Euro M3 3.2 swap started

[Aussie M3ti]

Hi All,

Well I have started my swap last Thursday evening. Drove the Ti home from work and parked it in the garage and started pulling it apart. We had a long weekend in Sydney thanks to APEC and so used the weekend to get a good start on the conversion, the aim is to do the conversion in 10 days.

I had sourced a wrecked M Coupe from Japan to use for the swap. The M Coupe is Left Hand Drive and the Ti is Right hand drive.

By Friday lunchtime I had the Ti engine out and removed a few brackets and cleaned the engine bay and by 5 pm had the M3 engine and gearbox in. Decided to remove the front of the car to make the swap easier and it was fine except it took about an hour to realise there were spot welds on the front clip.

Struck the first problem on Saturday afternoon when I realised the shifters needed modifying. So ran I off and had them welded. Was then going great until sunday lunchtime when I realised that the ECU box wouldn't fit on the right side of the car where is was on the M Coupe. Spent Sunday and Monday morning changing the wiring loom to have the ECU on the left side of the car.

I am working evenings so I am able to do work in the mornings after taking the wife to work. (only one car while the swap happens)

Tuesday morning did the radiator, air con hoses, oil cooler and brake booster etc. Today I sorted the Expansion tank, it had to move from the right side of the car to the left side. Made up a bracket and a custom pipe to the pipe at the rear of the engine. Also ordered some parts to make some new power steering hoses to suit the RHD rack.

Really happy with the progress. Tomorrow is the Inlet manifold, airbox, accelerator cable, EWS and ignition wiring. I will be using a two key solution with the M Coupe key with the chip and the Ti key on the ignition.

Will update later in the week.

Cheers

Brian

[Marv17]

wow. sounds like ur swap is coming along nicely. do u have any pics to post so we can see ur progress?

[Aussie M3ti]

Originally Posted by Marv17

do u have any pics to post so we can see ur progress?

Sorry I haven't done any pics as I have gone along. Will do some final pics and some of the problem areas after I have finished.

Today I did the intake manifold, airbox, accelerator cable, brake booster hose and EWS. The intake manifold was painful as it hit on the bracket for the Expansion tank and the custom hose as well as the ABS brake lines. I had to move the expansion tank back about 1.5 inches, put another join in the pipe to the engine. I ended up bending the ABS brake lines out of the way and everything finally fitted. There is very little room between the inlet manifold and the ABS and the hot water valve.

I couldn't start the car today as I need to sort the Positive terminal at the front of the car so I can power everything. Will do that tomorrow morning and give it a quick start.

I can't run it for long as I still don't have any power steering hoses. I might rig up a return line to the power steering tank so the fluid can just circulate.

The end is in sight, I will change over the dash tomorrow and fix about 3 wires on the X16 and X17 to suit the M Coupe dash. I also hope to put the M Coupe Centre exhaust section on.

That just leaves sorting out the battery in the boot, fixing a tie rod bolt (one has seized half off), power steering hoses and then getting a rear muffler fitted. I have bought a twin pipe rear muffler off ebay but it may be a bit noisy.

Another update tomorrow night once I get to work.

Cheers

Brian

[Aussie M3ti]

It lives, fired up the engine today after filling some fluids and changing over the dash. It fired up on first go. I only let it run for 10 seconds as there were still no power steering hoses.

It is loud with no exhaust!!!

Only one small coolant leak that was easily fixed with a new hose clamp.

Fitted the M Coupe dash but cheated on the wires. Just did the ends near the dash. Had to pinch a wire with connector attached from the M Coupe as there are no spare wires in the Ti in X16 or X17.

Nearly stuffed up as the wiring for the US and Euro cars is different in the dash connectors. Went and got some X16 and X17 connector lists to find a spare wire and was about to cut a wire when I though this doesn't sound right and went and checked the files to realise I had a US wiring diagram.

Power steering hoses arrived and fitted them just prior to going to work. Have to work out how to mount the power steering cooler on the front. The mounting points are different from the E36 to the M Coupe.

Down to 1 big job, getting the battery wiring to the boot and about 10 small jobs. Will not be able to get the exhaust done tomorrow so that will have to be done on Monday. Missed the deadline.

More tomorrow.

Cheers

Brian

[96cali]

Damn. Can I buy you a plane ticket to come and do my swap? I won't even do the dash.

[Marv17]

yeah i know. he is moving along pretty quick for doing a swap. im jealous. i wish i had the chance to get my hand on an engine and the knowledge to even attempt it.

[Aussie M3ti]

There was about two months worth of research and preperation prior to starting the actual swap. I have also used JiM's manual. I have had to work out a lot of things for during a Euro engine and Right hand drive. But it has gone really well.

Yesterday was another big day. Finished off the dash wiring. Spend ages finding some of the right wires to connect into. Installed the M coupe exhaust middle section and ran the power cables from the Engine bay to the boot. Also filled the power steering bottle and had a leak due to not tightening a clamp.

Today I need to mount the battery. I may go an buy a smaller battery. I am aiming to put in in the right rear corner in place of the plastic pocket. I may need to get an Odessey battery that will fit in the hole.

Not many jobs left now. Sould be finsihed today except for the rear exhaust. Should get that done tomorrow.

Cheers

Brian

[Aussie M3ti]

It is done!!!!

Finished the wiring and few remaining jobs, yesterday afternoon. Ended up buying a smaller battery that fits perfectly in the space on the right side of the boot (trunk for those on the wrong side of the pacific).

Ran diagnostics using a peake tool and only had one error the air temp sensor. And sure enough I had missed the wire. Easy fix.

Need to get a rear muffler fitted this week.

Went for a test drive, very noisy with no rear muffler. It is certainly quick!!!

I had a couple of problems:

- the gear linkage rubs against the guibo in second gear. Will need to modify the linkage or get an M3 one.

- The clutch take up point is on the floor. I will rebleed and hope that fixes the ploblem. Any advise would be good.

- It needed a wheel alignment. it had about 20deg or tow out. Did a quick alignment by eye but will need to do a proper alignment.

Overall very happy with the engine swap and once I sort the clutch and exhaust I look forward to many months of fun.

Next is the rear subframe, diff and suspension change. Probably in a couple of weeks.

Cheers

Brian

[M3_KILL3R]

wow man i wish i had the time/money/knowledge to do this very jealous! but congrats and good job. Get some pics up i would love to see what went on. its pretty quick? i hope it is!! if not theres something wrong

[Aussie M3ti]

Well I have been out driving the car. An update on the issues:

Clutch: having read that it self bleeds decided to just put some miles on it and it has come good. Take up point now about mid pedal travel and feels good

Gear linkage rubbing: Tried the Ti gear lever and it fixed the rubbing but I then couldn't get 2nd or 4th gears too much travel. So put the M Coupe gear lever back and fitted a M3 lower linkage. Buewwwtifulll.

Got the exhaust fitted. It is a bit loud. May need to investigate a different rear muffler.

However the car disgraced itself on Wednesday. The power steering hose blew off. Wrong sort of fittings so I went and ordered a BMW one. Ouch that hurt. Anyway fitted now and car running fine.

So all good except a bit too noisy for my likeing. Will look at exhaust when I do the rear end.

Cheers

Brian

PS still haven't got the camera out.

[96cali]

Can't wait to see pics. So is it LH drive or RH drive now?

[larryn]

I have a single M Coupe muffler fitted, and it gives a decent throaty sound when you get on it, but is not really obtrusive. Plus, there's lots of M drivers around that replace them, and have the stock ones sitting in their garage.

[mohaughn]

I had similiar issues with my clutch after I switched to a SS clutch line. I ended up having to remove the slave cylinder and orient it with the bleed valve pointing up, instead of to the side. Remove any type of clutch stop, or anything thay may interfere with the clutch pedal.

Then bleed the clutch similiar to how you would bleed the brakes. Open valve, push pedal in, close valve, release pedal. It took my multiple tries at bleeding the pedal to get the pickup point where I wanted it.

And then when I got the car inspected my mechanic did it again, and got an even better pedal feel for me. It is just a PITA.

I've also used a mity vac vacuum bleeder and that seems to do a lot better job as it will suck the air out of the end of the valve/cylinder.

[Aussie M3ti]

Well decided to do the diff this afternoon. Took 6 hours from putting car in garage to driving out again.

Put the M Coupe diff in and modified the brake lines from the Ti to fit with the flexible hoses from the M Coupe. Everything fitted really well, including the Handbake cables.

I do have one major problem though while under the car noticed the Fuel tank was badly out of shape and after a few minutes thinking realised it must be vaccuum related and after a couple of tries finally got the fuel cap off. Huge vaccuum. The tank went back to near normal shape.

I don't think the breather is working right. I put the breather on the Ti onto the Fuel Tank breather valve on the M3 engine. Doesn't appear to be working anyone got any suggestions?

Still no photos!!!

No I can really give it some boot as the fragile diff is gone.

Cheers

Brian

[Aussie M3ti]

Originally Posted by 96cali

Can't wait to see pics. So is it LH drive or RH drive now?

It is now RHD. The M Coupe was LHD and used the LHD loom and converted it to RHD. That was one of my biggest drams during the build.

Cheers

Brian