Beating a dead horse here.....automatic m50 swap questions

[corydoitch]

Cant find any information about doing an m50 swap with using the auto from a e36. Does anything need to be modified differently than the regular m50 + 5 speed swap? Or is about as plug and play as a regular m50 swap is? Looking mainly for someone who has actually done the swap with answers. Before anyone says "just swap in a 5-speed!", its not an option. Trying to get all of my facts straight before I pull the trigger on a m50 + auto trans I found. Thanks guys.

[ZM Blue Devil]

Dont recall exactly but I want to say the trans wont fit...

[corydoitch]

Dont recall exactly but I want to say the trans wont fit...

Facking hell, I really dont want to re-use the lump of a transmission the car already has

[SoEm0]

not from an e36 but here is an auto swapped.

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=207657

[nando]

auto is going to be much harder simply because there are way more electronics on the chassis side that do not exist on an E30, and you'll need to add all of them.

get comfortable with the ETM for the E36 and E30..

[M-technik-3]

Anything is possible look at the 4.0L V8 diesel that was installed over at E30 Tech.

[nando]

didn't say it wasn't impossible, but it's definitely not easy. It's even harder since nobody wants to swap in an automatic, most go the other way, so there's not a lot of documentation..

[M-technik-3]

didn't say it wasn't impossible, but it's definitely not easy. It's even harder since nobody wants to swap in an automatic, most go the other way, so there's not a lot of documentation..

Nando wasn't saying it was not possible or that you implied it was. I was just saying that with enough will and $ anything is possible.

[RoadHazard]

A lot of folks around my parts use auto trans with M50 swaps. Most of them have shops take care of their swaps though. I have no idea how the wiring is done. One thing I do know is that they have to bang on the tunnel to get the trans to fit.

I used to want to run auto trans with my S50 but now I think the manual trans will do fine.

[EduardoGomez]

I've done it, but from 1995 525i donor car. Harness is all integrated so I did not need to rewire much of anything. Only extra thing that I had to include was dual brake light switch.

On E36 harness is different, it is integrated also but wires from the TCU go to fuse box down to brake light switch and gear selector. E36 gear selector will not fit the E30 gear selector channel. But you can mod the E30 center consul and adopt E36 gear selector cover.

Benefit of having an A/T swap is that you can load the power when standing still then let the brake go and get good launching times for straight line racing. With open diff 4.10 welded up and some good drag radials on stock rims, you will smoke any new M3 off the line

[ZM Blue Devil]

Benefit of having an A/T swap is that you can load the power when standing still then let the brake go and get good launching times for straight line racing.

I just had to quote this.

[phreshkid]

I just had to quote this.

LOL I'm glad we m/t folks can't do this. The temptations would kill me!