planing on buying an engine?
 

will a 95 m42 engine fit in a 97 bmw 318ti?:confused:

it will physically fit, and it's possible to get it to work, but with an OBDI engine in an OBDII chassis you might not be able to get it inspected

what if the 95 engine was a dohc?will it still work?

like tiFreak said, it's possible to get it to work, but your vehicle has an OBDII system and the engine you're wanting to use is out of an OBDI vehicle. i'd say stick with the M44 engine or go with a 6cyl swap. vehicles 95 and older = OBDI / vehicles 96 and newer = OBDII. I'm sure there are some other people on here who could give u a little more insight than I can tho.

FYI OBD = On Board Diagnostics. It was engine management software change required by the Feds. MOstly for emissions, it also added a few hardware bits.

Short answer to your questions is yes it will fit but finding a 1.9 M44 from any 1996-1998 3 series or Z3 will be much easier to swap.

will i have to replace the transmission? since im changing it from 4 cylinders to 6
and i have an auto(m42) and the engine im planing on getting (m44) is Manuel will that matter also?

Wow, seems like you are already over your head. M42= 4 cyl engine 1992-1995, M44 = 4cyl engine 1996-1999, these are not 6 cyl engines.

What is this all about anyway?

I'm going to urge you to STOP, write out the entire scenario (NOT 3 lines with no punctuation) and hopefully the people on this board who are way more knowledgeable than me will jump in and help you. Unless some master mechanic you know is taking this on sounds like you'll be in for surprises on the path you are heading.

The auto trans will bolt up a 6cyl but it's not that simple. Even M44 vs. M42 it's likely you will have some elec issues. I know the cam shaft position sensor is different on the M44 than the M42 (analog vs. digital or something like that).

anything is possible, but you might find it next to impossible to get things to work. you need to keep everything the same. if you have a car with an M44, you need to keep it M44, or upgrade to the 6cly brother. you can not jump down to the M42 as easy, since everything is different. different sensors, different wires, but its basically the same size, and will fit. its going to cost you a hell of alot of money if you change anything around and do not keep it all the same, or the way it was suppose to be. but like i said, anything is possible, but if you are asking simple questions like this, do not attempt a swap.

you need to understand what you are getting into besides just trying to beef up the motor size in your car without knowing what you are doing. its not as easy as just switching it out to a 6cly motor. it will all fit, but you will have to relocate alot of things under the hood to make things fit well. their are plenty of swap thread to goto a M52 motor. just search around.