E36 M54 engine swap

[Eddie 66]

I thought I would start a new thread for this instead of added to the old one

http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/36424-another-compact-project/page-5

To bring those up to date I built this car for my kids to get into motorsport at a young age (12years) Motorsport NZ doesn't allow 12year olds to drive a vehicle over 2.5l or forced inducted ( Turbo rule is engine cc x 1.8 IIRC) so we started out with a M42

[Eddie 66]

The little M42 still runs as sweet as day one, but lacks punch. I was speaking to the guys at Mossan about engines for the car and thinking along the lines of a 2.5 or a 2.8 They mentioned about a M53b30. Unfortunately a m54b30 does fit the budget for this car at the moment but did get me looking more at this option.

After asking around I ended up with a damaged 520i with only 12Xkms on it. It only has a m54b22 in it but now the trans has gone I have a free car.

Since the 2.2 and the 3 are basicly the same I thought I would use the 2.2 to get the car setup out and running with the option of changing it later to a b30 . It would seem like its a lot of work for not much gain, but it will make it only a weekend swap out later if a b30 comes along.

Edited May 25, 2014 by rot62

[Eddie 66]

The M42 is out

The M54 is sitting in the engine bay. Unfortunately the 5 series ali engine mounts don't work in a e36 so I need to sort that

It took me a little while to work out the 4 cylinder cars have a different front sway bar design to the 6 cylinder cars so I couldn't get the bonnet to close at the start.

[Ahmedsinc 414]

The M42 is out

The M54 is sitting in the engine bay. Unfortunately the 5 series ali engine mounts don't work in a e36 so I need to sort that

It took me a little while to work out the 4 cylinder cars have a different front sway bar design to the 6 cylinder cars so I couldn't get the bonnet to close at the start.

Looking good so far! Your young fella must be stoked! are you planning to use the MS43 DME or are you going to run different ecu?

[Eddie 66]

Looking good so far! Your young fella must be stoked! are you planning to use the MS43 DME or are you going to run different ecu?

The car has a old Link ecu in it at the moment.

[Eddie 66]

mounted the engine today and put on some m50 exhaust manifolds for now

[Eddie 66]

Has anyone here plumb up an M54 to the e36 radiator?

Does Pipe A go to the head tank? or is it pipe B.

I'm not using the heater so I think I must have to block one of them off

[westy 614]

Nice, 2.2's quite a nice engine.

Pipe B goes to heater valve on E46 then on to heater core and returns to reservoir.

Pipe A goes straight to reservoir.

[Eddie 66]

Nice, 2.2's quite a nice engine.

Pipe B goes to heater valve on E46 then on to heater core and returns to reservoir.

Pipe A goes straight to reservoir.

Thanks for that

[Eddie 66]

I wanted to delete the electrically assisted thermostat so I got a old school manual thermostat and altered the factory housing so it would fit

Close enough in size this should work.

I then broke off the plastic tabs that hold the thermostat in place. I used a hole saw of similar size to cut down though the last of the plastic tabs before using a die grinder to clean up the hosing

Here is the thermostat sitting in place once I finished cleaning up the hosing.

e

[Eddie 66]

Now I needed to make a retainer that would sit in the hosing and hold the thermostat in place. This needed to be bigger the hole in the head to stop the whole assembly from just falling off .

retaining collar and thermostat in place

Checking the installed height of the bypass port blocking thingy on the original Thermostat

As you can see the new thermostat is about 2.5 mm shorter once its ready to be installed. But we have a way to over come this

also the bypass port is just a fraction bigger than the part of the thermostat that has to block it

The way I have got around the two problems above is to install a 32 mm frost plug with a hole drilled in it. When I installed it i made sure it sat 2.5 mm proud of the original surface

All done

Edited May 27, 2014 by rot62

[Ahmedsinc 414]

If you're deleting the vanos a normal M50 one would fit too

[Eddie 66]

If you're deleting the vanos a normal M50 one would fit too

I'm going to use the inlet vanos. I think a m50 will still fit but I didn't haven't one to try.

Edited May 28, 2014 by rot62

[Eddie 66]

Looks like fitting a s50 manifold might be a little more work than I first thought

[thorburn 121]

love the thermostat work.

Do you go on holiday and work on the cars all day. Or are you superhuman at smashing out projects?

Kerry has a build thread somewhere on here. He also had an m54 with s50 itb's. Cut down oil filter, repositioned tps and maybe something else

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2132]

love the thermostat work.

Do you go on holiday and work on the cars all day. Or are you superhuman at smashing out projects?

Kerry has a build thread somewhere on here. He also had an m54 with s50 itb's. Cut down oil filter, repositioned tps and maybe something else

i could be wrong, but pretty sure the ITBs were his own design, not S50

[Eddie 66]

love the thermostat work.

Do you go on holiday and work on the cars all day. Or are you superhuman at smashing out projects?

Kerry has a build thread somewhere on here. He also had an m54 with s50 itb's. Cut down oil filter, repositioned tps and maybe something else

im looking to those things at the moment.

[Eddie 66]

Last night's mission was to modify the oil filter

it works you can even get the top off

today job is to make up a manifold adapter

[thorburn 121]

looking forward to seeing how you get on.
m42 oil filter?

[Eddie 66]

On saturday I made an adapter plate for the s50 manifold

[hybrid 1043]

i could be wrong, but pretty sure the ITBs were his own design, not S50

They were s50 ones as they were my old spare ones

[Eddie 66]

looking forward to seeing how you get on.

m42 oil filter?

yes m42

[E30-323ti 66]

Are you going to upgrade to a newer link and run the dual Vanos?

I'd say this would add a lot to the drive-ability of a small disp' engine if retained.

Mad prop's by the way.

I'll be lucky if mine is even running again before my 5yo hits driving age.... Be no petrol left by then either.

Edited June 3, 2014 by E30-323ti

[Eddie 66]

Are you going to upgrade to a newer link and run the dual Vanos?I'd say this would add a lot to the drive-ability of a small disp' engine if retained. Mad prop's by the way.I'll be lucky if mine is even running again before my 5yo hits driving age.... Be no petrol left by then either.

yes going to a G4 but only looking at inlet cam at this stage. From what I've been reading theres not much to be gained on this engine from playing with the exhaust cam, more of a emissions thing.

If we keep this car for long enough the b22 will be replaced for a b30 and all this work will be worth it.

[Eddie 66]

So I got a few more things done over the weekend.

Finished the adapter for the itb's and installed them

pulled the engine back out to clean it and install the new flywheel and clutch.

reinstalled the engine

swapped out the 4.44 diff for a 4.1

Changed the powersteer rack as the old rack leaked.

installed the exhaust

replaced the oil in the gearbox

altered the power steering lines to fit the new engine

started on the wiring for the new ecu