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View Full Version : First engine swap...all is well with a couple minor issues.



BLOODBOUGHT
08-11-2006, 09:35 PM
So as any of you who have run into recent posts of mine know, my little sister got hit while driving my car recently. Thankfully she was alright, but the car sustained too much damage to the passenger side door and rear quarter for me to try and salvage it. If I knew how to do body work myself I'd lay into it, BUT I don't so I picked up a 94 318is shell.

The shell: (Boston green)Paint is in good condition with minor touchups needed here and there. The shell came with no engine or tranny as it was a built engine with a DASC, so the kid parted it out, and sold the tranny, as well as most of the interior, and some exterior/interior trim pieces. HOWEVER the good part, and the main reason I bought the shell, is that it has a Jamex suspension with polyurethane bushings all around, and front and rear racing dynamics sways. :alright

Yesterday a friend and I began tearing my engine down. We worked from 730am to 130pm with about an hour and a half break for lunch to run some errands. We got everything prepped with exception of removing the ac lines(as I didn't know my 92 and the 94's weren't compatible) and the motor mount bolts.

This morning we started again about 730am, shared a mornin smoke, had a cup of coffee and off we went. At about 5pm we turned the key AND.......nothing! We got out the ampmeter and saw the battery was dead. After a quick jump the engine was roarin(with only the header and midpipe on).

We managed ot remove the engine while keeping the exhaust intact from the midpipe up the line. At first we though we would need to remove the radiator support and nosepanel, but all we ended up needing was to remove the hood hydraulics and prop the hood up vertically. This gave us the room to jacket the engine out while keeping everything, including the exhaust intact.

As I said this was my first time pulling an engine and I have to say everything went very smoothly, greatly due to my knowledgeable friend. Thanks Carmine! No stripped anything, no misplaced parts, we only ran into two issues. It appears that my alternator finally gave out, so I'll need to replace that, and the other issue that kept us from our glory lap was my clutch.

When my throwout bearing caused my clutch to go I replaced everything with an assembly from a 99 M3, I picked up the parts from another forum member Jeanclaude. I believe my clutch problem stems from my failure to swap the M3 master cylinder into the new shell. I wasn't sure what was going on so we pulled of the slavecylinder from the new shell and replaced it with the M3 slave from my car. We then bled the clutch, but there was still nothin, barely any pressure in the clutch pedal, and unable to shift gears. So since I just drove my car a few days ago, and know the clutch is solid, I believe the only probable cause is my failure to swap the M3 master, what do you guys think?

So that's it. My first experience has been great, and I can't wait until I get my alternator and get the clutch sorted. Thank you to everyone on here who contributes solid reliable info. You guys are great. Peace.

autocross97
08-11-2006, 11:46 PM
congratulations on the swap, that is something i have always wanted to do. i hope you get the clutch problem worked out. sorry i don't have any suggestions for you tho. one last thing how much did you get that 318is shell for? and how much did you sell what was left of the 325. i am in a similar situation right now and am trying to figure out the best thing to do.

BLOODBOUGHT
08-12-2006, 12:40 AM
congratulations on the swap, that is something i have always wanted to do. i hope you get the clutch problem worked out. sorry i don't have any suggestions for you tho. one last thing how much did you get that 318is shell for? and how much did you sell what was left of the 325. i am in a similar situation right now and am trying to figure out the best thing to do.

Well bro the 325I was an auto tranny with 100k on the engine. A tree smashed the rear glass, jacked the rear seats, and pushed the roof down pretty far. I took the headliner out and pounded the roof out as best as I could, had a kid replace the rear glass for like $250, and just cleaned it up well and ended up selling it to a friend for $2,800. That sucked because I had paid 6k for it maybe 9months earlier.

I ended up paying $1,300 for the shell, plus of course a couple hundred in gas to go pick it up and $60 for a uhaul car trailer. All in all about $1,600. It is definitely worth it, since it has a nice suspension, not to mention it's bailing my ass out of not having a car.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with the wrecked 92 318is. I had to strip my exhaust, engine, tranny, seats, and little pieces of this and that. So there are still many good parts left. I'll probably part it out ounce I wrap up getting the new 318is on the road.

What's the situation you're in? And thanks for the congrats on the swap.