2002 with 91 318is conversion?

[Irish1]

I'm pretty sure I'm posting in the wrong forum here, so Mods, please slide it to the appropriate place. I'm looking for a new to me 2002 after being without one for 26 years. I'm also thinking that adding an engine from the E30 318is would be very appropriate to the nature of the 02: light, revvable, not overpowering to the suspension or brakes. I did a search here and on Bimmerforums but didn't find anyone who wrote about doing one. Any articles or links on this idea? This is a great forum. Thanks much.

[JohnW]

I don't know the specifics of the swap. It's been done before, but it's not an easy conversion. Try posting your question over in the 'General Discussion' forum for a better-detailed response.

[SOUTHBAYeric]

It really is kinda pointless(IMHO). You have to fabricate a ton of stuff, steering rack, tranny etc. and you only get an engine that produces as much power as a hopped up M10.

[andrewro]

Isn't Skip doing one of those?

[schwarz75]

A friend of mine has such a car - with a low mileage engine from an E30 convertible (318ic). It might be available for purchase. I have driven the car on a few occasions, and it's very nice with the modern and powerful engine. The car is located in Indpls. - Larry

[andrewro]

There's an '84 318i for sale where I live for $900, that's an M10 powered car, isn't it?

[schwarz75]

that are 16V engines. The late E30 cars included the coupe in 1991, called the 318is, so generally when someone mentions the "is" four-cyl. engine, they're talking about the later four-cyl./high-perf. engines that were also used in the convertible E30s as well as the early E36 four-cyl. cars through 1994 or so.

[wazzu70]

everyone mentions that an M42 makes the same power as a hopped up M10, however how about a hopped up M42? Obviously there isnt the aftermarket like there is for M20 and M10 for those but there is still plenty of stuff.

If you use an M42 out of an e30 the oil pan will be in a much better location, and the manifold is much smaller. Im planning on starting my swap this winter as M42s can be had cheap and I want to try something different. At any rate I plan on posting pictures of problem areas when I lined everything up.

Somoeone has to at least document this stuff dont they?

[JohnW]

It's hard to get much power out of an M42/3/4 without going to forced induction. That said, a chip and a lighter flywheel do make a difference.

From a driveability standpoint, an M42 with its injection, etc., should be a nice improvement. But it's not going to be much (or any?) faster than a moderately built-up M10 with good carburation.

I wonder too if adapting a mega squirt based injection system to an M10 might be a somewhat easier way of attaining similar end results (not that building a fuel injection system is easy!)

[Bentworker]

The conversion is a pain, but I still think it would be worth it.

I started the swap with a E36 M42 engine. The reason I went with the E36 engine was that Downing Atlanta makes a nice supercharger kit, and in stock form it makes more hp than the E30 M42. The appeal to me was that I could have a 2002 that could keep up with the S14 guys, but the big cost savings would be that the M42 could be rebuilt or replaced for far cheaper than a S14, although the initial cost would be about the same for the two, the used S14's seem to fetch about $4500+ now, and the M42 engines can be found for $1500-2300, and the supercharger kit is about $3800. The thing that scared me about the S14 engines was that they are very expensive to rebuild, I figured I could have 10G into an engine after I bought a used one and had it rebuilt to lessen the fear of scattering it all over the road. I started out the swap by installing a front sump E30 M42 oil pan, and tweaking a dipstick tube to fit around the different drive belt arrangement of the E36 engine. Next I ditched the AC compressor along with the power steering pump, and found a shorter drive belt that worked. After all that, I took a 2002 sub frame and cut off the stock steering idler arm mount. I fabricated a custom idler arm mount based of a E28 idler arm (it used a E28 idler arm bushing). This allowed the use of the stock steering without swapping in a rack. The transmission I chose was a getrag 240 5 speed out of an E30 M42 powered car, which is pretty small, but has no mechanical speedometer (although you could swap the tail housing from a E21 getrag 240 which does have a mechanical speedometer) . After all this I pulled the stock brake booster and master cyllinder out of the way and dropped it into the engine compartment and started to make engine mounts.

That was when I stopped working on it.

The engine mounts needed finishing, the harness needed to be wired up, a transmission crossmember and shift linkage needed to be made, the driveshaft needed to be shortened, and I needed to come up with a more compact setup for the brake master cylinder (no room for a booster) I was planning on using a tilton dual cylinder setup.

Anyway, now all of my stuff is for sale, check the FS forum if you are crazy enough to finish off what I started.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do,

Peter