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

DISCUSSION => General Topics => Topic started by: josephb983 on March 12, 2008, 04:35:31 PM

Title: 6 speed transmission choices for M42?
Post by: josephb983 on March 12, 2008, 04:35:31 PM

What 6 speed transmissions are available that will work on the M42 engine and E30 body? I noticed this one on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-M5-sport-6-speed-manual-transmission-GETRAG-540-E39_W0QQitemZ180130507734QQcmdZViewItem

Would this work? Are there other ones that might work too?

Thanks

Title: 6 speed transmission choices for M42?
Post by: pbgd3skier on March 18, 2008, 01:53:14 PM

Most transmissions could be modified/adapted to work.  Out of the box I am unsure if that will bolt up.  

Mounts, new driveshafts, bellhousing adaptations, different flywheels/clutches could be in order.

Typically if you can bolt the transmission up (this should be able to with some adaptations) then you can find a flywheel that mates to your engine, and mates to a clutch that would work for that transmission.  But you are getting into alot of shopping around, measuring/mocking up/ R&R work to get these to work.

Title: 6 speed transmission choices for M42?
Post by: e30 4cyl on March 18, 2008, 02:33:31 PM

How much more weight would this add to the car?

Title: 6 speed transmission choices for M42?
Post by: swiss318is on March 18, 2008, 02:35:47 PM

i heard that the e36 m3 6-speed gearbox fits on the m42 engine..

Title: 6 speed transmission choices for M42?
Post by: DaveM-sport on March 18, 2008, 04:10:40 PM

I'm very interested to know if the E36 M3 Evo box bolts up...

Title: 6 speed transmission choices for M42?
Post by: swiss318is on March 19, 2008, 01:56:18 AM

For the gearbox, on the e36 at least, the e36 m3 6-speed gearbox will fit but you have to use the m3s clutch.

For the driveshafts, on the e36 the driveshaft is in two pieces, The front and the Back.
The front comes in two different types, 5-speed and 6-speed.
The rear comes in two different types, small case diff. and medium case differential.
(there are other types for the evo and automatics but theyre not relavent at the moment)
So in your case you should use the 6-speed front driveshaft and the rear could be either depending on what diff. you have.

written by "RouteZeroDesign" in the thread "a swisss 318is e30" page 2

i didnt tried that, but i will when i found a gearbox...

Title: 6 speed transmission choices for M42?
Post by: DaveM-sport on March 20, 2008, 07:37:50 PM

Cool, thanks for that info!!!

So looks like a 325i llightwieght flywheel is out or will the E36 M3 clutch fit inside the it???
Current diff is a 4.1 large case LSD, might go down as far as 3.73 with a 6 speed box but would be also a large case LSD:)

Wonder how much The Evo boxes sell for?

Title: 6 speed transmission choices for M42?
Post by: gearheadE30 on March 24, 2008, 04:21:23 PM

I think any tranny that works with the M52 and M54 engines will work; they all have the same bellhousings. This would, I assume, include the e46 330i tranny.