engine and drivetrain Thinking of installing an E30 M10 with factory EFI

[02Les]

I too was confused as to the logic of this car.  Brake reservoir and remote booster mounted on the right side (as per RHD cars).

Just to be clear for a RHD '02.

Sitting in the car and looking forward......brake/clutch reservoir is on the right side of the engine compartment and the TWIN brake servos/boosters are on the left hand side.

[Duddley]

Just to be clear for a RHD '02.

Sitting in the car and looking forward......brake/clutch reservoir is on the right side of the engine compartment and the TWIN brake servos/boosters are on the left hand side.

 

That's right! Well, that's how it would be normally. In my case, they stuck one (of the two) brake servo on each side of the engine bay

[Mike Self]

There should be an M42/44 exhaust manifold that will work for a RHD car, as they built both E30s and E36s with that engine in RHD.  Those exhaust manifolds, IIRC, are stainless steel tubing vs cast iron, so should be tweakable to clear steering, subframe etc...

 

mike

[pnwtii]

Hey Jeff, just wanted to chime in here as an owner of an e30 with an m10, a 2002tii, and 318ti that used to have an M44.

 

By going with the e30 1.8 engine you're losing torque compared to the '02's 2.0 engine but you'll gain some drivability and smoothness from the efi IF it's in good shape. Unfortunately the efi parts are harder to find new compared to an M42 or M44 and the injection is not very adjustable as there is no chip to tune if you want to make changes to gain performance. With the increasing availability in aftermarket efi hardware I think a regular 2.0 engine with aftermarket efi is a better way to go.

 

The M42/M44 is a newer and more rev happy engine with a better injection system than the e30 M10 and the parts are more available. For the e36 the M44 got a lighter block, better thrust bearing, and reduced friction in the valve train as well as an extra .1 liter. I believe the hot setup with this is to use an M44 block and valve train with the M42 head casting and injection system. The one drawback with this engine is there aren't as many options for perfomance engine parts as the M10.

 

Hope that helps a bit.

[bluedevils]

I would drop in the 1.8 liter M10 E30 engine with jetronic EFI first. As said, it will make the car pleasant to drive. And no need to fabricate new mounts and other parts for an M42 swap. Cost effective. Later, you can update the block to a 2.0 liter 2002 block using the same 1.8 head which apparently flows better (you need to make custom pistons or some other fabrication to the 1.8 head). And after that, you can simply upgrade to aftermarket EFI or megasquirt using the same E30 intake, fuel rail  and some of the parts; groundwork is already done. For example, rumor has it that a VOLVO jetronic system from certain years with programmable Bosch EFI digital computer and MAF will work great, using the M10 block (1.8 or 2.0) with E30 intake. There are some folks doing it and we will probably see a few in Mid Amer Fest in April and at the vintage in May. 

However, if you want a screamer, put the M42 in there. Spend some cash for new parts from Metric Mechanic and you will have a 150-200 horses with good low-end torque. Start saving $$$ today, you are going to need it.