help with swap - 1998 M3 drivetrain going in to 1998 318ti
 

hi guys -
I'M READING THE STICKY NOW :) GOOD STUFF EXCEPT FOR ME NEEDING A REAR FROM THE Z3. THAT STINKS FOR ME.

noob here so please bear with me. I'm reading through all the pages here but sometimes you use acronyms I'm not used to yet.
My last swap car was 93 rx7 with LS1 but I bought it already done. Had it for 4 years and enjoyed it immensly.

For this project, I bought a 98 318ti from my friend, original owner.
I found a 98 m3 with body damage. does it help that both cars are 98's?
I know a local shop/BMW racer that will do the swap for me.
I want the M3 motor, tranny, front and rear suspension and brakes/wheels, etc swapped in to the 318.
Any issues with the OBDII issue? Both cars are OBDII right?
I think the harness & ECU from the m3 has to be put in to the 318, right?
Will the stock 318 dash work fine?
The interior of the 318 is MINT so I'd like not to have to touch anything in the interior if possible.
While the suspension is out, what should be address? what bushings should be changed? poly? diff bushings, trailing arms, etc?
Will the m3 exhaust bolt right up to the 318? can you recommend a cheap header?
Previous owner of the 318 paid almost $3000 for a new bmw exhaust/o2 sensors, brackets, hangers last year, which I'd sell off on here (as well as selling the motor, tranny, rear, etc.).

Missing anything else? I will put the m3's stock shocks, springs, swaybars in to the 318 just to get it up and running. Later on down the line, I can change that stuff out for more aggressive parts.

Also, for racing, I'd like to run 285-30-18's all around. Is that possible in stock bodywork with some fender rolling?

question about the diff.
the sticky says the m3 diff won't fit and to use a M coupe/roadster diff.
here's a pic i got from ebay for a whole rear suspension from the z coupe but the diff has the one ear thingy and i thought a benefit of using the m3 rear was the double ear thingy (diff bushing).

The M3 diff won't work at all. It would take some serious custom fabrication to take advantage of the double mounting points. Even the M Z3 models have the single mounting point. The rear subframe on the ti and Z3 is completely different than the rest of the E36 family. The benefit to using the diff from the Z3 would be the increased durability under the kind of power you're going to be putting through it. The stock ti diff won't last long under those conditions.

Couple things from experience, its really good that both are 1998s. That will make the EWS issues seemless as long as you swap all the necessary stuff (DME, EWS module, transponder chip in the key)

You'll need the diff, the half shafts and the ABS sensors from the rearend you bought from the Z3, everything else is the same so no need to swap other parts.

You can't do the rear brakes either, you don't really need them anyway.

Exhaust midpipe from the M3 will work perfectly. The catback is all custom unfortunately.

I've done this exact swap 1998 S52 into 1998 ti. Its very straight forward and you'll love the results.