Brilliantrot 24v swap: BACK UNDER THE KNIFE!..Now with puppy content

[eur04lif3]

Holy shit it runs!!!!

Threw a new CPS in, sanded all my grounds and after a bit of cranking it fired to life!

Congrats dude! Must be a great feeling, i too got a bit depressed reading the early part of trouble shooting. I'm sure hearing it run is very rewarding.

[Nick_S]

Holy shit it runs!!!!

Threw a new CPS in, sanded all my grounds and after a bit of cranking it fired to life!

[lukeADE335i]

Now dragging on four months later and about the most basic M50 swap still hasn't fired.

Don't beat yourself up too much! When I did my M30 swap, it dragged on for 6 weeks when it should have been done in a weekend as I had all the parts I needed before I started, and the engine & gearbox were in within a couple of hours of ripping the M20 out! From there it seemed that everything that could go wrong did, with some things (like swapping the gearbox in my driveway and replacing the starter being an absolute PITA!) but my Dad who's a mechanic pointed out that it's the swaps that give you the most trouble that end up being the best, most reliable ones because you end up spending the time to get everything exactly right and you go through everything.

You're nearly there :up:

[Jb325is]

thiis happened to my car after my swap and it ended up being the obc relay box. Had to bypass it, don't know if the obc is the same on your car though

[Nick_S]

Tried two other DME's and a different but still used crank sensor. Still no go. So, ordering a new CPS tomorrow and hoping it shows up mid week and I'll drive up and see if it fires.

One thing I have learned from this swap, because the goal was budget minded I tried to cut some corners or re-use questionable parts. When I really should have bit the bullet, ordered everything I thought I would need and ended up buying anyways and doing it right the first time. Now dragging on four months later and about the most basic M50 swap still hasn't fired. I've learned a lot about the process and working on my car in general. I bet I could have done this work in a solid weekend if I went back and did it over. Oh well, I wouldn't be driving it right now anyways.

[Nick_S]

Hey good luck with this don't get discouraged you're almost there. There is a test for the injectors you will need to confirm if they are firing (have power) or not. If not could be a ground or a bad DME... anyone to borrow a known good DME from? If you have electric pulse to the injectors your dealing with fuel delivery.

Thanks, it's only discouraging because I can't pop out my back door and work on it. I usually only get about 5-6 hours a week. I've got a new DME on the way and I found another good tested (540ohm) crank position sensors amidst my pile of parts that I'm going to try. Hoping I can atleast get it to run, then sort out the other issues.

Also, I've noticed I apparently don't even have a CEL bulb in my cluster. For some reason it never occurred to me that it was missing. Could this be a problem? I'm going to replace it regardless.

I've got a thread in the M/S50 swap forum for troubleshooting and someone mentioned the E36 harness requires the DME to be grounded...but I have extra ground wires to do. Can anyone confirm or elaborate this?

[BamaE30]

Hey good luck with this don't get discouraged you're almost there. There is a test for the injectors you will need to confirm if they are firing (have power) or not. If not could be a ground or a bad DME... anyone to borrow a known good DME from? If you have electric pulse to the injectors your dealing with fuel delivery.

[Nick_S]

I went to my moms and took a nap (she lives 1/4 mile away) my buddy eventually called, he was working on his house. We got it pushed in finally but unfortunately didn't make much progress. I'm new to electrical issues and diagnosing so while I've been learning on this whole swap, this is what I was dreading the most.

So after switching fuel lines and double checking the Crank and cam sensors were correctly hooked up, I put the booster pack on the battery and tried cranking again...still nothing. So I'm at a bit of a wall, I can confirm the following..
-fuel pressure seems strong still
-CPS tested at 505ohm which is in spec (it is the one that came on the motor, should replace anyways?)
-ICV is humming with key to 'ON'
-fuel pump isn't priming but runs with the relay jumped
-will fire if carb cleaner sprayed into intake so seems to be getting spark

All of this leads to me think the injectors aren't firing. Now the cause of this I'm not sure of obviously. The DME was supposed to be good but I can't verify. We tested the main relay last time and it checked out. I switched the other relays around for other ones with no different results. While cranking it will occasionally sputter like one cylinder tried to fire and have a faint smell of burnt fuel (open headers still). We checked all the important grounds last time and they were good. Hooked up to the booster pack so it's a strong 12v constant power. So with my limited but learning knowledge I'm lead to believe that I either need a cam sensor or I have a fried DME.

This was the car before we got it pushed out, it had sunk nearly to the depth of the tires.


This is my distribution block. I check all wires the running to the battery lead are indeed red and the grounded wire is brown, also have the passenger side ground strap from the chassis to the engine mount and injector harness grounded at the engine lift hook.


I pulled my plugs and they looked dry which I would suspect is from the injectors not firing.


And lastly I decided I would atleast wrap up the mechanical side of the swap and install my driveshaft...till my E30 CSB imploded when I pulled it off the DS. It's bent because I unleashed a large amount of violence on it once it tore, was a stressful day.


Any advice or tips on the no start issue are HUGELY appreciated. Been searching around but the amount of different threads on this is subject is a bit overwhelming.

[MF DOOM]

I like your cars. Bummer about shop arrangement though.. But youll be cruising it before you know it.

[Nick_S]

Currently sitting at the shop waiting to hear from anyone. The car is sunk into the ground and I can't move it on my own. Looks like another week down the drain. I'm about to have it towed home, it's getting incredibly frustrating to have to wait a week at a time to maybe get to work on it. Even if it sits till spring, at least it will be at my house and not an hour away.

[Nick_S]

Hopefully that is the problem as that is an easy fix.

Me too man. I won't be able to check till this weekend unfortunately. His shop will packed tomorrow and I'll be away for the rest of the week. If that's the case all I'll have to do is sort the exhaust and clean up some wiring and I'll be driving!

[10Toes]

Hopefully that is the problem as that is an easy fix.

[Nick_S]

No, Fuel feeds in to the front of the fuel rail and exits at the regulator, cant remember which color is which.

Hmm, I very well may have it backwards. I can't recall exactly but I think the line that was pumping fuel was connected to the rear of the manifold, entering through the regulator. I may drive up tomorrow and try to switch them.

[10Toes]

Just to clear it up so I'm not crazy. The feed line for the fuel rail is the black one? That goes to the rear of the manifold through the pressure regulator correct?

No, Fuel feeds in to the front of the fuel rail and exits at the regulator, cant remember which color is which.

Like the arrows on this show.

[Beau B]

Yep that is it, sounds like you are on top of it already..