crazy swaps - general question

[Danny]

<3 M42 turbos.

[kylekrueger]

^^^ what he said, turbo will be much better

[weaksauce]

keep it simple and just put a turbo on the m42 and call it a day.

[Mossman]

sticking with something roughly the same size and shape will make your life MUCH easier. You sound ambitious but clearly have never done anything like this before so I would stick with something that's been done before and is well documented to cut your teeth on the 1st time. Obd1 S52 is 10 times simpler than S54 and has 90% the performance and no nasty cringeworthy rasp out the exhaust. Go to 24v swap subforum you're in m30 and other swaps, I would investigate S52's, which cammed and bolt on'ed can see 250 whp, or a supercharged m50 or m52.

[JoeyBones]

is the s54 drive by wire? I know a couple guys on here are doing this swap now, but i cant find a good build thread...perhaps i'm a search tard?

i've got no clue what route i want to go with mine...the m42 runs for now so no hurry, but i want something REALLY fun in the future, and since it's not a DD something out there that would require different guages or whatever isn't really an issue.

[JoeyBones]

i'm not counting mounts, drive shaft, and things like different brake boosters/steering racks to clear...

basic nuts and bolts get the engine to run...

actually i suppose throttle cables or conversions should the engine be newer could be a pita

[xwill112x]

well the nickle and dimes add up. when you actuallydo a swap youll end up needing alot of shit you never knew about. so it isn't as easy as it sounds ever.

[JoeyBones]

first, not talking about a daily driven car...

if you just picked a motor assuming rear drive and physical dimensions work... and you source the complete engine assembly w/ harness, the ecu, and instrument cluster, and possibly the ignition switch if it has a transponder... Once mounted and aligned, shouldn't you be able to basically run engine harness to ECU, and cluster harness to ECU and be off and running?

seems too easy... what am i missing?

edit: even say you didnt swap the cluster in and went all aftermarket gauges..