The comprehensive DOHC engine swap thread.

[ldsbeaker]

WEIRD QUESTION

Yay to Ryan for doing a writeup!! I know I asked you a few months ago about it, and you told me to keep my shirt on. Glad you're going to do it now. So, I was thinking about this swap that I'm going to do one of these days... (hopefully after I get my tax return back this year) I was thinking about the brake booster, and five lug rims. Yeah, so I was wondering if having the different brake booster affects your ability to support an upgraded brake system? I was wondering if anyone has tried both the engine swap, and the five lug swap and had any problems. I don't think I saw anything about it here.
Sorry if this is a way stupid question, it was just something I was brainstorming about.


Drive on, Bimmerheads.

[bmwe3]

ORCA= JUNK I feel like i got ripped off on it even though i got it free lol its only good for the pictures but other then that its a waste of money. It'll tell you change the throttle cable and take the tension out but what cable is needed or if it needs to angle up or down it doesnt say theres about 10 things like that anythings for sale lol if the price is right e30m3s50.

do you have to recalibrate your tach after the swap?

anyone selling a 320 booster i think mines is no good as soon as i start the car the brake pedal gets sucked to the floor by itself





still needs finishing its been raining for the past 2 days

[Brew]

Ryan, Brew, kylebes1, and others with would you ever sell your car now? No way huh? Just thinking about having a more modern day engine in a e30 makes me want to go frankenstien on it. :o

At this point, I couldn't possibly sell my car. For one, I would sell it at a massive loss, as I have probably $7k into the car and it might be worth $3k at best. I feel that the knowledge I gained doing the swap has been well worth it, though. In a few years when I'm out of school, I'll probably strip my car of the suspension and newer parts, then sell the remaining bits and look for a super-clean, rust-free e30 shell. I feel that I could do the swap again in a weekend if I had all the parts.

[Addissimo]

A quick question... There is a black filter type thing that the fuel line goes into, then out of again... 1) what is that and 2) do i keep it in for the swap? My engine goes in today and i'm fuckin stoked :)

Thanks

[Brew]

A quick question... There is a black filter type thing that the fuel line goes into, then out of again... 1) what is that and 2) do i keep it in for the swap? My engine goes in today and i'm fuckin stoked :)

Thanks

Charcoal canister- its for emissions purposes I believe. Received gas fumes from the tank and injects them into the intake manifold. I believe you can bypass it, but I just hooked mine up.

Congrats on getting the motor in!

[Addissimo]

awesome.... thank you. My engine is in & everything is bolted up. On wednesday I'm going to go out and put some poontang in my car... and by that i mean I'm going to attach all the hoses and such. I'm wondering if it matters how I attach the fuel lines as there are two of them. Also, with the fuel lines, i have a regulator of some sort on the engine side, and the chasis side, so do i need to keep either of them? Should i keep the newer one? When i plug in the vacuum hoses to the intake boot I'm assuming that it doesnt matter which one goes where? I can sling a wrench like nobodys business, but when it comes to technical stuff, i'm an idiot... thanks for your help.

Addis

[Brew]

awesome.... thank you. My engine is in & everything is bolted up. On wednesday I'm going to go out and put some poontang in my car... and by that i mean I'm going to attach all the hoses and such. I'm wondering if it matters how I attach the fuel lines as there are two of them. Also, with the fuel lines, i have a regulator of some sort on the engine side, and the chasis side, so do i need to keep either of them? Should i keep the newer one? When i plug in the vacuum hoses to the intake boot I'm assuming that it doesnt matter which one goes where? I can sling a wrench like nobodys business, but when it comes to technical stuff, i'm an idiot... thanks for your help.

Addis

Yes, you definitely need to connect the fuel lines correctly. If you don't know which is which, follow the one that comes from the fuel filter under the car- that is your fuel supply. The other longer one is your fuel return, then you should also have the one that attaches to the charcoal cannister. You don't need to use the m20 fuel pressure regulator, the m50 has one on the rear of the fuel rail.
No, it doesn't matter where the vacuum hoses go on the intake boot, as long as they don't leak.

[Jason89i]

[quote="Brew"] You don't need to use the m20 fuel pressure regulator, the m50 has one on the rear of the fuel rail.
[quote]

Some e36's have the FPR in the fuel tank. My 95 m50 had no FPR fuel rail on the rail. There wasn't even the round housing for it. I used the m20 unit until I got an adjustible one. However, we're working on another e30m50 (93 motor) and it does have the FPR on the fuel rail. Its on the return side, about 1-1/2" diameter. Not sure when the change over was, or why the different types.

[Brew]

Good to know. My 92' M50 has it on the return side of the rail also.

[Addissimo]

The book i have is a large piece of feces... This picture depicts the fuel lines that go to the engine. Any ideas on which is the intake and the return?



And this next one is coming from behind the brake booster, If i remember right, it goes off of the brake fluid res. and feeds the clutch hydrolics... I just want to make sure that is correct?



When attaching the coolant hoses to the heater core, I have the line coming off the head going to the top core hose and the t-line going to the bottom core line. I wouldnt think it'd really matter, but again, i just want to verify.

Has anybody found any thing inacurate in the wiring diagrams that have been done (akgmotorsport)?

Tomorrow I'm going to finish modifying my damn vaders to fit in my car, finish attaching all of the coolant hoses, attach the fuel lines and power steering lines, then tow her home. I hope to have her started by saturday evening.... Its soooo close.

Thanks for everybody's help
-Addis

[Ryan Stewart]

The metal line to the rear is the return line IIRC.

My coolant hoses are different. The spiderlike one (if you have the one with 4 hoses in one) went to the top and the one directly from the head went to the bottom. If not the big one rubs on the starter and the heat didnt work.

[tranceguy]

More wiring issues...

[EDIT]

OK, it looks like I'm getting power to some terminals in the fuse/relay panel that I should be getting ground to. For instance, if I take out relay k5 (unloader) I get power at 3 terminals instead of 2. Does anyone have a decent diagram of the fuse panel that shows where the wires coming out of it go so that I can track this down? Thanks!

[bmwe3]

In my fues panel i took off the fat red wire and replaced it with the s50 wires (starter to power dis) and there should be one more factory red wire that should be left where it is gos from the power distributer to the fues box.

[tranceguy]

Ah-ha! I think I found out what's causing it. In an earlier post, Kyle talks about using the m20 starter. He said that there was only one terminal on the starter so you had to combine the m50 terminals on that one post. Well, my starter has 2 posts. One for ignition and one for my load reduction relay. So my load reduction relay is being cut and not allowing various things to function.

I'm going to test out my theory Sat. morning. I'll keep you guys posted.

[DEV0 E30]

Throwing out a few more questions to the owners of 24v cars. How many miles did the engine have on it when you swapped it in? How many miles have you put on the engine? Any non-regular maintence since you had it all tweaked and were driving it regularly?

Thanks, just curious. Found a few higher mile M50's but it's still gonna be a few months before it starts and want to get an estimate on some things.