Threw a rod on the way home

[2ruble]

On my way home yesterday my engine decided to end itself and throw a rod out the motor in to my motor mount... I had a couple questions regarding the potentiall m44 swap - is there anything other than the motor I would need? There are several junkyards around me (within 20 miles) and I know one has a really pretty m44 and another has several 'ok' looking m42s.... so, is there anything really different between the two I would need outside of pulling just the motor? Or will I need harness, rack, this, that, etc... thanks in advance

[bmwman91]

To swap in an M44, you would need the ECU and entire wiring harness. It is an OBD-II engine, so there would be a TON of stuff that you would need to swap over, including additional O2 sensors and an evap leak sensor (I think). It would be a ton of work. You can't really use it easily with an M42 ECU (E30 or E36) since it has a MAF sensor and a pretty different cam/lifter arrangement.

You are better off finding a clean M42. I assume that you have an E30, so you'd just need to swap the E30 intake manifold on and hook everything up.

Can you get some pics of the damage when you pull the engine, or with it still in there?

[PumpItUp]

Where can one get an used m42? I read threads about getting motors with ~60,000 miles for $500 but that was years ago.

On a related topic if you had to do your timing, would you buy the components new for ~$500, buy a used [presumably lower mileage] motor and swap it in whole, or buy a used motor and swap only the [presumably lower mileage] timing components.

[wazzu70]

I would not buy any of the guides used, its not worth the risk because savings is minimal. I would consider used cam gears with non-pointy teeth.

[DesktopDave]

On my way home yesterday my engine decided to end itself and throw a rod out the motor in to my motor mount... I had a couple questions regarding the potentiall m44 swap - is there anything other than the motor I would need? There are several junkyards around me (within 20 miles) and I know one has a really pretty m44 and another has several 'ok' looking m42s.... so, is there anything really different between the two I would need outside of pulling just the motor? Or will I need harness, rack, this, that, etc... thanks in advance

How did this all end up? You can't use an M44 in the E30 unless you swap the whole deal...wiring harness, DME, EWS setup...not a pretty picture.

You should be looking for an M42 around '95 for all the updated BMW goodies. You'll have to keep the serpentine belt setup (or replace it with the E30 v-belt setup), and swap the intake manifold & oil pan for the E30 versions. I'd also use the entire E30 wiring harness on the later motor.

I'm planning on doing this swap myself in a year or two, but that won't help you out much, will it?