M54. Let the foolishness begin.

[jahnaboi]

Dude with your knowledge I could only imagine what you could do with unlimited funds. LOL.

Great work thus far. Does anyone know if I could incorporate my obd2 knock sensors to work with my obd1 conversion?

[hoveringuy]

Dude with your knowledge I could only imagine what you could do with unlimited funds. LOL.

Great work thus far. Does anyone know if I could incorporate my obd2 knock sensors to work with my obd1 conversion?

I wanted to do the same thing. The OBD2 sensors are different in how they work. They are somehow tuned differently to the specific knock frequency. I just bought 2 new OBD1 sensors at $60 each.

My problem is that aluminum has a different ringing frequency than steel so I don't know how well my knock system will actually detect knock.

[accident]

Turner Motorsports has a chip that kills EWS. I dunno if it's for the M54 though. Check it out!

[matt]

I know I promised you a reply to this, and I'm sorry this is so weak, but I really don't have much of an answer. You're sort of in un-charted areas here.

I would say the best course of action would probably be to degree in the cams with a degree wheel and a pair of dial indicators. Then you can find out when the valves open and close, even with the intake cam advanced and make much more accurate assumptions of comparability between your setup and the M50 one.

[hoveringuy]

Out with the old...

I really didn't mean to take it out tonight. I was just going to disconnect a few things. Then I started fooling around some more and one thing led to another. It just slipped out. I swear.

I learned in the process that the M50 power steering pump IS NOT compatible with the M54. The pulley ends up being offset by about 5/8". I need to order an M54 power steering pump ASAP.

However, the M50 alternator DOES fit. Good thing, too. As an 80amp alternator it weights about 6lbs less than the M54 120amp unit.

I'll mate the flywheel,clutch and tranny tomorrow and probably have it back in the car.

I bought the house for the garage. ha ha!

Oh yeah, I'm riding my bike to work tomorow.

[gregslow318i]

looken' sweet just wondering what are you using as far as a trans? zf 260 250??? and did you ever end up selling the "old" m50?

[Mot]

I cant wait to see this run, the e46 my friend runs need his motor in my engine bay haha. v

[matt]

What's your email address again? And can I send you 2 PDFs about 4mb total?

[E30Idea]

Very nice!

[hoveringuy]

...in with the new

e30 M54 OBD1 is now reality.

Motor went in last night and after the 3 connections needed to start it fired up almost immediately. It fell into a nice idle and I shut it down for the night to connect radiator, driveshaft, etc.

This morning with a newly filled cooling system I let it idle and had puddles of coolant. One leak was from the heater inlet connection and a really elusive one was a small plug on the back of the head. My guess is the machine shop used that when they pressure tested it and didn't tighten it all the way.

So, took it for the first drive around the 'hood and had a bad shudder at around 3500 rpm. Check engine light came one. Engine temp gauge not working. ABS light illuminated. Hey! at least it was driving.

The shudder was from low fuel pressure. I only roughly calibrated the regulator when I installed it and found it only had 30 psi. 50 psi fixed the shudder completely.

Still need to connect the Oxy sensor, it's running open loop. The e34 connector is too short! ABS is from lack of power. Easy fix. Check light is probably from the oxy sensor and maybe from the ECU detecting too much advance.

The temp gauge either isn't getting hot enough at the thermostat outlet or my wiring is jacked.

It has the Power Steering bypassed which really isn't that bad. I also have tons of room next to the brake booster and could go back to stock if I wanted.

It pulls strong off idle and is flatish between 3-4500 rpm. REALLY strong at 5500. So far my M50 is still the better motor. I would rather have a really well tuned 2.5litre than a tempermental 3.0 any day.

At this point, I need to finsih the Oxy sensor at a minimum and drive it some more. I am encouraged that the Hall to VR circuit is working well and that my Timeserts and head straightening appear to have been successful.

I'll turn my attention to a simple open-loop VANOS controller that will electronically govern the full retard and advance ends of the range to more closely match M50.

I will also control the DISA valve with a simple shift light circuit.

Lots of room for improvement at this point.

[318isbmw]

e30 M54 OBD1 is now reality.

Motor went in last night and after the 3 connections needed to start it fired up almost immediately. It fell into a nice idle and I shut it down for the night to connect radiator, driveshaft, etc.

This morning with a newly filled cooling system I let it idle and had puddles of coolant. One leak was from the heater inlet connection and a really elusive one was a small plug on the back of the head. My guess is the machine shop used that when they pressure tested it and didn't tighten it all the way.

So, took it for the first drive around the 'hood and had a bad shudder at around 3500 rpm. Check engine light came one. Engine temp gauge not working. ABS light illuminated. Hey! at least it was driving.

The shudder was from low fuel pressure. I only roughly calibrated the regulator when I installed it and found it only had 30 psi. 50 psi fixed the shudder completely.

Still need to connect the Oxy sensor, it's running open loop. The e34 connector is too short! ABS is from lack of power. Easy fix. Check light is probably from the oxy sensor and maybe from the ECU detecting too much advance.

The temp gauge either isn't getting hot enough at the thermostat outlet or my wiring is jacked.

It has the Power Steering bypassed which really isn't that bad. I also have tons of room next to the brake booster and could go back to stock if I wanted.

It pulls strong off idle and is flatish between 3-4500 rpm. REALLY strong at 5500. So far my M50 is still the better motor. I would rather have a really well tuned 2.5litre than a tempermental 3.0 any day.

At this point, I need to finsih the Oxy sensor at a minimum and drive it some more. I am encouraged that the Hall to VR circuit is working well and that my Timeserts and head straightening appear to have been successful.

I'll turn my attention to a simple open-loop VANOS controller that will electronically govern the full retard and advance ends of the range to more closely match M50.

I will also control the DISA valve with a simple shift light circuit.

Lots of room for improvement at this point.

Congrats on getting it running. Most definitely have gone into uncharted territory and pioneered the idea of m54 on m50 wiring. Excited to see the thing run sometime.

[itsbrokeagain]

congrats also on the start up. Beware of the DISA valve pin falling out and getting sucked down the intake. Those have a nasty habit of backing out into the intake...lousy design.

[hoveringuy]

Dinan!

Never mind some of the stuff I send in the previous post. I wired up the O2 sensor and replaced the stock M50 chip with a Dinan S50 chip (Thanks DougsIC!).

Wow!

I need to get the smell of burning rubber out of my car now. I'm beginning to like.

[madformx5]

Will you come do mine now? LOL I just had to ask. Tomorrow I have a 1991 325i with a hole where its heart should be and I really want to do a swap but no money right now. I do however have a 1991 5.0L HO motor sitting in my garage on an engine stand. mmmmm! I have enjoyed reading this post over the last several days. Put it on a chassis dyno when you are done.

[hoveringuy]

Will you come do mine now? LOL I just had to ask. Tomorrow I have a 1991 325i with a hole where its heart should be and I really want to do a swap but no money right now. I do however have a 1991 5.0L HO motor sitting in my garage on an engine stand. mmmmm! I have enjoyed reading this post over the last several days. Put it on a chassis dyno when you are done.

My butt dyno says it's faster. The black stripes down the street do, too. I want to get a few hundred miles on it before I do the chassis dyno, but I have a local one arranged. I also want to screw with the DISA valve. I want to run a wire into the cabin and play with activating it at steady loads to see what happens.