316i to 328i converstion

[Rich]

The wire was them pulled through a grommet into the car and over to the dash. Below is one of the connectors from the back of the dash (connector x16). Here a pin was added to pin 21.

Hopefully the MPG gauge will work.

The MAF wiring was not long enough to go around the far side of the battery. So I striped out this part of the wiring loom and rewrapped it.


The image below shows the current layout of the wring, it needed some more adjustment to fit more comfortably however it is close.


To clean up the wiring I purchased a new fused distribution block for my sound system.

[Rich]

On Saturday I received my Eisenmann back box

[cosmos schwarz]

now thats a lot of penny's spent, have you been ringing round for insurance yet? i wont even get insured on the swap i'm planning. m3 3.0, although the breakers want to put a zm3 3.2 in it! they said it would be cheaper, but not in the long run, eh, how much are those twin vanos units ££££'s!!

[Rich]

i'm insured with Adrianflux at the moment, the swap will cost me about £250 extra. Which is not too bad really.

I also had the choice of getting an M3 or M3 evo engine. It would not have been much more than the 2.8 in price. However I have to consider the running costs; MPG and the cost of replacement parts.

If I feel like having a little more power later there is the option of changing the restrictive intake manifold and throttle body for a modified M50 intake and Big bore throttle body. With a cold air intake and remap there are claims of 220~240 bhp, however a more realistic end result would be 215bhp. Which is quite an increase! Maybe not M3 power but not slow either. That is something for a later date though.


(Edit: also my engine is a single Vanos the wiring is apparently simpler and therefore easier to integrate into the cars existing wiring. So far it has been pretty much plug and play. We will see how it goes when it comes to the first start)

[cosmos schwarz]

Originally Posted by Rich

(Edit: also my engine is a single Vanos the wiring is apparently simpler and therefore easier to integrate into the cars existing wiring. So far it has been pretty much plug and play. We will see how it goes when it comes to the first start)

single or twin vanos, there's still no way i'm doing the swap myself. your a very brave and clever man!

[campaiar]

That's one of the main reasons I went with a non-vanos M50, way less to worry about.

200+ miles on the swapped setup now.. Loving it...

[Rich]

excellent!

Don't think i'll make quite as many miles... but either way I hope that the VANOS or anything else for that fact doesn't cause any trouble. Time will tell...

[Rich]

More progress

During the week a few new parts turned up:-
- OEM thermostat
- Second replacement thermostat cover
- Power steering pipe + washers

All of these were fitted.

The alarm was wired into the engine loom. This is one wire from the alarm that connects to the wire from the ECU to injector 1; which on this loom was Brown White. The alarm needs the connection for Intellistart and blackjax.

The new power steering pipe was fitted, and all of the washer seals on all power steering connections were replaced.

I bought a Z3 exhaust on ebay last weekend, its in great condition just little dusty & some light surface rust. The o2 sensors were replaced with plugs (after cats). The new engine has all of the o2 sensors on the headers.


Below you can see the fitted exhaust. Unfortunately it’s a little short however all the angles fit perfectly; it will need lengthening a little. More on this once work begins. Seems as though the Z3 is a little shorter than the compact.


I got some aluminium dash rings. Below is the new dash with rings and the original compact dash without rings. Even though both dashes are exactly the same size the rings would not fit on the compact dash cover, the outer dial holes are slightly larger and the rings fall through. ( I wanted to use the cover from my old dash as it is in better condition, although after a good clean the new one looks fine )


The MAF/Airbox did not come with any clips. Patrick made some clips, they came out perfectly.



EWS.
So yesterday I wanted to try the starter and make sure the EWS setup was ok. I hooked the power and turned the key to find that nothing happened.. ARG! So after lots a researching and not finding any clear answers, just lots of theories. I spent some time today checking at relays, fuses, the before mentioned alarm wiring. While looking all over for faults I had a thought; when I installed EWS I taped the chip from the new system to the EWS barrel antenna. (This was done as the alarm has taken over the function of immobilising the car and the original system needs to be disabled for the alarm to work properly.)
The new chip was not used to open the doors. So I took the chip off the ignition barrel and locked & unlocked the doors while holding the chip close to the lock. Then I held the chip to the ignition barrel antenna and had another go at running the start.

It worked!!! Wooo! Another step out of the way, I was very worried that I was going to have to take the car somewhere to have the diagnosed and possible unlocking the ECU.

The radiator was connected and filled with water & antifreeze.

The oil for the engine, gearbox and power steering was topped up.

Now for some great news! With all of the work done today it was time to try running the engine.
The Engine Started!!!
First time as well. Below is a short video clip from Patrick’s phone, video/sound quality is not great but shows the first start.

VIDEO
Engine Start Video (233kb)
(to run the video you can use quicktime)

We will record a higher quality video with better sound on the DV camcorder tomorrow.

[Rich]

Video

Patrick came round today and put together a video

New Video: BMW Compact 328i (8.05mb)
(right click save as)

Codec for video can be found here.
VLC player can be downloaded here

[nigeltee]

Rich,

First time i have seen your post and i have nothing but respect for you. The write up and pics are brilliant, you make it seem so easy. I am sure it was anything but. Reading it all in one hit makes it seem like you did it this weekend!!

I get the impression you are no stranger to cars, so it maybe wasnt as daunting for you as it would be for most.

Although on a completely different scale, i too have been impressed by bmws completeness in design of products (ecu grommet sizes etc) as the wiring loom colours between compact and saloon were the same when i swapped in some saloon projectors to my car earlier in the year.

I only wish they had left more space behind the headunit for all our rca's and changer harnesses and hopefully my ipod harness too

Well done fella, hope you are enjoying the fruis of your labour now.

Nige

[Rich]

Thank you,

Its not the first project. My brother and I are building a kit car at the moment (my car is 'side' project ) The kit car is a Marlin Sportster, we have a build log at www.msportster.co.uk. The donor car is an e30 325i. This project has definitely helped a lot.

The Compact head unit space is terrible! My head unit uses optical cables to send the sounds to the sound processor in the boot. From the two optical cables installed both have broken, and its probably broken just behind the head unit! At the moment i'm using the Alpine link cable to send sound to the processor.

[campaiar]

Rich.. all looks great. Nice job getting her started and running. Have you driven it yet?

[Rich]

Not yet, the prop shaft is not yet installed and the exhaust needs to be finished before I can drive around. We should be getting a MIG welder this week, so going to need to get some practice in before we have a go at lengthening the exhaust.
(all I need is to gain 20 years of welding experience in 2 hours and all will be well I've used an ARK welder before, but the results where not not very neat.)

I also need to rebuild the new brake callipers & replace the rear trailing arms to the new ones with discs, however I won't need to do this to drive the car.

Hopefully it will be drivable soon

[b.u.ti-ful]

Thanks for taking us through the process. The main thing I learned is I will NEVER be able to swap the engine in my 318ti. The wiring alone makes my head swim. You are going to have a very cool ride when its all done. Nice video production too.

[Rich]

Progress Update

I haven’t gotten around to posting from the weekends progress yet…

The morning was a cold start.


Goals for the weekend:
- Install gear stick
- Install propshaft
- Install Thermostat & Electric Fan
- Front number plate
- Adjust z3 exhaust to fit car.
- Install Eisenmann

The gearstick install was fairly simple clip in. I borrowed the gearstick from the Sportster. It’s a Z4 short shift.

Next the propshaft went in; for this the rear transmission tunnel support need to be removed and the propshaft centre support dropped. I used the front section of the propshaft from the donor (328) and the rear section from the compact. This was done due to the before mentioned longer 2.8 gearbox.

Thermostat & Electric Fan; Last year I replaced the viscous fan on my 1.6 with an electric fan and variable thermostat. This thermostat was installed inline with a water pipe from the engine to the radiator. Unfortunately this thermostat will not fit onto the new engine as the water pipe diameter is bigger. So I decided to get a thermostat plug for the radiator, this plug is set to turn on at 87C and off at 82C. It fits into the side of the radiator in the stock BMW location. The fan and thermostat were then wired into the car’s fuse box with a relay. This is a very tidy solution compared to the inline water pipe system.


During the installation of the engine the front number plate was damaged. In the UK the Compact has a large number plate holder. As a small modification a US front trim was purchased and the number plate attached directly to the trim.
It’s a shame that I have to put a front number plate on.