E30 Zone

As the title suggests I'm seriously considering this at the moment.

I currently own a 325i & a 318i. The 318 is used as a daily runaround and the 325 is currently in bits, but on it's way to be worthy of another 12 months MOT.

I don't actually do a lot of miles or at least I don't need to. I live and work in the same place. It's not ideal but it's not without perks either. Fuel consumption does not feature highly on my current list of outgoings.

So, I'd really like to swap engines about a bit. I'm reasonably handy with a spanner but I haven't attempted something like this before.

I have a vague plan.

Phase 1..

Remove the 325 engine and drop it into the daily driver 318.

Phase 2..

Fit a M50/M52/S50 into the 325 shell.

I think for me Phase 1 would be a good learning curve to help towards phase 2.

Tips advice suggestions warnings etc all welcome.

Why not just cut out stage one? youve got a 325 so just use that as your daily and then mod the 318, you'll have to fit different suspension, brakes and a 6pot loom to it to do the 325 conversion so you might as well just get streight on with it and put the bigger engine in and then use brakes/ suspension, propsand loom to suit which ever engine you choose.

All i'am thinking is if you were to put a bigger engine stright in to the 325 you would probly want to change the suspension and brakes anyway so why do it twice?

OK,you have one running E30 and one in bits.... the plan is to take the running one to bits... hummm....Any engine swap on the 318i will involve at the very least a change to the front springs.In theory the easy swap is to remove engine/'box/front suspension as a unit from the 318i and put the same bits into it from the 325i,just leaves the engine loom to sort and the coding plug on the instument cluster.All reasonably straightforward spannering,you may need to get a bit creative with one or two brackets that are welded into the engine bay for things like header tank,air box etc. Going from my experiance and Beemerlad's tales I do not feel that an M50 conversion is a good idea for you at the moment,there is a fair amount of fabrication required that needs first class welding skills to overcome,or the ability to buy expensive,custom made parts.Remember that those zoners who casualy talk of installing an M50/M52/S50 in two days have either done the job several times,are professinal mechanics, or are just lieing through their teeth!

Daimlerman you make some pretty valid points there. I figured putting a 325 engine into the 318 would be easier than a full on M50 conversion so I was considering it as a warm up for the real thing.

Fabrication etc is currently a little beyond my ability but once I get cracking I was going to call in the help of one or two off here. Daf318is lives pretty near to me so I'm sure he'd be getting a few calls with the tricky bits.

I'm under no illusions that this would be a mamouth project for me to take on, and I'm currently trying to research as much as I can. No firm decisions made yet.

I've been thinking about giving an engine conversion a go myself but engine hoists are bloody expensive, even renting one is pricey and I don't know anyone that would loan me one, and it's always raining

rossmc88 wrote:I've been thinking about giving an engine conversion a go myself but engine hoists are bloody expensive, even renting one is pricey and I don't know anyone that would loan me one, and it's always raining

ask around the local zoners. jbh(James in Denny) i think will be a good bet. or up to Aberdeen theres a few which are happy to help.

I'd be happy to invest in an engine hoist but I'm sure I could borrow one off a mate of mine. He'd probably be happy to assist in removing engines too. He's a mechanic and obviously a lot handier than I am.

daimlerman wrote:Remember that those zoners who casualy talk of installing an M50/M52/S50 in two days have either done the job several times,are professinal mechanics, or are just lieing through their teeth!

I'm none of the above?

Anyone care to offer a rough estimate how much these two swaps might cost me? Would about £700 be far off the mark?

the first should cost you nothing to do yourself as your swapping from one to another, the second will be way of the mark if its an s50 your fitting.

I want something that is going to be noticably quicker than the current M20 2.5 and something which I can realistically do myself as a first attempt at this sort of thing, that won't run into thousands.....

the old m30 3.5 is allegedly a simple swap with over 210 bhp and ive read quotes of about £700 costs.

Bob_S wrote:

daimlerman wrote:Remember that those zoners who casualy talk of installing an M50/M52/S50 in two days have either done the job several times,are professinal mechanics, or are just lieing through their teeth!

I'm none of the above?

No offence intended,my friend,you have offered sound advice to me whilst I was struggling and supplied odd bits and pieces,my comment was more 'tongue in cheek' than factual!

You could always go turbo instead, do the management first and get it running N/A then shop around for a manifold, turbo, oil feed and go the whole hog! Endless fun, and you don't need to get the head off until you decide to go above 7PSI/250bhp.

Please note, I haven't done this myself - I just want to copy from your build thread

fuzzy wrote:the old m30 3.5 is allegedly a simple swap with over 210 bhp and ive read quotes of about £700 costs.

Sounds ideal this Fuzzy.

Ask rav335uk e30gheko, he has just had his done. It's not an expensive swap if you can do some of the work yourself

No no no no! not an M30, half the bloody valves didn't get put in to that engine

M50 engine swap is a piece of cake it took me 6 months because I was doing a house up at the same time! I had the old M42 engine out in about an hour and the M50 went in in about an hour and a half. £700 is more than enough to do an M50

I'm only 5 mins down the road - happy to give you a hand if you go down this road! (not with the wiring though - I HATE wiring!)

I'll take you out in mine sometime and you can decide if it has enough go in it for you

OK Daf. pm'd

Lookin forward to a demo in ur motor! If it works!

Daf318is wrote:not with the wiring though - I HATE wiring!

Does anyone on the zone like wiring??

Wiring serious sucks. (Not meaning to sound like an American school girl) But it does suck!

Daf318is wrote:No no no no! not an M30, half the bloody valves didn't get put in to that engine

M50 engine swap is a piece of cake it took me 6 months because I was doing a house up at the same time! I had the old M42 engine out in about an hour and the M50 went in in about an hour and a half. £700 is more than enough to do an M50

I'm only 5 mins down the road - happy to give you a hand if you go down this road! (not with the wiring though - I HATE wiring!)

I'll take you out in mine sometime and you can decide if it has enough go in it for you

Dafs give me a shout I'll bring mine up for demo's ;) Always up for north wales blasts!
For sure an m50.. I have a NV M50 loom, head, bottom end, etc lol

Sawyer_E30 wrote:

Daf318is wrote:not with the wiring though - I HATE wiring!

Does anyone on the zone like wiring??

Wiring serious sucks. (Not meaning to sound like an American school girl) But it does suck!

I do

Just make a plan and stick to it , everyone has there own prefernce with regard to engine swaps but make up your own mind ,
Take your time and dont set unrealistic goals , its easy to get pissed off a half way through a build and when it comes to the niggly little bits like brackets and tidying up wiring it easy to lose heart .
I was in the same situation last year ,but then a m502.5 came up for sale so i said feck it lets have a go .
the m50 is a nice conversion and the hardest part i found was the exhaust manifold and system, that took my two full weekend to fab up , but its all worth it when some twat pulls up along side in his civic thinking he is playing with a 320i .

DanThe wrote:

Sawyer_E30 wrote:

Daf318is wrote:not with the wiring though - I HATE wiring!

Does anyone on the zone like wiring??

Wiring serious sucks. (Not meaning to sound like an American school girl) But it does suck!

I do

The cruise control diagrams in the haynes manual must be hardcore porn to you then!

Cruise control, thats like the wiring equivalent of gay porn

I like wiring to .
Haynes manuals are gone crap lately thank god for the internet

M50 swap, thats like the wiring equivalent of gay porn

Go M30! Be a man...

M30 is like softcore porn....... on VHS

DanThe wrote:Cruise control, thats like the wiring equivalent of gay porn

I knew it! So the horn relay would be... wait wtf am I talking about?!!

M30 is like softcore porn....... on VHS

The best of M40 porn isn't as good as M10 porn!

DanThe wrote:

Sawyer_E30 wrote:

Daf318is wrote:not with the wiring though - I HATE wiring!

Does anyone on the zone like wiring??

Wiring serious sucks. (Not meaning to sound like an American school girl) But it does suck!

I do

And the quality of your workmanship is A1! Buy a plug 'n' play loom off Dan - the only complication with an M50 then is the manifold.

Im working on the manifolds issue

DanThe wrote:Im working on the manifolds issue

All ready pre-ordered one off you

Doesn't the M50 come from the E34 5 series and am I right in thinking it was this model affected by the nikasil issue?

it does come from e34's and the steel block m50's aren't sufferers the later 2.8 which is an m52 can suffer