Project ORCA CD?

[golde30]

any1 else here think that project ORCA CD makes this swap look more complicated than it actually is? just wondering, b/c that was my initial reaction.

[BigD]

I don't think so. It's more complicated than necessary to get the motor shoved in the car and make it drive but they assume you'd want more. There are a lot of things there that I have not seen mentioned on this forum. Everyone says C101 is the only place you have to do anything, just adapt the plug and you're done... well yeah, if you don't care about your tach working... They also hold your hand through things like how to hook up the E36 oil level sender to the E30 check control...

[golde30]

thats true, but it seems like they are guiding some1 through a process of putting together the motor in a shell car, ie: stripped out and bare. doesnt really cater to some1 who has a car that is all setup and just wants to put in the motor.

as far as the plug goes, i also thought all we had to do was modify the c101, where as it looks like you have to replace the whole damn wiring harness inside and out...

[BigD]

thats true, but it seems like they are guiding some1 through a process of putting together the motor in a shell car, ie: stripped out and bare. doesnt really cater to some1 who has a car that is all setup and just wants to put in the motor.

as far as the plug goes, i also thought all we had to do was modify the c101, where as it looks like you have to replace the whole damn wiring harness inside and out...

I don't see where you are reading this from. They are not going into a bare shell, they are showing you the necessary modifications needed to the M5x engine and the E30 with the engine removed to make the two mate together. Everything they ask you to do is to make the engine work properly and to make everything look clean (for instance, cutting off brackets you won't need - is this necessary? no, is it the proper thing to do? yes).

It seems you've skimmed over the instructions and created a sensationalist view of it from gut feeling. Read more carefully. There isn't all that much they tell you to do to the harness, and it is all necessary for proper operation of all features - which again, if it is not something you require, then it is indeed overcomplicated but it's nothing above and beyond what any normal person would expect of their car (ie so that everything looks and feels as if the car was built that way from the factory, it wasn't just some half assed mod).

[erik325i]

It is a little complicated on the CD because they explain everything. For example, they are using a wiring harness from an auto car, so they show how to remove the tranny section of the harness. They show how to wire up the oil level sensor. They show how to hook up the AC.

The only thing that I thought was completely retarded was how they rigged up the airbox. Cutting an airbox in half and glueing a filter to it? What kind of crap was that?

Overall, the CD is a decent resource if you are going into it with no previous knowledge about the swap because they make sure to hit all of the points.

[golde30]

Overall, the CD is a decent resource if you are going into it with no previous knowledge about the swap because they make sure to hit all of the points.

i suppose this is true, they just made it very specific to THIER application, and not to a general application. i have been researching from forums, which may be oversimplified, so from that standpoint, i found the ORCA CD to be overcomplicated.

BigD, settle down man ,we are just talking, dont get so defensive.

[BigD]

BigD, settle down man ,we are just talking, dont get so defensive.

I'm not... I didn't write it, I don't care. You just said some things which are completely off-base, all I'm saying is you should read more thoroughly before making comments based on a gut feeling you got from brief skimming - this is a technical board and you are serving disinformation. Like you said, most experts on this board oversimplify the swap. It may be because they are too lazy to give the full information, they forgot or some things are too obvious for them to say (or not relevant to the specific question - if no one asks how to do something, why would they say?). It's not that hard but it's not as easy as some here make you think. That you just yank the M20, drop the M50 with some new motor mounts, adapt the plug, connect the wires and hoses and go off into the sunset. It's not a whole shit load beyond that but the extra steps are the difference between a half assed job with tons of headaches, or a professional looking installation that works like it was meant that way.

This CD is not just for people with "no previous knowledge". The previous knowledge required for this CD to be useless is everything. Searching these forums and memorizing every post is not going to substitute it. The only way to obsolete it is to do the swap yourself and figuring everything out on your own. And even then they have tips which you may have never thought of before.

[golde30]

i didnt say that it was useless, or that i wasnt going to follow some of their pointers, which i am. i was just espressing my POV on the product. i suppose i should have chosen a different forum to post on, instead of the most relevant one.

[BigD]

i didnt say that it was useless, or that i wasnt going to follow some of their pointers, which i am. i was just espressing my POV on the product. i suppose i should have chosen a different forum to post on, instead of the most relevant one.

I didn't say you said it was useless (that was for Erik). I said you are serving disinformation about the contents. It's only a few posts up but here it is again:

thats true, but it seems like they are guiding some1 through a process of putting together the motor in a shell car, ie: stripped out and bare. doesnt really cater to some1 who has a car that is all setup and just wants to put in the motor.

as far as the plug goes, i also thought all we had to do was modify the c101, where as it looks like you have to replace the whole damn wiring harness inside and out...

Both of these points are false. What it seems like and looks like to you is not very helpful to someone trying to decide if they should bother looking at it.

[LINUS]

I own a set of the discs, so I can add that despite being able to rebuild a 2-stoke nearly blindfolded, I liked the fact that there may be nearly "too much" information, if there really ever is such a thing. Ok, anything involving another dude's body is too much, but in BMW world - not very likely.

I think the fact that they give 'their' way for every last detail is great. If a total tool buys the disc, he can more than likely get the job done, and Zionsville doesn't get a ton of phone lines tied up with idiots who need their hand held.

If you see something they do, and you see a better way, that shows you know which end of a screwdriver is the business end. Some people don't and need their hand held. Like I said, more calls back to Zionsville and tied up phone lines & you can never get through to place a parts order.

Also, the discs were on the scene pretty early in this whole swap business, so some of it might need to be updated as the swap parts evolved and streamlined.

Congratulations if you think Zionsville is speaking underneath you, that means you have at least a flickering bulb. Some people don't, or this may be their first try at something of this magnatude, and if they never heard of this forum at least that disc, a case of Mt.Dew, and decent tool set will give you a decent swap car without Dwight being flooded with calls from deadheads, at least least not the Jerry Garcia kind.

[grib]

I've got both the ORCA CD and the OBD Conversion CD. I don't think I could do the OBD-1 conversion without this CD. If you had a good running OBD-1 engine to use as a reference, you could probably figure most of it out. However I did it the hard way and started with a block/head with almost nothing (few sensors, no harness, no ICV, etc) buying most of the OBD-1 parts new.

I found the ORCA CD to have excellent detail in some places, but to be a bit frustrating in others. As Linus pointed out, they really give every last detail in some places (like cleaning up brackets, or the wiring necessary) but disappoint in others. If they are marketing toward the "average joe" then why did they opt to demonstrate the engine install with a custom stand and lift? If you have those types of tools available you probably don't need 10 pictures and captions describing the installation of the power steering bottle and hoses. I could also wish for the pictures to be larger resolution.

Between this forum and ORCA there is more than enough information to do the swap really well if you take your time. I have not seen enough good information on the web alone to feel like I could get the OBD-1 conversion done.