ENGINE SWAP do`s & don`t please

Need technical Q/A then you're in the right place

Moderator: martauto

drewjak
E30 Zone Regular
E30 Zone Regular
Posts: 410
Joined: Sat May 20, 2006 11:00 pm
Location: cumbria, england

Post Sat Nov 04, 2006 10:50 pm

would appreciate some advice off people on swapping a 1988 4 door 325i engine, suspension & brakes(rears) on to my 1990 320i 2 door,

my first line of thought is to drop every thing complete, engine,box & suspension and just transfer every thing in 1 lump ?

but on the rear would i be able to keep the original arms on & just swap the brake`s from 1 arm to another?
as ive just replaced all the bush`s & bearings a few months ago.

the doner car has ABS , would this be easy enough to swap over? and what needs changing?

are there any other electrical components apart from the ecu to be swapped? fuel pump? relays?

all info greatfully recieved cheers :D :wink:
DanThe
E30 Zone Team Member
E30 Zone Team Member
Posts: 28649
Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2005 11:00 pm
Location: Staffs

Post Sat Nov 04, 2006 10:58 pm

You need to change the rear arms if you want to go from drums to discs, bushes arnt too expensive anyways, ABS is easy to swap if your going to be changing the brakes anyway, just a case of lifting the rear seats and dropping the glove box and surrounding trim, you will need to swap the brake pipes for the front but the rears and front to rear pipe stay as they are.

Fuel pump will be fine.

Best way is to drop everything on the subframe, engine, box and front suspension like you say 8)
drewjak
E30 Zone Regular
E30 Zone Regular
Posts: 410
Joined: Sat May 20, 2006 11:00 pm
Location: cumbria, england

Post Sat Nov 04, 2006 11:30 pm

thats a bit of a grunt :x , just spent best part of Ԛ£350 getting mine done with genuine bits, bushes, bearings,shoes,cylinders :x

well that all sounds pretty sweet and straight forward then so far :D cheers dan