Boxer ix? Eh?

[Fidhle007]

The E46 drivetrain requires all of the E46 electronics in order to work. Every try driving your xi with the ABS fuses pulled (no DSC, no ADB, no ABS)? It's staggering just how differently the car drives. I did that once as an experiment and my observation on an autox course was that while it was wild and fun, it wasn't useful.

So yeah, unless you want to do a 100% E46 electronics transplant, the E46 xi drivetrain swap idea is bullshit.

Fortunately all my e46 electronics are in fully functional order. They're just still in my e46... I've been very impressed with this car having come from an IX, when you turn the DSC off it's not half bad. Granted I think the power mods I have are a must just to make it get out of it's own way...

[nrubenstein]

Wanna race? On ice? :-P

The E46 drivetrain requires all of the E46 electronics in order to work. Every try driving your xi with the ABS fuses pulled (no DSC, no ADB, no ABS)? It's staggering just how differently the car drives. I did that once as an experiment and my observation on an autox course was that while it was wild and fun, it wasn't useful.

So yeah, unless you want to do a 100% E46 electronics transplant, the E46 xi drivetrain swap idea is bullshit.

[lambo]

I forgot about this thread lol

[moto650]

I measured an ej25 out of an STI the other day.
It's 32 inches from valve cover to valve cover and 17 inches from front crank pulley to the rear bell housing flange.

On my ix, ~33 1/2 between strut towers though there's much less distance between the frame rails there..

[Fidhle007]

It needs a VC, some front axles, brakes now from sitting and some minor rust repair. It can and will be repaired but I have a swap car to finish first and I'm kind of sick of cars at this point. I fix other people's shit all day and at the end of the day I love getting in my soccer mom car, turning on the heated seats and letting the DME worry about the snow on the road. I think I'm old.

[Killacortes]

Nando I still wanna see your ix! I heard it was beast

[nando]

The E53 3.0 drivetrain may be close to drop in...

What about yours couldnt be repaired? Vc's arent *that* bad - $700 or so?

[Fidhle007]

Yeah, the X-Drive is fun until I have to fix something on it!

I miss my IX but the prohibitive costs of repairing it killed my enthusiasm. I assure you you'd like my soccer mom car regardless though, it's a 330xi with cams and software which makes it a whole new animal. It's still slow although I'm now in E36 M3 territory. In the dry. But who are we kidding, those are slow too! When you turn off the DSC (not completely, just one click of the button) it's not half bad in snowy parking lots and it's a fair bit better then my broken IX!

You know I'm still an E30 driver at heart...

[nando]

sure. any day. have fun when your ABS computer decides you have to come to a stop. maybe I should run a burned out center and rear VC to make it fair. ;)

actually, want to race, on tarmac? when your brakes melt away, and your front tires scrub off and chunk from an extra 700lbs of curb weight, we'll see who's faster. :p

BMW built the E46 Xi for two things - soccer moms, and low build costs. it's the only BMW with that type of AWD system, the E30 and E34 are basically similar, and the E53 and later use Xdrive which is actually pretty cool..

[Fidhle007]

because the E46 AWD drivetrain is crap.

Wanna race? On ice? :-P

[nando]

because the E46 AWD drivetrain is crap.

also, the front end bits have no chance of working in an ix anyway.. the diff is in the wrong place.

[einstein57]

Why not do a full driveline swap from an e46 330xi? That should solve all your problems and eliminate the transfer case issues.

[The Dark Side of Will]

As has been mentioned, the boxer is most likely much too wide to fit in the engine bay.

Also, to use the BMW driveline, the front diff ends up essentially under the engine. This works with the BMW engine because it's tilted over. It won't work with the boxer engine. The engine (and transmission, etc) would have to be raised in the bay to fit the diff under it.

Using the Subaru driveline, you end up with the same problem as you have in a Subaru... the engine is ENTIRELY forward of the front axle. In the E30, only about half of the engine is forward of the front axle as BMW built it.

[Fidhle007]

You didnt swap it into an ix :p

Not exactly, but it's still 4wd and I still OWN and ix so it's close, right?

[325ix]

It was just an idea. I highly doubt any engine other than a m20 will ever call my engine bay home. Most likely a big snail will be taking up residence in there sometime in the not to distant future.