S54 Swapped E36 328is Attempting CA BAR

[Ajaxx1989]

Hey All,

Not new here just haven't posted in a long time.

Time has come to S54 swap my E36 and I wanted to document the process along the way to maybe help others who want to tackle this.
There are a lot of good threads on this such as Bimmerman535i, Mitch500, PITT M3 RR, gpeterson, the shifty and many more,
But only Bimmerman535i and gpeterson have done what I want to do and pass the CA BAR, well they are the only ones who have documented it.

A bit about the car, it's a 97 328is painted Estoril Blue, looks like a M3 minus the rocker moldings and mirrors, motor is stock other than a Dinan CAI,
it's all suspension and brakes, Wilwood's, Fortune Autos, full AKG bushing catalog, etc... I take the car to the track and have fun (only slow people say that lol)

But I had the opportunity to get a E46M3 from an Insurance total loss yard (IAA to be exact) so I won the bid on a 04 E46M3 for $6500, and after the fees, taxes, shipping it came out to $7500 for the car.
I plan to part the car out to recoup as much money as I can to bring the cost of the swap down.

I've done a lot of reading and research and the swap on the mechanical side of things, this is an easy swap, I've done plenty of motor swaps (actually swapping a sr20 in a b13 Sentra right now for a buddy)
but what scares me the most, like many others is the wiring, I'm not new to wiring, I can read a wiring diagram and I've made a few wiring harnesses for standalones (Mega Squirt), but BMW wiring is new and CAN bus is new to me. CAN Bus is really what scares me the most.

But currently the plans are to us the following:

• Z3 cluster reprogrammed to S54 spec via MSportsParts (already purchased the cluster, needs to be sent off once the swap starts due to miles)
• Stock E36 motor arms, (Z3M driver arm is $1k, screw that, I'll fab up my own mount for airbox)
• 5spd ZF from my 328 with new clutch paired with my 3.38 diff (already installed)
• My current cooling set up (CSF rad with eBay shroud and Spal fan)
• Keep my current oil cooling set up (Setrab 19row)
• Keep AC (yes, I track and have AC lol)
• Keep all E46M3 emissions (main reason for whole parts car)
• Havery Racing (Andrew) adapter harness
• Delete EWS (hope this won't become a problem with CA's new CalID and CVN)

You know the basic stuff, I do not plan on using the MK60/DCS as I already sold it, (to my buddy who helped me get the car from IAA) but I might look into getting it one day down the road if I can ever wrap my head around CAN Bus,
I did get a 01 Z3 steering column from the junk yard though, I couldn't pass it up in case I did ever do DCS, the 01-02 Z3s do not pop up much out here.

The swap is going to take some time, as it is getting to be summer here in SoCal and I don't like working in the heat lol, Plus it gives me time to get parts on order, such as rod bearings, and bolts, vanos rebuild, the while I'm there stuff,
luckily the parts car only has 132-135k miles, (miles are unknown, 1 month before the accident the car was 132k miles)

If anyone has any inputs on the wiring, feel free to chime in, I plan to take a lot of photos of the wiring to help others who may want to tackle this for CA Bar.

Here is the E46M3 parts car in all its glory and some of my E36,
(Black Apex Wheels are track wheels and silver are my "daily" both 17x9 black ones are +42 and silver are +30)

The motor from the doner car is going to be pulled this Friday! excited about that!

[chili84]

Congrats on winning the donor car. That’s a good deal since you can’t find a decent motor and trans these days for less than 7k. I swapped my E30 with an S54 recently. Though not the same as way you’re doing I know that Kassel Performance and Garagistic make plug and play harnesses for the E36. Kassel will also program the DME as well. I hope this helps you out and best of luck with your swap!!

[Ajaxx1989]

Congrats on winning the donor car. That’s a good deal since you can’t find a decent motor and trans these days for less than 7k. I swapped my E30 with an S54 recently. Though not the same as way you’re doing I know that Kassel Performance and Garagistic make plug and play harnesses for the E36. Kassel will also program the DME as well. I hope this helps you out and best of luck with your swap!!

Thank you!
Yeah I saw on eBay some S54 with just accessories around $8500, and bare motors around $5000-$6000, so with what I wanted to do, a parts car was cheaper, and a wrecked one this bad went for cheaper than something that could be easily fixed.

From what I read the Kassel one is just Andrew's, but the post were from 2016-2017,
So I'm not sure if that's the case anymore or it was ever the case. But already placed order with Andrew a few weeks ago.

And since I'm trying to pass CA BAR (this allows my car to be smogged and avoids issues with the cops, welcome to Commifornia) My DME can't be tuned, or have anything deleted on the emission side of things.
I'm hoping they will look the other way for EWS, as apparently this changes the CVN in the DME, but if not I'll have to figure out how to retro fit EWS 3 from the E46M3 into the E36. Another reason to get a whole parts car.
I will have the entire car's harness lol

[chili84]

Thank you!
Yeah I saw on eBay some S54 with just accessories around $8500, and bare motors around $5000-$6000, so with what I wanted to do, a parts car was cheaper, and a wrecked one this bad went for cheaper than something that could be easily fixed.

From what I read the Kassel one is just Andrew's, but the post were from 2016-2017,
So I'm not sure if that's the case anymore or it was ever the case. But already placed order with Andrew a few weeks ago.

And since I'm trying to pass CA BAR (this allows my car to be smogged and avoids issues with the cops, welcome to Commifornia) My DME can't be tuned, or have anything deleted on the emission side of things.
I'm hoping they will look the other way for EWS, as apparently this changes the CVN in the DME, but if not I'll have to figure out how to retro fit EWS 3 from the E46M3 into the E36. Another reason to get a whole parts car.
I will have the entire car's harness lol

I don't know how things work in California, but here in Virginia if your car is registered as an antique(such as mine) you are exempt from state inspections. Maybe the same could be said for California but I somehow doubt that to be the case. But if it is the case you have a vehicle that is now 25 years old you could possibly get a set of those tags and not have to deal with the headaches of inspections/tests.

[Ajaxx1989]

I don't know how things work in California, but here in Virginia if your car is registered as an antique(such as mine) you are exempt from state inspections. Maybe the same could be said for California but I somehow doubt that to be the case. But if it is the case you have a vehicle that is now 25 years old you could possibly get a set of those tags and not have to deal with the headaches of inspections/tests.

Out here only Pre 1975 are exempt from our smog laws, so anything 1976 - Current need to be smogged every 2 years, and we have strict engine change law.
To be done correctly and be legal you need to swap the motor from the same year or newer and transfer over all the emissions, so when they plug into the OBD2 port all the monitors are set and ready, no CEL.

And in order to get the swap legal, you take it to a special smog place, we call them state refs, its all with the CARB (California Air Resources Board),
they basically go over the car with a fine-tooth comb, if all good you get a tag that makes it legal, and if I ever get pulled over and cops pop my hood, they can't get me for a motor change since its legal. A lot of people will just swap and pay for a illegal smog "dirty smog" but that doesn't stop the cops from sending you to a ref, and dirty smogs are getting more expensive (up to $500) and getting harder to get done.

Now CA has a program that will fail you if your ECU/DME (what ever you want to call it) has a tune. and a new part of the process is getting proof from a dealership that the DME is not modified. which is done by reading the CalId / CVN
if those are altered in anyway you can fail the BAR process, member gpeteron fail due to his deletion of EWS(this alters the CVN) but I've seen people pass with EWS deleted. Sounds like it might be a Ref issue. Apparently the ref I plan to go to knows a thing or 2 about older BMWs.
so I assume he is aware of EWS needing to be deleted and knows the deletion doesn't mess with the tune. cannot confirm this. worst case I figure out how to move the EWS from the e46m3 into the e36, (I tried searching but doesn't really lead me anywhere and I should probably try to research it more, I'm sure its been done, I cant be the 1st to every try)

[Ajaxx1989]

It's been a few months since I last posted here but the car is almost done.
I've got the motor swapped and everything wired.
just need a dme - ews isn sync and the car should fire right up.

once thats done i plan to document everything i did to get my swap ready and thru the CA BAR for any of us CA folks that want to go this route.