New Member - 1988 318 E30 2 Door Manual - need help

[opelmantagsi 0]

looking to remove the M40 motor and replace with a M42 or M43 whatever I can get my hands on to keep the process simple.

would appreciate advise on this as I am hoping its a straight bolt up to the manual gear box.

want to stick with the 4 cylinder 318 rather than move towards 6 cylinders.

guessing I need to find a complete motor with ECU. not sure if these have a seperate wirning loom just for the ECU or if the M40 loom will be ok?

anything else I need to know before I get too carried away?

cheers

[nzer 0]

Welcome to bimmersport Derek

put some photos up of your e30

[Silver Fox 43]

Check this site, and google e30 m42 swap, plenty out there.

http://www.m42club.com/forums/index.php

Edited May 3, 2011 by Silver Fox

[antil33t 90]

Pics of the Manta.

Welcome

[opelmantagsi 0]

Pics of the Manta.

Welcome

here you go, this is the red one, I had a silver one thats been used as a donor.

the red one is about to under go a full restoration and be transformed from a base GT model to a GSi

Edited May 3, 2011 by opelmantagsi

[Heino 1]

here you go, this is the red one, I had a silver one thats been used as a donor.

the red one is about to under go a full restoration and be transformed from a base GT model to a GSi

wat is that

[opelmantagsi 0]

I like 80's cars.

Opel Manta

E30 BMW 2 door manual

got a vauxhall chevette in the shed too, know what they are?

[dubman 39]

Welcome and good luck with the m42, finding an e30 m42 will be hard IMO. e36 ones will be more common, but wiring mite be tricky

[opelmantagsi 0]

Welcome and good luck with the m42, finding an e30 m42 will be hard IMO. e36 ones will be more common, but wiring mite be tricky

thanks for that, just bought a book in from the UK called

BMW E30-3 Series Restoration Bible: A Practical Manual Including Advice on Buying a Good Used Model for Restoration (Brooklands Books) (Paperback)

reading that it might not be such a biggie, well worth a read if your into that kind of stuff.

just trying not to reinvent the wheel so to speak, will let the M40 die a natural death then rip it out.

got plenty of other stuff to do as well, but car is in ok nick for the money we paid for it

[Forrest 35]

Welcome to the forum,

Popular conversion in the UK because they got a ton of 318is'es over there to act as donors, where as over here we got 20 or so.

Also the US had heaps of m42 engined 318's so plenty of donors.

I have looked into doing this before, but found it to be a lot of hassle to do with a E36 engine unless you can get around the EWS etc in a E36 loom. From memory it needs either E30 M42 exhaust manifold or a custom mainfold as the E36 M42 exhaust manifold won't clear the E30 steering rack. In the UK a few people have converted e36 m42 engines with a e30 m42 loom to make install easier, I can't imagine there would be many e30 m42 looms lying around here, unless you went to aftermarket engine management. From memory you need to use the E30 M40 sump on the E36 M42 to clear the steering rack.

Interested to see how you get on, this would be the ultimate conversion for my E30.

The m42club website Silverfox posted is highly recommended, a ton of info in there.

Have a look on e30zone.net too, is atleast one guy who built a m42 2.1 stroker with a modified m44 head, iirc 220hp at the wheels

There was also someone on here converting a E30 with a E36 M42 a while ago, unsure if he ever got it going.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Brams

[opelmantagsi 0]

Welcome to the forum,

Popular conversion in the UK because they got a ton of 318is'es over there to act as donors, where as over here we got 20 or so.

Also the US had heaps of m42 engined 318's so plenty of donors.

I have looked into doing this before, but found it to be a lot of hassle to do with a E36 engine unless you can get around the EWS etc in a E36 loom. From memory it needs either E30 M42 exhaust manifold or a custom mainfold as the E36 M42 exhaust manifold won't clear the E30 steering rack. In the UK a few people have converted e36 m42 engines with a e30 m42 loom to make install easier, I can't imagine there would be many e30 m42 looms lying around here, unless you went to aftermarket engine management. From memory you need to use the E30 M40 sump on the E36 M42 to clear the steering rack.

Interested to see how you get on, this would be the ultimate conversion for my E30.

The m42club website Silverfox posted is highly recommended, a ton of info in there.

Have a look on e30zone.net too, is atleast one guy who built a m42 2.1 stroker with a modified m44 head, iirc 220hp at the wheels

There was also someone on here converting a E30 with a E36 M42 a while ago, unsure if he ever got it going.

thanks for the input, not too worried about the wiring side of it, think I have that sussed.

just getting conflicting info on what the engine fitting problems are.

pretty sure am M42 will bolt up to the manual gear box thats in the car

realise some parts need to be swapped over from the M40 to M42

the M40 engine is still running, decided to let it die a natural death, in the meantime get all the bits ready for this conversion. have a lot of other stuff to sort out as well but this will be the major task out of them all.

Well worth doing in my opinion, shame they build the M40 engine to start with

[Forrest 35]

If you use the complete engine loom, key and transponder from the E36 engine the wiring side should be fine, then just adapt the loom at the C101 (fuse box plug) to get the rest of the car to go.

This thread has rekindled my desire to do this conversion.

From a quick look on m42club the exhaust manifolds look easy enough to modify to go around the steering rack if you know someone handy with a welder. Best of luck and let us know how you get on.

You can use your current M40 rubber engine mounts too.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Brams

[dubman 39]

the M40 engine is still running, decided to let it die a natural death

it'll last a good while really keen to see how this turns out, you might even get away without a cert, because its a 4 cylinder.

[opelmantagsi 0]

If you use the complete engine loom, key and transponder from the E36 engine the wiring side should be fine, then just adapt the loom at the C101 (fuse box plug) to get the rest of the car to go.

This thread has rekindled my desire to do this conversion.

From a quick look on m42club the exhaust manifolds look easy enough to modify to go around the steering rack if you know someone handy with a welder. Best of luck and let us know how you get on.

You can use your current M40 rubber engine mounts too.

wont have nay issues in the welding / fabrication dept, I have all they gear here. know how / where to get a new laser cut header flange so could make up custom headers if I had too.

[APT 195]

There was a guy on trade selling a E30 M42 318is engine w/ box and exhaust, might pay to check there.