you want to do.

[JT325is]

helpful information! really appreciate it guys

[JT325is]

I built a stroker m50. Crankshaft was out of an s52 with an 89.6mm stroke. Bored out to 84.5mm with new wiseco forged low compression pistons and new Integrated Engineering connecting rods. Currently an M50B30:D.

I had collected parts for about a year, all building up to this point (pulling the eta May 13th). Looking for deals and taking my time putting it together. Almost everything on the engine is new besides the head but that got a 3 angle valve job and new stem seals.

Really though I would replace any and every gasket you can afford. If you put it in to find out its leaking oil, you will be kicking yourself for not replacing gaskets while it was out and easy to get to.

Head gasket can be expensive cause you have to buy new head bolts as well. If you are not looking to spend that much money I would at least do a compression test or a leakage test to determine the condition of the current head gasket. Harbor Freight has leakage testers for like $40.

I have an extremely bad case of while-im-in-there disease. A year and a half ago my plan was to put a stock m50 in my e30 and now look at where Im at.

Like others stated before all this information has been covered. Build threads in the project section can be beneficial if you find a thread similar to what you want to do.

put up a video of your car, want to see that beast

[Adrian_Visser]

Or be like me and replace all gaskets and seals and still have a fucking leak.

PS: Use some forma gasket or Hylomar around the front timing cover to block gasket, especially in the corner it meets up with the oil pan. FML leaking synthetic oil at an alarming rate sucks.

[highoutput]

Im going to carry on th OP's question, cause I'm doing the same swap right now. The oil pan confuses me. People say you need an E34 oil pan, but its my understanding the some M50's came in E34's. So if you have an E34 M50, do you not need to change the pan??????
and how do you know?

[bimmerteck]

Im going to carry on th OP's question, cause I'm doing the same swap right now. The oil pan confuses me. People say you need an E34 oil pan, but its my understanding the some M50's came in E34's. So if you have an E34 M50, do you not need to change the pan??????
and how do you know?

You need to specify where your donor motor came from, otherwise it's very hard to help you. If your donor motor came from an e34 than it would have had an e34 pan on it while it was in the e34 chassis. assuming no one has removed it you are good to go, if the donor motor is from an e36 you will need to source and install an e34 oil pan, pump pickup tube, and dipstick assembly.

[brokenbimmer533]

e34 oil pan has the main capacity of oil in the front of the engine, near the belts (front sump)

e36 oil pan has the main capacity of oil in the rear of the engine, near the transmission (rear sump)

[iceman]

It will take 25 times longer than you plan