Just bought a 98 ti with little M motor
 

Hi all-
Been lurking for ages but finally pulled the trigger and sold my 95 ti with 182K lowered, tires and suspension and bought a 98 ti with a "little" M motor (328 block and M head.) for $3800 - my car plus $2000.
Here's the description:
This car originally came equipped with a 1.8 liter 4-cylinder motor. The engine has been swapped out with a 2.8 liter 6-cylinder M52B28 motor out of a 1998 328i sedan - With an M3 cylinder head and camshafts. The car has a 5-speed manual gearbox out of the same sedan as the engine -Also installed is a Limited Slide Differential (LSD) out of a winter package E30 sedan -The engine has a stainless steel header installed -The exhaust is a custom stainless steel 3" exhaust with V-band clamps,Borla muffler. -A higher flowing intake manifold from an M50 motor is installed along with an adapter kit from Turner Motorsports -The engine has M3 camshafts from an S52 motor -A custom programmed ECU is installed that has the speed limiter removed and slightly modified air/fuel maps to compensate for the intake and exhaust mods.-- Suspension Mods: The car has BC Racing BR-Type coilover installed and is lowered about 1.5" -Camber plates are installed on the front -E30 M3 front lower control arms were installed to reduce front suspension compliance -E36 M3 offset front control arm bushings were installed to increase front caster and reduce suspension compliance Other mods: -Glass headlamps are installed. -The wheels are BMW Style 42's. They are a forged 2-piece wheel made by BBS. They are 8.5" Wide and 17" in diameter. -Keyed lug nuts are installed to prevent theft of the wheels. -Carbon Fiber spoiler--New Clutch, New Flywheel -New slave cylinder -New Air Filter, Spark Plugs -Rebuilt Power Steering Rack -New Power steering lines, cooler, and reservoir.
Flew to Baton Rouge yesterday and drove it back here to Jacksonville, Florida.
!0 hours of listening to a REAL LOUD exhaust got really old. The list of things to fix is growing hourly.
The odometer is barely visible like a poor ground or something.
Bad tint on the windows. Interior rear view mirror vibrates like crazy. The diff seems to be at least a 3:73 and is real busy at freeway speeds.
BUT... the power is impressive, pulls like crazy, feels like close to 260 hp. Suspension is stiff but a little sensitive for highway use.
Quite a change from my stock motor ti.

With a 3.73 it's going to be geared to chomp through gas. M52 and S52 have the same head cast so there is no difference there but the cam profiles are. M52 with S52 cams are about 215 and torgue does not suffer either but having proper tune is the key.

My suggestion is to move the battery to the trunk for better weight distribution and if you wanted to put the SAP secondary air pump system in it goes there where the battery is.

Looks like a fun car, good luck cleaning it it and sorting the few remaining items.

Thanks-
It has an M50 head, cams, intake, Turner chip and headers. Feels quite strong, but I'm coming from a stock 4 cylinder 95 so, of course it's quite a change. Probably will spring for the conversion book offered here so I can connect the ABS. Mileage didn't seem too bad on the way back from Baton Rouge, but the odometer light was missing so I had to guess. Ran about 3600 rpm at 75 compared to my 95 stock ti which ran 3200. I'm cutting the end off the exhaust and putting in a 2.5 inch powerflow for now to quiet it down.

ABS was never connected up so I would like to order the conversion manual but I don't seem to be able to get a response. Does anyone know if it is still available?
Put a 2 1/2 in muffler on it the other day- helps a lot. New bronze clutch pedal bushings and a UUC stop plus a new slave cylinder makes a big difference. Shifter from a Z3 cuts the throw by half. Getting close to drivable except for a lot of heat from the transmission hump.

I always thought ABS was eliminated when a swap was performed. Maybe someone can chime in and clarify.

Don't know for sure. Waiting for Jim to send me the conversion manual.

Looks awesome! That 3.73 diff sounds brutal.

Yeah, but I live out on an island in far Northeastern Florida so it doesn't see much freeway time. Driving it back from Baton Rouge- 10 hours- was a bit of a strain especially with that juice can muffler. It turns about 3800 rpm at 75 mph with the bigger wheels.

:_peace:

I hear you on the drone -- my magnaflow is pretty bad with the windows up. Gonna try to get a helmholtz resonator added at an exhaust shop before it sees daily duty.

First time I've actually heard of that engine configuration. Build it yourself?

Bought it on Ebay as is! Fixed exhaust, clutch, window, shifter so far, but lots to do yet.

ASC (Traction Control) or ABS (Anti-lock Brakes)?

No one (that I know of) has gotten ASC to work in a swap. ABS shouldn't be affected at all...

It's got a locker type diff out of a 325xi so I don't really care about traction control, but the builder said the ABS doesn't work and a light is showing on the 328 dash.
How is yours with the aluminum flywheel? Mine was lightened, but I doubt it's down anywhere near your weight. Moving the battery next month.

I like the light flywheel, it makes the motor rev up a little faster, yet doesn't cause the drivetrain noise that the super light flywheels do...

I would get something in the 13-15 pound range. I have a Fidanza and a JB Racing unit in couple of my cars. Like them.

I ordered Jim's book on the conversion. My exhaust has the oxygen sensors with pigtails but they are just hanging there. Not connected up. Guess that's going to move up my fixit list. Computer must be running in "Closed Loop" with maybe the Turner chip helping out.