E30 Zone

So, this 318iS was a sort-of belated birthday present to myself back in february - Always had the plan to do an engine transplant, so managed to hunt out a rot-free 2-door in Red with a high-mileage engine - 183k, but still pulled strong (Better, in fact, than a couple dogged 325s i had tested driven too) and one eyes were clapped on her, i was straight down to the chap for a look.

Have been driving around since then having fun with the M42 - Couple of "before" pictures:



She had already had an E36 (M3, it turns out) rack fitted (something i planned to do anyway), and also sat on Bilstein B8s and Apex Yellow Springs - Again, a set up i would have planned on changing too, so these were a bonus to run around on for now, and had also had brand new inner and outer rear arches fitted recently.

Few plans for her:
1. Engine Transplant - M52.
2. A full parts-off respray and treat
3. Full suspension/beams/bushes refresh
4. WMS 280mm Brake Kit, With Ferodo 2500 Pads.
5. M50 Inlet, Underdrive Pulleys, US S52 Cams, Re-map.

Anyway! I saved up some - no, many - pennies, and bought an M52b28 from Trev a couple of months back, and started on all this. I think this will turn into a looooong thread.....

So, the full shopping list to date for the M52 transplant - Hopefully it will help anyone planning the same swap, as wel as the excellent info on the Wiki. Should say a HUGE thanks for Danthe & Magpie for being a huge help for both info and parts!

M52b28 Engine (Mine was from an E36 auto - Slightly more unstressed life, we hope)
M50b25 Sump from an E34
M42 318iS Gearbox
E30 M20 Flywheel (Skimmed to 5.3KG)
E30 M20 325 Starter Motor
E30 325 Propshaft
E30 325 3.64 Diff (Open for now - LSD later!)
E30 Propshaft Guibo
(Danthe's) M52 Manifolds & Downpipes
E30 325 Centre Exhaust & Backbox (I went for a single tailpipe - To keep some 318iS look)
E30 320 Gear Shift Linkage (Plus all parts to refresh it)
Z3 1.9 Gear Shifter
E30 325 Sachs Clutch Kit (& release bearing)
E30 325i M42 Spigot Bearing (Worth getting M20 & M42 if buying before taking 'box off)
E36 318ti air-con fan temp switch - BMW Part: 61318361787 £23.45 *
E36 M52b28 Air Con Radiator (I opted for a brand new Hella one from CP4L)
E36 M52b28 Radiator Cap (Yep, it didn't come with one!!!)
E36 Radiator Electric (Air Con) Fan (I went for a 14" ebay job)
E30 Drivers Side Radiator Mount - (Turned out to be not needed on the 318iS!)
E30 Brown Temperature Sensor
E30 M42 Gearbox Shifter Seal (i am keeping the 318iS Gearbox) £6.22 *
2003 Renault Clio Brake Servo
E36 M52 Radiator Hoses
(Danthe's) Power Steering Rack Pipes
E36 M52b28's ECU - Ews delete, and 7k Rev Limit (Danthe)
E36 M52b28's Engine Loom & Auto Fan Loom Mods (Danthe)
E28 M5 Engine Mounts
E30 M42 Gearbox Mounts
E36 M52 Aluminium Thermostat Housing
E30 New Clutch / Pressure Plate Bolts
E36 M50 Air Inlet Boot (Non-Traction Control)
New Battery! (M52 needs more grunt)


And to give the M52 engine a full refresh:
M52 Injector Clean (Injectortune)
M52 Spark Plugs
M50/M52 Sump Gasket
M52 Rocker Cover Gasket
M52 Exhaust Manifold Gasket
M52 Inlet Manifold Gasket
M52 Water Pump (Metal Impellar)
M52 Thermostat (88 degree)
M52 Oil Filter
M52 Air Filter (Keeping Airbox)
E30 Fuel Filter (Engine bay)
M52 Alternator Belt
M52/M50 Oil Pickup/Pump Gasket (Easily forgotten - Just like i did!!)

Full set of fluids:
Mobil Engine Oil
Gearbox Oil
Diff Oil
Brake Fluid (Dot 4)
Clutch Fluid

The Engine once home, as i started to get the Exhaust Manifolds & Engine Loom off to send to Dan:




& Lastly, what a lovely previous owner did to the rear valance! Having this fixed come respray time..

The coolant pipe, before i lopped off the small pipe for the delete, and treated all the rust and then Smooth-black hammerited it, and had a general clean. I had a two-hole head in terms of fitting the E30 Brown (BMW part now replaced with a black one as brown one is NLA - Works fine) so this is where the E30 temp sensor goes. All cleaned up since - Old coolant outlet pipe that took up the hole first needed a little soak to get out.


Traction control Throttle & other part that are now deleted:


Also changed the thermostat housing to an aluminium one (rather than the old plastic) - Worth remembered to get a new o-ring for the thermostat too, as it's not obvious until you get to it. Water pump changed to a brand new metal impellar one. Actually, the one we pulled out was metal impellar and in pretty good condition, zero play, etc, so if anyone wants it, it's a cheaper option than BMW's £90!! The CP4Less ones are all plastic impellar...



Everything back together ready to go to Matt's Garage, complete with new loom..




Every passer by wants to chat when you have an engine up in the air! We had everything from "i remember when we used to get an engine out and in twice a day, before all these computers took over" and being shown a full photo album of a chap's restoration project - Lovely fellow, but the most unlikely guy to have a spanking new Samsung Galaxy S4 - to "ere, you're missing the rest of the car" ...genius.
Major props to my pal Darren, who lent his help for the many hours it took to get loaded up and take the car up, and also helped me out taking apart the M52 and putting it back together! A legend i owe many, many pints to now

Next up, a massive shout out to Matt (randomspeedfreak) for taking me through the transplant, and frankly, doing most of the work whilst i drank my bodyweight in water and bored him with lots of pointless stories

Starting to take her apart:


Exhaust that came off turned out to be in good condition! The downpipe-manifold pipe though was proving a total **** to get undone, so after an hour of contortion we took the "chop" route onwards ;) To be fair, it was no way near as clean as the 'zaust itself.


Getting more out, cleaning a bit as we go:


I thought my clunky gearchange was down to an old guibo - Well, no. One of the gearbox mounts had clearly waved it's white flag a while back...



..And out comes the M42. Now sold to aaronsmart, along with the exhuast, for the loving rebuild it deserves!


M52 getting mated up to my M42 gearbox, complete with sturdy new Sachs 325 Clutch. I'd bought the M20 Spigot Bearing as mentioned in the Wiki, but a chat with Dan a few weeks back had him suggest i got the M42 Spigot bearing too, to avoid holdups. Just as well - We needed the M42 one! Never know until the box is off and out. So if anyone wants an M20 Spigot bearing - PM me!


Fun with propshafts..
Middle is my 318iS Prop. Top one is a 325 prop - Bottom one is a 325 Prop i had been sent, but turned out to be wrong, or at least different (Guibo mounts are different size on it too) - Shame, as i had fully wire brushed, sanded and then hammerited it, but hey, at least we came across the one in the top of the pic! (Thanks, Matt!). The one now in will get the same treatment when i refresh the beams, bushes and suspension later in the summer.


Clio Brake Servo all sorted.. This was actually the reason the car ended up trailered - We tried to change servo whilst still driving her around, to get the feel right - BUT, the old servo wouldn't make it past the M42, so was left with no brakes as we'd hacked the old servo's vacuum pipe.. D'oh.


M52 Heading in:



Despite a little drama, she was in in pretty decent time Bit of new exhaust:


The moment we realised all 4 bleed nipples were fully not moving, so needs some calipers to see her through until WMS action at the end of the summer.



Not much left to do now...
Calipers & Brake Bleed
PAS Pipes
Re-fit Inlet, Air boot & airbox
Fab up Alu Bracket for Electric Fan
Get rest of exhaust attached
Fill up rest of fluids
Check
Check again
Fit battery and hope to god it works! I expect Matt has some more pics too.

So, bit of catching up on the conversion process.. Car is pretty dirty now, having been in there for a couple of weeks! New Calipers (Thanks, Mick!) fitted, nice new PAS Pipes from Danthe, (Cheers pal!) Now just left with finding why she will crank and turn over for a couple of seconds, but now won't!

B&Q Gayness whilst buying some ally..


Getting exhaust lined up and sat right.. Now planning on having a local fabber make up a custom system, as i'm not keen on how the centre part of the (cheap) Sportex system sits - It's like parts of it are for a totally different car! Stil, it was there to get her up and running whilst sourcing some much nicer parts, so it's doing it's job so far.


Maggie, the garage landlady's dog/pig..


My fan-bracket solution, getting it all right..


(Also shows a bit of rot - Will be sorting that come respray time!

& How it was left last week.. Almost there! K&N there as a stop-gap.

Nice work

Cheers oomz1975!
Progress a tad slower at the mo - Everything in and she started, but need to investigate a couple of issues before taking her out for any form of drive or starting up again. Also seems the M20 coding plug i'd bought isn't an M20 one, as the Rev counter was still bonkers - Time to hunt out another

Well - Been a while since all of this. I can't find the video to post, but basically, upon startup the engine made some nasty noises, and once we'd started taking it apart to see what the issue was, i ended up deciding to hang fire, and get the engine rebuilt for piece of mind. Oh, and stroked out to 3.0..

So off the block went to Danthe to be fully stripped apart, cleaned out, and rebuilt, along with the Pistons/Rods/Crank from an M54b30. I've also bought an M50 inlet for it - Thought i might as well! - so will certainly not be wanting to more power for quite some time! And it'll be nice to have piece of mind in the engine, knowing that there are no old worn parts to fail or go bad.

Some pics of engine progress.....










In the meantime, we've been tidying up the engine bay, sorting rusty bits, making the fan bracket more permanent etc, and also decided to replace the entire clutch system - Both cylinders, resevoir which had seen better days, and pipes. It's been a couple months now, so i am itching to drive her!!

Gonna be stunning mate! Mine is also an "is" undergoing m52 transplant! Though I can't be credited with any of it, (wish I had the time and/or the knowledge) I too kept the single tail pipe, just for those who fancy there chances on the strength of the boot badge!

Hehe exactly mate! Though i think a beefy (not drainpipe) single always looks slicker and a bit more retro than a double

what will this dyno at Andy ?

magpie wrote:what will this dyno at Andy ?

Hey Mick, I'm hoping it'll be in the range of 220-225hp / 240-245lb-ft, at a guess - Won't really know until i get on one though, as i never got around to driving or dynoing it as standard M52 sadly. Really keen to get an airbox sorted too, rather than the stop-gap K&N sat in there at the mo.

You enjoying yours now all those woes are done and dusted?

It will be over 230hp

Get that airbox bracket cut off while your in the bay Andy, an M52 box will go straight in with some simple brackets

Even better I'd keeping my hopes on the safe side, hehe.
Ah yes i was thinking about that Dan! We did get rid of the M42 coil pack bracket, would be a good idea to give the airbox bracket the same treatment Trev had given me the e36 airbox too, very keen to get it set up in there. What do you do with the cold air feed pipe into the airbox? Haven't tried to mock it up yet, but i'm sure it's a different shape feed hole to my old M42 one (which i still have too)

i cut out the headlight backing plate to feed the airbox

yeah my cars running good and i'm taxing it again tomorrow and will continue to use as my daily until the bad weather comes then back to the family bus

Ah that's great news matey Yea i'm hoping to get some use in mine before the ice makes it's appearances.
Couple more pics from Dan, rotating assembly is now in!

Nice work, was stood next to this engine Wednesday, top bloke Dan and I could have stayed chatting for ages but had to get home for tea.

Hehe yes always a pleasure
Few more photos from Dan - Getting closer and closer to driving her again day by day!

Oil Pump Rebuild:



And together it goes...

Epic! Subscribed

Even the inside of a bmw straight six look the nuts! Very nice mate!

Thanks guys!

great thread to read, any man who works on cars in flip flops is hardcore , good work and nice car

Haha everything is do-able in flip flops ;)
Just picked the engine up today, photos etc to follow soon!

Yes, so picked up the engine from Dan's today, here's the last few pictures of the engine build...






The rest of today saw us continuing with the engine bay, and also cleaning out the M52 throttle body and started getting it mated up to the M50 manifold. More to come tomorrow, nearly there now...

Looking forward to some video/sound of this

Most definately mate, i'll prob use some of the nice portable gear from the studio too ;)
Quite encouraged after hearing your one, before it's little moment!

Engine bay all sprayed up...

Have you got a part number for that black temp sensor that replaces the brown one?

Thanks

Andeep wrote:Have you got a part number for that black temp sensor that replaces the brown one?

Thanks

Hey man, yea i do somewhere - I'll try and fish it out, it's on my old laptop HDD

Bit more progress today, building up the Engine ancilairies, putting the M50 inlet on, whilst Matt changed both Master and Slave Clutch Cylinders, pipes etc. Photos are a bit rubbish, think i need to clean my phone's camera lens!



^M50 Inlet! Glad to have this done and dusted. Makes bulkhead clearance at the back a lot tighter, had to play around with the plastic loom tidy a fair bit. I'm keeping my M52 Throttle Body, rather than the M50 one. Means fabbing up a plate to go between the two rubber gaskets.. Obviously, three nights of next to no sleep getting this done after work means i've turned into a child...


How i left it this evening...

Okay - First start up! (Without exhaust, manifolds only). Only started her up for 30 seconds or so. Absolutely on the button.
Video doesn't quite convey just how loud it is! Have since fitted exhaust (slightly better fit now) - Video to come, but sounds lovely!!
Just need to finish off with a master-slave clutch pipe, and it's MOT and engine run-in time..
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I love threads like this. Nice car and great work. Subscribed.

Well done that man! It will be worth every late night! I can't imagine how much harder that will pull with 3000cc!!! Awesome!

Epic first start

D'aww cheers for the kind words guys
Yea i have literally barely slept in between working and working on this car this week, making the most of getting some rest this weekend now, not much left to do now at all.

Dan - You did a sterling job mate!