m42 swap in 71

[antiaem]

well, this one will take a few months to completely finish as far as details but should be drivable in a month give or take a few weeks. im doing this in my time off and have lots of other projects going on right now but this one is priority and ive got at least 6 days in the engine. which is finished.

here is some background on the car for anyone interested. i recently traded my 87 e30 with an m50 swap striaght up for a "more rusty than I originally thought" 71 02 with a lot of extra parts. the rust is only floor pans and non-structural. this looks like it was a nice car at one point. but now is more of a "far from good" ....i mean "good from far". anyways, the car at this point in its life is not really worth doing a full on restoration, i mean its not a tii or touring or anything, so i dont really mind choppin it up a little and getting away from original condition.

the goal here is a daily driving 02. hence the m42. i also like the five speed and the relatively maintence free nature of the m42. gas mileage is great also and 140 ish reliable hp should be fun in this light as a feather car.

[antiaem]

here are some pics of the car and some various stages of the eng as it was cleaned and inspected and pretty much rebuilt from the block up.

[antiaem]

more pics.

[antiaem]

some info on the plan of attack.

using an m42 out of a 91 e30 318is.

individual coil pack setup.

dinan chip

e30 318 rad.

e30 man. trans crossmember.

im going to try the m10 single mass flywheel swap. keeping fingers crossed

custom driveshaft using e30 front section and some welding.

the exhuast will be the stock tubular manifold going into an allready in place 2 1/2 exhuast. (which i hate by the way. way too f-in loud. )

will modify the headers to clear

on the trans. the shifter will be a modified e30 setup... hopefully.

the speedo and tach will be a SPA gauge setup with the tach and speedo in one unit and i will have to make a custom gauge cluster that replaces the stock stuff. the speedo will probablly be off the drive shaft.

the fuel and water temp will be auto meter and i will use the stock fuel level sender with an external fuel pump.

motor mounts will be fabbed.

and wiring should actually be pretty easy compared to the e30/ m50 swap. seeing as there is not much of a body harness in this car.

im going to take alot of pictures on each of these subprojects and try and do my best to dispell some of the myths of the "unfeasible" m42 swap. this swap is fairly cheap(my motor, trans harness ,driveshaft, exhaust, and radiator was only 450) and should have great results!

alot of people want to stay with the m10 and get the same power as the m42. but here some reasons to go m42.

the upgrades include: five speed and an all around smoother in every way trans, no shifter bushing to go bad, fuel injection and everything that comes along with that ie. no gas smell, economy, no more rejetting and carb tuning, better cold starts..that list goes on and on... more reliablity and less maintenance than a s14 and a m10, upgraded alternator( more output and an internal regulator), 16v dohc=higher revs, easliy diagnosed(has a diag. port to get codes) its a semi modern fuel injected dohc engine thats not sooo modern its un fixable and overly complicated. parts are cheap and available. im sure theres more that i cant think of right now!

[M-technik-3]

So your going coil on plug design. Very nice what engine management do you plan to use?

I can't agree with you totally on the S14 comment as mine has 281K miles and starts all the time. But requires more maintenance than a M4X. Any thoughts on going 2.1L for a killer combo, Tq the M42 lacks and Hp.

[jakeb]

My 02 has a m42...look a couple posts down

I just bought a SC for it.....going to see what I can come up with.

[antiaem]

im going to use the motronic ecm. and i dont think ill ever do the 2.1 stroker thing. where the hell do you find diesel cranks anyways? i think the stock hp and tq will be pretty good for this car. its going to be a daily driver and i dont want to go overboard. low maintnance and reliablity are key. the low maintence comment was more directed at the s14 due to its 30k valve adjustments.

jakeb i read your post fully, it definitely showed me it could be done. so your going to supercharge it! was the stock power not enough for you?

quick question... did you use the e30 shifter setup with the shifter platform that goes to the top of the tranny or did you do something else? you mentioned it in your post that you cut the ear that the shifter platform sits on, but maybe i miss read that or something. i was hoping to use the e30 stuff was why im asking.

[jakeb]

I am happy with the power but I like projects....so yeah

I was hoping to use the e30 shifter parts but the carrier would have been above the tunnel so I used a combo of 02 and e30 stuff. I bolted the 02 carrier directly to the tunnel and then made a shortened e30 selector rod.

It works good

[M-technik-3]

Diesel crank would be from Eu. Ordered thru Blunt or a dealer.

[Eau_Rouge]

Any updates?

The M42 is my swap of choice. I have a 94 e36 318is with 390,000 km (242,000 miles) that is ready for a well deserved retirement and hopefully a M62 in the future. It's current M42, I would like to have rebuilt, turbocharged and put into a 2002 so I'm looking forward to seeing yours and others complete!

You should be very happy with this motor in your car, it's very reliable, very fuel efficient and in stock form should be a great addition to a 2002.

Remember, the more info (and pictures) the better!

Cheers and nice choice in motors!

[antiaem]

i just finished cleaning and painting the transmission. and im going thru the wiring harness, cleaning and re wrapping. nothing really worth posting pics of. next week im removing the old drivetrain and seeing if i can fit the single mass flywheel off the m10 onto the m42. and also cleaning the front subframe and painting it and the engine bay. will definitely get some pics up of those misadventures. thanks for the interest. my goal is to show with as much detail and pics as i can how to do this swap.

[Solive]

Awesome swap man! Looks great so far.

Im very interested in the wiring aspect of this. Im sure there arent too many wires just because the chassis doesnt have a whole lot but its still interesting.

I cant wait to see it done.

Im leaning towards doing the same thing but adding a MLS head gasket, arp head studs and a nice turbocharger and see what shell make

[PSloan]

Is that Bryant's old car?

[GrindGarage]

Are you going to be putting a rack and pinion in this car? I had a m42 drivetrain when i first got my 2002 and research showed that due to the oil pan you needed to put a rack in?

cliff

72 Bmw 2002

[antiaem]

sorry dont know who bryant is. but the car is from texas. i actually traded my e30 for it from a kid in DC.

i dont plan on putting a rack in it. i actaully will really enjoy not dealing with the perpetually leaky ps system of bmws!

the wiring should nt be to hard!

today i removed the old engine and tranny but forgot to bring my camera home so no pics today, maybe tomorrow. id did spend most of the day cleaning and painting my front subframe. ideally i want to sandblast and powdercoat but i am not made of money and so a wire wheel and gloss black engine paint will have to do. :{