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Eddie

E46 318i wagon v8 swap

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I brought this E46 big block 1800 wagon from an impound auction back  at the start off the year. The plan was to over the next year to tidy the car up for when my son turns 16 in march.

The car as we got it. It had a few dents in it. 

22hro6.jpg

 

I got some new rears doors off Brent, did some work in exchange for a set of wheels, and after a few months at mates panel shop it came back looking like this.

23rtwtg.jpg 

 

Edited by Eddie

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I won't be showing this thread to my 19yr old. He want to trade me in? 

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At the same auction I brought this a crashed 730i for $200. I cut all the damage front end off so we could move it around and see if it was an ok runner

20gxn55.jpg

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some time ago i brought one of these scan tools off Aliexpess and its been worth every dollar I sent on it. 

t9ur1s.jpg

 

 The passage seat sensor thingy kept throwing up a fault code so a quick google and a mod was found- no more problem

21d3dhi.jpg

 

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I hung a radiator off the front of the 7 series  and armed with the scan tool I used a mates dyno to see how many sensors and modules I could remove and still have the engine and trans function correctly.

34q1u6e.jpg 

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Engine and trans removed from the 7

24odsgk.jpg

 

We have swapped out the diff, axles and sway bar for ones from a 328 couple

33jjy4i.jpg

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Going by what I read on the internet, installing a V8 into a e46 is a prick of a job and with only a couple hundred houses from the 3l v8 is it worth it?

Hell yeah I think a V8  3 series is a cool first car.

To get around the oil Pump problem you have when installing a M60 into a E46 I decided to dry sump the motor

new sump

2uh1dec.jpg

 

machining the drive gear to fit the factory crank pulley

1255kic.jpg

 

mounting the pump

ngofvl.jpg

 

 

Edited by Eddie
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What a great project.

I'm doing something similar but progress is at a waaaay slower speed.

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I admire your work on this It is a cool project but I still cant get over that an M60 makes 160kw and 290nm. While an M54 is 170/300. Still I guess you could always drop in a 4l at some stage. All that said I would have liked my dad to make me a v8 e46. :) 

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3 hours ago, Herbmiester said:

I admire your work on this It is a cool project but I still cant get over that an M60 makes 160kw and 290nm. While an M54 is 170/300. Still I guess you could always drop in a 4l at some stage. All that said I would have liked my dad to make me a v8 e46. :) 

we already have an e36 with an with a M54 and itb's

mhbu9s.jpg

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Good idea re the sump!

Will get along well with the wee 3.0L V8, fast enough for a 16 year old.

For the time spent etc I would run the 4.0L M60 myself, but then that makes them a fair bit quicker. More difficult with insurance etc. 

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Yes dry sump is a good idea.

What did the dry sump setup cost?

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200 horses is ample power for a fun car, especially a first car!

Dry sump cost... How long is a piece of string? A lot depends on how much you do yourself, before you get to pumps and accumulators and oil lines and...

Definitely worthwhile though.

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The dry sump setup is an old one off a friends superstock so it was free to a good home. 

The fact that these conversions are not straight forward should make the whole thing quite cool once finished.

Swapping out a 4 cylinder for a bolt in  6 cylinder just doesn't seem like much of a challenge to me. Steves V10 conversion now that's a challenge I would like, but I don't think I'm going to get one of those for $200.

 

 

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I pulled all the dash wiring out of the 7 series and started sorting though it

14bjip3.jpg

 

 

this is what I ended up with 

x2qkvl.jpg

 

Im still having problems trying to locate a wiring diagram of the E46 , Im looking for ecu, trans and dash wiring. 

 

 

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I got the rocker covers back from powder coating  

ehbu61.jpg

 

I welded up the oil filter feed in the block and installed a 12an fitting for the oil supply 

28irqyg.jpg

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On Thursday, December 29, 2016 at 7:52 PM, Eddie said:

I pulled all the dash wiring out of the 7 series and started sorting though it

14bjip3.jpg

 

 

this is what I ended up with 

x2qkvl.jpg

 

Im still having problems trying to locate a wiring diagram of the E46 , Im looking for ecu, trans and dash wiring. 

 

 

I know how that feels, did the same conversion  in my E28 and the wiring was an arse

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21 minutes ago, francoisv said:

I know how that feels, did the same conversion  in my E28 and the wiring was an arse

How's that going anyway?

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We have  got the v8 sitting in the car for a mock up

 

20pc7c4.jpg

 

 

9r1xzn.jpg

Edited by Eddie
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The rear 4 cylinder cross member works with the v8 trans, the front of the motor still needs to come down about 15mm ensure that the drive line angle is ok.

axbbpg.jpg

 

 

i'm going to have relocate the abs pump

 

sqmrux.jpg 

 

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What engine mounts did you use?

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