Blew my engine – Talk me out of it!

[Dsan]

After 205 thousand miles of ear-to-ear grins driving my ’98 318ti (5 speed, M package) I threw a rod going up to Big Bear this weekend. My engine is toast! For those of you who don’t know the Southern California area, Big Bear is a mountain resort about 2 hours out of LA. The road up the mountain must have a hundred hairpin turns and as many zigs and zags. I knew once she went over 200k I was liv’n on barrowed time. Well, at least she went out in a blaze of glory; a lot better than dieing on a congested freeway somewhere.

I bought the car new from the dealer and nearly all the miles on the car are highway and the rest of the car is in pretty good shape. I’ve owned two 240Z’s, an RX7 and a Honda CRX si. These were fun cars but the ti has been the best! …So instead of coming to my senses and maybe getting some therapy for my obvious emotional connection with this car. I’m thinking about ….dropping an M3 power train in it.

I’ve been told the best way to do this is to buy a totaled M3 (same year I suppose) and start moving over the engine, maybe tranny, diff, drive line and front suspension and selected other parts (radiator for example). I can’t do the work myself and I don’t have a lot of time. This is [was] my everyday car so I need to get it back on the road or, …or buy a Yugo. Let’s see (Yugo or M3ti pocket rocket). …Ok, I refuse to buy a Yugo.

Seriously, does anyone know of a shop in Southern California that has done (and would do another) ‘98ti / M3 swap?

Other ideas:
just put a rebuilt 318ti engine in it
(dealer say about $8k – parts and labor, can I do swap for that amount?)

;sell it for scrap
; part it out
; … cry!

Need your advice – give it to me straight.
-Doug

[cali-ti]

how much time do you have that you can be without your car? how much money can you spend? have you started looking for wrecked m3's in your area yet?

the shop i was talking to about a DASC/m3 also said exactly what you did, you want an m3 donor car, not just the engine/trans and it's all the little bits and pieces that you'll need to do it right that will nickel and dime you to death.

if you can source an m3 donor and a shop that has experience doing the swap quickly enough, i think a week is a safe bet on the amount of time it would take to have it done (hopefully less but a week to be safe). check some of the other threads on what kind of labor costs you'd be looking at for that amount of work, rental car fees (unless you can borrow a friend's spare car or something), etc ... can you afford it?

then price out a used 96+ m44 and see what that would cost. labor should be a good deal less because it should be a direct swap. obviously, this won't give you the even bigger grin the m3 swap would, but if you can't afford the time/money ...

[Dredder]

Ill take it as is. How much do you want for it? Show me some pics. send them at tad@dynamictransmedia.com

[Dsan]

Thanks for the reply. Yes. I've been looking for an M3 donor cars. I found a wrecked '95 M3 but I'm not sure that year will work. Would the '95 M3 have the 3.0 or the 3.2L engine. They want $5K for the car. I can afford $5K + say $1,500 labor.

I found a shop in San Diego that has done the swap. They said I sould use the 3.2L. I will talk to them again today - not sure they thought I was serious. Maybe when I show us with a dead ti and wrecked M3 they'l get the idea!

-Doug

[Dredder]

95 m3 is obd1. your car is obd2. You're going to have difficult time converting an OBD1 to OBD2. Stick with OBD2 engine. I can source an 98' M3 engine for you. with accessories, harness and DME for less than 3k. it would be ready to bolt in for your car. its only got 100K on it. mostly freeway miles or you can sell me the your car.

[Dsan]

What years are OBD2 on the M3?

[Dredder]

96+ most 3.2 are OBD2

[Dsan]

Thanks. And is it correct that "OBBD2" is the version of the engine management computer/software. And this includes the anti-theft system that won't let the car start unless the key has the proper sequence encoded in it?

[Dredder]

your are correct. OBD2 comes with EWS. The 98 motor that is avaliable to me comes with EWS comp. Pretty much all you need to do is have a shop drop it in. They will not have any problem. All that is needed is to sync the motor to your car and your good to go. I will also include a Swap manual avaliable from J!M at $50 for free. I no longer need it cause i've already got my swap done. I paid roughly $1600 for a shop to do OBD1 to OBD1. Good luck. There are plenty of threads in this forum about swaps. Do a search

[Dsan]

That sound good. You're making it sound easy. ...and not too expensive. The problem is that the shop I'm talking to wants me buy a whole M3 car (wrecked) for parts.

I will talk the guys at this shop again and/or look for another shop who is willing to just drop the engine in.

I would much rather just put the M3 engine in and get back on the road. Then maybe beef up/replace the front suspension a bit later.

Thanks for your help,
-Doug

[Panzer_M]

i have a M44 I will sell cheap with 149k miles...500$ for the engine.

[Dsan]

I think I need the 3.2L engine from the E36 M3 (1996+). I belive that's the "S52" engine.

[myblueTI]

if you are having a hard time finding the m3 engine then just go look for a 2.5 or a 2.8 because you can find themvery easily and very cheap and there is allot if ways to make them just as if not allot faster than an m3.

[Dsan]

Thanks to this forum and some patient BMW shop owners in the last 48 hours I have gone from knowing little about this swap to knowing quite a bit (or at least enough to start feeling comfortable with the issues). After calling about 20 BMW shops in a 100 mile radius I have found three in Southern California that I feel could do this job. The owner of one drives an M3/ti conversion (1998, ODB2, same as mine). I have not done this swap yet, but in the interest of sharing information for those of you in Southern California I will provide the name of the shops I feel comfortable with:

-Richard at “Michael Angelo Motor Works” in Irvine, CA – (949) 770-3322
-Joe at “M Power” in Glendale, CA – 323-257-5773
-Carl Nelson at “La Jolla Independent” in La Jolla, CA - 1-858-488-1555

All labor estimates (ball park non-binding estimates) were in the $1,500 to $2,000 range.


Dredder,

The information you have provided (in this and other threads) is 100% consistent with these shops. There is one more complexity to make the car legal in California. The California law requires that the engine be newer than the car. I guess this is to prevent someone from putting an old smoggy big block chevy in a Honda or something. This means that the production date of the engine must be after the production date of the car. So for example, if my car’s production date (car’s not with me so I can’t check it) was say Sept 5th, 1998 and I put an engine in that had a production date (a vin# tied to a vehicle with a production of) Sept 4th, 1998 the car would be illegal in Calif. An engine with a production date of Sept 6th 1998 (one day later) would be ok. As you can see this severely limits the engines I can use since my car is a 1998.

Do you know what year your engine is? If 1998 I would need to find the actual production date.

Did you change your differential? All the shops I’ve talked to tell me that my differential has high rations (3.95 I think, for 5 speed ti) which are too high for the more powerful M3 engine (the automatics are even higher). It would be a great drag racer but would be rev’ing very high on the freeway.

Also, where you able to get the ti tachometer to work – I’ve been told that it won’t work and I would need to either fabricate something or put an M3 instrument cluster in.

If your engine is a ’99 I will consider it because, based on your email, it seems to have all the extras that I would need except a flywheel (I’m assuming it does not have the m3 flywheel). In any case, thanks for the help!

-Doug

[SportAuto]

Do it! My Assenmacher scanner can align the EMS without troubles. The '98 Ti/M3 project currently at my shop runs great, I'm just waiting for a few small pieces to finish it. You can't put a '95 engine into the car legally, unless you source all the engine management and emissions equipment from a 98 or later car. I'd be happy to do it for you if you don't mind trailering your car 4 hours north. Good luck!

Tucker
SLO, CA