E30 M54 Swap Guide

[DesertBMW]

Its been removed temporarily until I can revise typos, errors and incorporate valid opinions of others.

I posted it to help people out ...and its only caused me more stress.

I posted M54 swap guide few years ago here. It just covers the basics. I wanted it that way because when you start going into details then you get opinions. Someone will have a better idea of doing things. I am open to new ideas.

[Bimmer_man]

Loving the wealth of knowledge here. Extremely helpful.

[Leinad78]

MS43 ECU:



There is a EWS Delete test file freely available from a user "Daniel F." He has a seriously informative Wiki page on his MS43 musings. Please refer to his page you can find the file(s) there.

http://www.ms43wiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

Nothing really needs to be done to the ECU to start the engine and drive the car except having it flashed to remove the EWS protection. Without this the engine simply will not start. It will have a slew of faults stored in short order for communication errors with its buddies it expects to talk to on CAN, but these will not affect drivability. They would set a MIL/CEL but since the output for that is also on CAN the E30 cluster CEL bulb is not going to turn on....

These are the codes you can expect (perhaps more) with just the basic EWS delete Daniel F flash.:


This may present a problem to guys in California for example, but it's a non issue for some of us.

Additionally without modification of the ECU code the lack of a Vehicle Speed Signal will put the engine into a limited performance mode, dropping the fuel cut to 5500rpm or so.

The beauty of having just one softwareversion for all us guys is, that the xdf will work very easy, so you can easily "remove" that limiter on your own. If one can flash the full 512kb necessary for the ews delete, you can easily set that limiter higher.

You can get away with many of the fault codes by simply resetting adaptation of variants, pretty much everything is auto-config. The last few DTC´s can be removed manually by tweaking the tune :) By using the launch control software, i´ve modded the code to branch to the new LC feature by getting rid off that limiter at all. So, if you use that file, that particular limiter is gone.

Pretty nice build and write-up :up:

[CorvallisBMW]

Jordan, this is awesome! Thank you for taking the time to share all of your hard-earned knowledge with the community. I have stickied the thread, but if you'd prefer that I not, just let me know.

[Swanny]

This is beautiful. I have an m54 sitting in the garage that needs a rebuild that might just end up in another e30. Much appreciated.

[BraveUlysses]

Great write up, thanks for taking the time to do it

I'll save this to evernote for use in the future.

[hoveringuy]

I'm still looking for a good solution to the lower hose. The best I could find on my current swap has a slight kink. According to DesertBMW:
Radiator hoses. Use gates 21900, then cut to fit, you get lower and upper hose. Use the quick connects from the E46 thermostat hoses, then cut the clamps and remove the E46 hose from them.

Edit: this is what the hose looks like. Looks very promising! The original application is for a Toyota Previa.

Ill try that soon and report back by editing this post.

[Navymr]

@hoveringuy did you ever decide to start selling your vanos controller again? I still desire to run mine on the 413 dme

[hoveringuy]

@hoveringuy did you ever decide to start selling your vanos controller again? I still desire to run mine on the 413 dme

No. There's just too many better solutions at this point. It was a lot different 7 years ago when the MSS43 was more difficult to use, Megasquirt didn't have VVT and such. It's an incredibly tiny niche that I don't have the time to fill. sorry!

[stonea]

I'm still looking for a good solution to the lower hose. The best I could find on my current swap has a slight kink. According to DesertBMW:
Radiator hoses. Use gates 21900, then cut to fit, you get lower and upper hose. Use the quick connects from the E46 thermostat hoses, then cut the clamps and remove the E46 hose from them.
Ill try that soon and report back by editing this post.

This is the one thing I'm really curious about. Once we get the radiator hoses figured out 100% then its just plug and play!

[Navymr]

No. There's just too many better solutions at this point. It was a lot different 7 years ago when the MSS43 was more difficult to use, Megasquirt didn't have VVT and such. It's an incredibly tiny niche that I don't have the time to fill. sorry!

I understand would you be willing to open source your code and schematics? The vanos controller is perfect for someone doing a budget build. With the ms43 I haven't seen a lot of definitive info on can-communication to the instrument cluster. And standalone is currently out of budget

[Leinad78]

I understand would you be willing to open source your code and schematics? The vanos controller is perfect for someone doing a budget build. With the ms43 I haven't seen a lot of definitive info on can-communication to the instrument cluster. And standalone is currently out of budget

Does MS41 or whatever stock ecu the car has, have can communication to the instrument cluster? If so, i think we can fix it.

[hoveringuy]

I understand would you be willing to open source your code and schematics? The vanos controller is perfect for someone doing a budget build. With the ms43 I haven't seen a lot of definitive info on can-communication to the instrument cluster. And standalone is currently out of budget

Yes, absolutely!

[Navymr]

Yes, absolutely!

So that's a yes on open sourcing your controller?

[Navymr]

Does MS41 or whatever stock ecu the car has, have can communication to the instrument cluster? If so, i think we can fix it.

Stock dme is 173 the car is an '88
No Can on board.