My E36 Euro S50b32 Swap

[JCooper]

Haven't had the best of luck with this so hopefully this one will last! The original motor that came with the car blew a HG after the expansion tank level sensor decided to leave the car at WOT somewhere in CT emptying most of the coolant out. The silly overheating idiot light didn't light up so that made it even better! After that motor I swapped in the exact same nv motor with less than half the miles (70k) and changed every possible gasket, o-ring and seal thinking it would've been bullet proof! Well after running WOT for a little under a minute; the motor randomly decides to blow the valve cover gasket & lose compression on cyl 5 & 6... (pretty sure I burnt some valves after loosing the electrodes on spark plugs 5 & 6) So now im giving this one more try!

Thanks to Joey for the motor/trans... Perfect timing!



It all started on the 19th of July!






Finally got in at 1 to the garage where ill be doing my own work. Thanks to the garage owner for being generous enough to allow me to do the swap, while using his tools and lift for dirt cheap!

I spent what little time I had left in the day trying to get it on the lift to drain all the fluids






This explains the Honda logo on the hood from last winter.




The following day I didn't get much done because of errands. Ended up swapping the front sump oil pan w/ a rear sump pan! Now the motor can clear the sub frame cross member!

Front Sump Pan




New Rear sump pan/pickup arrived thanks to Rui & Joey!




Then finally installed



End of Day 2 for me...




New day, new problem... Finally got some real work done! My helping hand decided to take a nice 2 hr lunch break drifting my rental around... and finally punched in after I had already pulled the rad, dropped the exhaust, drive shaft, trans & disconnected the wiring harness! thanks a lot bro!

Before



After







then this guy shows up lol!




That's it for today both motors lined up so I can get an idea what goes where!




Spotted this on the way back from the dealer! Looks Sick for a mini!


Some goodies came in yesterday!!

• Euro Radiator
• Oil Cooler/Bracket
• Oil Cooler Lines
• Euro Temperature switch (lower)
• Cooling Hardline
• Euro Tank Bracket & (+) power post bracket
• Z3M Shifter
• 16in SPAL 3000CFM Puller Fan w/ relay kit!
• Fan Gasket & Mounting Brackets

to be continued....

[iferro]

Seriously can't wait to see this! Man,, its gonna be sick. Imm guessing you won't make it to cars and coffee?

[JCooper]

^All I have to do is drop it in and connect everything up so hopefully ill make it!

Mounted the fan today




Homemade mounting hardware







Done!

[3xxtiMZK2]

nicee...

[Sofa King Euro]

Way to get my arm in one of the pics... proves I was there and helped... a little bit.

[JCooper]

lol the garage owners wife was getting mad at you for raising and dropping the car so many times!

[Dave has an E36]

sweet, I'ma sub to this tread.

[KFeez]

pretty sweet, i'm diggin the Beyern multi's Sofa King

[Sofa King Euro]

Thanks but they aren't beyerns. They are OEM BMW wheels.

Dont ask the style cause I have no idea lol.

And If you didn't keep all your tools in the trunk then I wouldnt of had to drop and raise the car so much -____-

[bimerok]

What are the advantages of euro radiator besides the allocation for oil cooler?

[e30m3power]

Looking good Jay. Keep it going!

[whitebeast]

Thats freaking sweet!

[JCooper]

Spent a good bit of the day on the slowest computer in the world researching and figuring out what is what, and what goes where! Still lost on a few things but ill figure it out evntually!

The dipstick given too me with the motor came with a front sump pan that had odd bends that conflicted with the rear sump setup when the intake was fitted! I ended up using the US spec dipstick tube which was slightly too long and modifying it a little too fit!

A little cutting & grinding fixed that!

forgot to take a pic of it before cutting
after it was cut! (top dipsticktube)


little hose modification needed with the new pan



Fits nicely now with new o-ring!




Cooling hardline installed!

This is how the antifreeze gets from the expansion tank to the block and heater core on the euro's




Didn't feel like outsourcing a new drive shaft so I decided to use the 325i drive-shaft and swap output flanges on getrag and zf transmissions so everything can mate up!

bad center bearing!


new center bearing installed



Flanges swapped




This was probably the dumbest move I made all day!

Brought the last euro throttle cable in the country plus over-nite shipping too find out the stock one would've worked... Too late.. So I ended up installing the new one today anyway! Took quiet a bit of force to pop the the old one out the firewall but its done now!..



All sensors connected, vac lines connected! Now its ready to be dropped in!
cleaned the vanos up... It's going to need new gaskets, seals, and filter soon!!!

What are the advantages of euro radiator besides the allocation for oil cooler?

Not too sure! My us spec one was beat up from the clutch fan exploding and I didn't feel like spending 80$ on TMS brackets to make the oem cooler mount to it! The euro radiator's cooling surface is smaller than the US spec radiator however.

[Okin]

Well.... The world is waiting for an update here.

[Sofa King Euro]

He still needs an exhaust lol

[Milk N Cookies]

Sick want moar! Luv IBT's they just look and sound so much more Gangster.

[DreamWerke]

late subscription, as we patiently wait for what comes next...

[hefftone]

Thats a cool engine.

[B10 BITURBO]

Fantastic swap.. and great engine

[JCooper]

UPDATE: 8/19
I've been pretty much busy with college & work so the swapping process has taken the back seat for now! In 5 weeks I'll have my degree so the swap has been my last priority! Here's an update of what little has been done since I last updated!

Motor Finally Goes In!
(Had to been the hardest drop in ever!!!): The passenger control arm had to be completely dropped so the header flanges could get by. Also the steering column had to been disconnected at the guibo because of oil pan sump not being able to get around it!




This motor was much bigger & heavier than the m50! I ended up dinging up the windshield cowl trying to get the rear in without mashing the pullies into the radiator support.




I also damaged a piece of cast aluminum that holds the secondary throttle shaft in place. After all the adjusting of the chain to get this thing in I guess the stress from the chain up against the throttle lever caused this too happen... (I know I know should placed more slack on the chain before raising it with the cherry picker)




Which went here...




Harness was a total mess... Too many cut wires, x20 connector was removed & replaced with the c101 conncector for the P/O's e30. Also the dsboots & splicebox was missing. Tried fitting them in my m50 box and failed with flying colors! After a few emails I worked a deal out with kim (94is) and got a good harness for the motor!







MZ3 harness arrives




Power Steering on the old motor started to act up... Not sure what the cause was but the cooling coil for the rack was caked up with all kinds of sh*t! Removed it from the rack and cleaned it up with a wire brush wheel!




Bolted up the transmission along with the z3 shifter! (Can't believe how much shorter it is compared to that over priced junk from UUC!!!)



Little off topic but these came in not too long ago!
The gf wants to help put them in so they won't be going in at the shop!






I'll visit a few machine shops in the AM to see if I can get that broken throttle body piece machined...

Hopefully I'll have a first start-up video this afternoon now that I have the harness!

[R3VOLT]

Win.

[EnlightenMe]

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[thedude60126]

Very nice man

[bimerok]

You made your install 10x more difficult for yourself. The beauty of e36 compared to e30 is that you can easily remove the entire front end in 20 minutes and slide in the engine AND trans as one unit. Even when I did e30/s50 swap I did not bother going through the top over the non-removable radiator support, I just slid the engine/trans from the bottom and raised them up.

In any case this thing looks beautiful in there!

P.S.
You can probably try to weld the broken piece on, which should be much cheaper then machining a new one.

[JCooper]

Thanks too all for the compliments!

You made your install 10x more difficult for yourself. The beauty of e36 compared to e30 is that you can easily remove the entire front end in 20 minutes and slide in the engine AND trans as one unit. Even when I did e30/s50 swap I did not bother going through the top over the non-removable radiator support, I just slid the engine/trans from the bottom and raised them up.

In any case this thing looks beautiful in there!

P.S.
You can probably try to weld the broken piece on, which should be much cheaper then machining a new one.

That's the problem the pieces literately shattered all over the place! Some of the pieces are missing! I was told if you try welding cast aluminum (very soft) pieces together it would either melt or warp at the very lease! I'll be going in with the broken piece & some pictures to a machine shop in a few!

Hopefully this is enough.