e36 bmw motor swap ???s

[nissy92]

so i have a 94 325is 5 speed.i bought a 98 328 motor/harness/ecu. im wondering what modifications will need to be made to make it work.will the 325 trans bolt up to the 328 motor? what clutch will work?i also plan on using the 325 intake manifold. thanks ~leon

[twastheglow]

Originally Posted by nissy92

so i have a 94 325is 5 speed.i bought a 98 328 motor/harness/ecu. im wondering what modifications will need to be made to make it work.will the 325 trans bolt up to the 328 motor? what clutch will work?i also plan on using the 325 intake manifold. thanks ~leon

I used to have a '93 318is that had a full 328 swap. It was done before I bought the car so I didn't do any of the work, but I can tell you that if you're keeping the M52 ecu, you're going need to also swap in the EWSII system, which means you're going to need the full lock set+keys including the igntion.

The motor will bolt up to the tranny just fine.

[FazdaGt]

For all of that work why not go s50, or s52? Those swaps are essentially the exact same amount of work with much more potential....

[supraghost]

yeah the 328 motor is hardly an upgrade from the 325

[FazdaGt]

Personally if I were tackling a swap in an e36 it'd be s54 or ls1...

I helped a buddy s50 swap a 318is a few years back, it was as simple as pulling the m42, installing the s50 and swapping the ecu and engine harnesses.

That was obdI to obdI though. The 328 engine is going to be obdII and your car is not so you may have to do more than just a simple engine harness and ecu swap.

[FazdaGt]

But as Mike said, the trans will work.

[jjm4life]

gotta go with fazda on this. motor swap seems like a waste of time, just not enough of an upgrade.

[twastheglow]

Originally Posted by FazdaGt

For all of that work why not go s50, or s52? Those swaps are essentially the exact same amount of work with much more potential....

Originally Posted by supraghost

yeah the 328 motor is hardly an upgrade from the 325

Originally Posted by FazdaGt

But as Mike said, the trans will work.

Originally Posted by jjm4life

gotta go with fazda on this. motor swap seems like a waste of time, just not enough of an upgrade.

I agree with all of this. Unless there's something wrong with the M50 and you already have access to an M52, this WILL be a lot of work for very little gains.

And as both Fazda and I already mentioned, it's not going to be a straight swap since you're doing OBDI to OBDII. It's going to be more complicated than that. With that being said, again, unless you're doing this swap out of necessity, I wouldn't bother either.

[nissy92]

i cracked my oil pan and the original motor had 200k on it.i got the 328 motor trans and ecu for pretty much nothing with a warranty

[twastheglow]

Originally Posted by nissy92

i cracked my oil pan and the original motor had 200k on it.i got the 328 motor trans and ecu for pretty much nothing with a warranty

Unfortunately, you're in for more work than just swapping the motor and calling it a day. The M52 is OBDII and also utilizes an EWSII system. The EWS is just BMW's version of a security system that uses a chipped key to allow the car to be driven (like many other manufacturers). But, with the EWS, it's pretty difficult to work around. In order for your M52 ecu to work, it needs to recognize the original EWS system that was synched with that ecu as well as the chipped key that matched that EWS system. The work around for that is picking up an EWSII that has a matching lock set/keys + ignition then having BMW re-synch the ecu to recognize it.

Just to give you an idea of how it's supposed to be done "right", when the PO of my 318/328 did the swap, they swapped in the motor/tranny, ecu, wiring harness, complete EWSII system (as I mentioned before, that also would include all the locks, the ignition and obviously the keys that match that EWSII system), the gauge cluster as well as the OBDII port underneath the dash below the steering column.

As far as short cuts and "work arounds", I'm sure there are some. Unfortunately I don't know them off the top of my head. I would research on Bimmerforums for the do's and don'ts.

BUT...in my honest opinion, if it were me, I would sell the M52 and pick up an S50 as previously mentioned for 2 simple reasons. A) It'll be a MUCH easier swap. THAT swap would be plug and play. The M50 and S50 are basically the same motor when you boil it down so that'll be a piece of cake. B) Also as mentioned before, you're going to go through a ton of work to basically get you right back to where you were power wise. If you're going to pull a motor, you might as well replace it with something better than what was in there. The S50 will give you a nice power increase over the M50.

[mcperson2k]

sr20!!!

[PAFirefighter11]

Yah, just go buy my S52 E36 M3 :-D

[nissy92]

Originally Posted by twastheglow

Unfortunately, you're in for more work than just swapping the motor and calling it a day. The M52 is OBDII and also utilizes an EWSII system. The EWS is just BMW's version of a security system that uses a chipped key to allow the car to be driven (like many other manufacturers). But, with the EWS, it's pretty difficult to work around. In order for your M52 ecu to work, it needs to recognize the original EWS system that was synched with that ecu as well as the chipped key that matched that EWS system. The work around for that is picking up an EWSII that has a matching lock set/keys + ignition then having BMW re-synch the ecu to recognize it.

Just to give you an idea of how it's supposed to be done "right", when the PO of my 318/328 did the swap, they swapped in the motor/tranny, ecu, wiring harness, complete EWSII system (as I mentioned before, that also would include all the locks, the ignition and obviously the keys that match that EWSII system), the gauge cluster as well as the OBDII port underneath the dash below the steering column.

As far as short cuts and "work arounds", I'm sure there are some. Unfortunately I don't know them off the top of my head. I would research on Bimmerforums for the do's and don'ts.

BUT...in my honest opinion, if it were me, I would sell the M52 and pick up an S50 as previously mentioned for 2 simple reasons. A) It'll be a MUCH easier swap. THAT swap would be plug and play. The M50 and S50 are basically the same motor when you boil it down so that'll be a piece of cake. B) Also as mentioned before, you're going to go through a ton of work to basically get you right back to where you were power wise. If you're going to pull a motor, you might as well replace it with something better than what was in there. The S50 will give you a nice power increase over the M50.

thanks for the info!

[twastheglow]

Keep us posted on what you decide.

[russiankid]

If you're really set on swapping the M52 in there, you can just use your M50 engine harness and ECU and convert the M52 to OBDI. It would be the same thing as taking an S52 and converting it to OBDI, which is very popular in the E34 community.

[nissy92]

so i called turner motorsports and the chip im having them burn me includes ews delete!