flyboyX's obd2 s52 engine swap blog

[E30m52b28]

I know its a long shot but did you ever get a final wiring pinout?

[SS350]

hey man, i haven't heard from you in a while. send me a pm and let me know how your swap is going.

for your fan, can't you just splice the wires into the original three wire plug that powered your fan? that is what i plan to do. this way i get low and high speed when it gets really warm. that way it comes in automatically and you don't have to worry about turning it on manually.

Hey, yea I was sorta MIA for a while trying to get everything together in time, all sorts of minor fit-up issues and going to Manual Brakes last minute (fit up of the hydro-boost was SO tight in the LH side of engine bay- and I didnt want to extend all the lines and mount it on the RH side of the bay b/c I wasnt sure about line losses) soo that got in the way... I had an original goal of late Sept to run the car... and a worst case goal of Thanksgiving to be driving it. I made it... The car runs and drives (With exhaust) as of early this week. It pulls GOOD :D There are obviously little things i need to finish.

Anyways I did figure out how to wire my fan, i broke apart the stock seized AC fan and cut the 2 wires such that i connected the brown to the fans ground and the hot to the hot and maintain the resistor and 3pin plug. I did have to change the red and black pins around on the 3-pin connector going into the harness to allow it to turn ON with the AC switch in the dash. Once everything is working I will double-check the wiring and get it to turn on per the actual switch in the radiator.

The Spal puller fan WAS more expensive, I like your solution, but I was rushing and already messed around with a bunch of other brackets on the engine, It DOES however have nice dovetails in it to mount it to the supplied straps, check out some of the newer pics of my swap when you have time so u can see the fitment.

Goodluck on yours, keep it up! I'm sure you will be pleased with the end result! BTW that supercharger will be AWESOME!!!!!! I'm kinda thinking, now that I have one (mostly) down, a turbo M52 might be kinda fun! Epecisally if it truly is a project car which needs no deadline, that way i could take my time and shop around and keep the budget down this time!! Or LS1, or turbo-diesel plow truck, or drift car....

Or... i'll just save for a house!

(btw, unlike e30tech, my account wasn't set here to subscribe automatically once a comment was made, but NOW I am subscribed!!)

[flyboyx]

this morning before i started my trip, i tested out the aux fan circuit. to do this, i turned on the ignition and jumper-ed the circuit at the three prong radiator switch. low speed worked great, but high speed blew the fuse. after cross referencing, i found the number three fuse that i blew is actually for low speed. it turns out that the high and low wires in the 750i fan are in opposite positions compared to the e30. good news with this plug: it can be taken apart very easily. all you have to do is slide the tie wrap off the connector, open up the plastic retainer, and swap terminals to the correct position. when the high speed circuit is connected, that thing will really blow some serious air! now that it is tested and i know it works, i feel really confident that all of my cooling issues are taken care of.

[flyboyx]

after carving pumpkins with the kids this evening, i finished up my cooling fan and took a few photos in the event someone else would like to use the same system. since the 750iL fan is about 3 or 4 inches larger in diameter, the condenser brackets had to be changed to make it work. i cut the bracket off the top of the condenser and welded it to a reshaped lower bracket on the passenger side of the car.


my solution to make this fan fit was to rotate it about 60 degrees clockwise. that puts the upper right mount at the 360 degree position. i cut out some of the metal on the bottom of the upper core support because the diameter of the fan is too large to fit in the core support opening. this also gave me a good solid place to mount the top bolt.





the third mount was a little more complicated. i had to fabricate a bracket to secure it properly to the condenser. i folded the original mounting point flat and bolted the top part of my fabricated bracket to that point. i welded to the bottom condenser mount but that probably wasn't necessary. two #8 bolts would have worked if you don't have access to a welder.



here is a pic with the fan installed. it pretty much takes up the opening in the core support plus another inch.



this is a closeup of the top of the fan installed in the opening i cut in the underside of the upper core support



finally, the wiring pigtail on the 750i fan is really short. my solution was to cut the pigtail off my old fan and also about a foot and a half of the wiring from one my parts cars. they are spliced together under the black plastic sheath.



for me, this solution was a lot cheaper than the spal that most everyone uses. from an electrical standpoint, i think it is a better choice because it is a factory part that you can just extend the wiring and plug in. also, like the e30 fan, it comes with the three wire design with resistor so you get two speeds just like a factory fan. i have not run it yet to test it, but i think it will do a good job of keeping my engine cool. it may also allow me to use my m42 radiator so i can eliminate the reservoir on my driver side fender well.

[flyboyx]

actually, i haven't gotten to that solution yet. the key and tumbler with ring antenna is still hanging from the wires and laying on the floor of my car. what you mentioned above is a good idea. i was more thinking along the lines of mounting it under the knee bolster somewhere out of the way that wouldn't be seen. this way i could choose to leave the key in the tumbler or remove it at my discretion. one way or another, i need to go to the stealership and get a spare key made, just in case. i still have the tittle laying around from the parts car but it isn't in my name.

[Aatos]

How did you install the EWS ring antenna and key stuff? Did you actually fit the e36 lock to e30 steering column?

My solution was to dremel enough clearance on the e30 column and then move the transponder ring antenna over the original e30 ignition lock. Then I moved the transponder chip from the e36 key to an aftermarket remote fob and had fobs' blank key keyed to the e30 ignition lock.

[flyboyx]

i have been piddling with the car in my spare time over the last couple of weeks. i haven't gotten a lot accomplished because of other things going on in my life. however, i spent some time working on installing that e32 pusher fan. i opened up a slot from underneath in the upper part of the radiator core support so the larger diameter fan can recess in there about an inch and a half. i made an extension plug from the fan wires off my old unit and part of the wiring harness from one of my parts cars. i need to weld up some mounting brackets for the two lower mounts, but otherwise i am good to go with this. i will post a photo when i finish it up. my air conditioning system was still holding a good vacuum when i pulled it apart to work on this.

i ordered a supercharger bracket from white325is. i also purchased a vortech supercharger to hang on it. i still need a lot of parts to install this correctly on my car. at least if i have the big pieces, i can get any components adjusted and brackets welded in my engine compartment before the car goes off to paint. it will be some time before i actually install this on my car, but at least i can start preparing for it now.



i purchased a few dash clusters last week. i bought this s14 cluster from a member. it has been taken apart already and some of the parts aren't original(white needles, motometer bezel), but i get a 160mph speedo, 8 grand tach and oil temp gauge. assuming everything works or is fixable, it will suit my needs perfectly. i know of a local guy with a parts m5. i will probably go over there and get his s38 coding plug.



i also purchased a couple of alpina clusters from euro egay. between these three and the 5 or 6 other clusters i have from parts cars, i should wind up with a few really rare clock sets. i will probably sell off the alpina cluster with the 260kph speedo after i go through it to make sure everything works.

[flyboyx]

I had a pick-ur-own part tell me they wanted $25 for a kidney grill from an 86 e30 that has been sitting there for... 2 year? i think.... all I wanted to do was paint it black so i can run chrome or black depending on the day.... I think that was pretty rediculous myself

Brian, sounds like you are close, I ended up getting a puller fan for mine from summit - came in a BeCool box but was a Spal... now i just need to hook it up to the AC switch.

hey man, i haven't heard from you in a while. send me a pm and let me know how your swap is going.

for your fan, can't you just splice the wires into the original three wire plug that powered your fan? that is what i plan to do. this way i get low and high speed when it gets really warm. that way it comes in automatically and you don't have to worry about turning it on manually.

[SS350]

I had a pick-ur-own part tell me they wanted $25 for a kidney grill from an 86 e30 that has been sitting there for... 2 year? i think.... all I wanted to do was paint it black so i can run chrome or black depending on the day.... I think that was pretty rediculous myself

Brian, sounds like you are close, I ended up getting a puller fan for mine from summit - came in a BeCool box but was a Spal... now i just need to hook it up to the AC switch.

[MIKe30]

man, i wish i would have known, the pick a part here had the same fan. i didn't buy it because they wanted 45.00. plus tax plus core plus my little finger, plus my first born.

It's no big deal. My buddy said he has a fan that I can borrow for a while. It's not going to matter either if I can't get the bitch running anyway.

[flyboyx]

Nice, I'm going to need to add a fan soon too.

man, i wish i would have known, the pick a part here had the same fan. i didn't buy it because they wanted 45.00. plus tax plus core plus my little finger, plus my first born.

[MIKe30]

Nice, I'm going to need to add a fan soon too.

[flyboyx]

my aux fan arrived in the mail today.(finally) it looks pretty promising. it is going to require some modification of the brackets to make it work. here is a comparison pic of the late style e30 a/c fan next to the one from a 750il. as you can see, the blades are a completely different style. even though it looks like they should spin on opposite directions, both are designed to spin clockwise. that thing ought to push some serious air!

[flyboyx]

the other day i purchased a used a/c fan from one of the members who is parting an e32 750i with the v12. i am planning to try that in place of the spal pusher that most people use to keep the coolant temp down. it is needless to say, a lot bigger and has about twice as many blades as the stock late model e30 fan. the shipping hasn't been too prompt, but when i get it, i will post some comparison pics and let you all know if i can fit it in the core support. the mounting brackets will need some modification, but the good news is that if it works, it only cost 15.00 plus shipping.

[MIKe30]

you can get rid of it pretty easily two different ways. someone probably can delete it from your software, or you could go to a junk yard and find an 96 or newer e36 325i. take the fuel pressure regulator from it. install it in your fuel lines and go back to your obd2 fuel rail. you can carefully bend the lines out a bit where they connect to the hoses so they fit around your obd1 manifold. i don't think that part would cost more than thirty or forty bucks at a junk yard. i have a photo of mine installed a little further up this thread. hell, mike, you've come this far, why not go the full monte?

because I just want to DRIVE it. might be a winter project. and unfortunately, the way this is looking my entire car might be a winter project again. This is driving me nuts. I updated my other thread.