m42 m44 swap
 

My 96 318ti has a cracked head so I bought another engine that I was told was an m44.Turns out it's a 95 m42. Looking at the two motors,it looks like if I use the intake from the m44 on the m42 everything would hook up with the only issue being the crank sensor. Can I wire up the sensor on the front of the crank? Both sensors have three wires.

The Main difference between those is the way DISA works. On the m44 the idle control valve is on the TB where as its is a separate system on called "vacuum control" on the m42/43. Im not sure where you would put the plug for the ICV with a m44 harness but i would amuse it is the same as vacuum control.

If your doing a full engine swap and putting the M44 upper and lower intake manifold on then you shouldn't really have to do anything with the crank sensors as you swap the whole engine harness.

But swapping manifolds isn't going to really give that much of a power boost if any.

I tried swapping over parts from my m44 to the m42 and it was never really fun, so i left the m42 all stock, bought an early non-ews m42 dme, plugged it in, and drove away. Good luck with your swap.