Converting from OBDII to OBDI

[Wes325]

Is there anyone on this forum or that views it with this done? I believe Blunt has done it on his with the S52 and Alex McHenry has done it on his. Anyone care to shed some light on this question?? Zionnsville sells a kit for it thats close to $1400 and I believe that to be bullshit. Will anyone here be attempting or doing this in the near future?
EDIT: sorry if this should be under the comprehensive DOHC thread.

[kylebes1]

This may be over simplifed, but I thnk all you have to do is remove all the intake parts and the m52 wiring harness, along with the m52 plastic valve cover. Use the m50 magnesium valve cover, and intake manifold and all the other wiring ect. I think there is a problem with the m52 VANOS controller not working with the m50 wiring or something, so you can swap the controller to that of the m50.

Also there are two temp senors on the m50 head but only one on the m52(or s52), but the boss is still there. You may have to remove the head to drill and tap this for the second sensor.

There is also a coolant outlet behind the oil filter housing that is different, but I think Turner sells the adaptor to solve that. It is a male versus female fitting problem.

http://www.terrysaytherauto.com/E30-S52Conversion-3.htm This site is pretty good.

[kylebes1]

I also just learend that you have to use OBD1 coils, these are all the same for the 325 and m3 from 1993 up to and including 95. The ones form the 92 are crap.

Check the two outer pins on each coil, you should read no higher than .8 ohm; form .9 and higher you have a bad one! This makes a huge difference for direct fire engines

[trent]

Re: Converting from OBDII to OBDI

Is there anyone on this forum or that views it with this done? I believe Blunt has done it on his with the S52 and Alex McHenry has done it on his. Anyone care to shed some light on this question?? Zionnsville sells a kit for it thats close to $1400 and I believe that to be bullshit. Will anyone here be attempting or doing this in the near future?
EDIT: sorry if this should be under the comprehensive DOHC thread.

How is it bullshit? You need a ECU (new they are $1500 IIRC), wiring harness, coils, intake manifold, throttle body, and the other things Kyle mentioned.

[Wes325]

Re: Converting from OBDII to OBDI

How is it bullshit? You need a ECU (new they are $1500 IIRC), wiring harness, coils, intake manifold, throttle body, and the other things Kyle mentioned.

"Item Description
OBDI Conversion Kit: Used
Boost your horsepower 25+ with our OBDI conversion kit. Converts single Vanos OBDII twin cam to OBDI engine management. Kit includes all the necessary parts to do the conversion including custom engine software."

Sorry about that, I overlooked their site. I had just heard from ear that they were not offering all of the required parts.

[kylebes1]

1400 is kinda high for that stuff.

I paid 200 for the VANOS DME

You could probabyl do the swap for less if you looked hard. If anyone actually wants to do this i have access to three VANOS m50s that are being parted, they have everything, just hihg mileage so the blocks are not worth much to the guy.

[dr.strangelove]

Looking at buying an S52.

does anyone have a list of parts with numbers that i will need to swap over to OBD1?

anything helps, and since im in reasearch state, i dont want to overbuy parts, or have more money into it than necessary.

also, is it possible to keep the S52 valve cover, and if not the reasons why?