OBD1 M50 into OBD2 328is

[Koise]

Alright bare with me. I own a 1996 BMW 328is. Bought it as an AUTO with a blown engine. Im wanting to put a obd2 5 series M50 into it.

Im about to trade a beater civic for an OBD1 m50 manual swap with everything I need. Harness mounts and all.

The swap im buying came out of a 95 5 series that he converted to fit into a 3 series. (Oil pan swap)

Im trying to figure out how im going to run an obd1 engine in my obd2. Of course ill have to swap sensors and maybe splice some wires... but..
Im stumped as far as .... what sensors will work? What do I need to change to obd2? What must I do to get this car to fire up as it should?

Im a Ford, Toyota, and Honda guy. Im simple but understanding..

[danieljames]

Read this for a start.....http://www.rmeuropean.com/bmw-e30-m50-swap.aspx

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

[Richkid79]

Well im in the middle of something similar.
Car: 94 325ic auto m50 obd1 (pulled out)
Swap: 98 328ic 5-sp m52 obd2 (put in)
Final outcome: 94 325ic w/98 m52 swap, 5-sp zf conversion, obd1

After pulling the old motor and putting them side by side, its pretty simple.
In my case, im using the m52 motor, m50 intake manifold, injectors & throttle body, obd1 m50 harness, m50 valve cover (bc obd1 harness uses m50 coil packs which properly fits v cover-and its easier) m50 alternator, m50 crank position sensor (obd2 m52 does not utilize this sensor but there is a small bracket on the m52 motor above the crank where this bolts right in), 413 red-label DME (obd1 m50 NO EWS),
Splice the temp sensor on the head (the m52 is 1 sensor with 4wires, the m50 runs 2 sensors w/2 wires ea). I used the coolant lines from the m50 (m52 uses a metal tube instead of rubber but it goes to the same places for the same purpose).The rest is pretty much plugging everything else back in and its done! The reason i opted to go obd1 is bc i was able to delete the air pump and all those ews alignment issues that plague the obd2 DME. Also, this is an extra summer car and obd1 is simplistic compared to obd2. If i had decided to boost this engine, i would have gone obd2 for the fact that its shows way more engine codes/vitals. Also the guys on this board can flash an obd2 computer to delete the air pump and ews crap. Eventually ill have the dme chipped/tuned to accept the m52 injectors-although im told they will work fine if i run them now. Feel free to pm me if anything

[Richkid79]

I realize that youre doing the opposite of what im doing, but the parts that i swap would be the same parts you need to change...
The best thing to do is get the complete engine harness, dme, engine,& trans and install it as a complete swap. The getrag 5sp from the m50 is garbage and it will probably be easier to use the single ecu harness from a 5sp obd1 instead of trying to trick the 2nd computer in your automatic harness...but then again, maybe the computer wizards on here can flash that out too? Not sure but good luck

[JBasham]

Agreed, the harness, computer, and other OBD 1 bits are cheap and it's best to just run it as an OBD 1 setup. You said you got it harness and all so I'm assuming you already have those parts anyway. If you need a complete OBD 1 conversion part set, I pulled one off a good-running 1994 325is manual transmission that I converted to a 5.0. PM me and you can have it for cheap.

Jamey

[vaderTT76]

Here is a good write up on obd2 to obd1 conversions.

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...what-I-learned

[BigBoyReid]

Hey there Rich! I was wondering if you had any idea on converting an OBD1 m50 head to work on my OBD2 M52 engine? Would the splicing of the wire work the same in reverse? If I were to convert the four plug connector to 2-2 wire connectors, would it work? Thanks for any help!