E30 Zone

Ive recently bought a 318is Im itching to put a 3.5 in it

Ive seen some write ups but cant really find a proper answer.

what gearbox and clutch do I need?

do the looms just plug together? or is this a myth

Ive herad that an e28 rad fits, is this the one to use?

what about mounts etc?


the car is my daily drive so I want to get all the bits together so its a quick swap over

E34 engine is apparently easiest to fit.

IIRC information you need and mounts available from e30.de. Or custom mounts will be required.

im in middle of doing this swap at mo. e34 lump a box. custom prop or m3 prop. e28 rad fits best. a mounts a guy on here called beefy does some very gd reosonably priced mounts highly recomended.

im in the process of puting a m30 3.5 into 318is.

Best engine to use is e34, easiest to use the e34 box to and drop it in in one lump.

The engine loom will just plug into the car loom with a few pins that need swapping to get the electric windows, heater blower and the eco swing o never thing to work. Which pins it is i dont know as i havent done this yet.

Im using a e34 rad which does fit but its close to the dizzy cap this is with the engine furthest back position 3.

As said above custom prop and mounts will be needed. The mounts i can supply check my threads regarding the mounts for more info on them.

how you getting on with yours beefy?

havent done anything since before xmas. Need to just sort out prop and exhaust i just dont really have bmw spare cash at the min. Also just few bits to tidy up. Prob be next month when i can do some more on it. Plus i just got an xbox 360 so i spend my spare time on that lol.

Use the E34 or E32 M30B35 and you can use any 3/3.5 M30 engined gearbox ie 530/535/730/735 inc E28 parts. I opted for an E28 single mass flywheel (lighter than the E34/32) and clutch in an E34 g/box. As your car is a facelift the loom will plug and play although there are 3 wires that need swapping to get electric windows/heaters and mpg gauge to work properly... I can't remember which ones of the top of my head

E28 rad is the perfect one to use however people have also used the E34 rad... I'm still using an E30 325 rad and is always sat between 1/4 and 1/2 even in traffic.

A good site for info although a few parts are slightly incorrect is www.e30.de it has a whole how to/what to use section for this conversion and they've even put a "click here for English" button

Good luck mate.

which mounts did you use?

It does seem a very easy conversion

E30drifto wrote:It does seem a very easy conversion

if your very handy with a spanner etc
318is is a great car already though


if you want mounts you should contact beefy! i still may get some off him as my mounts dont have the engine where i want it. too close to the steering rack, all my fault as i made the templates for Gall to weld up.

i will let you know asap on those beefy as it would give you some money to put to your m30
good work with the 360


e30drifto do a search for my conversion thread 'e30, shoehorn, m30' its got loads of pics etc of how mine was done but it gets stupid near the end.


buy a e34 535i manual and break it (imo) its what i did as i got money back for the parts i sold.


Gall is the record holder i think for a m30 swap. 1 weekend on his own and it was done. well it took 3 days for the prop to be sent back but thats it.

Ok, Ive got my Is striped now,

But I cant find a propshaft or 325 gearlinkage

Do I also need a 325 one of these (I think I do lol) or will the 3.5 one do? Is this a coding plug? I presume so





also a pic of them, the 5 is my daily drive until the weekend I swap the engine then the 3 will be.

I am a mechanic but you cant beat someones knowledge of doing a job
thanks for any help!

you need a m20 (325i or 320i) gear linkage and you need to cut the rear of the e34 prop to fit it to the rear end of a 325i prop.

dead easy.

if you want parts ChrisW always has bits and is normally quick at sending them out.

see if you can beat Gall's record and get it done in a day

its the front ends that need to be cut so it mates up with the gearbox back end of e30 props are all same!

E28m535i rad is a perfect fit.
Get your prop modified by reco-prop - I started with an E28/E30 combo, but I'm sure they'll be able to manage with the E34 parts. Depending on how much of a rush you're in, it's best to wait until the engine's in the car so you can measure how long it needs to be...

haha. sorry i started writing then the boss walked by and started talking. i think i wrote that sentance 3 times as i keep getting more work to do.

sorry for the wrong info.

i meant gear box end

saying that you did cut both ends lol

Sounds like I could just mate the is prop to the e34 prop If my search for a e30 m3 prop fails,

Does anyone know about the plug?

you can use the e34 and the e30 prop just cut it and get a company to join and balance it for you.
should have cost me £60.

what plug? if its the electrics, engine loom to body loom the its plug and play if its the round connectors on both?

E30drifto wrote:Do I also need a 325 one of these (I think I do lol) or will the 3.5 one do? Is this a coding plug? I presume so

This is the engine diagnostic connector and cap, and should have remained attached to your iS engine and have been removed with it! It's part of the engine loom.
Only coding plug you need is a small white plug that fits into the front of the instrument cluster. Normally hidden behind a piece of trim.

this all makes sense when im at work and can see pictures

So will I need to change my is's dash coding plug?

All I need now Is a propshaft!

Im planing on doing the swap on the 21st of march so anymore tips are welcomed!!!!!!!!!

Hopefully I'll have an m3 prop by then or Im going to be without a car while the prop being sorted

Parts I have

16" electric fan (reversible)

some of beefy's mounts

brown coolant sensor

Im going to use the 535 rad as its like a new one

Im also banging a new clutch in, 325 gear and engine mounts, Im also sticking a g-max suspension kit on

At the moment Its looking like im going to have to make an exhaust up out of scrap bits of pipe etc.
Is anyone using a standard 325 exhaust on there m30?

With regards to the exhaust, I'm currently using a full 325 system with the M30B35 downpipes chopped a little.



Chopped M30B35 downpipes



Chopped 325 downpipes



I've had no problems at all.

Good luck

Charlie

thanks, I better keep an eye out for a 325 exhaust aswell

Fitted the 3.5 today everything went to plan except the wirring

The plug that comes of the body of my e30 Is a female and the plug on the engine loom is female,

I really need this thing running tommorow has anyone come accross this?

here's some pics


318is Body loom


e34 engine harness plug




everyones build that I have read says they are plug and play, so whats going on here?????????

there are 2 similar plugs and your trying to plug wrong 1 in thats the diagnostic plug. try the other 1

The car Is down at work so I cant check at the mo

Im 99.9% certain I cant plug the wrong one in because the diagnostic one Is also female!

I always get these kind of problems

Has anyone got a picture of the same plugs? so I can compare

Both mine and my friends m30 looms, didnt plug into our e30's loom, we had to chop the plug off the m30 engine loom and wired it into and e30 engine loom plug, we robbed off our old engines.... I got all the wire colours and pinouts off the net, abit of a pain but no too hard...

We put this down to our engines been out of late spec e34/32's 92>

Thought that would be the case, didnt see it coming,

Does anybody no where to find the apropriate diagram's?

Im having a search but no joy yet, I really need to get my car running as its my transport

Ive got it running well sort of! just connected the starter wiring, Ignition and fuel pump (I fed the fuel pump from the Ignition)

First fire up it literally burst into flames!!!!!! I Forgot to connect the earthstrap I also didnt tighten the jubilee on the fuel hose, so it earthed out from the inlet mani to the brake server, petrol vapour and sparks = boom Luckily there was an extiguisher fairly close by!!


I just can't find a wirring diagram for the 5 series Its a j plate, I think I know all the e30 wire's(well can find them on here).

so far for the E34 engine loom I have

yellow/black - starter

green - ignition

I really want to find the battery light as I don't think its charging .

An ecu pinout would be fine as i can just check continuity from there to the plug, the pin out I found on autodata told me ecu pin 3 was fuel pump, but that doesn't go to the plug at all


BTW fitted my e34 535 rad today, Its a perfect fit! straight onto original mounts. used the same hoses just cut 2" of each one.

If it's the late E34 plug, the connections will be the same as for the M50, so look in the sticky.

Yeah, I used an m50 pinout list thinking about it, cant remember where from, but pretty sure ther is a link on here somewhere...