m50/52 dilemma. help please

[Dirtnap30]

ok so here's how my swap started:

my boss had from what I believed was a m50tu sitting in storage at my shop that came out of his 93' 325i. however it had a plastic valve cover but didn't think much of it until I decoded the head vin to a 97' 328 which should be a m52 but I was still convinced that it was a m50 cause it had the obd1 manifold. fast forward to now, motor is in the bay and I plugged in every sensor into my obd1 harness successfully up until the cluster temp sensor and to my surprise the single pin brown e30 sensor doesn't fit in the head and also found what appears to be a second cps under the starter. at this point I have no idea what I have and if the sensors in the motor are obd1 or not. could someone maybe identify what I have?

[!kid]

Sounds like you got yourself an m52, CPS is on the rear left side of the block, ignore that since your going obd1. use the part on the timing cover just like the m50's do.

[Dirtnap30]

alright that's what I figured. anyway of telling if the sensors have been swapped to obd1? it did come with an obd1 cps sensor on the timing cover

[SwiftE30]

the obd2 knock sensors are joined into one connection coming off the block IIRC, whereas the obd1 knock sensors are individual.

[!kid]

Right, the OBD2 knock sensors use a single connector, obd1 use two connectors.

OP you stated it came out of your bosses 93 325i? Unless he switched it to obd2 I would assume all sensors are obd1. I personlay don't know the difference between sensors other than the vanos actuator. OBD2 had a short length wire, obd1 had a bit longer wire coming from vanos actuator.

[Dirtnap30]

yeah i'm assuming everything is obd1 cause everything plugged in correctly up until the cluster temp sensor which has to be modified.

[SwiftE30]

Yeah, you're gonna need the e30 brown top temp sensor, but you either need to tap the head to fit the sensor, or die the sensor to fit the head. I chose to dye the sensor. Kind of a pain but ended up working just fine.