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M3 Engine Swap (pics)

7K views 26 replies 11 participants last post by  SpeedInfusion 
#1 ·
DAY 1

*appologies to all whole posted in the thread the first time, i had to move them to compress this thread, once again sorry to the 20 people who did post*

well, today was the big day, i got the engine , he came late so i didnt get too much done but i got some pics going.(not too detailed but ill explain as i go along).
the leakdown test was done when the engine arrived, it passed with flying colors very near perfect in all cylinders except cylinder 6 which passed amazing (but a little less than the other 5, i think 9%)

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this is a pic of the engine after i put it on the engine stand, disregard the e46 m3 engine in the background, the guy wants to put it in an Mz3, but stupid him, he cut all the wiring harnesses and forgot crutial parts, so now it sits there untill i comes up with about 5000 in cash for harnesses and parts. haha.

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this is a pic of the engine again, i just soaked the manifold bolts so i can remove them and change the gasket (just for the sake of it)
also the plugs are out, because i am gonna change the valve cover gasket, there was a little oil on plug 3, so nows the time.undefined


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i took this time to take out my idle control valve and sure enough it needed to be blasted with cleaner , it was sticking quite a bit. now shes like brand new after a few good shots of lubricant.
-i found that when you take it out, if you shake it in rolling motion side to side, you should hear a "clack,clack,clack" what you do to fix it is bomb it with a good lubricant, let it sit for about an hour, then go and try to shake it, if it still doesnt do it, than hit it with lubricant again and let it sit, mine was very stuck and it worked just fine after the second attempt, with no effort it makes that "clack,clack ,clack"
sound (its the sound of the valve opening and closing)

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well here it is with the vavle cover off, amazingly clean for a 95, the guy before must have kept up with his oil changes. i dont have a pic of the valve gasket but it was in fair condition, however ready to be changed, the inner valve gasket (goes around where the sparkplug holes are) were in pretty bad shape.
-note to take off the valve cover you need only two sizes 10mm and 8mm (10 does pretty much every bolt, and the 8mm is for the grounding wires)
 

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#2 ·
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another pic of the engine with the vavle cover off. the intake manifolds dirty , but never fear that will be spotless soon enough. i did notice a slight bit of marking on the cams, nothing to be worried about, it just tells me that the engine isnt new (but i knew that already) the mechanics in the shop said its quite alright and very minimal considering.

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packing up for the day, like i said the engine came late, so i didnt have much time work on anything. the bag is on the top so nothing can get in by accident, i used the valve cover to weigh down the bag.

call it a day...
 

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#3 ·
DAY 2

ok well again it was a long day, but we didnt get started untill around lunch time so we didnt get the engine pulled but first thing tommorow is pulling the engine. i learned lots of new things, and revisited lots of things i havent done in a while. sorry about a few of the pictures, they are blurry because its hard to take pictures with really greasy and dirty hands. haha

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the first thing i did when i came into the garage was get my idle control valve back together and ready to be put back in. of course with the engine out of the car this procedure is leaps and bounds easier than when the engine is in the car.
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here it is when ive installed it back, both hoses go back on and the sensor clipped back into place, the trick is to install the ICV with the top hose on and then install the bottom one on after, at least that was the way i got the damn thing in, its just as hard with the engine out at some points in the install.


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took this time to clean up the throttle body a bit, there was a bit of gunk, i used a bit of caburator cleaner to get it off, you really dont need much just a quick spritz and give it a light wipe and shes clean again, open the throttle to get inside as far as you can.


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with the valve cover out of the varsol tub (didnt really need a cleaning but im just like that) ,first i checked the two screws located on the inside pannel (dont know the name, but its good to check and make sure they arent loose you dont want them to fall into the engine while its running) i went over it with a scotchbrite pad to just finish cleaning the edges of any rough surfaces, so that the valve cover seats properly.
 

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#4 ·
DAY 2 cont...
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here i am installing the new valve cover bolt gaskets, im using a bit of durko to seal it.
unfortuately i dont have any other pics of the valve cover gasket install, i was so busy between doing that , and getting the car in the shop and ready to get the 2.5 out of it. basically what i did was durko the gasket , adding a little extra near the ears of the gasket (the two half moons on the backpart of the engine) and a few dabs of silicone around the two splits in the design of the head, its just to be safe, they are factory like that , but that is probably the easiest way to get a leak because it is where two parts come together. now with that gasket on and the valve cover on , you need to install the bolts back on, the process is the opposite of the removal, (if i forgot to say the removal of them is inside outwards) to install its outside to inside (meaning work from the outside bolts and work your way towards cylinder 3)
be carefull when tightening them, be sure to make them snug and not overtighten them because youll do what i did, and snap the stud, after replacing the one i snapped i rechecked each one.


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awe im gonna miss this engine. final pics , too bad they are dirty ones. :(
 

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#5 ·
DAY 2 cont...
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here we are removing the throttle body, getting the drivers side of the engine bay some room to work and get to other vital that need to be removed and or disconnected.

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here we are , the clutch fan has just been removed, the belts etc, now we are just draining some of the coolant, and preparing to remove the radiator.


at this point in time, i decided to attend to a few things on my new engine that i wanted to since it arrived, while one of the other mechanics finished clearing out the engine bay.


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here im getting the nuts and studs out of the exhaust manifold and head to replace with new ones. for some i had to double nut it to be able to back the studs out.

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as i go back to check on progress in the car i think to myself ...hmmm should it stay or shoud it go?



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back to work again, i decide to take a look at how the water pump looks in the new engine, to take the pully off remove the four bolts, they re a 10mm at first you need to watch out for the pully spinning, the other thing to worry about is if the pully is made of non-metal not to break it when you pull it off of the engine, it may stick a bit , but be patient and free it up using a small pry bar or large screwdriver.
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remove the waterpump bolts, use a 10mm. the waterpump will not slide out on its own. you need to force it out. use a pair of long 10mm bolts and zap them into the two holes on each side on the waterpump, now alternate sides and slowly and the waterpump should pop out on its own.
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what it looks like on the engine when its out.
 

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#6 ·
day2 cont...

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ah air tools. time to do some work under the car.

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fuel filter needs to be disconnected, kind tough on my car because its burried under the intake manifold amoung other things.
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with the hose connected we let the fuel drain out and move on to the next task


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the exhaust has to be disconnected from the manifold, also to make separating the engine from the bell housing easier. removing the bottom bolts on the bell housing is pretty simple but the top ones ........well they are not so easy actually rather hard.
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ah the slave cylinder, had to also be removed to give better access to the upper housing bolts. you should also drop the transmisson mounts to give more play and a little bit more access to the upper bolts/nuts. somehow i deleted a few of those pics , they were pretty helpfull in showing more of the process. sorry guys and gals
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have to remove my xbrace for a few reasons, first one is to drop the engine for the separating of the engine and transmission.
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unfortunatly this was the only pic i found of when we finally separated the bell housing from the engine.
 

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#7 ·
DAY 2 cont.

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i think its gonna go, im deciding to not install my AC compressor with the new engine.


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finalizing the rest of the dissconnect of all electrical. DME pulled, harness pulled back,
i ended up doing the other disconnects such as alternator removed, started disconnect etc etc.


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the last thing i ended doing before i headed home was started on installing the manifold studs using a bit of blue loctite.
 

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#8 ·
DAY3

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the night before day 3 , on the computer reviewing the forums.

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first thing i did when i got into the shop was finish doing the install of the manifold. using new studs and nuts. turned out pretty good, only a few studs had to be retapped because of whoever had the engine before me had did something to them. so i decided to replace all of them, it was quite boring and tedious especially when i was missing some of the good stuff on the car.

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as i was doing the manifold ricky pulled the exhaust, remove the manifold nuts, the center hanger, and the exhaust clips pretty straight forward. The heatshield was also removed 6 bolts hold it in place one each corner two on the middle outside edge.
the driveshaft was also removed, 3 nuts on the backside(near the differential) and 3 nut and studs on the front (attached to the guibo)

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a shot of the transmission tunnel. just before the tranny was pulled.

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a shot of the tranny when it was pulled.

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ricky hooking up the engine to the hoist, i guided it out while he pulled it up, quite simple you just have to watch out for snags. whats tough is getting a chain to hook up to the rear of the engine, Ricky modified a bar to make this job much easier. the pull went smooth.


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bye bye 2.5
 

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#9 ·
day 3 cont

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intall of the new clutch on the m3 engine, this was new to me so i stood by and watched as he did it. quite simple, things to watch watch out for is to make sure the test pin can move freely when you tighten things down (yellow handled thing in the middle of the clutch), dont get the clutch disk greasy, or it will transfer onto the surface of the flywheel and clutch disk and you will have noise forever. When tightening the flywheel down do it sort of like a wheel , alternate sides and make sure you tighten it down evenly.

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hello 3.0. before you install the engine make sure your engine mounts are ok if not then replace it/them. my left side mount broke when i pulled the old engine, you dont have to replace it there and then but it can make it easier, we changed mine later on. when installing watch for binding and snaggs , especially around where the engine mounts are, we had a little trouble guiding it around the airconditioning hoses and a few hoses on the left side.

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I installed new plugs, used bosh platinum 2's then replaced the ingition coils in their proper spots, it quite impossible to screw up the proper set up of the coils , if you arent sure where each goes, they are numbered on the rail , just follow the proper wire to its proper spot.

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ugg hoses and hoses to reinstall, the starter goes in and sure enough is a pain in the ass to reinstall, i removed it but let the professional resintall it.

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as Ricky did the starter, i decided to intall the alternator, quite simple to do, put the proper wires back on the rear of the alternator, the large red one is obviously power, the smaller one with the blue sheath is for the computer so it can monitor any changes in the voltage (ie, if your charging system light goes on, the signal comes from there) of course ground is the frame.
one long bolt goes on the bottom, the left idler pully holds the top part.

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the steering pump and resevior goes back in, make sure to tighten all bolts properly, quite possible that you can get a leak if you dont do it properly.

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transmission goes back in, as well as the drive shaft. not many pics taken here because we were busy getting everything back into place. however everything goes back in the way it went out. quite straightforward.

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with most of the stuff installed we are amost ready to start it up and make sure it runs.
 

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#10 ·
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oil change required. mmm lucas oil

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belt installed, quite easy but these two pics show the way it goes. if its ribbed the pully than the inside of the belt goes on it, if its smooth than the outside.

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the car wouldnt start, felt like the starter wasnt working, after much though and testing we figured out what it was.... the ground wire, hahah we worked so quick we forgot to ground the engine. it solved the problem. the second problem was the worst of the whole swap, the clutch did not wanna work , it engaged but near the bottom of the floor when your stepping on it, you would get a grinding. so many people said yes it would work, and so many said no, it was such a pain in the ass. this would mean we would need a day 4..........
 

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#11 ·
DAY 4 Final Day

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day 4, i come into the shop to find rick already at work pulling the tranny. i slept in an extra hour doing research on the whole it will fit/wont fit issue. the only thing we could do was pull the tranny and take a look at everything. after we pulled it out, we noticed that the grinding came from the clutch fork hitting the clutch plate, for some reason we measured everything up, the pressure plates were exactly the same, and the pressure plate was like a mm or so different, (like triggerhappi had told me) but the issue wasnt the clearance it was the fingers on the clutchplate, they are sunk in much further than the stock clutch so when everything is together there is next to no clearance for hte clutch fork.
what i learned, is that the clutch fork is the same on both cars, as well as the pin. the differences are the slave and throw out bearing. however with money running tight at this point in time, i decided to just throw my old clutch in . Fruityone(member here on bmw-forums) had told me that this is what he eventually did as well and he has had no problems.

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clutch fan back in, finishing the rest of the cooling system, and adding the coolant (take the chance to double check all fastenings and hoses) bleed the system and your done with the cooling system.

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well we tried the DME that came with the engine and of course it didnt work, reason being that the DME that came with teh car was EWS (anittheft protected) so because we used my original DME we decided to check how it was running using the Co machine. as i figured i was running rich, how the Co machine works is is you remove O2 sensor and the plugs that are on the top of the manifold ,and replace it with the plugs that come in the kit, you intall the two pipes into it which hook up to the machine and measure your Co and hydrocarbons. pretty cool , cant wait to get my custom chip.
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manifold plugs replaced. 02 pluged back in.

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engine is running and ready for its maiden voyage.
after my first drive all i can say is amazing , my tires wouldnt hook in 1st, 2nd and a bit of 3rd. (snow tires and slightly damp road) so much pickup , and my tach was acting all funny because it would studder when i hit the gas then wing itself to the right, it was amazing and so much fun to drive


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My baby Cassidy is now sleeping in the garage, i drove the 100 kilometers back to my mothers house to restore her for the rest of the winter. the drive home was perfect and i had no problems except exceeding the speed limit at every chance , and sometimes by surprise. i cant wait for spring..........


id like to thank the Autotrend www.autotrend.net
thanks to Don Katsumi, Robert, George, Ryan and a very special thanks to Rick Tan, he did all the hard work and taught me a lots of new things. i could not have done any of this without his help and the help of the team. any Toronto BMW owner would be a crazy not to check them out.
 

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#15 ·
Hi,

Few questions:

Does the e36 M3 engine use the same loom as the e36 2.0l engine? Over here in the UK we got a whole range on engines in the e36 (1.6, 1.8, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.3, 3.5). The 2.0 is a six cylinder so am assuming the same block as the 2.5, 3.0, 3.3 and 3.5. Do all e36 M3 engines have EWS? (and if so can you explain how it works?). Also can you recommend a good aftermarket ECU?

Cheers!

Phil
 
#16 ·
Originally posted by finite@Feb 20 2005, 03:58 PM
Hi,

Few questions:

Does the e36 M3 engine use the same loom as the e36 2.0l engine? Over here in the UK we got a whole range on engines in the e36 (1.6, 1.8, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.3, 3.5). The 2.0 is a six cylinder so am assuming the same block as the 2.5, 3.0, 3.3 and 3.5. Do all e36 M3 engines have EWS? (and if so can you explain how it works?). Also can you recommend a good aftermarket ECU?

Cheers!

Phil
[snapback]295562[/snapback]​
i know the obd 1 motors share the same harness(loom) as long as their 6 cylinders but i cant really tell you how it would work in the UK. and ews is an antitheft feature on anything produced starting from 1/95.

so heres the problem with ews. if you have a say 4/95 M3 motor you want to put in a 93 325is...you either need to cut the wire to ews OR get a custom chip burned...or let the dealership rape you and get new keys/ignition tumblers etc.
 
#17 ·
sure i'll e-race you mark...right after i get my turbo in hahahaha
 
#20 ·
Originally posted by finite@Feb 21 2005, 12:58 AM
Hi,

Few questions:

Does the e36 M3 engine use the same loom as the e36 2.0l engine? Over here in the UK we got a whole range on engines in the e36 (1.6, 1.8, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.3, 3.5). The 2.0 is a six cylinder so am assuming the same block as the 2.5, 3.0, 3.3 and 3.5. Do all e36 M3 engines have EWS? (and if so can you explain how it works?). Also can you recommend a good aftermarket ECU?

Cheers!

Phil
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Are you counting Alpina cars too?
Or what are the 3.3 and 3.5? And where is the 3.2?
 
#21 ·
Originally posted by justin93@Apr 6 2005, 05:07 PM
so whats a install like that cost?
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Same question... =\
How much did you spend altogether?
 
#22 ·
the install didnt cost as much as normal only because of couse you can see i helped to quite a bit. it cost me roughly 1300 canadian to do the re-and-re of the engines, but it cost me extra because the last day was a waste of time over the whole clutch issue.
 
#24 ·
Originally posted by justin93@Apr 7 2005, 09:51 PM
where did you get that engine and how much?
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its a secret..........lol joking, i actually picked it up off a guy locally, he was gonna use it in his track 325 but instead threw a turbo on the 2.5litre motor. THEN he crashed his car , so he needed the money for fixing, thus me getting my engine, otherwise he wouldnt have sold it.
 
#26 ·
Originally posted by bigred318@Apr 7 2005, 11:55 PM
another good place is auctions etc... get the whole car and you are set

David
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ya would be sweet to buy a wrecked e46 and do a s54 transplant ;)
 
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