flyboyX's obd2 s52 engine swap blog

[flyboyx]

ok, so....somewhere up toward the top of this thread i posted a link that is actually a tutorial on bmw's ews. the link states that(with ews 3d) it is important not to attempt to start the car with either the ews module or the dme disconnected. the reason for this is because it is possible to get the code generator out of phase between the two which would cause a no start. up until today, i have been really concerned that i might have screwed the pooch and done exactly that during the mz3 dismantle.

anyway, in yesterday's entry above, i have stated that the car would turn over but not start. i wasn't getting fuel to the rail for one reason or another. i pulled the mz3 key out of the ring antenna to see what would happen when the starter was engaged with the e30 key. oddly enough, the engine will turn over either way. that bothered me somewhat. i would have thought removing the key would disable the starter circuit.

next i pulled out the #1 coil and plug to check for spark. when i cranked the engine, i will be goddamned that i had spark! that was good news!

I had the c101 #13 wire(violet/red-fuel pump relay) connected to the #13 wire of the x20 which is the o2 sensor wire. i un-soldered that wire and connected it to the #14 wire of the x20 (red/white) labeled ecm relay. i disconnected the hoses to the fuel rail and turned on the key. BINGO! i had fuel shooting out the lower in in a matter of seconds. i don't think this is the right connection for this relay. the reason is because may be hot at all times.

anyway, after hooking up the hoses to the manifold, and cranking the engine over, i was able to get it to run for about a second or so and then quit. the fuel pump runs continuously. when i turn off the key, it will also run for some period of time before it shuts off. i assume it builds a certain amount of pressure before it turns itself off. will have to check on that. anyway, after several attempts, all i can get out of it is about 1 second run time before it quits. i think there are two possibilities: one: with the wire i chose, cranking the engine may be turning off power to that wire. two: i have a bad fuel pump in the tank. i am leaning toward the first option because the car ran fine before i swapped engines. i am going to connect the #13 wire to the battery with a 5 amp fuse in between to see what i get.

my toughest challenge is that the wiring diagrams i have for the e30 are incomplete. i only have about 100 pages or so. there are a lot of things i cannot find when i refer to them. bastards!

the good news is that it runs! sort of anyway. it will just be a matter of doing a little troubleshooting until i get everything hooked up correctly.

to my knowledge, i think this is the first build where someone has "successfully" done an obd2 swap with ews3.

[flyboyx]

i spent a few hours working on the car today. the good news is that i got the car to crank over!!!! still not running though. i am not getting fuel to the engine, so i have to assume i don't have the power to the pump hooked up correctly. also, i noticed that the power windows are not working. i presume this would be a k5/k7 issue. i did not have time to trouble shoot today because game 2 of the stanley cup final intervened. i don't have a tv in my shop. what can i say, i grew up outside of hockey town.

if anyone has any ideas to point me in the right direction, please let me know. my wiring diagrams are posted on the bottom of page one and top of page 2. i have my x20 pin #13 soldered to the c101 #13.

[flyboyx]

spent the lesser part of two days working on the car this week. foremost, almost all wiring has been completed. there are 3 wires (well actually 2) that i am not quite sure what to do with. see my other recent post if you are curious. i have spent lots of time with my nose back in the etms. those manuals suck! i also have the two power in wires to the ews that need connection.

a few months ago, i picked up a vibrant muffler from voracious motor sports. i liked the black powder coated 3" single inlet / dual 3" outlet muffler. since my vert is a 318, it has the single narrow exhaust outlet in the rear valance. i hate the way that looks. i figure a single outlet muffler will look like a damn ricer. thus i spent some time today widening the opening. i cut that part of the valance from one of my 325i facelift parts cars and welded it on. i'll post a pic when i get time.

since i had the welder fired up, i also welded a threaded post in the trunk to mount the negative battery cable. said cable was scrounged from the mz3.

[flyboyx]

today was good day because i had time to work on my car for a few hours this evening. as i mentioned above, the reservoir has been mounted, it is a bit tight against the maf. i may move it a little later on.



here is a photo of the accumulator with the high pressure hose fittings mounted to it. that is the factory bracket from the e23 but turned upside down. on the hose fittings, i left part of the crimped collar where it attaches to the metal line because as you can see in the photo, those high pressure fittings don't have much of a barb on them. some of the newer fittings on the power steering pump don't have any barb at all. once i have the collars crimped on, i plan to put a couple of (tig) tack welds between this flange and the collar for good measure.



these are the fittings i came up with for the power steering rack and the ps pump



here is a photo of the e23 accumulator bracket with a notch ground out to fit the brace on the front strut tower. keep in mind that this will be welded to the frame up side down.



its a little hard to see in the crappy photo, but there is the up side down bracket welded low on the frame with the accumulator bolted on. the bracket is just below the bank of brake lines, just behind the motor mount bracket, and just in front of/and above the steering u-joint. the fuel lines and the carbon canister hose touch on the back side. there is about 2 or 3 inches of clearance to the master cylinder/hydro booster above(removed for clarity). the biggest reason for mounting it that low was that i felt i needed to stay away from the brake lines. i didn't want to weld on a bracket that had a cut out for those lines only to have the possibility of replacing one later.



last but not least, i mentioned above that i had found a place to mount the x20 and the x6031 plugs. yes, the wiring is a mess right now, but i think this mounting location will look factory professional when i get the the wiring cleaned up. the plastic piece that i mounted the plugs to is one side of the factory mz3 fuse box, cut off, and filed flat. i drilled a couple of holes in the plastic to fit the factory c101 mount on the plate that covers the fan and heater box on the fire wall. you can see in the far left side of the photo, i have also mounted the "L" brackets that hold plastic cover for the engine wiring harness.



i am always preaching about buying the entire car if possible to do your swap. these are just two examples of the hundreds of little parts that i have scrounged off the donor car. none of this stuff would have been available to me had i only purchased an engine. it would really suck to have to go out to the stealership every time you need some stupid little part.

by the way, in the last week or so, i sold another grand or so worth of parts off the donor car. other than the loads of parts i have purchased off german ebay, the for sale section of this forum, (and the other one), pretty much all of the cars i own listed in my signature have been paid for by selling off parts i don't need.

[flyboyx]

And a little heads up for you hydro boost swap. use as much of the e23 stuff as possible or it will NOT work! The problem with using a hydroboost system is there are all kinds of little restrictors in the hoses and if each and everyone is not properly duplicated the way it wass on the e23 you will have problems.

yeah, i would like to check that out. the only difference that i have really noticed is that on the e23 there is a restrictor in the pressure line between the accumulator and the hydro booster. it is the fitting attached between the upper booster and the pressure hose pictured below.



according to real oem, that part is a restrictor for abs brakes. it has a very small orifice of about 1/64 or less diameter. needless to say, i plan to install it on my car. as far as the rest of the parts are concerned, i can see no differences other than the hoses have different bends and lengths. i am always open to learning something new.

[Dissembler]

Great build thread, I'm in the process of putting an OBD 2 M52 into my 85 318. I would really love to try and fit the E36 ignition cylinder into the factory e30 location, but I dont have an extra e30 column to fool around with. I was also thinking maybe just take the transponder part off of the e36 key and graft it onto the e30 key? have to look into it some more but i don't think it will work.

And a little heads up for you hydro boost swap. use as much of the e23 stuff as possible or it will NOT work! The problem with using a hydroboost system is there are all kinds of little restrictors in the hoses and if each and everyone is not properly duplicated the way it wass on the e23 you will have problems.

I know there is a write up on it somewhere, I searched e30tech, r3v and bimmerforums for it but couldnt find it (I came up on a thread you started about it a while ago lol) and like everyone else has told you, Ian. Maybe you can get access to some of the european e30 sites? probable way more information as hydro is common over there.

[flyboyx]

i haven't had a lot of time to work on my project lately. lots of other obligations getting in the way. i finally picked up my 2 door ix and brought it home this week. i spent the day yesterday screwing around with that.

i found a nice out the way place to mount the hydroboost reservoir. originally, i wanted to locate it on the driver side motor mounting bracket, but the top needs to be mounted above the brake booster. otherwise, the fluid could drain back and overflow.

the accumulator is going to be mounted below the booster on the driver side. i cut the mounting bracket off the e23 so it would be a little easiser to fabricate.

i went through the 20 or so power steering hoses that i have laying around in search of suitable ends for my project. using my angle grinder(with a thin cutting wheel), i ground off the metal swage collars and slid the ends out of the old hoses.

doing a little googling on line, i found http://www.discounthydraulichose.com they sell the R1 hydraulic hose needed for about a buck a foot. this is a 2500 psi hose. the working pressure of the system according to my bently manual is about 1400 psi max, so this hose will work nicely.



they also sell a crimp collar shell for about a buck each.



unfortunately, they don't sell banjo fittings. i talked to a salesman about it, but he said suitable suppliers are unavailable. i did a little searching and found a couple of aeroquip fittings in their catalog, but for most connections, you need some sort of elbow after the attachment. this is why i am reusing my old fittings. when the hydraulic parts arrive in the mail. i will just cut my hoses to length, assemble them and take them to my local hydraulic shop to get them crimped.

i have read a few threads on the forums with people complaining that the hydroboost system is unnecessarily complicated. i don't think so. you definitely have more hoses to run and you have to figure out how to locate the accumulator, but really, it isn't bad.

[flyboyx]

this weekend, i installed the transmission mount. it fits well, but the tail stock on the trans seams to be skewed a bit to the passenger side. i played around with the shifter carrier also. here is a photo of the getrag 240(below) and getrag 260 carriers. the better choice for modification would be the longer of the two. since the carrier will need a dog leg fabricated into it(thus increasing the total linear length) i plan to fabricate the dog leg by cutting out a section about 4 inches back from the front mount eye. i am going to weld that on a 45 degree angle. then follow up the intersection from the back section to complete the jog. i'll post a photo when i get the chance to work on it.


for the hell of it, here is a comparison of the stock e30 shifter compared to the stock shifter from the mz3. if you are a noob, the z3 shifter is the one on top.



I played with the wiring a bit. i have all of the components pretty much nailed down on the passenger side. i just need to get the brackets welded to the inner fenders. i had to slide the two large red battery wires in the harness over toward the passenger side about 8 inches. there was too much wire on the driver side and not enough on the pax where it connects to the battery terminal block.

i cut one side off the mz3 fuse box to use the dovetail mounts. this was the best solution it affix the x6031 and x20 connectors to the firewall. i don't have a photo yet, but i used the same screw holes that mount the c101 from the e30.

i installed the fuel line hoses from the mz3. they have quick connections on the end of the hose that match the fuel rail on the s52.

i went the the local pick a part and found a couple of items on my list. i have been fooling around with installing hydroboost on my car. a few months back, i picked up the system from an old e24.



everything was fine and dandy until i installed the engine.



i think it would work out fine if the engine were something other than m/s5x. there is no way around the conflict with these parts. the good news is that i read a thread a while back that you can use the hydroboost system of a 7 series e23. this is what i found at the just yard this week. if you are going to add hydroboost to your e30 with a 24v swap, it is going to have to be the booster from the early 7 series. notice how about a third of the booster is actually inset behind the firewall. this will get you the relief you need to clear the throttle body. the e23 is at the top, the e24 is below.


an added benefit to going with the hydraulic brake syst is that the diameter of the master cylinder is much larger than the one from the e30. e30 on the left, hydroboost mc on the right for comparison

here is a photo with the e23 booster installed. the intake boot and maf will pretty much fit with out conflict at this point. the rear orifice on the bottom of the boot has slight interference with the hydraulic line on the front of the master cylinder, but there won't be any issue connecting the hose.



i know...you are probably asking why i would want to install this on my car. well...i ask you, why the hell not? i have already modified a rabbit booster that i am sure would work fine. i just want more braking power. i have hydroboost on my diesel f350 daily driver and i love the system. i expect i will love it just as much on my bimmer.

[flyboyx]

this weekend i accomplished a few odds and ends. the correct f***ing clutch kit finally arrived after 2 damn months of playing keystone cops with the company i ordered it from. just so everyone else can learn from my personal pain, the 328 pressure plate sent to me by mistake will not fit the m3 flywheel. there is about an inch diameter difference between the two. i installed this and also got the tranny mounted to the back of my engine. yes, that is the mz3 e36 flywheel and clutch setup. everything bolted together fine to the getrag 260 and rotates free.






i have the engine installed for a test fit. plan to pull it back out soon to paint the engine bay and also clean up and paint the engine. at first i didn't feel very convinced that the engine mount arms were correct even though i took them off the e36 myself. you see, on each side of the cross member, there is a inner hole for the engine mount stud and a slot to the outside. the m42 motor mounts were positioned in the inner hole and an alignment "nub" on the bottom side of the mount went into the slot. i tried to install the s52 mounts that way, but that made the engine assembly about 1 and 1/2 inches too wide. the problem was solved easily by rotating the motor mounts 180 degees so the stud went through the outer slot and the alignment nub into the inner hole. go figure.




I wanted the engine in the car mostly so i could figure out where to mount the diagnostic port, the relay box, and the secondary air pump on the right side of the engine compartment. i also wanted to sort out the mods that i will need to do to the shifter.




i also fabricated the transmission mounting brace. since i have a ton of parts cars, the easiest solution was to cut part of the brace from a second bracket and weld it to the one i intend to use. i made all my cuts with an angle grinder with a thin cutting wheel. on the left side where the part of the second brace was welded on, i first cut a large square hole into the lower bracket so it would be easy to get the nut on the mount for that side. i used a little mig to tack weld the upper piece in place, then took it over to my shop and finished it up with the tig. i know the welds aren't professional, but they will work. i bought a pair of e21 tranny mounts from bma for about 5 bucks each.



i wanted to start cutting up the shifter carrier, but i ran out of time.

i did cut the shifter selector rod in two pieces as well as the rod from the mz3. plan to use the e30 rod from the trans to about 2/3rds of the way back. the mz3 rod is a larger diameter than the e30. the e30 rod will just barely fit inside the shaft from the mz3. this will make it easy to hold it in place when i get it lined up to weld.

i would have posted a couple more photos, but i am sitting around in a hotel in torreon, mexico and the internet is stupid slow. i ran out of patience.

i still have a lot of wiring to do. i gave a copy of my electrical diagrams to a this russian electrical engineer/bimmer nut buddy of mine to make sure everything is in good order. i am just waiting to get them back. my soldering iron is heated up and standing by.

not that there is any relevance to this thread, but a couple of weeks ago, i made myself a nice little wiring harness for the heated power mz3 seats. they are so much more comfortable than the stock e30 seats. i expect they will really add to the drivability of the car.

[flyboyx]

two weekends ago, i re torqued the main bolts, installed the oil pump and pickup tube, and put on the e34 oil pan. i also changed all the lower end gaskets. at this point, i am just waiting for my damn clutch to finally arrive so i can get my getrag 260 mounted to the back of my engine.





i made a wiring harness for the fuel tank pressure sensor. it has been routed from the firewall back to the tank. i have to take the tank out in the next few weeks to install the sensor.

i have sold off a good portion of the parts from the mz3 that i won't be using. almost everything went on local craigslist. i did ship a few things here and there. i still have the rear clip, sway bars, and a few other parts. to this day, all of the parts that i have so far sold have more than made up for the initial cost of the car. so, to summarize, the engine, differential, seats, and all of the other parts i am keeping from the car are now less than free. granted, i have to have a place to store the car and also take the time to part it out. lets just say that at this point, i am very happy with my investment.





over the weekend, i removed the dash from the car so i could get in there to add the cruise control and obc wiring harnesses. i installed the trunk mounted battery cable from the mz3 roadster.




on the vert, i needed a hole to get the wire from the cabin into the engine compartment. the knock out tool pictured is the prettiest way to do this. you can use a hole saw, but you have to be careful of the a/c lines behind this metal panel. the knock out tool makes a professional looking hole that looks like it came from the factory. it just turns out that i happened to have the right size in my shop. the battery cable came with a nice body grommet that fits perfectly into this hole. i had to take it off the harness to snake it into the car from the rear.




the hole looks too small in the picture, but that is the wide angle perspective from the camera lens.



i temporarily mounted the mz3 electrical junction block to the back of the strut tower. using this block is a little better than the one in an e30 coupe because the positive wires from the s52 harness are designed to connect to this without any modification.







i had to use a pry bar to expand this opening a little to fit the cable though.



the mz3 cable is actually a little too long for the e30, but that sure beats the opposite problem. i can poke some of the wire back into the hole where the wire comes into the trunk. i will be adding as much of the coupe cable hold down that i can use so this wire won't be flopping around in the trunk. i would say the installation looks factory professional.

[atlzhp6m]

anymore progress updates?

[matt]

on one hand, i hate to wimp out like that, but why don't you pm me with your phone number and we can discuss it. up to this point, i hadn't considered it because i wasn't aware of anyone that offered this service without a lot of engine mods.



man, i really don't have any idea what this is.....? tell me where to look for it.

We do all our own software work, from reverse engineering to tuning and flashing, so we can do absolutely whatever you need. (well, we will be soon, we haven't really "released" MS41 tuning yet) I can do a 100% stock file with no EWS. But for some reason, I don't think I've seen a SW version with EWS3d yet. I've already got all the EWSII stuff figured out though, so it shouldn't be too much of a challenge.

The software version won't be on the ECU anywhere, you'll have to read it out with one of the tools I mentioned. That's no big deal, I was just sort of hoping to get the version so I can find the software without buying an ECU from an MZ3.

[flyboyx]

today i pulled the interior and carpet out of the car in about an hour or so. you may say this has nothing to do with an engine swap, but actually, it has to come out for a couple of related reasons. i need to run the coupe battery cable to the trunk and i also place the three wires to the tank for the fuel tank pressure sender. i have a really nice cable from the mz3 and also one from one of my e30 coupe parts cars. i plan to use the one out of the mz3 for a couple of reasons(assuming it is long enough). first, it is red. this really isn't an issue for me, but you never know who is going to try to jump start the car during its life. second, the diameter is a little larger than the e30's. third, the connections in the engine compartment will easily attach to my wiring harness without modification because they were designed for it.



unrelated to the engine swap, i plan to use the mz3's heated power seats. i removed the wiring harness from the z3's body harness. these also need to be placed below the carpet. the dash isn't out yet, but i will be installing cruise control and a 13 button obc. more on this down the road.

if anyone needs a tan sport vinyl vert interior in good shape, let me know.

[flyboyx]

That helps a LOT thanks. I really appreciate that.

If you'd like to swap that out for a DME with disabled EWS (or send it to me and let me figure out how to disable the EWS on that one) let me know. It's kind of what I do. :)

on one hand, i hate to wimp out like that, but why don't you pm me with your phone number and we can discuss it. up to this point, i hadn't considered it because i wasn't aware of anyone that offered this service without a lot of engine mods.

Do you know the SW version running in the ECU? Or do you have INPA or a GT1 or Autologic that might tell you?

Thanks again.

man, i really don't have any idea what this is.....? tell me where to look for it.

[matt]

Do you know the SW version running in the ECU? Or do you have INPA or a GT1 or Autologic that might tell you?

Thanks again.