Frank's E30 M60 V8 Swap Build Thread

[Jonsku]

Soooowait.......6sp driveshaft, front half, mated to e30 driveshaft, rear half, will fit a M60'd 6sp, e30?

Is it really that easy?

Who has said it's hard in the first place?

[slammin.e28]

Who has said it's hard in the first place?

IDK, lol, just seems that everyone saying, "It needs a custom made DS, etc, etc" would have figured out the e30/540 DS combo before hand. I considered trying it, but haven't gotten my 540 DS yet.

Seems kinda neat that it ends up being the correct length and all...like it was meant to be.... ;)

[bmwmech1]

Soooowait.......6sp driveshaft, front half, mated to e30 driveshaft, rear half, will fit a M60'd 6sp, e30?

Is it really that easy?

They don't just bolt together, though... the front halves of each respective shaft has to be "cut down" on a lathe and then welded together at the specified overall length. This, combined with new parts/balancing will cost in the neighborhood of what Frank is talking. Not many driveshaft shops here in the States will even listen to you when you mention BMW and driveshaft in the same breath...

Garey

[dirty30]

What about a one piece driveshaft? I know you would have to remove the diff everytime you wanted to pull the driveshaft but has anyone done it with the M60 swap yet?

[iamsam]

What about a one piece driveshaft? I know you would have to remove the diff everytime you wanted to pull the driveshaft but has anyone done it with the M60 swap yet?

That just doesn't sound like a good idea, i dunno. You'd have to remove the diff every time you need to replace the guibo too.

I'm getting more and more glad that I have the ZF 5-speed.

[Garageaholic]

No 1 piece driveshaft. I like jonskus approach. However because the 6spd tyranny is so much longer, the front half needs to be shortened no matter which front half you use .....

im going to explore using the shortened m60 front end mated to the e30 rear end (same length). That way, I maintain the slider in the middle and can have the beefier m60 front half.

Will report back tonight.

[CoreyZ]

Do any of the high HP turbo guys have issues with stock driveshafts? I was under the impression the stock DS was pretty damn stout.

[Garageaholic]

It is rather strong!!!

I just got my 18mm boxwrench this afternoon, so when I get home tonight ill disassemble the m60 shafts and try to piece it together as garey and jonsku suggests. Front half will still need to be shortened, but it might save me a little money because I wont then need to shorten the rear half......just rebuild.

[Garageaholic]

Update:

I've decided to use complete E30 driveshaft and have them weld the (smaller diameter of the M60 Front half) onto the front half of the E30 as well as shorten it to the same dimensions as mentioned a few posts ago.

One thing to note, The M60 and E30 driveshafts are NOT plug and play. In fact, they are polar opposites in terms of spline-male/female joints, spline size, and center bearing installation orientation.

With that being said, this new installation methodology is more factory-like, maintaining the E30 driveshaft. It requires just the front half to be shortened, and I get to keep the "sliding characteristics" of the spline. Perfect.

FYI: the E30 Front half diameter is 60.00mm. The "small sections" of the M60 front half diameter is 60.00mm. Perfect cut and weld compatibility.

Thanks so much for all of your help. you likely saved me some money and alot of potential compatibility heartache.

See pictures below of both driveshafts side-by-side for reference. E30 on top, M60 on bottom.





Spline size differences. M60 is much bigger.

[Jonsku]

Hummm, how the hell I've managed to miss that spline in M60 'shaft... well, you learn something new every day :)



Good that you got new options/ideas, many ways to do same things :)

[M3 euro ltw]

looking in from the outside

I'm surprised there is not an automatic E30 driveshaft that could be used if one got creative and went with a different output flange on the transmission....

I guess there is value to the larger guibo, but unless you were drag racing, I bet it would be fine.

Just a thought.

Possibly an E34 530 auto DS? front half from one?

[Jonsku]

I'm surprised there is not an automatic E30 driveshaft that could be used if one got creative and went with a different output flange on the transmission....

Most E30's have the small flange in the driveshaft, except some 325e:s, diesels and M3.

I guess there is value to the larger guibo, but unless you were drag racing, I bet it would be fine.

There've been examples of broken driveshafts with stock V8's when people have just welded bigger flange to the shaft.. So not the best thing to do.

Possibly an E34 530 auto DS? front half from one?

Has the same flange than E30 M3 / E36 M3 / E36 328..

6-speeders and ZF5HP30's have the largest flange that is not found "anywhere" else..

[Garageaholic]

Update

So I sent the driveshaft to the shop on Saturday to have the front half shortened and have the M60 front flange welded to it.

Shortening the shifter. It requires aluminum tig welding, so I had to send it to a shop as I don't have the resources. when I get it back, I'll post pics of the whole shortened shifter setup with dimensions. This is the only shot i could get. View from up top.



I updated the transmission bracket. Remember this is the 6 speed, so it's a lot longer.





I decided to drop the subframe and fit the exhaust manifolds in to check. Kept the engine in place by my jack. First I tried to fit them unmodified to the E39 M62 type. Didn't work at all. Then I started to trim it down little by little until it did fit.





I had to modify the passenger footwell to clear. I think that my engine sits further back than I originally thought because I'm doing a lot of "pushing back" of the firewall at various places.












As far as the header "dual wall", I simply welded both walls together once I had it cut to the proper length.







The 95 M3 Steering rack will work nicely with 2 E34 U joint setups connected by a straight bar. I'm eliminating the rubber bushing in the middle. No room for it. Unfortunately, it looks like there is interference between the oil pan and the top of the steering rack, so I'm going to have to make some room for that.

Also did some brake booster work tonight. I found it's final resting place and tacked the bracket in place. From here on out, brakes should be simple. I'll get more pics of that this weekend when I finalize the brakes.

[iamsam]

nice man. I love seeing progress. I am getting more and more antsy to get my swap started.

[Garageaholic]

Shifter Update

Finished shifter mechanism tonight. WIth the help of the wife, I was able to locate neutral at a nice spot in the center console.

Neutral from above




2,4,6



1,3,5



Underneath shots







Whole Kit - I need to complete welding the shifter rod. Length of rod is now 114mm. I had the shift carrier welded by a local shop. I can't tig aluminum.