Z3 M52 in 1991 318is (California BAR)

[fastestbox]

Glad you bought that car as I was looking at it for a while. Use as much as you can from the donor car to keep numbers matching and keep things simple. I know an e36 exhaust would bolt into an e30 (and hang way low and look dumb, but pass the BAR test), unsure about a z3. I would imagine that headers to cats are basically identical to an e36 as the z3 is an e36. Off the top of my head, all youll need to get this working in your car is an e34 oil pan setup, offset solid mounted CABs (to allow stock e36 headers to clear) an electric pusher fan, a wiring harness thatll join chassis to powerplant and some motor mounts of your choosing (akg is the most recommended here) Do some digging around on the 24v swap subforum and check out this thread for some more info. You should find all the info you'll need as plenty of folks have done this swap in CA.

and lmk when you start ripping apart your 318is as I may want some things :)

Funny that we were looking at the same car! Just out of curiousity, it's the one that's been epoxied and painted green right? I got to the PO's house and I was greeted by big metal teeth on the front of it - something that wasn't in the original craigslist post but funny nonetheless! (I'll post a pic of it tomorrow)

My car is already pretty low so I'm not thrilled about that, maybe the z3 one might fit a little better. Definitely going to need some custom exhaust work done regardless.

Already got the offset bushings so I'm already one more step ahead than I thought! Edit: thought solid as in the bushing not the arm, don't have the treehouse style so gotta add that to the list :(

Thanks for your response btw, and you'll be the first person I'll talk to about offloading some of these 318is parts. :)

[wworm]

Glad you bought that car as I was looking at it for a while. Use as much as you can from the donor car to keep numbers matching and keep things simple. I know an e36 exhaust would bolt into an e30 (and hang way low and look dumb, but pass the BAR test), unsure about a z3. I would imagine that headers to cats are basically identical to an e36 as the z3 is an e36. Off the top of my head, all youll need to get this working in your car is an e34 oil pan setup, offset solid mounted CABs (to allow stock e36 headers to clear) an electric pusher fan, a wiring harness thatll join chassis to powerplant and some motor mounts of your choosing (akg is the most recommended here) Do some digging around on the 24v swap subforum and check out this thread for some more info. You should find all the info you'll need as plenty of folks have done this swap in CA.

and lmk when you start ripping apart your 318is as I may want some things :)

[fastestbox]

Just scored myself a very sound (mechanically)1997 z3 with an aluminum M52B28 (not TU), Zf 5 speed, and an LSD for $500 today.

The goal is to have almost everything ready for a swap into my e30 as it's my daily and I want minimal downtime.

ALSO the added struggle is that I'm in California and I absolutely need it to be smog legal. I have a buddy that used to work at the local REF center and he can assist me with making sure everything is there.

I take it I should get it reffed as an e36? Due to requiring e36 exhaust manifolds? I want to keep it OBD2 as well.

The three questions I have are:

Can I use any of the z3 exhaust? RealOEM is being kinda weird in that regard, it's not giving me a part number for the z3. The end goal is to get it bar'd so I can't really modify much before the cat.

The car has backfees but I will not be driving it, just going to part it out in my driveway. Anything special I have to do as far as salvaging it with BAR maybe asking where the engine came from?

Wiring the engine harness to the chassis shouldn't be any different that a similar 325i swap right?


Thanks a bunch guys!!