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Thread: M60 in a BMW E39 530i

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Chicago, IL
    Posts
    53
    My Cars
    1995 BMW 540i

    M60 in a BMW E39 530i

    Hey guys, I haven't posted here in a while so here goes nothing. I currently drive a granitsilber metallic E34. It's a '94 530 with the 4.0 M60 from a '95 540i. Anyway, I live in the Chicago area (20 min from downtown) and sadly the Chicago winters have taken their toll on my E34. It's rather rusty. I'm surprised the fuel lines haven't rusted through yet. It has common E34 door rust, the thing that holds the kidney grilles is rusty. You get what I'm saying. The point is, theres so much, it's not worth fixing.

    This car was my dads car before it was mine and him and I have been planning to get a clean body E34 (to swap everything over from the one i have now to the body) from somewhere down south but it's harder than it looks because the ones we find either have rust or they're too expensive. We're still looking but recently I came across a beautiful, and I mean absolutely gorgeous, excellent condition E39. The owner says it was a Florida car so there's zero rust and the pictures truly prove that.

    Best part about this? its Hellrot red with a black interior, pretty rare if you ask me. It's a 2001 BMW 530i with a blown headgasket. My dad and I were thinking of just fixing it up and keeping it but we came across the idea of swapping the engine and trans from the E34 into the E39. I realize that the mounts are different because the E39 is an inline 6. That's not the problem, the problem is that the wiring harness is completely different. So here's my question to you guys. Any ideas on how to make the harness work or swap the harness over? Any good shops around my area that would be willing to do that kind of work? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Arida Zona
    Posts
    30,108
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    z3
    Probably going to be a little harder than you think. E39's with the V8 were M62 based, not M60. Making the engine bolt in is not that hard, since you can use the E39 V8 subframe and everything will bolt up, but wiring/coding may complicate things. The real problem is OBD I vs OBD II... taking OBD II to OBD I is easy enough, going the other way around though...

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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    USA
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    2,444
    My Cars
    F80 M3, 95 325is
    So you don't want to fix some rust but willing to do a complicated engine swap?

    Post pics of your E34. It'll be a good idea to see how much rust it has. As long as the major structural parts doesn't have rust and it's mostly cosmetic, you should just keep that car as a winter beater. If the doors, hood or trunklid has too much rust, you can always replace them inexpensively. Plenty of people parting out E34s and there is a good chance you'll find the same color donor car
    Fuel and brake lines- you probably should replace them (around $100 from a dealer). They usually start to rust above rear subframe

    As for the swap- it's not worth doing it. If you're set on that E39, then simply replacing it with the same M54 engine is the best way. Or just get a good running 530i, since you'll probably end up spending the same amount anyway.
    Last edited by SpeedsterBek; 11-03-2014 at 09:54 AM.
    Lazy Saturday drive in my E34: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzvZgPnOos

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