Another N52 swap attempt!

[Striker01]

We had a few day break in the cold weather so I got my floor cleaned, scuffed, etched and painted. Used mastercoat rust sealing primer and chassis coat. Primer went on nice but the 2 part paint was super thick. I'm sure it would be much better sprayed on or I should've thinned it a little.

[Striker01]

I want to make a note from a post that I think hubcapboy wrote about possibly using a Z3 core.

The 3 stage intake is going to be very tight with the heater core lines, especially the top one. I planned on cutting them down and welding on an elbow to turn them both down right at the firewall. The problem is that the pipe coming off the heater valve is badly corroded and a new one is NLA. I fixed it the best I could with 2 part epoxy and it hasn't started leaking yet but I'm afraid its only a matter of time. I wonder how many others look like this.



Here are some shots of the heater pipes attached to the HVAC unit, for reference.




Measurement reference for how far it sticks out from the HVAC box.

[Striker01]

Here is the Z3 core compared to the E30 one. One thing to note, this core will not go in, in the car. The steering column is in the way. Also I can't find the part number of the plastic piece that screws on the HVAC box to hold it in place, something would need to be made. It is slightly smaller and would need extra foam tape to make it fit tight.



Here I just have paper towels wadded under the core to get its outlet pipes close to the E30 ones. The pipes can be bent a little if needed to get them to fit just right.



They fit closer to the HVAC box than the original heater valve.


At this point I'm not sure how I want to move forward. I could buy the Z3 pipes that connect to the core to put the lines outside the firewall, not sure how they will fit with our grommet, and buy the Z3 valve to mount somewhere in the engine bay, or bead the end of the pipes as they are and run the hoses into the cabin.

If I'm going to have soft coolant hoses ran into the cabin I might as well cut my corroded pipe back to good metal, bead the end, clamp it and hope it never leaks.

Option 3 is use 2 part epoxy for an elbow on the engine side of the firewall, that way if it leaks its less likely to get into the cabin.

I'm open to suggestions and would like to know how tight the intake really is to that top pipe. When I had the engine in it looked like the heater core feed would be rubbing against the intake if I could even get the hose on. I should've tried before I took the engine out.

[Striker01]

Finally made some more progress, needed some to keep my motivation up. got the bottom side of the patch panels prepped and painted. Carpet is in along with HVAC unit.

Made a bracket for the EKP and got it mounted and wires ran forward. I used existing fuel pump wiring to power it and ran new wires to the fuel pump. Sucks that the fuel pump wire ends are NLA, C101 female pins fit perfect so that's what I used.



My pedal bracket worked out well but was kind of tough to bolt down with the carpet in.


Brake pedal bracket and pedals cleaned up, painted and ready to go in.



Now on to thew next project, going to attempt to get these cracks fixed while its out.

[Striker01]

Got tired of sanding and filling the dash so I started to sort the wiring from the driver's side to ECU. Got to have a pic, so here is the crap I pulled out, minus a few wires I used to run across the dash.

[Striker01]

Having cruise and AC is a requirement for me and I couldn't find anything on converting the E30 switch to the single wire signal for MSV70. The next logical step was to order a Z4 stalk switch, Z4 brake switch and early E46 clutch switch. I'm hoping the E46 clutch switch and 4 wire clutch module that BMW has used since then will be the same output for MSV70, especially since BMW sells a harness to convert from the early 2 switches to the clutch module mounted on the master cylinder. Did some bench testing to verify the outputs from both switches. If someone could've told me how to interpret how the hall switches work from the diagrams, it might've saved me some trouble but I'd probably end up testing them anyway, to be sure.

Here is how the switches tested.



Added a fuse terminal for the switches and EKP. EKP and cruise switch will share a line running to C101 and the other two are powered on from the E30 cruise pin in the C302, it's powered during ACC/RUN/START



Z4 brake switch mounts same as E30 one, just requires a relay for the E30 brake lights. Waiting on that to arrive.



New Z4 cruise stalk is stupid expensive but I found the whole Z4 clock assembly on ebay for less than $100. Hose clamp isn't the most elegant solution but it works. May figure out something better once I know it will actually work. Waiting on the connector for the E46 cruise switch.

[Striker01]

The stalk feels nice and secure with the trim on. Once I get the brake relay installed I can put the dash in, if I ever get it finished, and run the wires to the glove box area. I plan to put a deutsch connector on this harness near the ECU, just in case I ever need to pull the engine harness for anything.

[hoveringuy]

Striker01 Very cool!!

[adam.nonis]

I'd love to have working cruise after the swap. This seems great

[Striker01]

I'd love to have working cruise after the swap. This seems great

Hopefully it works!

[Striker01]

Been geeking out on wiring stuff. Doesn't seem overly complicated but be nice to be certain of what I can and can't pull out of the harness before install. Couldn't find much on the IVM. Got the multimeter after it and traced pins to confirm wiring diagrams. Kind of annoying because its listed all over the place, figured it'd be nice to have one diagram. You guys that have Z4 experience or have done this swap please look this over and see if I made any mistakes. I traced all the traces except for the ones that require power from the relays or I couldn't find documentation on. All the pins mapped out were verified. didn't want to apply power and accidentally let all the smoke out.

[hoveringuy]

I don't remember that much about the IVM except 80% was not applicable, it mainly provides power to the few power hogs (Valvetronic motor & water pump) and that the K-line is supposed to go through it for your OBD plug, but it broke my OBD and that worked fine again when it was wired direct to ECU.

[Striker01]

Yeah, I plan to bypass the IVM for that diag to ECU, no need to pass through it. I've never wired a swap, just want to understand the components.

[TurboDirty]

I love this project! I picked up a parts car for an n52 swap a couple of years ago, and am getting closer to starting this project. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe you are going to need the DSC module to have a functional cruise control. The DME will need the wheel speed signals which it recieves over the PT CAN from the DSC module. I am planning on retrofitting the DSC from my parts car to have DSC as well as a functional ABS system, but I am unsure of the conversion for the ring pickup on the axles. I am also tempted to install the instrument cluster from the doner car but I have not really looked into this yet. On a side note, I have had great luck/pedal feel using the E90 brake booster in a previous s52 swap. Has anybody looked into this for the N52 Swap?

[Striker01]

I love this project! I picked up a parts car for an n52 swap a couple of years ago, and am getting closer to starting this project. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe you are going to need the DSC module to have a functional cruise control. The DME will need the wheel speed signals which it recieves over the PT CAN from the DSC module. I am planning on retrofitting the DSC from my parts car to have DSC as well as a functional ABS system, but I am unsure of the conversion for the ring pickup on the axles. I am also tempted to install the instrument cluster from the doner car but I have not really looked into this yet. On a side note, I have had great luck/pedal feel using the E90 brake booster in a previous s52 swap. Has anybody looked into this for the N52 Swap?

From reading up on the MSV70 DME it seems like the ECU takes care of the cruise function. It gets a speed signal on pin 17 of X60001, from DSC, but Nando can program it to accept the E30 speed from C101. I hope it doesn't use the data bus for that as well. I guess I'll find out.

I don't think the E90 booster will fit with the 3 stage intake, didn't look into that. I have an electric booster.