318 tds into e30??

[zimmerkid]

Believe me I am ready for the abuse which is about to start on this thread. With the current price of fuel I see this as the best option for an engine swap at the moment.
I already have an m42 fitted from an e36 but it isn't economical enough, and certainly isn't fast enough to warrant 30 mpg. So I might aswell have a slow car and good mpg from a diesel engine.

Has anyone done this already? What sort of problems am I likely to encounter doing this swap? Any comments will be taken into consideration and appreciated.
Thanks

[e301988325i]

Jesus no, it doesn't have enough power to pull the skin off custard. LPG your M42.

[zimmerkid]

my m42 is pants though, it doesnt spin wheels in dry, goes like a roket, but only after 5500 rpm. I was expecting a lot more when I did the engine swap! I no its a good engine, it came out of an e36 with 56k on the clock Figured that a 318 tds engine in an e30 would be just as good but with more economy!!

[bridgemond]

My m42 spins in the dry no problem, Them 318 tds are meant to be very underpowered

[e301988325i]

M42 = 130-140bhp

1664cc tds = 85 - 90bhp

Honestly LPG or a better job are the solutions.

[UweM3]

I bought a E46 320d as daily driver. 50mpg! on the motorway at speed limit 60-65mpg....

Find a crashed one an you have all you need for the transplant.

[jann]

My m42 spins in the dry no problem, Them 318 tds are meant to be very underpowered

Ditto

[e301988325i]

I bought a E46 320d as daily driver. 50mpg! on the motorway at speed limit 60-65mpg....

Find a crashed one an you have all you need for the transplant.

To put any of the E46 engine's in I believe you need to transplant all the electrical systems from the E46 as they are all intertwined, ABS, traction, security (immobilizer) etc?

[robbo86]

I'll do the usual stock response of:

The cost of conversion will outweigh the savings made unless doing mega mileage. That said I'd love to see a 330d put in one of these!

[UweM3]

I bought a E46 320d as daily driver. 50mpg! on the motorway at speed limit 60-65mpg....

Find a crashed one an you have all you need for the transplant.

To put any of the E46 engine's in I believe you need to transplant all the electrical systems from the E46 as they are all intertwined, ABS, traction, security (immobilizer) etc?

I may have the right man at hand to solve this.

[Torq]

The 318tds into e30 swap is one i've been thinking about for a couple of years. There is a guy on this forum who has fitted a 325tds into an e30 touring and says it wasn't too difficult. So today i bought a 318tds to do the swap and then saw this thread!

I'm in ireland and we more or less gave up on lpg in the 80's with only 40ish stations stocking it here. Also diesel is about 6c cheaper than petrol most of the time and as i do around 25k miles per year it's a swap that would pay for itself soon enough.

An m47n from a 320d will do 53mpg at 75mph and 60mpg at 55mpg or at least thats what my last one did. This swap is also a trial run, if it works out well i'll be putting an m57n into an e28.

Last point. The m41 can be chiped/remapped to around 120bhp with bags of torque.

[darkchild]

my m42 is pants though

God knows what you'd make of the 318tds donk then! Bloody awful. Just buy a M43 powered E36. Similar MPG to the 318tds but a far nicer drive.

[sajad09]

I bought a E46 320d as daily driver. 50mpg! on the motorway at speed limit 60-65mpg....

Find a crashed one an you have all you need for the transplant.

Or maybe an E34 525tds?

[e301988325i]

Guy's before you start putting these E36 diesel engines in your E30's you should know that the injection pumps were designed to pump diesel with sulphur, the sulphur is an EP (extreme pressure) lubricant, now that this is removed the pumps wear out, I bought my E36 325tds 4 years ago with a refurbed pump @ £1500 fitted. The symptoms of a worn pump tend to be hot starting issues, with long cranking required to get it going.

The 325tds lump M51 was fitted to a variety of different cars. The pumps are seldom interchangeable between the models the engine were fitted to, there were different pumps (as far as interchangeability is concerned) fitted to the E34, E36, Vauxhall Omega, Range Rover and a fiat camper van of some description, as well as these not being interchangeable, there are pumps across model years that are also not interchangeable.

The E46 compact 320td diesel has so many problems I can't be bothered to lsit them, the same with the E46 320d (different to the compact engine), turbos cranks swirl flaps etc.

But in complete contrast the 330d engines are virtually indestructable.

The VAG group 1.9tdi is a much more reliable engine, and IIRC was fitted longitudinally in the A4, which might go in the E30, and with a £50 chip are known to do 65+mpg.

[Torq]

Mention an m47 engine and all you hear is horror stories about swirl flaps and turbo failure. If they were really that unreliable then the engine would have had a very short production run and not the 5 years before they were modified. I bought a 03 m74n engined 320d touring with 167K miles on the clock and no service history. Sold it a year later with 191K and not a problem during that 24k miles. Never got below 50mpg and nearly all my driving was motorway at 75mph .

I now have a Seat people carrier with the 115bhp VAG diesel engine, it's not a patch on the beemer. A mate has the 130bhp in his 03 passat estate, it never achieves the economy the beemer could and no where near the performance.

Finally the VAG engines suffer from cam lobe wear.

[UweM3]

Guy's before you start putting these E36 diesel engines in your E30's you should know that the injection pumps were designed to pump diesel with sulphur, the sulphur is an EP (extreme pressure) lubricant, now that this is removed the pumps wear out, I bought my E36 325tds 4 years ago with a refurbed pump @ £1500 fitted. The symptoms of a worn pump tend to be hot starting issues, with long cranking required to get it going.

The 325tds lump M51 was fitted to a variety of different cars. The pumps are seldom interchangeable between the models the engine were fitted to, there were different pumps (as far as interchangeability is concerned) fitted to the E34, E36, Vauxhall Omega, Range Rover and a fiat camper van of some description, as well as these not being interchangeable, there are pumps across model years that are also not interchangeable.

The E46 compact 320td diesel has so many problems I can't be bothered to lsit them, the same with the E46 320d (different to the compact engine), turbos cranks swirl flaps etc.

But in complete contrast the 330d engines are virtually indestructable.

The VAG group 1.9tdi is a much more reliable engine, and IIRC was fitted longitudinally in the A4, which might go in the E30, and with a £50 chip are known to do 65+mpg.

remove the swirl flaps, it's a piece of cake. Disable the EGR and keep everything reasonable clean inside the inlet tract. I can only second the mpg figures. You need to drive like a loonie to get below 50mpg and the thing pulls like a train.

[Torq]

Back to putting the M41 318tds engine into an E30.

One word sums up the biggest problem SUMP. As it's at the back of the block it's going to be in the way of the crossmember, as far as I can determine there is no front pan BMW sump that will work with the m41 engine without a good amount of modification.

[Kieran_n22]

Finally the VAG engines suffer from cam lobe wear.

them PD engines NEED regular oil changes and NEED expensive oil (I think 5W40). Without that the cam does mess up and the same thing with the gearbox oil you NEED to change it regularly. VAG diesel engines are brilliant trust me! They've been doing it way before BMW!