Started The Swap Tonight *w00t*

[94is]

My friend and I are doing an M52 swap (and tranny swap) into a friend's 1987 325is automatic (for monies of course). We began tearing apart the e30 tonight. We only worked for about 3.5 hours, but still managed to get quite a lot done. The head is off, wiring harness is gone, starter is out, radiator, etc. Center console is out, kick panel is out, and the automatic shifter stuff is ready to be pulled. We didn't do any work under the car tonight (mainly because I left my jackstands at my house), but the block is 5 bolts from being removed.

Tomorrow night the exhaust, tranny, block, driveshaft, diff, and shifter crap comes out. Hopefully we'll have time to pull the pedal assembly and brake booster. I'm looking forward to it. :D

She's a little rough, but totally straight. All body panels are original, so no major accidents. :)


Yeah, that is coolant.


How we left the engine bay.


How I left the interior.

[Ray Smoodiver]

Oh hay Kim, Unicron approved.

[94is]

:runbig

[e30s52]

wow and was this used for going mudding or somthing?

[smonkbmw]

i didnt know you had to pull the head off to get the motor out...

[g22]

You don't have to pull the head to get the motor out. At least I didn't when I pulled my m20...

[94is]

I know you don't have to pull the head. We are going to borrow an engine hoist, and when we are ready to install the M52, we will bring it over. So pulling the head makes it possible for us to remove the block without assistance.

Btw, I have no clue what they were doing with this car before she dropped it off at my house. I washed it earlier in the day. Clumps of mud the size of grape fruits were falling off. I didn't touch the inside, but I will try to vacuum it at least before we're done with it.

[e30s52]

yeah that is really dirty. ive seen cleaner trucks come back from mudding cleaner. are you doing an m52 auto swap?

[Turf1600]

so, you're going to lift the motor out by hand?

[mbonder]

good luck with that if you aren't using a hoist to lift that out. I would say that just because of the position its in in the engine bay it'll be a straight up bitch to get that out.

best of luck!

[94is]

yeah that is really dirty. ive seen cleaner trucks come back from mudding cleaner. are you doing an m52 auto swap?

We're swapping it over to manual as well.

[Beej '86 325es]

Good luck! It blows me away how fast some of you guys get in just a day on this swap. I guess you have to have torn a car apart once or twice before to really be able to tear into things so fast.

[94is]

so, you're going to lift the motor out by hand?

We've done it before. ;)

[94is]

Good luck! It blows me away how fast some of you guys get in just a day on this swap. I guess you have to have torn a car apart once or twice before to really be able to tear into things so fast.

We only worked for 3 hours, and took our sweet time. Tomorrow evening we're going to finish the parts removal.

[rThor432]

I clicked the thread and thought I saw a picture of the interior of my parts car..

Identical interior.

Changing motors by hand without a lift? Dont get a hernia. Good project though, glad to see you getting rid of the auto that never should have come in the car.