M50 Conversion Links

[Forrest 35]

^ Yeah I will look into Martyn's contact, I more than likely won't be buying any motor till probably January....what is the best way to determine if the motor has ASC? Year/model number??? Is it the later production run M52's?

Edited October 5, 2009 by Forrest

[RyanG 0]

Probally by the throttle body, they have a second butterfly that is controlled by an actuator.

Might want glenn to confirm that tho.

[*Glenn* 854]

^ Yeah I will look into Martyn's contact, I more than likely won't be buying any motor till probably January....what is the best way to determine if the motor has ASC? Year/model number??? Is it the later production run M52's?

ASC has another butterfly in the throttle body with a potentiometer on the top of it. The induction hose going to the throttle body is a lot bigger as well. The DME will only work with ABS & ASC

Edited October 5, 2009 by *Glenn*

[Grant 4]

Wow - nice work. See what you can actually contribute when you put your mind to it.

Why aren't all your posts of this quality (grammar and spelling notwithstanding...but I'm not bitching about that, as the rest of the post more than makes up for it)?

Cheers

Grant

E34 M50 sump + pick up tube and dip stick.

E36 alloy mounting arms

You have a few options for rubber mounts, mark, kerry and me have used e34 m50 ones with shims on each side (1-3mm) to get the engine sitting right. Apparently you can use e28 ones aswell.

Me and mark have used e32 vacuum boosters for the brakes, kerry used a mk1 golf booster, he said it dosent work very well tho. The advantage of the golf booster is that it bolts straight on (actually it might need slight modification to the push rod) and use can use your original master cylinder.

With the e32 one, you need to file / grind the fins off the manifold, and slot the holes in the firewall to move it down and across, also swap the adjustable linkage part of the push rod from the E30 booster onto the E32 one, they are different lengths.

One advantage of this is you can use a bigger master cylinder, I think my booster came with a 25mm one. The master cylinders from cars with ABS have only 2 outlets (ie, any from a e36 / e32 which bolt up to this booster), so if your car does not have ABS you will need to tee off one of them for your front brakes. You will also need a remote resovoir for this setup.

If you go with this booster also make sure to get the little bracket thing that goes with the booster (it extends it out, and converts the bolt pattern of the booster to the same as the e30) I can get some pics of my setup if you want. Brake pedal is nice and stiff, rear bias is a little too much, but nothing you cant live with, tho I have an adjustable proportioning valve to go in.

Wiring is easy for ODB1 engines, use an E36 harness as it is longer and the ECU will reach into teh cabin and mount in the normal spot. The E34 one isnt long enough and the ECU will have to sit in the battery tray. Cut the C101 plug off the E30 engine harness and cut the x20 plug off the e36 / e34 harness and wire the E30 one on. There are plenty of diagrams on the net. If your car has ABS, do not connect the ABS wire in the C101 plug, there is instructions somewhere with what you need to do in regards to this. Does your car have an OBC with the code function?

Next is the gearbox cross member, that will need modifying too accomodate the new angle that the gearbox will sit on. Its not hard to do, I could post a picture of mine if you want. Or you could make another cross member. I used original mounts.

What type of shifter does your gearbox use? The sheet metal type needs to be spaced away from gearbox on the right hand side mount and rotated a bit to even get the shifter to come thru the hole. It is driveable like this, but 1st is where 3rd would usually be. You can cut the linkage and rotate it and then weld it to put it back in the normal place. The other type of shifter with the alloy arm works better and dosent require any modification, it lines up with the hole better and the shifter isnt in as bad as a posistion but would still need cutting and welding of the linkage to get it back to the normal posistion. Tbh, I have no problem with how mine is after getting used to it.

For exhaust manifolds get the stainless M52 ones, you will need to cut them up and bend them a bit so they clear the steering column. Then just make an exhaust to fit.

For radiator hoses, you can use the an M20 radiator hose for the bottom one. For the top one you can use an e36 one, depending on your radiator, or a combination of e36 / m20 ones cut up and joined.

You also need to swap the tempreture sensor out of the m20 into the m50 for the gauge cluster to read correctly.

Its not a hard swap if you have all the parts.