E30 Zone

has anyone on here done this conversion . will it mean cutting much of the bulk head and is the wireing very complicated.how much are u talking for the full m3 running gear

First of all, it costs a lot. You need basically the whole engine with all the wiring in order to make it work. No idea will it work without all the sensors (diff, wheels etc etc). If you doubt whether you need to cut the bulkhead, you won't be able to do this swap. So forget it.

Much easier swap (with basically the same power) is S50 from E36 M3, that's been made many many times and you can find a lot of info on many forums.

e46 m3 engine shouldnt in theory be much more difficult than then s50....

there is the fly by wire throttle though that will require some bodging

the e46 M3 engine requires standalone to run in an e30.. the standard loom is integrated into the car loom iirc

oh bugger.... thought maybe that was just the later ones

a mate of mine is running one in a manta thats what put it in my head.he is running his own managment system though

probably not running the Vanos either..

Manta must be a weapon!! Any pics?!

is it the green one on driftworks ure talking about?

Karan wrote:e46 m3 engine shouldnt in theory be much more difficult than then s50....

the theory is the easy part its the practical side that always causes the problems

I haven't looked into it, but surely if an s62 can be made to run in an e30 on the original loom, the same should be possible for an s54? Not saying it would be easy, but pretty sure it would work. - same problems.

One way around the fly-by-wire throttle is to use the fly-by-wire e30 pedal as used by the 324td Germans do it on m62/s62 swaps.

Fly-by-wire in the eighties?

It has been done, in an E30 2 or 3 times now.

All americans if IIRC, gotta love that positive energy!

DanThe wrote:Fly-by-wire in the eighties?

The injection pump was electronically actuated on the 324td. IIRC by a solenoid, but nor sure about this one.
Anyway, as it is controlled by an ecu, you need a potentiometer on the pedal -> drive-by-wire.

Have a look here

By the way, the old M21 is terribly underrated. Stick a proper intercooler on it, adjust the injection and you can see a healthy 175bhp no worries. More if you play with the boost, but then you start to have to think about reliability.
Youtube will have a couple videos, especially of old e28 524td, if you want to have a look...

without sounding like a total muppet what exactly is fly by wire? electronically controlled throttle rather than mechanically controlled i assume? that surely wouldnt cause to much problems if the pedal assembly could be modified to fit in an e30 and use the original matched wiring and ecu from the donor?

ya he has the build on driftworks its a wheapon to go

Far right image.

fuzzy wrote:without sounding like a total muppet what exactly is fly by wire? electronically controlled throttle rather than mechanically controlled i assume? that surely wouldnt cause to much problems if the pedal assembly could be modified to fit in an e30 and use the original matched wiring and ecu from the donor?

Would have to be the way as you could not just make the throttles operate by wire again as then you'll upset the ECU, which in turn is wired into ASR and ABS so that part of it is a mess - as well as all that SMG pain too...

Here's the full thread to give you an idea of cost/time/skill involved:

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=359200

fuzzy wrote:without sounding like a total muppet what exactly is fly by wire? electronically controlled throttle rather than mechanically controlled i assume? that surely wouldnt cause to much problems if the pedal assembly could be modified to fit in an e30 and use the original matched wiring and ecu from the donor?

Yep, that's the theory.
Glenn got it working on his ex beast, so has tino in germany (e30.de/300mm.de) and a few others, but I don't know exactly how. - nevertheless, it is possible.

i know someone who has an e46 engine for sale if your interested!

Jhonno wrote:the e46 M3 engine requires standalone to run in an e30.. the standard loom is integrated into the car loom iirc

can you elaborate on that dude? do you mean something like every function is multiplexed through the loom?? In that case rip the whole lot out..lol

how much does that fella want for the engine and has he got the loom and box as well

he basically has the whole car - rolled it, bought back off insurance and lost interest! pm me an offer and i'll pass it on!