M50 and M52 Wiki Thread

[Grrrmachine]

I'm off sick today, so I thought I'd read through some of the epic threads in this forum and compile it into a Wiki page:

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/index.php/M5x

As you can see, there's quite a few gaps which need filling (and I'll do it as quick as I can) but I'd appreciate any comments or modifications from the experienced members.

Any info posted in this thread will be Wiki'd.

[Duke137]

Awesome.

I know that M50b25's went to Vanos 09/1992 (Wiki states 1993) as that is when BMW have a registered date change. My M50 engine is a late 1992 (stamped 15/12/1992) and is vanos. I guess making that M50TU?

I will read through the rest soon, good work as always

[BornToBeE30]

Some useful tips in there, I be sure to throw my ten pence in when I'm done.

Nice One.

[DanThe]

This bit is wrong -

The internal structure of M50 and M52 blocks are identical, and aside from a few blanking ports between E34 and E36 engines (to cope with various ancilliaries), all internals are interchangeable

The M52 is different in many ways, most are only small differences but still they are different, too many to list TBH.

Nikasil is a coating not a liner

US engines were cast iron, not to be confused with M50 blocks

The fuel problem was because the UK started to buy US fuel, not that it was already using sulphur rich fuel

Alusil is an old wives tale, the blocks referred to as alusil are actually standard alloy blocks with steel liners fitted, ie, a steel liner block

Differing expansion rates? Nope, why would BMW design an engine block thats destined to fail? Steel liner blocks have been used ever since the Nikasil idea was scrapped

The liners dont cause the headgasket to fail, in extreme cases the engine overheats to the point where the head warps, this is what pulls the threads and fooks the gasket

Piston rods are actually connecting rods

Head, sorry, its nothing like the M20 head, its a completely new design

Everything else looks about right, would be worth putting in something about the vanos seal failure IMO

[Grrrmachine]

Great stuff! Good to see the old wives tales put to rest

I've still to write all the VANOS stuff, but I'm getting a bit bleary eyed...

[DanThe]

Im not surprised, youve more patience/spare time than me

[Grrrmachine]

When you're this monged out on Flu medicine, there's not much else you can spend the day doing.

Have some Piston info:

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... 5x#Pistons

[DanThe]

I like that

Regarding the M20 flywheel, the material needs to be removed from the back of the flywheel to clear the sump, not the face.
You can use an M20 flywheel with any gearbox, the clutch has to match the flywheel

The propshafts from later 325i 323i 328i will all work with the E36 ZF gearboxes from 6 cylinder cars, you do not reverse the E30 centre bearing, you fit it as normal, the only difference is the bearing fits to the rear half of the E36 prop, with an E30 prop the bearing fits to the front half. If you fit it 'reversed' you will be taking it off again which is likely to damage it so best to get it right first time round

[Grrrmachine]

The concept of the reversed bearing was mentioned in the monstrously long sticky at the top of this forum, so thanks for clearing that up Dan.

[craigieeb]

Deactivating the EWS is a good touch,

Bit of a kick in the balls if you offer EWS delete ecu's tho

[DanThe]

Deactivating the EWS is a good touch,

Bit of a kick in the balls if you offer EWS delete ecu's tho

Try it out and let us know how you get on

[Grrrmachine]

The EWS post was linked to in the forum, and went to an american site from where I "borrowed" the info and the photos. If it can be confirmed to be a lot of bollocks, then I'll get rid of it.

[LagunaE30]

hmmm, the ews delete does sound interesting, but surely it cant be that easy?

[randomspeedfreak]

surely that ews delete dosent work!?

also the throttle cable says e36 but it needs to be e34 525?

[Grrrmachine]

Good stuff guys. I've made the updates, and I'll be keeping an eye on this thread in the future.

If anyone wants to say something about the different heads I'd appreciate it; I'm drowning in info here, and having never done an M5x swap a lot of it is going over my head.

[randomspeedfreak]

Good stuff guys. I've made the updates, and I'll be keeping an eye on this thread in the future.

If anyone wants to say something about the different heads I'd appreciate it; I'm drowning in info here, and having never done an M5x swap a lot of it is going over my head.

thankyou for doing it is a good page so far

[Jozi]

Just seeing this now, great work on the wiki.

Is it worth mentioning a e30 323 or e21 323 flywheel also fits and that it's already lightened, I don't think it needs machining either?

[Grrrmachine]

Thanks for your comments guys.

The Heads are done and the VANOS system is explained (which was new to me; I thought it was a cam-changing system, not cam-phasing). But it's all there now.