Engine Replacement

[alan325i]

Hi

I have an F reg 325i who sadly has done 210,000 miles.........but i have aquired an engine from a H reg which has only done 85,000.

Now, will this fit in with no extra changes like the ECU etc.... and also is it easier to take engine out with the gear box still attached? As i have heard the there is one bolt on the gear box which is a bugger to get to.

Any helpful hints would not go amiss as this will be the first time i have replaced an engine so no doubt will have a few choice words with my car at the time

Cheers
Alan

[Davenotouring]

I believe the ECU will be the same, if they are both facelift cars.

Someone should confirm this!

Also, apparently, although I am yet to do this myself, the engine can be removed with the gearbox. I will be attempting to change my 2.0 to 2.5 soon. (with help!)

Whats wrong with the high mileage engine?

[alan325i]

Not alot wrong with the high mileage......if it was on a lunar rocket....... but it still pulls like stink only thing wrong with it is it makes a few clunks and clatters when cold.......infact you call compare it to an early deisel.

[Toby_Unna]

manual? if it's an auto then the engine and box are a BIG long lump and you'll need a good hoist with a lot of lift on it!

i just removed an e34 535 auto engine and box together on sunday, and it was a pain because the car was sitting low (no wheels) and i couldn't get the front of the engine high enough without the box hitting the ground and the transmission tunnel. (luckily the guy had a huge Stihl Saw so i just cut the front of the car off in the end)

removing a box on the car is fiddly but perfectly possible, just use a good 3/8 drive socket set with long extensions and one universal joint at the socket-end.

hope this makes some sense!

[alan325i]

Its a straight swap from a manual to a manual. Does the car nee to be put on car ramps?

[Toby_Unna]

if you remove the box first then i've always used just good high stands at the front before. if you use stands then you don't really want four because you could push the car off em if you tried hard enough! you will definately need a hoist though. i did remove my old m535i engine with just four mates and a trolley jack, but again that was a scrapper - and it was NOT fun!

when you remove the engine (or engine and box) then you need the car quite low, just sitting on its wheels will do.

hopefully someone else has removed the whole lot in one go and can give you pointers... the only time ive attempted it was on sunday and as i say the car wasn't much use afterwards as the front was cut off!

[325dude]

i was taking the engine out of my 325 turbo and i couldnt seperate the box from the engine so they both hat to come out at once a pain in the bum as there were only two of us to make the job easyer i took the head off first but i had forgotten to take the slave cylinder off dohhh so the pipe got snapped and both me and my mate had sore backs in the morning ...................j

[Turbo-Brown]

I found the top two gearbox to engine mount bolts to be the most difficult to undo.

Just couldn't get a straight run at them with the sockets. The only way seemed to be to use two universal joints but that didn't work either so we ended up working the whole lot forward untill I could get a breaker bar on them.

I'll be reinstalling the engine with the 'box attached.

My plan (thus far) is to get the back of the 'box pointing down into the engine bay, then to lift the front of the car up around it and then jiggle it all into place.

The problem with these cars seems to be that the front doesn't come off like it does on most, so you need a hoist which can lift bloody miles to get the engine out. As a last resort, I ended up with the engine above the headlights with half of it supported by the hoist and me standing on the chassis rails lifting the other half.

Not safe or fun, but it worked. Thankfully, despite appearances to the contrary, the M20 325 engine ain't all that heavy.