4 door M52 swap

[e3o]

I've been a member for a few years on here but not posted much and figured I would post my swap on here as an intro. It is copied from another forum so may be a bit choppy…….

I've been wanting to do a swap for a long time. A little background on the car, it's a 1991 325i four door 172,000 km when I bought it three years ago and its now got 176,000km. Since i bought it I have added a 373s diff, e36 steering rack, new control arms, tie rod ends, offset CABs, Bilstein sports, Vogtland springs, IE camber plates, adjustable swaybar links, stainless brake lines, rebuilt calipers, Hawk HPS pads, Brembo blanks......
I've taken care of most of what you can't see and now its time to start under the hood.


Out with the old


Pretty dirty under there


Getting better


Then came a delivery from Bimmerparts! M52B28 with 60,000km on it!!!


Pulled off all the OBD2 junk


Cleaned it up a bit


Then I got a few goodies
gaskets metal thermostat housing etc

Clutch

water pump

Shiny stuff


I started cleaning up the engine bay

But decided I didn't want all those wires in sight

Or all of the brackets

so I decided to clean things up some more
changed the valve cover gasket

New nuts for the exhaust studs and this is how she sits right now

Tomorrow if I can make the time I am hoping to install clutch, bolt trans to it and maybe drop the engine in. :beerchug:

[e3o]

Got more work done!
sitting ready to go in


Halfway


In


a little before and after

Next I have to fab up my transmission mount as in going with the g260, and start hooking things up. I did run into a bit of a snag, the header is currently tight up against the bottom of the car. I guess I will have to heat it up a bit and bend it down just slightly. I am thinking I may pull the intake manifold off as well. It sure is tight in there to hook up heater core hoses and stuff.

[e3o]

I have been swamped with work so haven't had much time to work on the car. I haven't gone all fancy and euro or anything but wanted to clean things up some.

[e3o]

Next I sent it of to the shop to have the finishing touches like exhaust and stuff done. I want to start driving this thing....

[e3o]

Got the Miller W.A.R. chip installed last night and took it for its first drive today. Love it! It took me a while because I had to find a computer with Windows XP on it to load the tunes, works great. I am currently running the 21lbs injector 3-1/2" MAF OBD1 manifold tune and it pulls nicely. I also have the valet mode I can switch to with a turn of the dial. I put it on there more to see if it works than anything else. Rev limiter kicks in at 3k.

I didn't dig into the system too much but am really impressed with it so far. It comes with several preset tunes one of them I am hoping to use soon when I get some S52 cams in there.

My next hurdle is stiffer springs in the back to cope with the wheel and tire combo I have. The fenders have been rolled but under hard acceleration or bigger bumps I get some slight rubbing.

[e3o]

I decided to clean up the interior a little. I scraped all the sound deadening off the floor inspected for any rust (found none), repainted the floor, cleaned and dyed the carpet, cleaned the seats up and reinstalled. I also installed an Mtech wheel and got rid of the old airbag wheel.

[e3o]

And a shot of my other project

*

[328ijunkie]

Nice!

Passenger motor mount arm is upside down?

[e3o]

Nice!

Passenger motor mount arm is upside down?

Yes it was, good eye :)

[mpowerful]

On purpose or just header fitting.

[e3o]

On purpose or just header fitting.

Just late night not thinking…..

[mpowerful]

^^^ i hear that. Wish i had a dollar for every one of those late night f-ups. Id be rich.