Questions about swapping my Supercharged M44 into my M42 e30

[Dr. Anthony]

I have a downing atlanta supercharger on an e36ti that I was looking at parting. I was thinking of taking the supercharged engine and swapping it into my 91' 318is.

Aside from OBD2 conversion, what are the other issues i'll run into? Any threads that I should read up on with this kind of swap?

a pic of the motor, and a pic of my e30 attached.

[roguetoaster]

It does appear to be an M44, so I'm not sure if many people have swapped that in to an E30. However I suspect it's not too different from an M50 swap, but I could be way off.

You could of course keep the M42, do a serpentine belt conversion, and just swap the DASC on, but you'd need at least a tune for the E30, and you'd lose the knock sensors/timing chain upgrades.

In any case, M42 Club probably has the best info on this one as there used to be all sorts of threads about DASC in E30.

[Dr. Anthony]

It does appear to be an M44, so I'm not sure if many people have swapped that in to an E30. However I suspect it's not too different from an M50 swap, but I could be way off.

You could of course keep the M42, do a serpentine belt conversion, and just swap the DASC on, but you'd need at least a tune for the E30, and you'd lose the knock sensors/timing chain upgrades.

In any case, M42 Club probably has the best info on this one as there used to be all sorts of threads about DASC in E30.

Great idea. Forgot about posting there. Thanks!

[jaredmac11]

Im assuming youve already googled how to swap in an M44 to an E30 since you will have oil sump clearance issues.

If you havent, you may find this useful. The M42 isnt quite like the M40, but you dont see too many folks swapping M42 for an M44.

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1736266-1990-E30-318i-1997-E36-318ti-M44-Swap

[bmwman91]

As far as physical fitment, I believe that you can simply swap in the M42 upper & lower oil pans, and the oil sump pickup. It should all bolt together fine. My M42 has an M44 timing case, so I know that everything there bolts together fine. Other than that, find some M42 engine mount arms + mounts.

The real bear will be engine management. The engine wiring harness could be tricky. If you are super lucky, you can get the loom to the 88-pin Motronic connector to reach into the glove box where the ECU mounts. The Motronic 5.2 unit that the M44 uses is the same form factor as the M42's Motronic 1.7, so the ECU itself will fit properly there. That leaves the challenges of modifying the exhaust to have multiple O2 sensors in the right places, spoofing any evaporative capture sensors if required and ensuring that any other non-engine connections are spliced properly.

[TobyB]

I think you're just looking at an M44 version of the various obd2 M5x swaps out there,
with the added joy of a few M44 specific things.

Nothing too serious, but probably a gotcha or 2.

t
guessing