E30 Zone

i thought i'd throw a few pics up of my latest project.

i missed the 'ol V8........ so i thought i'd do it again.

Bloody hell glenn. That wiring looks like a right challenge, is it an easy conversion electrically wise?

Looking forward to another epic engine conversion

Looking forward to seeing the progress dude.. About time you put the proper lump in..

Good luck!!

you dont stop

that wiring looks truly horrific, respect to anyone who can unpick that and still have a car that works!

ooh fun Can I ask how much the donor car set you back?

Wirings a lot of fun

Get rid of vanos, dbw and it´s a M60 to run, any aftermarket ecu can run it then.
This is the path my friend is taking, simplifies the conversion in all ways.

looks good, please keep us updated with progress and pics!

Cook318IS wrote:Bloody hell glenn. That wiring looks like a right challenge, is it an easy conversion electrically wise?

are you crazy paul? it's a nightmare !

dips346 wrote:you dont stop

i cant help myself dips

Jhonno wrote: About time you put the proper lump in..

i agree dan

JazzMan wrote:ooh fun Can I ask how much the donor car set you back?

about 3.5k plus vat

Gunni wrote:Get rid of vanos, dbw and it´s a M60 to run, any aftermarket ecu can run it then.
This is the path my friend is taking, simplifies the conversion in all ways.

i'd rather keep the vanos units

glenn do to actualy drive the car or just use it to try and fit different engines in.

how many engines has it had in the bay??
s14
s50
s62
s54
s62

Heheh, great!

Why you don't just ditch the original ECU and put something vanos-friendly like DTA or Motec in it. It'd give you some extra horses also

Btw, do you need to drop the front subframe / lift gearbox tunnel? I've understood that S62 is a bit higher than M6x so there'll be a bit of a problem with hood clearance .. ?


Good luck and be sure to post lots of pictures!

there was me sweating over the wiring needed to fit a 16V 106 GTi engine in a 205 rallye track toy for my brother... that looks truly horiffic!

i take it that's the whole car/engine loom sat on the floor?

Why are we panicking?! Glenn has done this before!

yes, the wiring can be a ball-ache, but that's mainly from keeping track of what i've cut.

i dont want to use an aftermarket ecu,

a- i already have an ecu
b- because i believe the factory one is best
c-it's additional expense

one of the big problems with this though is, if the ecu doesn't receive all the information it needs, it will go to 'limp' mode, which limits the rpm to 5500rpm.
two ways around this is,

a- to give the ecu all the information it needs, which is the way i want to do it this time.
this mainly involves keeping the 'dsc' (dynamic stability control) system active.
this is taking information from the dsc/abs module, steering angle sensor and abs sensors.
if the ecu detects the car is out of control (one wheel spinning more than another, outside of its preset parameters), it limits rpm. the e39 takes it's speed information from the rear n/s abs sensor, so to keep the speedo/cluster working (which is what i want), i need to use that sensor, and it just so happens that the e30 m3 and e39, both have 48 tooth abs rings!

b- if i get it wrong, or cut the wrong wires by mistake, i have something to fall back on...
the ecu has a 'dyno' setting, which allows the car to go on a dyno. this setting ignores the different wheel speeds and allows the full 7000rpm. so i could, if i need to, get the ecu re-flashed to stay at this map.

Glenn, all respect to you sir...

Thanks for the precise and clear explanation!

Subscribing !

we got sent home mid-afternoon today due to the weather.
so i got stuck into the e39 and apart from the gear linkage,
the engine and box are ready to come out

You should have it done in no time them considering you've done it all before

Looking forward to seeing this progress!

managed to get the engine out this afternoon.
just a couple of little things left to get off the e39 shell, like fuel pump etc.
i'll make a start on the installation tomorrow

had a little go today.
removed the gearbox, removed the four manifolds, removed the offside engine mounting, and altered the nearside mounting so that it can still have the remote oil filter housing pipes running through whats left of it.
lifted the gearbox into the tunnel, ready for re-fitting later.
engine was then lifted into the engine bay. it's just sat on the crossmember for now.

You don't hang around do you Good going, especially in this sort of weather!

you are a complete legend! keep the photo's coming!

Damn that thing looks sexy in that engine bay


Would it be possible to get couple of pictures of the original exhaust manifolds, thanks!

Jonsku wrote:Damn that thing looks sexy in that engine bay


Would it be possible to get couple of pictures of the original exhaust manifolds, thanks!

here you go mate, hope they are of use to you.......

nearside




offside






couldn't get to work today as we had another 8" of snow last night, so i've been in the garage most of the day.
i've been making the new engine mountings, but ran out of mig wire this afternoon. i'll post some pics up of them when i finish them.

Thank you!

They look to me like "normal" M6x exhaus manifolds, though the righthand-side (offside in uk?) looks bit weird because of the (missing?) heat shield in the 1-3 cyl manifold.


Are you going to make new mounts to the body (and use original engine mounts) or to the engine (and use original e30 engine mounting location)?

Have you had any problems with the front subframe strength?

Lots of questions but the project is very interesting

Jonsku wrote:Thank you!

They look to me like "normal" M6x exhaus manifolds, though the righthand-side (offside in uk?) looks bit weird because of the (missing?) heat shield in the 1-3 cyl manifold.


Are you going to make new mounts to the body (and use original engine mounts) or to the engine (and use original e30 engine mounting location)?

Have you had any problems with the front subframe strength?

Lots of questions but the project is very interesting

i dont know if the manifolds are the same as other M6x engine, but according to realoem, some of the manifolds have different part numbers.

the new mounts i'm making will replace the existing mounts, and will mount to the crossmember. i'm replacing the offside mount completly. on the nearside, i'm still making a complete new mount, but i'm leaving a small part of the old mount as the oil filter pipes / oilways run through the original engine mount.

i haven't had any issue's with the subframes. have you?

glenn wrote:i dont know if the manifolds are the same as other M6x engine, but according to realoem, some of the manifolds have different part numbers.

That's weird. Well not actually weird but those manifolds look so bad when considering fluid dynamics that one wouldn't believe they'd be used in S-engines.

Well, i guess BMW engineers know it a bit better than me

i haven't had any issue's with the subframes. have you?

I did strengthen my subframe because the old one had some cracks in it after one summer with M30, so i thought it'd be better to play it safe. Weak points are engine mount "ears" and stabilizer - holder mounting points (which bend quite easily btw). Here's a pic:



There's some discussion about subframe strengthening on s14.net and i remember ireland engineering or some other firm selling weldable reinforcement plates. Anyways, it might be a thing worth considering .. ?

Fook me, here was me thinking it was alittle cold to change a gearbox over the cold snap

Lookinf forward to following the progress!

Massive respect Glenn. Looks like you're a real pro. Hopefully I'll be able to do something like this one day.......

nothing else was ever really going to be enough, was it!

car looks great.

Alright Toby, long time no see