E30 Engine swap, ECU Help!

[Boost Junky 1]

Hey guys, was talking to Andrew before about putting a M20 motor in my E30. He said its not worth it because of the no gain in power etc... thing is i got the motor and gearbox for free and me 318i gearbox has shagged itself.

he mentioned that they are not a straight swap as the ECU looms are not the same? Does anyone have the pre-out diagrams or any information on making up the adaptor to allow me to plug the M20 ECU into my car?

Cheers, Luke

[pureboiracer 0]

the amount of work you will have to do is isanly huge. im doing a conversion from 2.0l to 2.5l of same engine type and that conversion is taking me ages and costing me heaps too.

your best bet is to sell the motor and block and buy a new moter that will work.

[MattA 162]

Try your local library, got all my wiring diagrams from there when I did my engine swap. Laid the loom out traced everything.

bloody slow... would never do it again but if you've got no $$ and plenty of time.

cheers matt

[Jonty m50e30 0]

I might have missed something but I take it you are talking a 2L M20? If I were looking at this type of swap I would buy a wrecked 325 and swap everything over!

[Silver Fox 43]

Am I missing something, or don't you just use the m20, engine, loom and ecu and remove the full 318 setup?

[BM WORLD 1270]

i have some looms ecu's etc.

what year are we talking ..

[j_tomo 0]

ive out a prefacelift 325 motor and box in my lil 89 318

everything bolts in as you know i think i had to use the 325 drive shaft and 318 center bearing

the round plug on the fire wall plugs in fine

then under the dash hook the 2 green wires together and it will run hook the other 2 up (guess, there only for tach an economy gauge)

and also for your neutrall start switch hook the 2 green wires together on the auto selector leaver

and i did mine over 2 weekends lol

good luck

jeremy

Edited July 3, 2007 by j_tomo

[323e30 0]

just use whatever cpu that comes with engine and whatever loom that comes with the engine.

wiring to car is a 20min job max even if you are goin from preface lift jetronic to face lift motronic

pay me ill convert your cars........... Easy.............

as long as you have all the bits or ill sus them from ray (if needed).

Edited July 3, 2007 by 323e30

[Boost Junky 1]

Thanks guys that all helps me out alot, i got the spare car and it turned out to be 318i prefacelift she the girl lied to me lol but the gearbox i can use on my current motor so i got it anyway. Going to be getting a 325i motor and getrag 260 box through Mosen Euro in Hamilton as Dad said he will fund it as long as I get it throgh them.

I have requested:

m20 325i motor

Getrag 260 gearbox

ECU

Air Flow Meter

Manual conversion

I need to ask for the radiator and loom as I forgot. Can anyone else think of something I have missed?

Wiring side of things is easy for me so should be able to suss that out.

Cheers guys much appreciated

Luke

[jochen 4]

If you need wiring diagram help, I've got the 500 pages of wiring info for these generation cars, so once we identify the car properly, I can tell you what all the wires do etc

PS: that's 500 pages PER CAR. Lots of detail.

[Silver Fox 43]

Thanks guys that all helps me out alot, i got the spare car and it turned out to be 318i prefacelift she the girl lied to me lol but the gearbox i can use on my current motor so i got it anyway. Going to be getting a 325i motor and getrag 260 box through Mosen Euro in Hamilton as Dad said he will fund it as long as I get it throgh them.

I have requested:

m20 325i motor

Getrag 260 gearbox

ECU

Air Flow Meter

Manual conversion

I need to ask for the radiator and loom as I forgot. Can anyone else think of something I have missed?

Wiring side of things is easy for me so should be able to suss that out.

Cheers guys much appreciated

Luke

Hi Luke, IMO, I would've thought you'd be much better off selling the 318 and buying a 325. Can't see Mosen's being cheap, and it's not that simple? The 325 setup is very different, from suspension and swaybars front and back, to extra options etc, right the way thru. You get more bang for your buck out of a reasonable 325, so I'd say, get looking. Just my 2cents worth before you chuck dad's cash away.

[323e30 0]

Ive made adptor leads before for these and had them work 100% no worries, and it was maby an hours worth of changes if you do it all tidy.

I changed my 318i to 323i, then from the 323i engine to 325i engine. all engines went into the 318i prefacelift e30 no worries, and the 325 i fitted was also a facelift.

It also changed from l jettronic to motronic and worked no worries without changing the loom in the car or wiring in actual car.

I dont have my wiring diagrams anymore so I wouldnt be able to tell you how to do this, but trust me it can be done.

But as the others have said you will need to upgrade your brakes and suspension for wof as its more than a 15% power increase in the engine and extra weight.