M42club.com - Home of the BMW E30/E36 318i/iS

DISCUSSION => Engine + Driveline => Topic started by: mgold on April 24, 2006, 01:00:50 AM

Title: E36 M42 swap?
Post by: mgold on April 24, 2006, 01:00:50 AM

Has anyone swapped an M42 from an E36 into an E30?  I know that most of the parts are identical, visually, it seems to be a different intake, and the E36 version uses a serpentine belt.

Title: E36 M42 swap?
Post by: 2002maniac on April 24, 2006, 01:26:47 AM

you would have to swap over the wiring harness and ECU.  Some splicing would be involved.

The engine itself should go in with no modifications.

Title: E36 M42 swap?
Post by: jbuttenshaw on April 24, 2006, 06:28:25 PM

you would need to change the sump as the e36 one won;t fit, also depending on the acnillaries you intend to run you ill have to remove a/c and powersteering, or combinations which can be a bit tricky. I did this very swap so feel free to ask any questions.

Title: E36 M42 swap?
Post by: Pedro on April 24, 2006, 10:39:44 PM

i'm in the process of putting a 93 m42 in my 91. the only things ive had to swap over were the oil pan (both pieces), the intake manifold, crank pulley, maybe the valve cover. the 93 is identical to the 91 but i already painted mine black so im going to keep my stock cover. thats it off the top of my head.

Title: E36 M42 swap?
Post by: M42lover on April 24, 2006, 10:56:38 PM

I put a 95 M42 into my 91 318is a few years ago. Oil pan from the old motor  has to be used. I wanted the serpentine belt system from the 95 motor but didnt want to deal with the splicing of the harness to the new style accessories. Whats nice was the 95 only had 70k on it where my old motor had high miles. I ended up using my alternator etc and it wasnt that hard.

Title: E36 M42 swap?
Post by: D. Clay on April 25, 2006, 01:49:32 AM

Quote from: jbuttenshaw

you would need to change the sump as the e36 one won;t fit, also depending on the acnillaries you intend to run you ill have to remove a/c and powersteering, or combinations which can be a bit tricky. I did this very swap so feel free to ask any questions.

This would make a good DIY. A lot of M42's are pushing retirement time and the swap is a good way to get a low mile used motor. Used prices are $750 to $2000.

Title: E36 M42 swap?
Post by: Porker on April 26, 2006, 12:18:37 PM

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum, and I'll start immediately with my problem.

I have a E30 318iS with 179k km, last week, I broke the carter (2pieces), and my engine probaply suffered some damage too, so I'm looking around for a new engine.
As you all know, E30 M42 are very rare, especially with reasonable mileage.
So I started looking for E36 M42, and indeed there are a lot of them, so it seems like the ideal solution, but is it really hard te swap them?

I read here, you need to change the oil pan (carter) but this is what's broken on mine so whatever I'll do, I'll need to buy a new carter (€ 400), right?
What else has to be swapped?

Thanks in advance!

Title: Wow
Post by: D. Clay on April 26, 2006, 12:39:19 PM

Where in the common market counties is an oil pan a "carter"? Also Welcome!

Title: E36 M42 swap?
Post by: Febi Guibo on April 26, 2006, 02:58:42 PM

D. Clay, that's a great idea re: the write-up... I posted a request for one and will be beating the bushes for more info.

We don't wanna get our 'carters' and fords mixed up. :D