325 conversion

[325sport]

I currently have a 318 but i have just got hold of a 325 engine. does anyone know what is involved with swapping the engines over. i have got the 325 gearbox clutch ecu and wiring loom. i will change the back axle for the disk brakes. do i need new engine mounts and a shorter prop shaft? any help would be great

[stevetigger]

Straight swap!

[bottlecapE30]

if you do the rear disks make sure you use a 325 master cyl. if you don't your bais will be way off i found that out the hard way ouch

[Andy325i]

I currently have a 318 but i have just got hold of a 325 engine. does anyone know what is involved with swapping the engines over. i have got the 325 gearbox clutch ecu and wiring loom. i will change the back axle for the disk brakes. do i need new engine mounts and a shorter prop shaft? any help would be great

I did this swap on my original E30 a few years ago

It is a pretty easy swap, what year is the car? and what year is the engine?

I used the 325i propshaft and engine mounts

Things to think about are:

Engine loom and ECU
Engine mounts
Gearbox, crossmember and prop
Exhaust system
Radiator, expansion tank and coolent pipes
Plug in modual in the speedo head that tells it if its being used with a 4 or 6 cyl engine.

Coil and fuel pump will be fine to get it mobile but may be worth a thought at a later stage, and also as you mention, the diff and rear brakes. While your going to the effort of changing the diff it would be worth while fitting an LSD if you can find one at a sensible price (£200 ish is about normal I think) I paid £40 for the disc trailing arms. IIRC the 325i driveshafts are shorter to allow for the larger casing of the 325i diff compaired to the smaller case 318i item.

Hope this helps


Bottlecap, what did you find with the M/C issue?
I fitted the disc brakes to my 318i and never had any issues, just better brakes

Edit:

Just looked on the realoem site and it gives the same part no for the 318i and 325i M/cyl (34311157206)

Andy