E30 M42/E36 M42, different oil pan???

[Bakke]

hey There.

i have a problem, i just bought an nice M42 engine for my E30, but then it accours to me that it is from an E36, and the oilpan sump is locatet at the rear end instead of the front, i wasnt aware of the diffenrence.

so now what?

can i simply change the oil pan?
how about oil pick up?
other problems ?

any ideas?

[E30PQ]

I have been involved in 2 E30 engine swaps.  One was dropping an S50 into an E30.  The other was dropping an M42 in an E30 (it was an M20 car).

I assume the pan can be swapped from the E30 M42 to an E36 M42.  You would need to change the oil pump pickup since the pans are different.

That was the same process I needed to follow to drop the 24v S50 into an E30.  It requires the pan from a 5 series motor to fit over the E30 subframe.

I hope that helps.

Paul Q

[kowalski]

yeah, the pans are different. one is a solid 1 piece pan, the other is a 2 piece pan with upper and lower pans. as for wheter the newer 1 piece will fit in the e30, i'd like to find out as well.

[HaNasich]

just swapped an M42 from an E36 into my car a month ago...
u have to use the old M42 pan.
swapping the pans is easy - about 12 or 16 10mm bolts that holds the lower pan to the uper part, and another 16 or 20 10mm bolts that holds the uper oil pan to the block - all that on the old engine.
on the new engine the pan is one piece - about 16 or 18 10mm bolts, but please notice that the bolts in the newer M42 engine are longer and u can not use them when swapping in the older oil pans.

another important issue is that is it highly recommended that u use sealnt for better sealing of between the oil pans, and also - get some new gaskets.

the oil dipstick must e changed as well.
if u got a >94 engine it should be serpentine belt driven all the way - meaning that u have to modify the dipstick abit to have it get along with the engine -
i just took the belt off, placed the dipstick as i needed and only than reinstall the serpentine belt.
hope this helps.


Ron.
in addition - there should be a write up about the whole proccess somewhere in the "engine swaps" area with pictures of the two oil pans - try looking for it...

[sheepdog]

HaNasich is correct, you need to use your old pan.
Simple swap.

[Bakke]

thanks a lot everybody!