E36 engine conversion advice needed - 4 pot to 6 pot

[slammage]

Hi chaps been a while !
Right my daily e36 1.6 is whining and generally tired and its underpowered with such a small engine to a heavy car- mpg is poor as well! but i do want to keep it as it has some sentimental value to me.

So instead of replacing the box and engine like for like , what would be the easiest bolt in / plug and play swap for me? 2.5 m50? 2.3 lumps (been told these are basically a 2.5??) plug and play wiring as well would be ideal?

Can some folk on here guide me and educate me into what would be the easiest and best £ to buck swap i should be looking for ?

So its currently a 1998 S reg 1.6 (m42?) lump touring for specs sake.
Thanks in advance looking foward to the replies

[kevfromwales]

I took the 2.5 engine out of our knackered e36 cabby drift shed, the engine harness and ecu unhooks very simply, then it was just a case of disconnecting a few bits and out.
It'll be going into a 320i eventually, but both of these were early pre EWS cars, so with yours being later it'll have that complication to sort out, plus you'll need the six pot cars bigger brakes etc, probably best to look for a complete donor car

Go for it, six pot e36s are for winners

[slammage]

Apr 7, 2015 22:30:28 GMT kevfromwales said:

I took the 2.5 engine out of our knackered e36 cabby drift shed, the engine harness and ecu unhooks very simply, then it was just a case of disconnecting a few bits and out.
It'll be going into a 320i eventually, but both of these were early pre EWS cars, so with yours being later it'll have that complication to sort out, plus you'll need the six pot cars bigger brakes etc, probably best to look for a complete donor car

Go for it, six pot e36s are for winners

hi Kev good to see you on here again

yeah I was thinking that a donor car may be the sensible way of doing it? will have to have a look around to see what I can find I guess

[bmw2101]

if its a 1600 [m40] itll be like my car was originally,
solid front disks



easy way for more power is a m44 or m42 engine, 4 pot, 136bph you can cut your standard exhaust to fit if you use the m44/42 downpipes, same box, prop etc.

The engines plug and play, you will need the ews module from the engine with the chip out of the key, or get enda ward to de ews it, and take the rev limit to 7,200 and they howl at those revs.



m52 or what ever 6 pot, you need the box, prop, clocks, exhaust, and a few other bits...


hth

[bmw2101]

oh btw, you can get the calipers and disks from a Is/ti or 328 they are the same size but vented, tehy are dead cheep.

[BenzBoy]

I've converted my 320i to a 2.5 M52 recently. I definitely recommend buying a donor car, it makes it so much easier to get all those little bits and pieces that you'll need, particularly if going from 4-pot to 6-pot.

www.bimmerforums.co.uk has a great section for engine conversions, most problems have been covered. Endtuning on that forum is the guy to get the EWS immobiliser removed. You'll need to send your ECU away to him but he turns them around really quick, and is a knowledgeable chap.

The loom plugs in to the round X20 connector in the engine bay and is more or less "plug and play" although there may be differences between pin locations on 4 cyl and 6 cyl cars (I don't know). My loom just plugged in without problem despite the car being a really early one and the engine being from 1999. There's a guide to pin locations on the internet, although I just plugged it in and tried it!

You'll have the small-case diff, which is loads of fun teamed with a torquey 6 cylinder, but not that good if you're bothered about fuel economy. If you had a full donor car you could swap the diff too if you wanted a more relaxed mile-muncher.