my m50 swap in progress... pics (no 56k)

[aaron_silva]

Dan, it should be easy to drill through the soft aluminium pan to line up the holes in the bottom of the tranny. What are you doing for a brace? Modifying the stock one or starting from scratch?

Good work man!

Aaron

[DanGillan]

no way, up on a lift, exhaust jack on the front underside of the motor to tilt it back. easy as hell.

EDIT: is there something i dont know that i will run into when bolting it up? i know the bottom couple or few bolts dont line up, but i was told to leave out those couple. other than that i dont see why it would be so difficult.

[325Projectz]

You might have a hell of a time bolting the trans up to the motor. Let me know how it goes.

[DanGillan]

yea i was leaning towards dual 2 inch to a 3 inch x-pipe with a cat in it back to dual 2 into my supersprint.

cant wait to see your motor boosted!

i did drop the motor without the trans, its only bolted to the motor mounts right now, that's why its tilted forward.

[325Projectz]

Dual 2.25 is alittle too big for an m50 (speaking from experience). Dual 2" or a single 2.5" would do you good.

I opted for single 3" for FI.

Did you drop the motor in without the tranny bolted up?

[DanGillan]

exhaust plans are custom bent dual 2" or 2.25" from the downpipes to a x-pipe essentially with a 3 inch high flow cat back to dual 2 or 2.25 to my supersprint cat back.

[1990m3]

lookin good dan, show us some close ups of the setup...

what are your exhaust plans?

[DanGillan]

Day what the fuck ever, it got to the shop last sunday:

First task tonight was to swap the e34 harness out for a nicer shape e36 harness, as well as throttle body heating delete, and all new coolant hoses.

Mid re-wiring:




I also finished the plug and play engine wiring adapter:




After I swapped the harness and stuff, i removed the old brake booster and we modified the e21 320i booster and i re-installed it.

the modified e21 booster:



Decided to end the night on a good note and drop the motor in :)





Its getting so close I can taste it now. Just a few things left, i hope to start it up by sunday :) thanks,

Dan

[DanGillan]

Im going to run the modified e21 320i booster with stock master cylinder and i still have my zimmerman x-drilled and some pads. nothing special, solid, slightly better than stock brakes, they're plenty.

[KangamangusDriver]

What are your plans for a brake setup?

[permit]

The OBD-II manifolds fit, I was just saying they're not exactly identical dimensions as OBD-I ones.

As for the A/C, I wasn't completely sure on what they did, I just handed them the car and told them to make it work. I believe it was just one hose though.

[DanGillan]

yea luckily i already had a fresh radiator and clutch :) saved a few bucks there, low miles on both, radiator will be good for a long time, clutch set up will be swapped out within a year to a better set up when its time to do the clutch anyway.

[FredK]

Yeah, I mentioned it is POSSIBLE to have a sub 1K swap. You'd have to have numerous hookups and you'd have to utilize used parts everywhere. You would essentially not touch the engine. I wouldn't trust it though. Maybe if you already had done a clutch job on your 260, replaced the CSB, and have a lower mileage radiator, you can just bolt things up. But usually, this isn't the case.

If you get used hydraulics and brake booster I could see closer to the 1K budget. If you don't replace any of the cooling hoses except the upper and lower radiator hoses, you are asking for trouble. For maintenance parts like ALL cooling hoses, belts, genuine BMW water pump, spark plugs, etc., you're looking at a few hundred bucks.

Shit Dan, if I knew you were gonna get new engine arms, I would have sold you my spare set off my parts engine!

In early December I talked to Joe Kravetz about getting a used DME/harness from a NV M50. He was quoting $250 for both. You should email him to see if he still has it. It's a 325i DME though. jkravetz@nycap.rr.com

[DanGillan]

i bought the complete running engine with pan and all accessories and wiring harness for $200. but i also bought the e36 harness, and I do use car-part.com. and the downpipes -> cat back section with a cat in the middle will cost about $2-300 at any decent exhaust shop to be done properly with hangers and flanges.

the thing you're lacking is the actual doing of the swap, you'll run into things a long the way, and sure, maybe you could get it done for under 1k, but i'd rather spend a little more, still not too much, and do it right the first time.

[SchnellerVert]

no way 1k. not to do it even somewhat "right" some things along the way that you dont expect you'll need. maybe if you do your own exhaust and dont replace anything, just drop in a complete motor, do the bare essentials and weld up your own exhaust it may be possible, but that's hack and not a way i would reccomend doing it becuase you'll end up doing more work later anyway, but it will be harder becuase the motor will be in the car already. its worth spending the money, enough to do it right, but not more than you really need.

more than that... i payed $120 for a harness, and looks like a DME will cost me $200ish. DME is killing my fucking budget.

im taking the exhaust to a shop. its quicker and easier and not much more expensive, i'll probably bring them the cat and have them bend an exhaust with the cat put in.

You are obviously not looking in the right places.

I have seen complete engine with harness and accesories for $450 range. Ecu's for $85 you just need to search smarter.

www.car-parts.com has alot of this stuff and if you buy the whole engine sometimes they will give you a break on costs. IE sell me the complete engine with dme and loom for an extra 150 please sir....

Exhaust, Should not be that bad all you need is custom pipes from the down tubes to the cat section if you plan on using it. All the rest remains E30.

Alot of the parts could have been garnered 2nd hand with the exception of things that wear out.