M52 Swap Questions
 

Whats up everyone. I am new to he BMW scene and I am excited to do something with my newly acquired 318ti. I have done some motor swaps in all kinds of other cars including my current Audi.

I got my 97 318ti 5 speed M sport package for $100 and all it needed was a battery and started up. The radiator was leaking so I bought a new one and It has been a champ ever since. The car Is clean as far as body damage is concerned. It doesn't have clear coat on the hood or roof is the main thing wrong. Also the front seat are in poor shape. Everything else works and is in clean shape.

I have an opportunity to get a 328i auto with a bad transmission for a decent deal. I am thinking this will be a good doner car for a 318ti transplant. The car starts up and runs just fine.

I do have a few questions that I have not yet been able to figure out.

Will there be any issues using the Auto engine in my manual ti? I have read some conflicting things on this subject so I would like to get a straight answer.

I will obviously need to swap the dme, ews, and key ring/key chip. Is that all plug and play?

Last question, for now, is will the stock TI transmission bolt up to the m52 and the stock driveshaft should compress enough to fit with the diff. Is this correct? I have read that this setup will last for a while until I can get a different drivetrain setup. I will get a clutch that can withstand the power difference also,

Thanks for looking and thank you for all the help!

Auto engine is fine in manual car. The 328i harness will be auto though so you may need to cut a few wires/disregard some.The M44's Getrag will work behind the M52. Heck, even the 4cyl clutch would work for a short time. An M52 isn't a torque monster so depending on what you're using the car for the Getrag will last. I have a 300K Getrag that has spent the majority of it's life behind a 6cyl getting romped on the street and it has 0 issues. Now it's behind S52 with all the bolt ons and still no issues.

I'll look at the wiring but there are a few threads that discuss that here and on BFC.

Thanks for the reply!

I guess that was more of my question is what would I have to do to the wiring harness to get the auto engine harness to get it to work with my manual ti.

Also will the cluster(from the sober car) read incorrectly if there is anything disconnected on the auto harness?

My M52 came from an automatic car and went into my manual 318ti.

The wiring diagrams are all available on the internet but the major difference is that the auto harness does not have a reverse light plug to go into the manual transmission. I was able to find the proper pins and wiring and I added that plug to my wiring harness.

The big transmission control unit connector can be tucked inside the ecu compartment. Then the other auto transmission cables can be wrapped up and zip tied down near the side of the block.

I've been running the getrag behind my M52 since the swap two years ago.

Sorry for the late reply. I bought a full donor car today. A 99 323. So it has the m52b25 in it if my research serves me correct. Do you guys have any opinion on things I should do to it while it's out that I won't be able to accomplish with it in the car? It has a little oil leak but appears to run fine. I picked it up for $300 with a clean title. It's apparently beat up on the outside but the interior isn't too bad. From what I'm told at least. I'm in Houston for the next 4 weeks and won't even be able to see the car I bought until I get back to CO. I had my brother go pick it up for me.

Things to do
 

I'm working on the same swap, except I'll have to buy an engine harness + other stuff. The M52 aluminum motor I bought was stripped of lots of parts. Based on my research, here's what I'm doing while the motor is out: 1. Reinforce the front subframe. I bought the weld in kit. Follow their directions. We tried to bend the ear reinforcement ahead of time & it made everything worse. 2. Make sure the oil pump pulley nut is secured, apparently these fail. There's kits or you can safety wire it/weld on yourself. 3. Replace oil pan gasket, cause you have to crack it open to do oil pump pulley anyways. 4. I'm cleaning & painting the engine bay since it's easy access. 5. Refreshing the front end with new LCA's, bushings and a reman steering rack. Again just cause it's easier now. That's it, unless you want to do head gasket while it's out also. I'm sure you'd save on labor if motor was already out when it goes for machining.

one more
 

and make sure you have a decent radiator. The originals are known to fail.

I was planning on buying an aftermarket radiator since I am going to delete the mechanical fan and run just the aux fan. I’ll probably do a refresh on the oil pan gasket and the valve cover gasket. I want to do head gasket and stuff too. I will be sure to check the oil pump nut.

Do you have to reinforce the front end? I have read that it’s not needed. But would like more opinions on it.

Thanks for the help!

A 99 323 is going to be an e46. You ideally need an e36, unless you want the hassle of the e46 system. Unless you really want a front subframe reinforcement kit isn’t needed, let alone for this amount of power.


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It probably is a late e36. It’s definitly an e36. It might be a 98. I don’t know to be honest.

I haven’t seen it yet. Just pictures and a video of it running. My brother picked it up for me last night and is storing it for me. He says we engine runs pretty smooth but the transmission slips pretty bad. Which is good because I’ll be mating it to my stock 318ti manual transmission with upgraded clutch.

1+

Is there a write up somewhere on how to connect the reverse lights and build the new plug into the harness?

The one thing I am not confident in is electrical work. If I have a step by step I can do it but reading wire diagrams is not my strong point.

Will I need to have the Transmission control unit need to be in the car at all since my Ti is a manual?

I had to read the wire diagrams, wiring is not my strong point either, lol. No pictures unfortunately, I had to get it done quickly so my car would pass inspection. When I finally have a need to pull the engine apart I'm probably going to install a manual M52 wiring harness, it bothers me to have the auto trans stuff just hanging around in there.

In the wiring harness X20 connector, I had to add pin 10, that is the signal to the reverse light plug. And then in the plastic box of wires that sits over the engine, there is a junction in there that I spliced the power wire for the reverse light switch into. If you trace pin 22 from the X20 to the plastic box, that is what I spliced into.

No you don't need the TCU, that and the associated wiring just gets ignored.

That sounds just easy enough for me to screw it up by over thinking it.

Thanks for all the help. I am hoping to get this done when I get home from this 6 week training course for work.

I am also going to order a new silicone intake elbow (with asc delete), Valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket, SAP delete blocks, new clutch and flywheel (the m44 one is not doing good), CDV delete, new cooling system with Aluminum radiator, lower temp thermostat, lower temp coolant sensor, metal thermostat housing, and Silicone hoses.

I am probably going to try to get a m50 intake manifold and swap that too.

Is there anything else you guys can think of while I am in there?

What exhaust system are y'all running. I know it has to be custom. I have a welder and am planning on making an exhaust myself

My M44/getrag didn't have a CDV so you may not need the delete. I did all that stuff except for the lower temp tstat and coolant sensor, what's the benefit of those? I didn't know they made a lower temp sensor.

I had to have a friend machine the tstat housing flat so that it would seal correctly. The cheap housings all come from china and are cast aluminum. It's good to clean up the casting flash inside too.

I used stock exhaust manifolds to the OBD2 midpipe and then a Z3 3.0i catback, had to cut it down slightly but the exhaust hangers all lined up.

Awesome! That's good to know!

As far as clutch is concerned. Do you guys have any opinions on a decent cheap option? Is the valeo kit a decent kit?

So would you guys know where I could get some info about swapping a 97m52b28 into a 95 318ti I have the whole doner car still and will keep it till everything is good with the ti but I'm concerned about obd1 car with obd2 motor and the ews as well it's my first swap in a bmw but I can tell getting the motor in is the easy part

I should be commencing my swap next week. I got all the parts I needed ordered. I have my swap car lined up and the 318ti waiting a new transplant.

I’m getting pretty excited about it all. I’m goint to do a lot of stuff to the motor while it’s out like
Sap delete
M50 manifold with the bimmerworld swap kit
New silicone elbow
Aluminum radiator
Silicone coolant lines
New water pump
Vanos rebuild with tools
Asc delete plug
I’m trading some Audi wheels for a stage 4 clutch kit (kinda way to aggressive)
Fan delete kit
New coolant tank
Bought a dme with sap delete, rear o2 delete, ews delete, etc

Is there anything I’m forgetting that you guys can think of?

Thanks again for all the help and support!

So I am balls deep in the swap right now and I am a little confused on what to do with the reverse light. from what I understand this is what I need to do.
Cut the 2 plug connector off either the Auto harness or the old M44 manual harness. Run one wire from pin 10 on the x20 and run the other wire from the box above the engine and connect it to the wire that comes off of pin 22 of the x20

Please let me know if I am wrong.

Also I ran into another problem. What do I do with the x69 Connector off the auto harness. My 318ti Doesn't have a X69 connector. It only has the x20 and the x6031 connector. If someone could help me out with that I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you

Sounds like what I did, it was a while ago but yeah. Did you get it to work?


EDIT - My car does not have the x69.
My car had the x69 so I can't help there, did you find any threads talking about it here or on bf.c?

I haven’t gotten that far. I have posted on bummer forums and here looking for an answer by haven’t found anything.

I’m also waiting on a clutch to come in.

Was your ti originally a auto or manual?

Mine is a '98 manual ti with engine from a '97 auto 328i.

I wonder why my 97 ti doesn’t have one then. That’s crazy and very confusing

backup light
 

I am figuring out how to wire my light up too. S52 from 97 auto, into 99Ti manual. I just solved the low speed fan riddle. Did anyone else notice terminal 86 in low speed relay is missing in bottom of socket? Same for AC relay next door. The diagrams do not address this, but do not tear into the fuse box. These signals don't use 86 even though the ETM displays that it does.

X69
 

My 99 Ti doesn't have it either. I believe it is because that connector is for auto Trans.
Mine was/is also a manual car.

My bad, I just looked back at the pictures in my build thread and saw that my '98 manual ti does not have the x69 connector.

I forgot that I just set the auto harness connector where the x69 would be. It's been a couple years, lol.

I found that out after a while of being worried. That being said my swap started right up and runs like a champ. I have one check engine light for an 02 sensor that isn’t even attached to the car. I am using a dme from a 328 that has the ews system deleted. The motor is out of a 98 323 which only had one pre cat and one post cat o2 sensor. I have the original dme but I didn’t want to have to deal with the ews system.

Congrats
 

Just saw that your swap is running, congratulations.
I picked up an aluminum block M52 and have been going through it.
What clutch did you end up using? I've got to get a flywheel + clutch, planning to use the manual that came with my ti.
Any suggestions now that you've been through the process?

I ended up going with this clutch. It worked pretty good

I ended up getting rid of the car for a 2007 Audi A4 avant.

But the clutch held good and the car was a blast

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F132617773337

Good to know.
My last car was an 2007 A4 avant. I miss it, great car, fun to drive and amazing in the snow.


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