K24A2 into '85 318i

[thebutterson]

I wanted to post up some pictures and info on my K24 swap into an 85 318i to hopefully help anyone out who is doing or thinking of doing this swap. If you don't like that I'm putting a Honda engine in a BMW, too bad, I don't care. This thread isn't for you. I'm not trying to recreate the K Power swap guide here, just show a bit of how I did it.

Swap Kit: K Power

Engine:
K24A2 from a 2006 TSX
50 degree cam gear
RSX Type S Oil Pump
Two Intake Cam sensors for better clearance from firewall (Honda Part 37510-RAA-A01)
K Power Intake Manifold
K Power Oil Pan
CX Racing 3" intake tubing - 1 90 degree J and 1 45 degree bend.
AFE 3" dry filter
Acuity TPS
Honda Element IACV
2002 RSX auto ECU with Honda K-Pro 4
2002 RSX auto harness - ATTN - need to swap the power and signal wires on TPS with this harness
M42 throttle cable

Fuel system
Stock fuel rail and injectors - may upgrade to RDX turbo, not sure
Audi 4.0 bar fuel pressure regulator integrated into filter
Stock E30 pumps for now

Cooling System:
S52 radiator
stock E30 325i reservoir
Reservoir to T junction hose: Gates 18965
Lower Heater core to back of head: Gates 19021
Upper Heater Core to coupler: Gates 18922
Coolant neck to E36 radiator hose: Gates 23320
T-stat to lower radiator hose aluminum tube: Gates 23929
Intake Manifold Elbow to Thermostat Housing: 28467

Transmision/Driveline
Getrag 250
Z3 1.9 Shift lever p/n 25117527252
318ti/318i shift lever support 25111221540
E36 325is driveshaft with replaceable U joints purchased new from Driveline Service of Portland
K Power Flywheel
330i clutch with splines to match the G250
3.25 LSD

Exhaust plan (in work):
K Power Header
3" mild steel tubing - my first time doing an exhaust so I figured I'd start with the easier material
Magnaflow 3" high flow cat
Vibrant Bottle resonator
Y pipe 3" into dual 2.25"
Dynomax 2.25" muffler
2.5" vacuum actuated cutout


RYNV4613 by Jon Pete, on Flickr

NDVC0195 by Jon Pete, on Flickr


Here's the notch I cut in the transmission. It was a bit of a hack job and not very artistic but it works. I used a grinding wheel. I tried a hole saw like K Power suggests but I couldn't hold it steady.

IMG_2850 by Jon Pete, on Flickr

Trans adaptor plate bolted up. Notice how the elbow on the intake manifold is pointing back - don't do that, it needs to point at the thermostat housing.

IMG_2853 by Jon Pete, on Flickr

This is how close the engine sits to the firewall. It may be hard to see in this photo, but the cam sensor for the exhaust cam is so close to the fire wall that couldn't get the plug on. I ordered another intake cam sensor and swapped it. I also rotated the coolant elbow to point right at the upper heater core hose later on. You can also see the breather vents right at the heater panel, I removed it with some vice grips and an elbow and am working on a solution.

IMG_3026 by Jon Pete, on Flickr

Hose elbow rotated. Ignore the fact that the wrong coolant sensor is installed in this picture, should be the single prong sensor for the gage.

IMG_3478 by Jon Pete, on Flickr


Heater Hoses connected. Make sure the hose coming from the head goes to the lower heater core connection, otherwise you'll hear a weird thumping sound and have little to no heat. I also have the high pressure fuel hose attached to the stock rail. I just trimmed of a bit from the end of the rail.

IMG_3915 by Jon Pete, on Flickr


Here's a way I found to use the stock thermostat housing, although I later decided to get an aluminum piece that rotates:

IMG_3491 by Jon Pete, on Flickr

I ordered some 1.25" aluminum tube from McMaster Carr and made this long tube plus some couplers using an aircraft tubing flair kit I borrowed from a coworker. I cut up some stock E30 radiator hoses to make the 90s. One of them happened to transition from 1.5" to 1.25" which was perfect.

IMG_3492 by Jon Pete, on Flickr

The upper hose uses an E36 hose plus a random gates hose I found on the shelf that happened to work perfectly

IMG_3480 by Jon Pete, on Flickr

The lighting on this sucks, but what I'm trying to show are a few connections. The upper heater core hose goes to the aluminum heater pipe adaptor from K Power. The plastic pipe on the thermostat housing Tees off to the coolant reservoir, and also continues to the elbow on the bottom of the intake manifold. Make sure this elbow is pointing towards the thermostat housing when you install the manifold, otherwise it's a pain to reposition.

IMG_3481 by Jon Pete, on Flickr

Exhaust in progress. K power says to use a flex pipe... I wish they had inclued an O2 sensor bung before the flange...
IMG_3530 by Jon Pete, on Flickr

Pics of "complete" engine bay. Just needs a battery tie down.

IMG_4055 by Jon Pete, on Flickr

IMG_4057 by Jon Pete, on Flickr

IMG_4061 by Jon Pete, on Flickr

IMG_4062 by Jon Pete, on Flickr

[lukeADE335i]

Looks like great progress - well done!

With the K-Power kit, would it be possible to slot the engine arms to move the engine forward slightly? It looks ridiculously close to the firewall & brake booster given all the room in front of the engine & the lightweight nature of it.

A stock M10 sits much further forward than that given the distributor is at the back of the head - moving the engine forward by 1/4 or 1/2 an inch looks as though it would make the swap a bit easier.

[DEV0 E30]

Great post, and perfect timing for me too. The closeness of the firewall also perplexes me.

[moatilliatta]

K swap always intrigues me.

You could do without the flex pipe, especially that far back.

[thebutterson]

Looks like great progress - well done!

With the K-Power kit, would it be possible to slot the engine arms to move the engine forward slightly? It looks ridiculously close to the firewall & brake booster given all the room in front of the engine & the lightweight nature of it.

A stock M10 sits much further forward than that given the distributor is at the back of the head - moving the engine forward by 1/4 or 1/2 an inch looks as though it would make the swap a bit easier.

A little bit of clearance at the firewall would sure help. I'm not sure what it would do to the shifter, trans mount, and driveshaft though.

K swap always intrigues me.

You could do without the flex pipe, especially that far back.

The K Power guide says to use a flex pipe. It doesn't seem like it would need one, but maybe they discovered something during testing. BMWs usually have a brace coming off the trans, but there isn't a provision for that with this header, so maybe that's why they want a flex pipe.

[Michael Star]

How satisfied are you with the kit? I have the kit but really haven't started to put it together yet.

[thebutterson]

How satisfied are you with the kit? I have the kit but really haven't started to put it together yet.

Most of it's been good but I've had a few problems.

My header has to go back because the most fore/aft holes don't line up on the head, and the fitment of the secondary/down pipes isn't correct
They initially sent me the wrong brake master cylinder seals
The nipple for the brake booster hose is too small of diameter (3/8"), so I ordered a larger 1/2" nipple
The throttle body pulley was assembled a hole off which caused me to think my cable was too short, easy fix though I just took out the fasteners and rotated them by one hole
The swap guide is lacking a few tips that would have been helpful to point out before engine install, like clearancing the firewall, making sure the brake booster is rotated so that the hose connection is on the outside, making sure to swap power/signal pins if you're using an auto harness...

They've been pretty responsive on helping me get things fixed though, so I can't complain too much.

[DEV0 E30]

Do you feel like they could change the mounts to sit it farther forward to avoid firewall issues easily?

[eternal24k]

Great thread and thanks for the photos.
The firewall issues are by far my biggest concern keeping me on the fence on a k swap. I really don't want to remove the sound deadening material there as I have heard from those who regret doing so.

Why does every k swap i have seen have the long intake to the passenger/exhaust side of the bay?

[e30davie]

Great information. Thankyou for sharing. The K swap is a cool idea, id love to do it, Afterall its basically an e30 m3 now right?:P

yer whats with the long intake pipe? why not just put it behind the left hand side head light?

How is the gear stick location? is that why they jammed the engine so far back? or could the whole lot be moved forward a tad? you could just slot the holes in the engine brackets?

Good to see you can buy all the parts individually. not cheap though - but not outrageous. Do you think the quality is there to justify the price of the components?

[thebutterson]

I added some long overdue pictures as the car has been on the road for quite a while now. I've only done minor tuning to fix a few driveability issues. The car feels great on the road and I'm really happy with the power output. Hopefully I'll get a dyno tune in the next few weeks.

To answer some questions:

The long intake tube: this is recommended by K-Power. Apparently they did some testing and found the K series made more power with a long intake tube.

Shifter location: It fits great. I used E36 shifter parts with my E36 trans and driveshaft. Worst part was getting the O2 sensor wiring routed through the rubber boot.

Firewall clearance: I'm guessing the engine is so tight to the firewall to allow the transmission to sit in the same place as it would on a 24V swap and get the shifter in the right spot without having a ridiculously thick adaptor plate and flywheel.

Cost vs Quality: Everything fit without having to cut/grind/weld, so can't really complain there? The worst problem I had was the header and K power exchanged it for a better fitting one. It was an expensive kit, but I'm happy with the results. I think I posted all my problems above.

[thebutterson]

I had the car dyno tuned last month. It made 216hp and 168lb-ft max at the wheels. Pretty darn good for a car that weighs 2400-2500lbs.This car is really fun to drive.

[K24E30]

thebutterson any issues with Hondata KPro 4 and not having a speed sensor hooked up? On the final stretch with my swap and keep reading that KPro needs a speed sensor to let VTEC engage.

[thebutterson]

I haven't had any issues without the speed sensor. You can change a setting in K Manager for no speed sensor.

[K24E30]

That’s good to hear. Thanks!