My M40 to M42 engine conversion in my E30 Project car

[E30TOY 0]

Hey all

I have had abit of time off from doing the conversion as i have moved to Taupo and left the car in Auckland, i did have the car up for sale earlyer in the year, but as i just had questions on what i had done and no buyers ive turned my head and have deciced to keep the work going. So i have come up for this weekend to work on it. I mangeged to go see Ray at Hell BM to get some parts and he was a big help, i got a e30 318is wiring loom off him wich i so needed to get the car to run, but as i was putting the wiring loom in place i see that the plug to the fuse box is differnt (photos will illustrate), the engine in the car now is the e36 318is m42, what would i need to do from here, also with suspension and doing the 5 stud conversion ive ended up with another problem, listerning to the guys at euro spares thay say i could leave the e30 crossmember in and use all the mounts from the m40, which was not a problem to blot to the motor as the block from the M42 is the same as the M40.

That was algood till i put the wheels on and found that the front wheels sit too far back and i cant turn the wheel very much, i get some movement but not the full monty, i do have the crossmember off the e36 and steetring rack and will fit those and i also got from ray the engine brackets from the e36 m42 to mount back on, now will that fix my problem, im so close to finishing and getting the car running, these seem to be my only two problems i have, after that all i need to do is hook up all the new brake lines and fit some new headers wich im still yet to find and the fit the rest of the exhust, i do go back to Taupo today but will be back in the following weekends and once i find my own place i will trailer it down but would rather be able to drive it down as i miss driving my e30.

Please help....

Thanks

Maka

Also thank you to Ray at Hell BM, will keep intouch and ring when i come up for some more parts, cheers mate

[CamB 48]

For the 5 stud conversion, you need 2 things to make 5 stud work with the E30 subframe:

1) offset lower control arm bushings (eg E30 M3 style - you can get them in urethane or from BMW)

2) E36 M3 Evo lower control arms.

This will bring the wheel forward. #2 is (very) expensive. PM Boost Junky if you want to know about a cheaper but rangi way of dealing with these.

I can't help on the engine wiring, sorry.

[Guest FrantiC]

You will need to find wiring diagrams for the e30 318i and e36 318is, they are out there and pretty easy to find on like e30tech, revlimited etc. It is called the c101 plug on the e30, Cut the old one off your m40 loom and wire the plug onto the e36 loom so you can plug it to your fuse box.

e36 subframe is just creating more work for yourself. I don't even think it fits ?

Edited August 3, 2009 by FrantiC

[keen 6]

Were you able to use the same engine mounts off the m40 block? to get the m42 mounted ( they should be the same and it should fit up to the transmission)Its the head that's different, am I correct? and the sump, but I'm told that the m40 sump fits up and gets rid of the 36 sump problem which has the bump at the other end.Do you have to get another sump oil uptake to fit the m40 sump? the electrical side is interesting as the loom from the e36 has the ECU on the left hand side in the engine bay where as the e30 has the ECU in the car on the drivers side how will you overcome this?Do you think that it would be better to take the wiring for the ECU out of the loom and run the wires, albeit they are a bit long in through the e30 firewall hole and fit the ECU in the original place or are you going to stay with the e30 m42 loom that Ray has sold you and change the fuse box plugs? Did the e30 m42 ECU go into the car at the passengers side and fit into the glove box? There is a lot of advise about people who have done this conversion but I have not been able to find them, maybe you know of someone. Keep me posted I'm very interested to see how you get on As I'm trying the same thing, have the engine but not fitted yet.