BMW E3 (Bavaria) M62 Swap

Good stuff, can't wait to see a vid of this thing in action.

In reply to CLynn85: Thanks, you and me both :)

Very cool!

Okay, gotta ask: What was your correct time estimate for the trans tunnel?

In reply to Ransom:

I estimated three hours to finish it, I was very close.(Half of the square tube frame was there already.) With seam sealing and painting it was about 4 hours.

In reply to Ransom: Now the seat brackets on the other hand... Probably took me 5 hours, I estimated 2.5. 4 hours on the first one and 45 minutes for the second. A lot of measuring and staring..

That all sounds like a pretty reasonable rate of headway to me! Of course, it's never as fast as you'd like...

I've now moved the project Bavaria down to its home in California. With my lack of trailer maneuvering skills, the loading of the car would have been fun to watch. No one was crushed and it didn't fall off the trailer, so it was a huge success overall.

One picture, looking more like a car than a pile of pieces than it has in some time.

My newly fabricated seat mounts worked like a charm, seats back in place for the first time in over a year.

I finished running all but one stubborn brake line and am now picking apart the wiring, which will take some time. I'm also quickly working on the interior, so it's less of an eye sore in our shared parking garage. A million small things to finish, but as always, the end is in sight.

to totally misquote the divinyls, "when i think about this swap i touch myself."

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this. Moved the BMW and garage full of stuff from Seattle to the bay area, had a baby, moved into a new house. Busy to say the least.

I have done a little bit more on the project.

Finished brake and clutch lines.

Since the car was originally carbureted, I added a new pick-up for the fuel pump next to the original sender in the tank, installed the fuel pump under the car, ran the new line up to the engine bay.

Also put in new carpet, not the best picture...

And.. got the megasquirt install going

Getting closer all the time, the next items are;

Mount the remote oil filter canister Mount the coolant reservoir, Install coolant lines, Mount radiator, Install power steering lines, Finish wiring

How much does the motor move around on those mounts? Gotta think on either acceleration/deceleration, the exhaust manifold is going to contact that steering box.

Welcome to the neighborhood. I'm in the Bay Area too. Keep the progress going!

In reply to MichaelYount:

It doesn't move at all side to side, I am using delrin mounts, they are pretty much solid, chosen for just for this reason. It may move up and down as you mentioned during acceleration, but it won't really "hit". It's hard to see from the pictures, but the only really close spot is along the inside curvature of the pipe. It might touch there... We'll see, hopefully soon.

In the end I'm going to drive it like this for a while, then take on the steering rack retrofit project. Maybe a year out, or as soon as I figure out the engineering for that. I really should have done that first, it would have reduced many of the issues I've run into during this project.

please, please, please go into more detail on the fuel pickup. that looks like it may solve a problem or two for me. what did you use? how well does it do under low fuel cornering? how much lower is the pump mounted than the fuel tank? all the dirty details, please.

and, if you give me the details, do you mind if i build two of my own?

congrats on the munchkin, by the way. and moving to soewhere where it never snows. both very good calls.

bmwbav wrote: In reply to MichaelYount: It doesn't move at all side to side, I am using delrin mounts, they are pretty much solid, chosen for just for this reason. It may move up and down as you mentioned during acceleration, but it won't really "hit". It's hard to see from the pictures, but the only really close spot is along the inside curvature of the pipe. It might touch there... We'll see, hopefully soon. In the end I'm going to drive it like this for a while, then take on the steering rack retrofit project. Maybe a year out, or as soon as I figure out the engineering for that. I really should have done that first, it would have reduced many of the issues I've run into during this project.

The motor will try to rotate around the crankshaft -- 'torque' does that. So it will try twist the motor clockwise and counterclockwise about the crank during acceleration/deceleration depending on which way the motor rotates. Which means that header will try and rotate down (towards the ground) and (perhaps) contact one side when you accelerate hard and rotate the other way when you decelerate. The delrin may be stiff enough to limit that movement so no contact is made. You'll have to tell us what happens. Just food for thought --- as you think through how stuff is going to move around.

Dusterbd13 wrote: how well does it do under low fuel cornering?

Probably he'll have to actually get it running to answer this one....

In reply to Dusterbd13: The fuel pickup is pretty simple, the filter deal was off amazon, for a toyota I believe. There are a variety, this one was actually almost too big to stuff through my tank opening. I used some stainless fuel tubing and submersible rubber tubing to connect it to the brass fittings I got a home depot. just a barbed fitting for the connection to the hose in the tank and an elbow for the outside of the tank and another barbed one for the fuel line. Will let you know how it works

Little more work on wiring and intake plumbing. Still need to finish up the power steering connections and close up the cooling system.

There as a guy who did a 1uze swap in an e12 and he used the steering from a vw polo with great results in clearance and steering feel. need to see this beast run asap lol.

In reply to nemohoes: I need to see it run too, not too much progress lately, work and life getting in the way :) I'd love to see this swap, do you have a link?

Long time without an update, but for good reason... It runs. Still have some stuff to fix before I can get to driving and tuning the megasquirt. Have been through all the annoyances that come with getting megasquirt working, and that no one has really used it on this particular engine. But, have a good idle now and it made its first trip under its own power today. It was just down the driveway to turn it around in the garage so the exhaust wasn't pointed towards my house, but still, was nice to be behind the wheel for a moment. The thermostat doesn't seem to be opening, need to fix that before doing much else.

Amazing project & talent thus far! Can't wait to see pictures & videos of this thing on the road! Congrats on getting it to move under its own power :D

Thanks! This has been a long journey, very ready to be driving it and getting it running well.

I bet. Seeing all the incredible builds on this site makes me glad to be keeping something simple & drivable for once but seriously, some amazing stuff on this board.

Yes, there are some awesome builds for sure, I've learned a lot doing this project and am blown away by the talent I see here. I'm in the "keeping it simple" camp too. I've got the super difficult car project bug out of my system for now. I saw this project through, but definitely lost the "excited to hit the garage" feeling a while ago. You reach a point where you've put so much time into a project that you can't stand to not finish it, you become a slave to the project in a sense.

For me, I yearn to be doing one project at a time, even if it's super complex. With this car, maybe it's converting to rack and pinion steering in a year. With an unproven engine swap or other stupid project, you're doing 17 complex and time consuming things at the same time and it's very difficult to keep motivated. Some people manage to do this consistently, hats off to them, but I think they are the vast minority.

bmwbav wrote: You reach a point where you've put so much time into a project that you can't stand to not finish it, you become a slave to the project in a sense.

I have a friend currently stuck in that same boat dropping a Subaru svx engine into a '95 impreza. The excitement for what it will be has been almost completely replaced with an overwhelming desire to just simply be done with it lol