hunting M42's

[Tom D]

^ unfortuitly it's not a permanent home, only for the duration of my project in San Jose.

you should come up and visit. I'm on the mount hamilton road at 2000' elevation, clear days I can see san francisco.

[HipMF]

"There's a saying "Do it once, do it right." I hate it. I've always hated it. It is easy, pompous advice, bereft of empathy and creativity, often intoned from on high by someone with anal-retentive tendencies..." -Rob Siegel

Sorry, but when I picked where I left off with the book I'm reading this was the first thing I read, and it made me think of this thread.

[Tom D]

lol

[Tom D]

.......someone with anal-retentive tendencies......made me think of this thread.....

just to clear the record, I am not anal-retentive, far from it. at least not in my personal life, but in my professional life I get payed the big bucks to be one. now auto mechanics is not my profession, but I'm looking at a pretty serious repair bill for the LSD that I trashed in my own car so why not take the time and do it right, lease I trash my son's LSD as well.

[HipMF]

Maybe I have a different idea of what anal retentive means, because I would file an overwhelming majority of the BMW people I've met in that catagory...

[MortyCrock]

I would file an overwhelming majority of the BMW people I've met in that catagory...

Uhh... yes, definitely this ^

[sbcrockett]

I consider myself thorough rather than anal retentive. especially when working on my cars. I would rather not be wondering to myself if I torqued that bolt or installed that screw while flying down the road at 70 mph

[Tom D]

.....wondering if I torqued that bolt while flying down the road at 70 mph......

since you can often find me dropping out of a mountian or flying through a canyon this is exactly why no one ever works on my cars but me. if I'm going to have a tire fall off while traveling at a high rate of speed I want to be assured that it was me to blame and not some minimum wage mechanic who was more concern with texting his buddy then with my tire.

[epmedia]

since you can often find me dropping out of a mountian or flying through a canyon this is exactly why no one ever works on my cars but me. if I'm going to have a tire fall off while traveling at a high rate of speed I want to be assured that it was me to blame and not some minimum wage mechanic who was more concern with texting his buddy then with my tire.

Yea, that texting stuff makes me cringe when suppose to be concentrating on critical stuff. I've been anal since about '84.

Story in '84: I was working on a customer's boat and did not notice the cam lobes(points cam, in the ignition dist) were rough when I was giving it a tune up with new points. The owner of the boat had it out in the ocean for several days, the engine stalled and big waves crashed the boat into a bunch of rocks. Fortunately that was all that happened and the owner brought the boat back to the shop. Yep, the gap on the points was lost because the cam lobes were rough.

This is the begging of why I'm anal.

Edit: not sure if I used the correct analogy. To me, anal means analytical. is that proper?

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I consider myself thorough rather than anal retentive. especially when working on my cars. I would rather not be wondering to myself if I torqued that bolt or installed that screw while flying down the road at 70 mph

That's the word I was looking for

[anonymous4l]

Yo Tom D!
I've been reading most of your posts related to E21s. I need help with mine. At the moment I'd like to source a M42 from a salvage yard down here on SoCal.

I'm fairly new to swaps so some guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks,

Ps I'd like to swap a newer 318 motor into my 83 E21. Currently looking at M42 from 94 E36. Any advice helps, so please point me in the right direction

[I pet a kitty]

Where exactly are you located anonymous 4l?
If you go past 96 the engine becomes an m44, also the oil pan and intake manifold are different From the e30. You will need the e30 oil pan at the very least. Take the whole package, including trans & driveshaft, mounting arms, etc for an e30.

I've got Everything sitting in storage in Phoenix I could maybe be talked into letting go..

[anonymous4l]

Where exactly are you located anonymous 4l?
If you go past 96 the engine becomes an m44, also the oil pan and intake manifold are different From the e30. You will need the e30 oil pan at the very least. Take the whole package, including trans & driveshaft, mounting arms, etc for an e30.

I've got Everything sitting in storage in Phoenix I could maybe be talked into letting go..

Hey,

I'm located in Los Angeles, CA. Hollywood area.

[Tom D]

^ this is the way we did it? we used the M42 out of an E36, but all the bolt on things like the intake, motor mounts, trans and driveshaft came off an E30.

[Tom D]

well its been two and a half years, but my son and i have got it done.

tomorrow we'll put it back down on the ground and give it a whirl.

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[sbcrockett]

that's an awesome picture Tom! thanks for sharing

[bflan2001]

Hey Tom, could I come check out your swap? Mine is going back on the lift tomorrow to swap transmissions and try to tuck the shift linkage higher up for more clearance with the drive shaft. Mine feels pretty buzzy, I'd like to get your opinion of how it feels.

[Tom D]

brian i sent you a PM. you'll have to hurry, evan is driving to phoenix on monday.

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here is evan's shifter selection, give you an idea of the direction to go in. myself i used my stock 77 E21 lever.

bottom to top.

E30, 81 E21, E46 323, E46 328/330, E46 328, Z3M



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evan liked the ratio of the E46 330 lever, but found that all the plastic pivots showed that they wear too much, the metal balls were spot on round. he also didn't like the lever sitting low and so far away from the steering wheel so he built his own.

he took the E30, cut the ball off and welded it to the 330 lever and extended lower and upper section. i don't remember the final ratio (~6:1), but the throw at the knob is 3 1/8".

final product



850 rpms and as smooth as a baby's bottom

http://vid764.photobucket.com/albums...psfkgfvbkg.mp4

[OLD MAN]

Very nice Tom thanks for sharing.

[Tom D]

i am happy to report that with nothing more then 25 miles of shakedown, evan drove the 466 miles from san jose to la quinta without so much as a hiccup.

[bflan2001]

That's awesome, congrats on another successful swap!

[lasvegascop]

Nice brother

[Peterbuilt84]

Awesome to see your car up and running! What a sweet little swap.

It was nice meeting you a couple weeks back. Thanks again for the old motor


Peter

[Tom D]

evan put the car through smog this week and here are the results.

keep in mind that this was a junkyard engine with nothing done to the bores but a hone and new rings, a junkyard head with nothing done but a plane to the deck, a salvaged cat with 138K miles, even the injectors came straight off a junked OBC11 E36 without so much as a cleaning.

[jsull479]

Tom, sorry to revive a very old thread but had a quick question. I'm swapping a 91 M42 into e21. My question is will there be an issue using an e36 wiring harness on e30 motor(my drive train didn't come with one, and trying to source one)?

[HipMF]

I don't want to speak for TomD, but it seems unlikely that this would work. If I'm not mistaken, the M42 at a minimum, switched to DISA in 1992? It appears that they kept the AFM vs MAF until around '95, but I don't really know the specifics. If you're using the e30 intake, (which I would recommend, albeit for non-logical reasons), I would try to use the E30 harness for maximum ease. If you want to use an e36 harness, it will definitely need to be pre-96, because that's when everything changed over to ODB2/M44 and EWS becomes a problem as well...Sadly, the e30 bently and e36 bently manuals both seem to omit the e30 m42, so i don't know that there's an authoritative source aside from maybe TomD... haha.