why why why *pics*

[cooots]

is there not many M52 conversions.. ?? to my mind this has to be one of the best conversions as the tunning possibilitys are emence, and the fact i recently wrote off my E36 328 coupe and have an engine sitting

as i said i wrote off my 328, so went out and bought an E46 M3 SMG, now i have to say i love this car but i dont want to bump up the milage on it excesivley which im doin at the minute. so my plan is to buy an E30, to run about while i tune up my 328 engine .. then drop it into the E30.

can anyone tell me what mods need done to this engine to make it fit.. i beleive there is an issue with the temp sensor but dont know what other parts will need altered to fit the E30

thanks!!

[beardymat]

nice first post, afraid im not much help for the conversion but was wondering why people dont do this more often myself.just sold an e36 328 sport that i have had for a couple of months and i must say they are an impressive engine with good power right from low revs all the way to redline.plus theyre light and easily tunable with just a 325 inlet manifold and big bore throttle body supposedly giving around 220 bhp.

hope you do the conversion and post plenty of progress pics cause itll be one i watch closely

[ian332isport]

Hi Cooots,

Welcome to the Zone

Ste has recently started doing this very conversion.

http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... ic&t=40448

and Andy has recently finished one.

http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... hlight=m52

http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... hlight=m52

http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... hlight=m52

Cheers,

Ian.

[cooots]

thanks for the links.. thats my bedtime reading tonight lol

im offshore but i work 3/3 so hopefully (if the missus permits) i will have plenty of time to get started on this, anyway here is a few pics of, well you could say progress.... ish lol

this is my M3 that i wanna keep the miles low on..


and this is my old 328 that i erm put through a couple of lamposts.. it hurt!




obviously the last was before my lil bump..

now gettin the engine out of a very twisted car.. used a little help lol


and lastly my garage.. didnt have time to get it all tidied up as i was heading offshore the following day, so kinda looks like a bm chop shop

[cooots]

just a quick update, the whole project was put on a back burner as i ended up buying a house... so now that im settled in the house i should have a bit more time to play with engines, however, speaking to a friend and the plans have changed slightly...

now instead of a straight forward engine swap...... i want to turbocharge the 2.8 lump AND then my chum is a bit of an expert with 4x4...... i.e he wants me to get a cossie drive chain and convert it to 4x4....

any opinions on this?? anyone done anything like it??

[jon_pure_british]

this will be some E30!!!!

why not get a 4x4 set up from an 'ix'?

[toby]

The ix drivetrain has been said to not be strong enough to take more power than the 325i delivers. Don't know how substantial this is.

cooots, that is some crash boy! Glad (I'm assuming) you're ok.

[eko]

Fantastic first post Coootes,can see you fitting in well on the zone!
Love the M3 and good idea to keep the mileage down i guess.
328 took some hit eh,did you come out unscathed?
Plans for your conversion sound good and as Ian said a couple have already on the zone so youll get so much good info from their threads!
Hoping to do an M52 conversion for myself(monet permitting).
Ive gone for the M50 in mine with this one,more because it was so much cheaper to get on the road,but the basics are the same as a 52 so its a good starting block

Anyway make sure you keep a photo diary when you start the conversion,always makes for an interesting read

[jkarran]

Was looking at Saphire Cosworth setup myself the other day while idly considering something similar (read 'dreaming' ) Looks quite well suited thought you'll lose some pedal box/leg space to the transfer box/chain drive.

You'll also probably need a fair bit of sump chopping to make room for diff and shafts plus of course you'll need to find a 3.62:1 BM rear diff or fit a ford one to match the frod front diff. I'd imagine iX diffs and sump might be an option if you can find them. There was an E34 525iX, was that M50/52 engined?

Looked at AUDI and Scooby boxes too, both have the front axel behind the clutch Ok on a straight 4 or flat 4 Crap when fitted to a straight6 or V12. How do AUDI ever make this work with their five pots

Cool idea,
jk

[cooots]

thanks for the encouragement

im not set on the cossie drive train so will look about, but to be honest i want to start with the engine, get all the bits done to that then look at the 4x4 before the engine goes in...

i know i will loose some power through the 4x4 but when your talking 2.8 turbo surely this will still leave evos and scoobies standing... there only 2ltr turbo.. can only but wait and see, when i get started i will take plenty of pics etc of all my botched jobs that i have to do 4 times before i get it right lol thank god my chum knows what he is doin with 4x4 (he did it to his corsa with a 2.5 turbo engine)

[tim-ix]

Check out E30tech.com for info on mating an S50 or S52 to the iX drivetrain.

As far as I can make out you need a 325iX bodyshell and gearbox, a 525iX transfer case, sump, front diff and driveshafts.

It all sounds possible but will doubtless be easier said than done.

[retroracer]

you might find this helpfull

http://www.e3024v.com

[DanThe]

Not very popular because its hard to come by a decent engine, your lucky to have had a 328 thats lasted so long

[m-dtech]

nice one mate, good conversion ;)

i see you have adopted the "agricultural" method like me !!

m52 is pretty much like the m50 plenty info on here

[fuzzy]

there was someone on here a while back who had started to convert his e30 touring to run the cossie 4wd system but ended up giving up. he had to do a lot of cutting and welding to reshape the floor and transmission tunnel and also the boot floor if i remember correctly. ill watch this with interest as 4wd is in my future plans

[m-dtech]

i saw this and thought of you ..........................

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Subaru-Impreza-WR ... dZViewItem

[jon_pure_british]

an idea is... partly mentioned above

get an IX shell and then upgrade/mod some other 4x4 setup onto it?

[jkarran]

i saw this and thought of you ..........................

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Subaru-Impreza-WR ... dZViewItem

Cheap

... but look where the shafts come out
jk

[m-dtech]

IIRC the 325IX uses a chain driven transferbox ?

[tim-ix]

Hi m-dtech.

The iX has a centre differential with a silicone-filled viscous coupling. The power comes back through the gearbox to the centre diff where it is split and (in normal driving) 37% is sent forward and the remainder backwards.

The best place I've found for info on the iX is www.e30tech.com though it is very American and some of the regular contributors can get a bit arsey. Maybe better to read than to get involved in.

Ther's a live thread on there at the moment with an Estonian guy called Raimo fitting an s50 to an iX that may interest you Cooots.

edited for spelling

[suzie650]

And there's a guy in germany (think it's on e30.de) who has already done the s50B30 conversion on an iX. He reconed the drivetrain was plenty strong enough but the front diff. He went trough one every second year... But he was drifting the thing, mind.

Probably the best solution. to make it an AWD

[m-dtech]

selectable 4wd would be good..........

[tim-ix]

You won't get selectable 4wd from any BMW based set-up as far as I understand it. I'd have thought it would add enormously to the difficulty of building the system too. If you've got the skills though it would be something special.

As far as the strength of the iX transmission goes there's a bloke by the name of Thing90iX on e30tech who's running a twin-turbo iX and he seems to cope with it alright. I think fitting bigger tyres then dumping the clutch at 4000rpm would be the worst thing you could do to the iX. As long as you give it progressive inputs it should be okay.

[m-dtech]

here is the mt75 box from a ford cosworth 4x4 you can see the output for the front mini prop to front diff.



and here is the front diff.



if you could have a plate made up to join the ford box to m50 engine then your on a winner

[DanThe]

A mounting plate would be a pain in the ass, it would cause problems with clutch/spigot bearing etc.

The usual way round it is to cut a section of the required bell housing off and have it welded onto the new gearbox at the right place for installation angle and the input shaft to locate in the spigot bearing.

[m-dtech]

the vw beetle boys do this for the pinto..............

http://www.esslingeracing.com/merchant2 ... ry_Code=VW

[jkarran]

There is another option for the gearbox rather than the big Cossie or iX boxes. Use a strong fwd box (something like that found on modern V6 fords maybe) mounted longitudinally. Plug prop shafts into the diff. It will only ever give you 50:50 torque split without a tricky custom diff but the shafts spin the right way and will be in roughly the right place. You could always fit an lsd as well.

You could probably get away with running a rear diff upside down (with breather mods) at moderate power levels. Drive to 'coast' faces of the ring and pinion gears.

<edit>Hmm... upon reflection there is an obvious problem with this otherwise neat idea, you'd get essentially two final drives in series resulting in very low gearing (eg 16:1 if fwd box and rear axel both have 4:1 diffs ). Can't think of a cheap way to get around that. Pity I've seen this done in a trials car (2wd) but that only had two or three gears probably 3rd and 4th + reverse with hindsight.

jk

[ed325i]

Here is a 336ix

http://wp1016621.wp027.webpack.hosteuro ... f01604.htm

[m-dtech]

is the 525ix running gear stronger ?

its 192bhp anyway ?