A note about the drive shaft: I had heard a lot of options were possible. That I could use an E30 M3 drive shaft or even an E30 318 drive shaft. What I found is that the E36 drive shaft from the donor car had 3 of the four things I needed. So I didn't have to bother trying M3 or 318 drive shafts.
1. It's front mounted to the ZF transmission.
2. It's length worked in the E30
3. It's rear mounted to my differential.
4. It's guibo had to be replaced with one from an E30 drive shaft.
If you look at the picture, you'll notice that the drive shaft is actually two parts. You cannot use half E30 and half E36. The E30 one is opposite the E36 one.

Left is E36. Right is E30. Notice how the E30 one is more robust. Much of the rest of the E30 is like this, too. More robust.

Gauge Cluster Replacement

I had to replace the gauge cluster with one out of a 325i or 325is E30 because the redline on the tachometer was at 6250. The one original to the car was at 4800. I found one off ebay for $50. I've heard if you start with a 318 E30 for your car the redline is the same or close enough but you have to replace a chip inside the cluster because of the difference in the number of cylinders, but I didn't have to deal with this.

Bulk Update

A lot has happened since dropping the engine in.

- Replace coolant inlet & gasket on back of block. (It had to be removed to get engine in. It was particularly hard getting it reinstalled again.)
- Install transmission mount.
- Tighten engine mounts.
- Cut fan clutch from old water pump (it was seized).
- Replace water pump.
- Fabricate radiator brackets.
- Mount radiator.
- Position radiator overflow tank.
- Secure radiator hoses.
- Secure other coolant hoses.
- Hook up power steering hoses.
- Fabricate power steering reservoir bracket.
- Mount power steering reservoir.
- Mount drive shaft.
- Connect shifter linkage.
- Install clutch slave cylinder.
- Connect reverse light wires.
- Connect fuel supply and return lines.
- Connect starter.
- Connect ground strap.
- Connect engine harness power.
- Connect chassis to engine harness wiring adapter.
- Mount DME in glovebox.
- Route DME plug through firewall.
- Install intake boot.
- Install mass airflow sensor and connect.
- Install oxygen sensor and connect.

Another shot.

Engine, mounted in place.

Fifth day, and my only goal was getting the engine on its mounts. After racking my brain to get this accomplished the day before by myself, I decided to ask for help. I had a friend come over to handle the transmission from underneath the car.

My biggest problem was that I was having trouble getting the motor mounts to move back far enough. If I pushed the engine back, the intake manifold and valve cover hit the firewall. The reason for this was that the entire engine/tranny was tipped too far with the engine up and the tranny down. This caused the motor mounts to rotate forward, and the intake/valve cover backward.

On top of that, the mounts I had connected to with chains to lift the engine caused a downward rotation of the engine on the passenger side.

Solution: I needed to push the transmission up, while lowering the engine, and twist the engine clockwise (looking at it from the front). All of this theoretically needed to happen at the same time. This is exactly what we tried to do. In addition to this action, here are a few more tips. We mounted the motor mounts to the engine, and dropped them into the holes in the frame. We started with the passenger side mount, put a bolt on just enough to keep it from coming out but still allowing some play, then did the driver side. At this time I have not mounted the transmission, so no info on that yet.

Oil pan removed, old oil pickup and old splash plate. Plate will be removed, pickup will be replaced.


Old brake booster.


New brake booster.


Going in.

I had a late start to my third day, so I didn't have enough time to finish the two things I had planned to do: Oil pan swap and brake booster swap. Instead I only finished the oil pan swap.

On my fourth day I got the brake booster swapped (minor frustration), and prepped the M50 for insertion to the E30. It's a tight fit getting that thing in without having the front clip off, but I managed to get it in with minimal fuss. I recommend removing the condenser from the car, or at least moving it out of the way. Also, I had the power steering pump removed, as well as the AC compressor. It would have been ideal to have the AC compressor bracket removed from the engine, but I did not and decided to go for it. I ended up with some scraping (not happy about) but nothing major.

The Start

I started my swap yesterday. A little garage organization to started the day, followed by jumping right in. I began at 10:30am, finished at 7pm with only lunch to slow me down. Today I started at 10am and by 2pm I had the old engine out.

Check out these pictures:

The Zionsville Autosport kit I need is EEEMC. It contains the following:

1. Right engine bracket
2. Left engine bracket
3. Engine mounts (2)
4. Spacers (2)
5. Oil pan
6. Oil pan gasket
7. Oil pick up
8. Oil pick up gasket
9. Oil level sensor
10. Oil level sensor gasket
11. Dip stick 12. Dip stick tube
13. Power steering reservoir
14. Reservoir bracket
15. Hose - pump to rack
16. Hose - reservoir to rack
17. Hose - reservoir to pump
18. Throttle cable
19. Accelerator rest
20. Modified brake booster

At this time I have acquired:
- Gauge cluster from a 88-91 e30 with a 7k redline.
- Wire harness from an e30 325 M20 for wiring up my own adapter. (I'm going to try and not cut wires if I don't have to).
- M50 computer
- I hear I can use just a regular E36 325i driveshaft if I use the regular E36 325i tranny. Well that's what I have.
- Stock E36 325i exhaust, but I'm sure it'll need some modification.
- E36 radiator and possibly overflow tank.
- One of the two large E36 coolant hoses (to radiator).
- I'm planning on zionsvilleautosport's kit. It has the oil pan, mounts, PS parts, and more.
- Aircon is a partial mystery to me at this point. I have the E36 compressor. I'm not worried about this much right now. I just want to get it running.

Great OEM parts lookup:

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/select.do