The comprehensive DOHC engine swap thread.

[Ryan Stewart]

HIOP is what i just installed on my friends M3. He is at a b-day party but tommorow Ill have him email me pics of them and Ill post them.

Trent has had exp with them too.

The welds look fairly clean and the baseplates and flanges are f-in thick, should never have a cracking issue.

[gstuning]

Ok boys,,,

Just finished my Euro S50B30 Swap today and got the car running

I´m not even going to scare you with the cost of a swap like this
and problems it contains
Parts are

E36 Parts :
Engine, trans, shift parts, loom and ecu along with vanos ecu,
e36 headers modified to fit(still retain equal length)
325i manual driveshaft ´91

E30 Parts : Small radiator from early 325i´s euro´s,
-88 coolant tank reservoir,
Radiator fan, reversed to fit closer to engine

E12 Parts :
Remote vacuum booster and slave , must be right hand drive models

Custom parts :
Driveshaft <> Guibo spacer
Driveshaft shortened and balanced again
E36 320i Clutch slave cyl
Custom brake lines from E12 slave to E12 booster and back again to E30 brake pipes
K&N air filter
Custom exhaust made to my specifications
Custom rear muffler
all kinds of various coolant hoses and numerous misc parts I am not mentioning

Wiring :
3 wires are needed to get the engine running and these are the most popular ones
Green wire #7 on the E30 connects to the Green one on the E36 side
Black Yellow on both sides connect
Fuel pump can vary but is usually #13 on E30 and on my S50B30 it´s Green/Violet
rest is coolant temp gauge and stuff like that,

I have a 3.25LSD this time vs. the 3.73 I had
the 3.25 owns the 3.73
Performance :
Low 5´s 0-60mph
max speed 261mph
mileage 30mpg
last dynoed at 244RWD@6950rpm and 330nm(flywheel) at about 4000rpm(that´s 185hp)

Pics soon and latest dyno results as they come,,
Is there a better swap then a S50/M50 swap,, hell yea
S38B36 swap,, readily available in europe and just too easy to install
cost about the same as a M50 swap in europe
lets say my S50B30 swap costs about 3times as much as a S38B36 swap

what people with S50B30/B32 euro´s have problem with

I´m not going into the 6speed talk as that is just crazy talk,

Brakes :
I choose remote vacuum booster this time instead of the popular hydraulic parts from E32´s and E28´s and E23´s, there is so much clearance now on the intake side and I reccomend this too anyone going for a Euro swap ,, parts where from the uk and cost 75pounds, shipping was 75pounds,, vaccum booster simply goes where the battery usually is on 318i´s and cabrios, custom brake lines and your good to go, also needed is to custom shorten the little part that connects the slave to the brake pedal, 16mm shortening of the E30 part should be good, I did 19mm but it´s close to fall off the slave cyl,,

[Ryan Stewart]

Here are update pics on the US S50.

The booster location. E34 M5 MC with 325ix booster. You can see the t mounted to a bracket below because my car didnt have ABS:


The ventilation hoses run up to the intake boot an clear fine. The brake resevior is going to be mounted on the backside of where the old intake bracket. My coolant resevior is actually going ot be left on the factory side but a bracket is going to be built so it can be stuffed back in the battery tray.

fuel cansiter is going here, I am going to move the HID ballast down below that subwall:


The fuel filter was moved back behind the drivers side like on the late models.

LOTs of room over there, deifinately going to throw some shorty headers in there to replace these once the actual finished exhaust is built. Should finish that side out. You could almost crawl through all that space there, gonna be nice when doing headwork.

[Ryan Stewart]

BTW, the 325ix booster does clear by a few MM.

I wonder if I would be able to get the blower fan out if I had to? Good thing mine is only about a year old. :?

[aaron_silva]

Is the M5 MC an upgrade? 25mm?

Aaron

[Beej '86 325es]

BTW, the 325ix booster does clear by a few MM.

The engine is going to move around a little, like on startup or reving it. Do you think it will hit the master cylinder?

[Ryan Stewart]

Its got a long way to reach the MC. The booster actually has nearly a CM on it.

I dont expect it to move. Reinforced M5 mounts and cupped tranny mounts are going to really hold it in place. The car will prolly tilt when revving.

Im actually more concerned about how loud its gonna be inside with the urethane and cupped mounts.

[Beej '86 325es]

Im actually more concerned about how loud its gonna be inside with the urethane and cupped mounts.

I have some urethane tranny mounts right now and I didn't really notice any increase in noise inside the cabin, but you can definitely feel the driveline through the seat.

[Mtriple]

Ditch the charcoal canister.... I ran my vent line from the tank through the purge valve and then I vented it to the atmosphere. It freed up a little space.

S52 headers flow exceptionally well. I picked up a set from Turner for my S50 and applied header wrap. They look pretty good!

[Ryan Stewart]

fo shizzle, and even though they are SS they are lighter than the S50 manifolds.

Now I just have to figure out how involved it would be to switch to an S52 valve cover, Id prefer the oil inlet NOT to be right below my brace. I can get a set of highoutout coils for the S52 really cheap but I doubt they adapt to the S50 wiring loom since my coils go on the valve cover up to the manifold (much cleaner looking) whereas the S52 ones come out the bottom like old school plugwires.

The S50 VC has a tray for the coil wires, maybe I can fit them on the S52 VC somewhere safe. :? Then I need to find someone willing to trade the M52 plastic for the S52 plastic so I can mess with people.

[Mtriple]

I agree, the wiring for your coils will look much cleaner with the S50 valve cover. I didnt care so much about the oil fill location as much as I hated the silver color. I had mine powdercoated black.

[Ryan Stewart]

I did the krackle finish. Shits pretty stout. i may powdercoat if I find a permanent solution to the valve cover.

The big issue is I want to retain the coil wiring hidden there. I may need to fabricate a low profile bracket for the wires since its lacking of a tray on the M52 cover. That would leave plenty of room on that head side.

Of course then there is the question of whether these coils will hook up to the OBD1 wiring easy. If not I could just sell them on ebay.

Mtriple, what injectors are you running? stock?

Im running programming with an HFM and BBTB. I was thinking of running something along the lines of SMT6 so I could flash the ECU for whatever fuel I was running that day and not have to worry about lean conditions.

[Mtriple]

I'm running the 24lb injectors with TMS/Conforti software and euro HFM. Blunt has been running this setup since last year and it actually runs a bit rich.

Blunt also dealt with your concerns about the valve cover and tray as his car has an S52. You should email him to see how he got around it...

[Addissimo]

I cracked open my engine crate the other day, to find out it didnt include the AFM... What should I do? Its an M50, I have some m3 cams to put in it, some underdrive pullies, s52 manifold, and a conforti chip. Is there any difference between the m50 and the s50 afm? Would my car realize and power difference between the m50 and the m60 afm?

Do you guys think I'll need bigger injectors for my cams? Know if there is a difference between the m50 conforti chip, and the m50 with m3 cams chip?

Thanks for your help
Addis

[Ryan Stewart]

1. bigger injectors are always good. check the lb, if they are lower than my stock S50 ones ill sell you mine in a bit.

I will also have a MAF sensor up for grabs really shortly. I got a Euro HFM.