Another N52 swap attempt!

[Striker01]

That regulator has M12 female threads, you need an M12x1.5 ORB to 8mm barb (but 5/16" is 7.95mm if you don't mind being off a hair. )

I also prefer the bonded washer here.

Let's get it started!

Thanks, I'll get one of those ordered!

[hoveringuy]

That regulator has M12 female threads, you need an M12x1.5 ORB to 8mm barb (but 5/16" is 7.95mm if you don't mind being off a hair. )

I also prefer the bonded washer here.

Let's get it started!

[Striker01]

I got the fan controller mount and E46 fuel pressure regulator bracket done. Just need to figure out what adapter I need to get from the regulator threaded part to a fuel line barb for the stock fuel hose.





After getting one M6 Rivet nut installed decided that would be more than enough to hold the regulator.




Need to fix some rust where the washer bottle bracket used to be, then days of sanding and cleaning before paint. Hopefully that's it before I can get the engine installed for good.

[Striker01]

Made some decent progress the last month and a half. The temps make it miserable in the garage and I spent way too much time working on a couple house projects.

I decided to make my core support removable, about a week of work in the evenings but I it will make engine bay painting and and engine install much easier. I used the rageitparts kit but didn't install the brackets that bolt to the bottom side of the frame rail. It feels plenty stable with 6 bolts per side.

Before cutting off the last two alignment spot welds on each top side and the frame rail bracket, I drilled 4 x 1/8" alignment holes that I can use to make sure its aligned when bolting it back in afterwards.





This was the only spot weld that didn't line up almost perfectly after bolting it in. This car was crunched in the front sometime
earlier in it's life so I don't know how straight it was to begin with.


I cut these tabs off the frame rail after I was finished using them for alignment.



My welds aren't very pretty so I cheated and went over them with a TIG torch to make them look more presentable before I sent it off for powder coating.
The PC was confident he could get powder inside the boxed part of the core support so hopefully it comes out nice.

[Striker01]

Long past due progress. Busy time of year at work and with yard work.

I switched the crab box harness from the E90 over to the Z4/IVM setup. It's longer and hopefully will reach into the glove box also prevented me changing alternator and throttle body connectors to match my donor engine.

There are a couple slight differences in the harness between MSV70 and 80.

X60005 had 2 differences that I noticed. Everything else pinned out the same, verified with a continuity check. Both differences are in the hot-film air mass meter wiring. The Z4 had 4 wires running to it. It has a supply line from the ECU on pin 25 that isn't there on the e90 harness. I'm hoping it's not needed because it also had a power run from the Green connector, now connected to the IVM. I pulled that wire and went with the E90 MAF/connector that came with my donor car. Please let me know if I need to add it back for MSV70.

The other change is that the E90 has a signal wire on pin 4 of X60005 and the Z4 has it on pin 26.

Another small change is that the Z4 provides power to some of the crab harness using 2 separate wires on pins 4 and 5 of X60193, the E90 only had one wire for those same components. I got rid of pin 4 and used the single power wire on the E90. That shouldn't make a difference as pins 4,5,7 and 8 are all powered from fuse 1.

I'm glad I had both crab boxes because it took both to get enough pieces to fix broken connectors and sheathing. I added both the temp gauge coolant sensor and used the N52 oil condition wires for the oil level sensor, then stripped out rear O2 sensor wiring.

[Striker01]

Started removing parts from the front end/engine bay to get it painted and saw a squirrel so now I'm back to sorting the wiring. New C101 is wired except for the the coolant temp and oil level that will come directly from the engine harness. I'm unwrapping the under hood harness all the way back to the fuse box. Some previous owner wired in the brake duct temp sensor and OBC alarm horn with wire nuts, then wrapped the entire harness in vinyl tape. I got rid of the OBC horn and fixed the temp sensor wiring. My ABS sensor plugs have have disintegrated so I ordered a couple Deutsch connectors to replace them. I also want the PWM signal for the fan to be ran with all the other front end wiring.


Here is where my wiring plan, I believe I've accounted for everything except for C101 pin 1, hopefully Hoveringuy's solution is working out nicely. If you see anything wrong please let me know.

E30 N52 swap wiring.pdf

Mandatory update picture.

[projectJTv4]

UPS actually just delivered my shipment from SendCutSend not too long ago, feels like Christmas. Hopefully some progress this week.

[Striker01]

I'm not sure. Someone asked about one of those controllers in a thread and never got a response. I'm thinking there is an easier solution. The Z4 HVAC controller has a dedicated wire thru the IVM to pin 21 of X60002 of MSV70, labeled Comp Enable DME. We just need to figure out what input MSV70 is looking for there.

I wish I knew someone with a Z4.

Way better than spending $250 on something that I don't know if it will work or not.

How's your oil pan coming along?

[projectJTv4]

No problem. I don't remember if I saw this posted here, but will this work?

https://racegerman.com/products/bmw-swap-ac-module-kit

[Striker01]

From my car, 90 325i:

Looks like it connects to Motronic 1.3, pins 40 and 41

BK/RD to 40 BK/GY = A/C low pressure cutoff
BK/VI to 41 VI/GY = A/C on input

https://www.e30zone.net/e30wiki/index.php/ECU_Pinouts

Thanks!! Found it on the M20 harness. Just verified with a multimeter on the car that the electric troubleshooting manual is correct. I'll use the connector off my M20 harness to jump them together for now since the AC aux fan control is diode isolated from the high and low speed relays. Might be a good place to get an AC input for a CANBUS controller or whatever solution we can figure out for AC idle control on the N52 later.

Thanks Again!

[projectJTv4]

I can't figure out what this connector is for. Comes out of the same harness as the AC switch. I labeled everything I removed so I don't know if it was ever connected or if it was obvious so I didn't label it. Only thing I could find was something about it going to an ECU near the DME, I don't have an ECU for the passenger side dash unless it's in my interior parts, in storage. No place for it on the M20 ECU or the cruise box, which I think came from the passenger side. Any ideas?

From my car, 90 325i:





Looks like it connects to Motronic 1.3, pins 40 and 41

BK/RD to 40 BK/GY = A/C low pressure cutoff
BK/VI to 41 VI/GY = A/C on input

https://www.e30zone.net/e30wiki/index.php/ECU_Pinouts

[Striker01]

Any chance you could give me specifics on the tiller and texture products? This is timely for me. I have a non-E30 dash I need to repair.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

1. Dremeled out cracks trying to get as much of a wide V as possible to give the most surface area for repair to stick to, I bored out the foam until I couldn't see a crack or I got down to the base metal.

2. Used Fiberflex plastic welding rod to fill the cracks almost until level. That stuff doesn't sand very smooth so leave it slightly below. On a few of the wide cracks I melted in the metal window screen looking stuff to add a little extra strength.

3. Scuffed the Fiberflex repair area and entire dash with 150 grit.

4. Cleaned with acetone and used 1060FP polyvance filler prep on entire area to be covered with filler.

5. Applied polyvance 2050-9 filler, multiple coats and sanded with 150 and 220 grit between each one, trying to get the top as level as possible.

6.SEM 39863 plastic adhesion promoter before primer, texture, and then again after sanding texture before applying color. 1 can was enough.

7. Applied SEM 39133, flexible primer, to entire dash and sanded with 150 to fill the existing texture. Sanded and re-applied adhesion promoter between each coat. I used 2 cans.

8. SEM 39853 black texture coating, I used 2 cans but one may be enough if you can lay it down nice. Spray with even pace and strokes at a consistent distance from part, start spraying before you have the stream over the part and stop past the part. Error on the side of a heavier coat to make it closer to the original texture.

9. Sanded lightly with 400 grit until surface looked and felt smooth, the filler will lay down like spray paint in a humid environment; rough and hairy is the best way I can describe it.

Here is where I laid it down slightly heavier and sanded with more pressure. You can also see where I had to touch up the top corner after installing the vent, I didn't have anymore of the SEM black and used some black I had laying around.



This is the top, where I applied it from a little further away and didn't apply as much pressure when sanding. I wish it all looked like the top picture.



10. SEM 15243 satin black topcoat, until color is uniform. Spray each coat from a different angle to ensure good coverage. Save some for touch up, I scuffed a few small spots when installing dash and vents and didn't have any left. 2 cans should be more than enough.

11. SEM 13023 low luster clear coat, I applied 2 light coats and one wet coat. 1 can was enough.

12. For touch up after install I used a tiny paint brush and the black sprayed into a dry cut down water bottle.

It was a tedious job but overall I'm happy with the result. My dash looked terrible before. It's still far from perfect but the top is difficult to get flat, and the texture even. At some point I had to say it was good enough and move on.

If BMW would make another run of dashes I would happily pay for a new one before tackling that project again.

Good luck Adam. You seem to be good at this kind of stuff so yours may turn out better with less product wasted. I probably sanded off half of the filler I applied and at least the same amount of texture.

P.S. Any ideas on that connector from the HVAC box?

[hoveringuy]

Any chance you could give me specifics on the tiller and texture products? This is timely for me. I have a non-E30 dash I need to repair.

Yeah, I'm blown-away by how good that looks!

[adam.nonis]

Not really swap related but I hate putting messed up stuff back on the car, since I needed that dash out to fill a couple holes on the firewall I decided to fix some cracks. What a tedious process, I don't ever want to do another one. A few tips if anyone does this. When you spray the texture back on make sure you start spraying before the stream is over the part and make long steady strokes. The front side turned out almost like the factory vinyl but the top didn't. I should've applied the texture thicker and sanded it with a little more pressure. I used 400 grit with light pressure. It's not even close to perfect but way better than it was.

Dremeled out the gaping cracks down to where the foam wasn't cracked anymore.



Used plastic welding fiber to fill the cracks as close to level as possible.



I didn't get a picture of the filling process but I used padded dash filler, followed with SEM vinyl products.

Finished product.

Any chance you could give me specifics on the tiller and texture products? This is timely for me. I have a non-E30 dash I need to repair.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Striker01]

I got the dash re-installed and wiring cleaned up this weekend. The Z4 cruise stalk clears by about 1/4", worked out nice.



I can't figure out what this connector is for. Comes out of the same harness as the AC switch. I labeled everything I removed so I don't know if it was ever connected or if it was obvious so I didn't label it. Only thing I could find was something about it going to an ECU near the DME, I don't have an ECU for the passenger side dash unless it's in my interior parts, in storage. No place for it on the M20 ECU or the cruise box, which I think came from the passenger side. Any ideas?



All N52 required wiring from the dash/EKP is routed to the passenger side and ready for the ECU. For the OBDII port I decided to use the 12V constant and ground that were for the flashlight charger I don't need, the switched 12V and other ground are shared with the radio. Those circuits are already fused at 7.5Amps, OBDII calls for 5, going to try as is so i don't add anymore fuses.