318...time for a new engine?

[tbake504]

Well...the fan on my car quit last night when I was sitting in a parking lot with it running. Go to pull out, steam starts shooting out everywhere. It had overheated, and it had overheated bad. It popped the heater hose on the back side of the motor and won't hold water.

But now I have bigger problems, ever since that incident, it leaking oil now in 2 places, pretty bad too. I put some stop leak in it and drove it around the block before it got hot and I think its a little better but I'm not sure if its going to help.

It just turned 200k and now this, it has also literally been a week n a half since it was broke b/c of the fuel pump quitting on me.

So I think I might put a 325 engine in it if this oil problem persist, given that a 135i is in my future and it is soon to be a track car. I am wondering tho, does the transmission out of the ti fit the 325 motor? Everyone seems to sell just the engine but no tranny so it hit me, I wonder if mine fits that engine, could be a dumb question but I am just wondering.

Hit me up and let me know what you think I should do.

[tiFreak]

the ti tranny fits, it's not designed to take that kind of power, you could use it for a while but once you start tracking the car you're going to want get the proper tranny

[minicoop900]

dude that blows, well be out at the shop tommorow, we could look at it if you want and weve done a couple swaps before so we could help you out with that too if you want.
pm me if your interested and ill give you my number and just call us if you wanna stop by, your engine might be fine too.

[tbake504]

Looks like I might be doing that, does the 325 engine and tranny fit the car with no change of driveshafts or anything?

[bryan413]

No they wont. Thats what Im told.

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by bryan413

No they wont. Thats what Im told.

Any e36 tranny will bolt right up to any e36 engine. The only difference between a getrag tranny for a 325 and a getrag tranny for a 318 will be the bolt pattern on the output flange since I think the 325 uses a larger flex disc. Of course if this is the case, the bolt pattern on the driveshaft will also differ, but that's an easy fix. Either swap the output flange or swap the flex disc and driveshaft.

Also FWIW, your car probably didn't overheat because the fan quit working. In the two years that I ran my car with an M44 in it, I never once seen or heard the fan come on other than when I ran the A/C. This has been confirmed by several other members here. The fans simply don't kick on like you think they should. Chances are, you have a crack or leak somewhere in the system which let air in and caused air-lock, which prevented coolant from circulating. Either that or a faulty thermostat or water pump.

[RAiMA]

If it's a manual, the tranny is good for 330whp before it starts to strip gears. As long as the gears haven't been crunched, it should be more than adequate for the 325 engine.

[pnosker]

+1 on that, I'm pushing 235 rwhp and my tranny is doing very nicely

[bryan413]

Maybe I was thinking back to my E30 325is days when the 240 wont bolt up to the 260

[tbake504]

Originally Posted by cooljess76

Any e36 tranny will bolt right up to any e36 engine. The only difference between a getrag tranny for a 325 and a getrag tranny for a 318 will be the bolt pattern on the output flange since I think the 325 uses a larger flex disc. Of course if this is the case, the bolt pattern on the driveshaft will also differ, but that's an easy fix. Either swap the output flange or swap the flex disc and driveshaft.

Also FWIW, your car probably didn't overheat because the fan quit working. In the two years that I ran my car with an M44 in it, I never once seen or heard the fan come on other than when I ran the A/C. This has been confirmed by several other members here. The fans simply don't kick on like you think they should. Chances are, you have a crack or leak somewhere in the system which let air in and caused air-lock, which prevented coolant from circulating. Either that or a faulty thermostat or water pump.

I just said it quit to shorten the story and to make me look less stupid but the truth is the fan switch broke on my car over a year ago so I just rigged it with a switch in the car that I forgot to turn on. For some reason it will still turn on when the A/C kicks on but not for heat of the engine. Since it was 50 degrees outside I didn't have the A/C on I sat there without the fan on for 15 min and then the hose had popped off yes and then it overheated. I Have a pretty dumb track record going lately I was just trying to help myself out and look a little better, haha but the truth is out now....

[tbake504]

Originally Posted by RAiMA

If it's a manual, the tranny is good for 330whp before it starts to strip gears. As long as the gears haven't been crunched, it should be more than adequate for the 325 engine.

The car does have 200800 miles on it tho...could that be a factor tho?

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by tbake504

I just said it quit to shorten the story and to make me look less stupid but the truth is the fan switch broke on my car over a year ago so I just rigged it with a switch in the car that I forgot to turn on. For some reason it will still turn on when the A/C kicks on but not for heat of the engine. Since it was 50 degrees outside I didn't have the A/C on I sat there without the fan on for 15 min and then the hose had popped off yes and then it overheated. I Have a pretty dumb track record going lately I was just trying to help myself out and look a little better, haha but the truth is out now....

What I'm saying is, the fan should never have to come on. If your cooling system is working properly, the only time you should see the fan come on is if you switch the A/C on. This has happened to many people on this forum, trust me. I haven't heard of an account where a single member has ever seen their fan turn on automatically. People have sat there and watched their cars overheat and the fan switch simply doesn't do anything to turn the fan on. So thats why I said that your fan not turning on didn't cause your car to overheat. They don't turn on. There had to be another issue.

[tbake504]

Yes, I know. I said the hose had popped off the back of the engine which caused it to lose water and over heat. I do know there is a possibility that it was low on water and I believe that a combination of that and not having the fan on caused some heat to build up and stuff to started to expand which forced that hose off and then it lost the majority of the water and made the engine overheat.