E30 Zone

Hi, I am doing a M30 conversion, Now what I need help with is the wiring, I have got a manual M30 loom now do I just plug it into the round plug? will the ECU still go where it should or is the M30 loom to short?

Thanks ED

just plug it in and it will run and drive fine.

but you will need to connect pin 3 on the engine loom side to pin 8 on the e30 loom side to get the economy gauge working.

the ecu can go back in the original place if you turn it around .

the loom will reach ( just )

seconded.

though mine was using an auto loom it's the same as above.

a few of the wires (coil etc) will need extending and i also extended the wired for the two relays near the battery so i could hide them under the dash. this should all be fairly self evident though.

oh, one wire need earthing or your electric windows or heater fan won't work with the engine running! i can't remember which one though. do a search, it's all been covered recently during both mine and bigdeks conversions.

Hi, Ok thanks for your help!
ED

time to change your username soon. ed335i!!!

O/T Gareth, how do you get on with your Scorpion M3 exhaust ?

I find mine a bit to loud generally and it has a tendancy to sound boomy between 1.5-2k RPM.

I'd get some thing else but i haven't got the dosh at the mo

the exhaust.... now there's a story! took a day or so just to get it to the right shape to go one the hangers! (was rather bent after coming from the 'donor' M3)

i agree about the boomyness though, can be rather tiring on a run but around town is fine. it is loud, i agree, sounds very serious though! does your setup have much induction noise? mine seems quite 'inductiony' but is using the standard E32 airbox and filter.

gareth wrote: mine seems quite 'inductiony' but is using the standard E32 airbox and filter.

Yeah, mines got a big cone filter and no AFM to muffle the induction sound.

I'm going to eventually change to a stock e34 M30 air box when i get around to fitting that twin 60mm TB to the passenger side of the manifold.

gareth wrote:seconded.

though mine was using an auto loom it's the same as above.

a few of the wires (coil etc) will need extending and i also extended the wired for the two relays near the battery so i could hide them under the dash. this should all be fairly self evident though.

oh, one wire need earthing or your electric windows or heater fan won't work with the engine running! i can't remember which one though. do a search, it's all been covered recently during both mine and bigdeks conversions.

The black/green wire from the E30 body loom is the one in question.
Can be earthed, but the correct place to connect it is to the copper bar or braid connecting the starter solenoid to the starter motor.

agreed. this is on my (very long!) to-do list. it works fine earthed, it just doesn't shut down the anciliary circuits while cranking like it should.

Can anyone tell me if the group of black wires go the earth and the red go the live and do the conectors need to plug in to anything ??


Thanks ED

Red wires go to battery +, but check that none are two ends of a piece of wire thats just going in one end of the loom and coming out the other.
For the black wires: The black is probably just an outer sleeve with a colour underneath. Nick the sleeving and see what the colour is.
If it's red then connect to battery +. If it's brown or brown/orange, then earth it.
White socket isn't used.
There's a similar looking black socket on an E30 loom that isn't used either. Yours if difficult to make out in the pic, but looks like a waterproof connector which should be in the engine bay.
Sorry I can't be more exact, but I'm not familiar with the M30 loom.

Had a closer look at the black coverd cables 2 are brown 1 is black and the 3rd one is green should think they are all earth cables.
ED

Browns are definitely earths, black could be anything, but green is usually unfused ignition live on BMWs!!!. I would trace where that one goes before connecting it, unless someone else on here who has experience of M30 looms can help.

er, are they the 2 coil connections?

they're in the right place, and from memory also the right colours. if so one should have a smaller hole in the connector than the other.

Yes they are the 2 coil connectors I forgot about the coil and the other ones must be earth. BIG Thank you.

ED

cool

if they're the coil ones, the two browns nearby are definately earths.

Thanks for helping out, Toby_Unna! Black + green should have rung a few bells!
Been messing about with too many M50 looms lately.

Hi, Found another one, where does this one go ? its the round plug under the inlet. cant find anything this plugs into


ED

there should be an end that screws onto that and a small fixing on the side of the engine for it near the starter

No idea what it does but i'm sure brianmoooore will have an idea

Hi, I cant find anything to plug into it. I have got the ones that go to the starter and the other one in the pic goes to the oil level sensor its just this round one that I cant see what it plugs into. It could be it doesnt go anywhere.
ED

Don't quote me on it but i think its some thing to do with an auto gear box, my old manual E34 had one i think ?

bigdek wrote:there should be an end that screws onto that and a small fixing on the side of the engine for it near the starter

No idea what it does but i'm sure brianmoooore will have an idea

As I said further up the thread, I don't know the M30 loom.
How old is this engine? Any chance it had a cat? Theres a plug about there on an E36 loom for the lamda sensor.

Ed is it definetly a manual loom? my engine came still attached to the auto box and all my connectors (inc round plug near oil sensor connector) look identical..

will get a photo of mine tomorow

it doesnt connect to anymore wires it just stops .

no idea what the part is called but it screws on and terminates the wires

Not sure where this plugs into but i can tell you that i have the loom that plugs into the fuel injectors from an m20 with the same plug on the end. Maybe this will help with locating?

bigdek wrote:will get a photo of mine tomorow

it doesnt connect to anymore wires it just stops .

no idea what the part is called but it screws on and terminates the wires

Are you saying it's got a blanking plug that screws into it to seal it off? If so, it's definitely for a lambda sensor. You can find a similar one clipped to the underside of the front battery tray on E30s.

yes m8 it just blanks off

this is the bad boy

located just below the starter

Update on the black/green unloader relay wire, and the lack of connector for same on the M30 starter.
Been stripping down an old carburettor 318 M10 today. The car body loom is the same as newer E30s, complete with unloader relays and the black/green wire to pin 15 of the C101.
When taking out the engine loom, I noticed there was only one small (black/yellow) wire to the starter motor; the same as the M30.
Decided to see how BMW got over this problem, so had a look inside the C101 of the engine loom. All that had been done was to fit a small wire linking pin 15 to pin 18 where the black/yellow connects.
If this works for the M10, it should work for your M30s as well.

Not much use as it is but i will try to add the wire colours to this picture tomorrow.

Hard to see on the picture but theres actually two smaller terminals,the hard to spot one is under the left hand big nut.

Thought yor M30 lot had told me that the M30 starter motor only had three terminals?

Two little ones and the main big one, the other big nut is the starter to solnoid earth i think ?

Sorry i didn't get the wire colours, i forgot

Todays job was drill out a sheared off front cross member bolt and re-thread it for an M12 bolt, that was fun !

lovely!!! was that the ones fixing the crossmember to the chassis rail? took me 3 hours to get my crossmember (with M30 attaches) bolted back up during my swap!

bet your arms/shoulders will hurt tomorrow! cramping while drilling?

gareth wrote:lovely!!! was that the ones fixing the crossmember to the chassis rail? took me 3 hours to get my crossmember (with M30 attaches) bolted back up during my swap!

bet your arms/shoulders will hurt tomorrow! cramping while drilling?

Yeah that one, it did take a while but i was taking my time, oiling the drill bits up every minuet or so to help preserve them, i did it in three stages 2mm,4mm and 10mm drill bits.

The fun bit was getting hot metal swarf on my face because the most comfortable way to push up with the drill was sort of using my head for an arm rest and a bit of extra leverage.

All the bolts have now got a bit of copper slip on them to stop the same thing happening again.

Andy335Touring wrote:Two little ones and the main big one, the other big nut is the starter to solenoid earth i think ?

Other big nut on the solenoid is certainly not an earth. It's the switched 12V+ to the starter motor.
If your solenoids have two small terminals, what is the problem you have with the unloader relays?