does e30 trans mate to m50? Needed ASAP

[tryintokeepup]

A friend of mine has a blown trans in his e36 325is. If he transplanted his m50 engine into an e30 (either 318 or 325 has not found the car yet) would it mate without any problems? Secondly, is the trans different in the 318 than it is in the 325? What other common problems are there in the tansplanting of an m50 into an e30?

Thanks for the help guys! This is something he needs to do asap so quick responses would be great!

Dan

[sbblowz]

i belive he will need to use an e36 transmission. i got a zf tranny for sale.

[The_Stig]

Probs need an E36 tranny, I doubt an E30 tranny will fit.

Although, I was surprised to find two days ago in my friends garage (he's doing an S50B30 swap into an E30) that the exhaust system (headers down and everything) will fit the E30 perfectly without any modification from it's stock E36 placement/design.

So I guess you really never know until you try.

[FYF Affiliate]

jesus, this has been done hundreds of times before(probably the most popular bmw swap!), and there are sites that document every last detail through the process. you can even buy the project orca cd wich goes step by step if you dont wanna do a simple search. www.e30tech.de (http://www.e30tech.de) is a good place to start.

and yes the m20 tranny will work, but it is highly recommended that you use the e36 transmision.

[meseetree]

^^ he's right above, although I prefer the e30 tranny (getrag) only issue is that it will be at about a 10 degree angle so you need to modify the transmission bracket and use different mounts but there is A LOT more that go into it then just throwing the motor in.

if you know the cars (looks like you don't) then you can do the swap in a weekend but I would give yourself longer. you need a lot of extra parts.