E30 Zone

Donor car - despite how it looks it's a fully-running M52 converted E30:



A couple of hours later:

Well that will be an easier swap as these things go! What was the story with the donor?

Agreed! Don't get much easier than that

Don't forget the brake servo off the donor before you weigh it in

Thats Turks old one isnt it that was written off?

Be fun lifting the new shell over that lot

Donor was I think one of Turk's old cars, but since sold by him. I got lucky finding a full M52 conversion for sale. I don't have either the patience or know-how to collect the right parts etc. The shell was rotten in all the usual places, so the owner stripped it bare apart from the running gear. Believe it or not it was running just before the first pic was taken, really sweet engine.
It was really easy to drop from underneath, fancied doing it this way as I'd never done it before and like a bit of a challenge. Will most likely put it in from the top as I don't want to take the recipient to pieces in the same way. All done in a couple of hours and even managed to find a gypo to take the shell away this afternoon!
Brake servo is already off (see 2nd pic) - it's from a Clio.
Next job is to take the knackered M20B25 out of the cab, strip the nice morsels off and get them sold. Then I will clean up & paint the engine bay before a bit of head scratching to get this transplanted. More pics as I go. Not enough time to complete this weekend unfortunately.

Sorry, my bad! Didn't notice it sat on the right hand side lol.....

Prob best to drop it in from the top tbh, I dropped my m50 in from top complete with gearbox and inlet manifold! Only thing I needed to do was slip the aux belt off and take the pulley off the power steering pump to give me a valuble half inch clearance... When I put my m52 in shortly I'm going to try dropping it in without the inlet manifold and see if I don't have to take off the pulley.

I've just fitted the same engine to mine but I fitted it from underneath, don't know why people are so wary of doing it that way, you've even got all the wishbones etc attached to the subframe. Four bolts on the subframe two on the gearbox and it's in, no messing about lining it up on mounts etc... unless I was lucky in my swap??

Cook318IS wrote:Thats Turks old one isnt it that was written off?

that one had a front ender .

I would also welcome any pointers of things I should do before fitting this engine into my cab. Water pump looks like it's plastic (black & shiny?) so I guess that should be changed along with the thermostat. I should probably take the gearbox off and check the clutch as I don't fancy doing that in future - anything else to stop some potential heartache further along the road?

You wanna do the water pump for definate mate! Metal impellar..... And yes new thermo

If I were you also I would put a brand new clutch kit in it aswel, technicaly speaking you want to do the clutch before you stick it in as everything is so tight its very hard to change clutch a few weeks down the line with the engine in situe!

That seems to make sense, thanks.
Water pump from main stealer or GSF/ECP?

A water pump from gsf will be fine as long as its metal impellar!
Kwp comes highly recommended on here

OK, will start looking for parts.

Another question - there will be loads, I'm sure - I've read that the M20 flywheel can be fitted. As I have one of these on the M20 being removed should I just bolt it up? Which clutch should I then use?

M20 clutch, you should get the flywheel lightened while your at it and if you want to go the whole hog get a new clutch

maf260 wrote:That seems to make sense, thanks.
Water pump from main stealer or GSF/ECP?

You want to speak to meatballs82 on here mate, the KWP was about £30 plus vat, a very good price tbh

As above but without doubt put a brand new clutch kit in! Don't reuse a clutch from your m20 regardless of its condition!

You can get the m20 fly lightened but tbh even an unlightened m20 flywheel on an m50 or 52 engine livens things up quite nicely.... If you choose to use a stock m20 flywheel you will have to grind part of the sump away as the fly will foul parts of it! I have documented this with pics in my m50 progress thread I will find it and bump it to page 1 for you to have a gander.

Yes, would put in a new clutch anyway if it was for M20. The release bearing on my car was always noisy and annoying! I could get a local engineer to lighten the flywheel for me, doubt it would cost much. Looks like material needs to be taken from the engine-facing side. I also need to work out which gearbox I have. Will take a decent pic and post it on here for identification.

IIRC, the Tech1 (or maybe both sports) M20 already had a lightened flywheel? Anyone confirm this? And, would this be suitable to an M52?

Don't know about that to be honest but yes any m20 flywheel is usable for 24v conversions but you need the starter and clutch setup to match

M20 starter and clutch?

Yes mate, if using m20 flywheel you need to use m20 clutch and m20 starter

Managed to get a little time on the recipient today. Undid pretty much all connections, pipes, wires etc. Just the oil cooler pipes and exhaust (manifold is unbolted) to remove now:



Nasty mayo in the water pipe - head gasket failure that gave me the incentive to do this conversion:


Now for a little more help please - can anyone tell me what gearbox this is?


If it's obvious can you also tell me whether this will fit straight back on with a M20 flywheel, clutch & starter motor.

Thanks for all help and advice so far. I'll be asking more questions as I go. I'm no pro mechanic and don't want to mess things up!

The m20 flywheel, clutch and starter will fit with any box! But the box you use determines the spigot bearing and dif you have to use....

For example- m40 or m42 box = m20 spigot bearing (12mm hole)
M50 box = m50 spigot bearing (15mm hole)

OK thanks. I think I'll stick with the box that came with the conversion as it means I won't have to worry about the spigot bearing. All I will need to do is buy a new clutch kit and get the flywheel lightened (assuming it hasn't already been done - will split the engine & box before going shopping!) I also then know that the prop I have will fit. The idea of the ready-made conversion was to do and spend as little extra as possible, but to ensure the sensible and essential jobs are carried out before dropping it in.

Looks like a ZF from an E34 M50

Good enough Dan, or would my M20 box be preferable?

Depends on what ratio diff you got running

e30-dk wrote:For example- m40 or m42 box = m20 spigot bearing (12mm hole)

Not quite! the spigot bearings changed in the m42 etc in sept '90, can't remember the sizes at the mo, but I remember when i changed the engine in my 318iS I had to change the spigot bearing because I was using a slightly different year engine.

Have to agree with above as i have an M40 box with a 15mm shaft.
Not sure of year though.

Hmmm would have to be a late thing then boys cos my m42 box is definatly a 12mm shaft or else it would not have got on the engine lol, advised by dan to get m20 spigot and all fine here

328 prop-shaft should be a straight fit depending on what gearbox is being used.

If its an M20 flywheel thats inside it at the moment, it more than likely has been lightened already unless somebody was being tight and just got an angle grinder to the back of the engine.

unless somebody was being tight and just got an angle grinder to the back of the engine

Got a bit more done today, that's 2 donks out now.





Just need to pick up a few bits to refresh the M52, clean up the engine bay and I'll be ready to fit the new engine.

Had a load of trouble trying to undo the prop at the diff end - nuts wouldn't shift. I ended up splitting the prop at the middle joint to get it all out. Rear part is still bolted up solidly - any ideas? Don't want to use heat as it's too close to the petrol tank for my liking!

Good progress