Interesting sale here...

[jtkratzer]

OK, the car/parts for sale is/are a 1998 318ti with the M package, 5 speed, California top. The problem is that the car had an engine swap done before I bought it and before emissions testing was being done. The swapped engine is a solid, fully functional M42 engine. There's no mechanical way to get the camshaft position sensor for the M42 engine to work with the M44 DME and now that we've found that out, and the car doesn't have original equipment, I can't get a waiver for inspection and basically can't drive the car as is anymore. So, I'd like to sell the car to someone who is either interested in putting an M44 back in it, or to someone who'd like to pull the M42, sell that engine, or do whatever with it, and replace it with a 6 cylinder.

The odometer reads 139,000 miles, but I'm assuming that's what would be on the car had it still had the original M44. No clue on the miles for the M42 that's been in it since I bought the car. I put 50,000 miles on the car in the last 38 months. It has a new exhaust, the back half, not the catalytic converter, new upstream oxygen sensor, downstream oxygen sensor is less than 2 years (less than 30,000 miles) old, all new air hoses, spark plugs were replaced less than 10,000 miles ago. I replaced the windshield in July. The oil, air, and fuel filters have been changed regularly at the recommended intervals.

The car is currently in Ephrata, PA and I'm just curious as to whether or not anyone is interested in a complete car that needs an engine swap knowing that the engine in the car is solid and runs well, just can't keep things how they are to pass inspection/emissions.

How much is an M42 engine worth should I want to pull it and sell it separately?

If no one is interested in having anything to do with this car, I have the option of giving back to the dealer where I bought it as a "trade", but I'd like to sell it to get more than what I expect the dealer to offer me for it to recoup the nearly $3000 I've put into this car over the last year finding out about the engine swap.

I'd like to get around $5000 for the whole car as it is, but maybe that's completely unrealistic with all things considered.


Any ideas, offers, thoughts?

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the car has the working 6 disc CD changer and it also has the DSC traction control (which works wonders in the snow).