Joined the Club Today
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Wiring harnesses are scary. What is the recommendation for mating the E36 motor harness to the E30 body harness? I am just thinking about getting this AKG adapter.
Or if you have experience doing this and want to hang out at my parents house for a night/afternoon, I'll pay you.
My brake line should be here tomorrow which means that I can put the motor in hopefully this week.
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Wiring harnesses are scary. What is the recommendation for mating the E36 motor harness to the E30 body harness? I am just thinking about getting this AKG adapter.
Or if you have experience doing this and want to hang out at my parents house for a night/afternoon, I'll pay you.
My brake line should be here tomorrow which means that I can put the motor in hopefully this week.
Meh, it's only 7 or so wires that you need to bridge.
Don't trust wire colors, only trust pin numbers. Two ETM's, some crimps, wire stripper/cutter, and you're good to go! -
Wiring harnesses are scary.
You mean "deceiving".
It looks worse than it is. Just take some tape and label each wire before you begin, before you know it you will be done.
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Meh, it's only 7 or so wires that you need to bridge.
Don't trust wire colors, only trust pin numbers. Two ETM's, some crimps, wire stripper/cutter, and you're good to go!You mean "deceiving".
It looks worse than it is. Just take some tape and label each wire before you begin, before you know it you will be done.
You grossly underestimate my fear of wires...and my lack of knowledge of them. This will be a bridge that I’ll cross when I get there

Putting the motor in the car with or without the wiring harness attached? I think for shear ease of putting it in the car it would be easier without, but might be more difficult hooking some things up once it’s in? Would like some feedback from those who have experience.
Made a ton of progress tonight.

I installed the new VANOS oil line.
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Lookin purdy!
I usually remove/install the engine with the wiring harness installed. The beauty of the BMW design is that the wiring harness is easily unplugged from the body and can come out with the engine. It is easier to get everything connected properly out of the car.
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I usually drop them in without the harness or intake manifold lately.
There aren't that many connections and it makes getting them in and hooked up quite easy. -
Been waiting on this hardline for almost 2 weeks now from ECS. On their site it said ships in 3 days. Was then told after ordering it has to come from Germany so it will be like a week. Just asked again today and they said it would take 3 weeks and it hasn't even shipped.
Cancelled and ordered through the dealer which will be 1 week from today. Taking @GunMetalGrey advice on that type of stuff from now on.
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The dealer is definitely faster and you don't have to pay shipping for anything

Plus you get a discount with a CCA membership that makes getting one more than worth it
Definitely will be doing this from now on. And I will have to look into that.
My current question/issue involves the throttle body.
Deleting coolant lines to the TB. Where do I need to block this off on the motor so that I don't have coolant pouring out somewhere? Is it the one of the openings on the head? Is this where I would run the E30 brown top coolant sensor? Car will not be run in cold enough temperatures for this to be useful and I want to delete/clean up as much unnecessary stuff as possible.
edit** Looks like bypassing it is the way to do it? Taken from this thread


CCV delete. I removed the diaphragm/cone circle thing(pictured below). Which leaves this hole in the bottom of the manifold(circled in red). I've watched this video which essentially shows plugging where this used to go in the manifold. Can I do this? Is there a "proper" way to do this?


Are yellow and blue lines in this related to CCV?
Can I run one of those small air filters on the crank case opening at the front of the motor? Or simply just run a hose to somewhere on the block where it will vent to the atmosphere? I was talking some of this over with @GunMetalGrey but he is not as familiar with OBD2 manifolds.
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You can plug the hole in the head where the throttle body cooling line was with an oil drain plug and crush washer. M12x1.5 thread, same as the stock oil pan plug.
Why did you remove the CCV? It catches blowby oil and separates it from the air and routes it back to the oil pan via the dipstick. There is no gain by getting rid of it. You may even cause oil leaks because the crankcase is no longer under a slight vacuum but now has slight pressure. Vacuum in the crankcase is a good thing, in fact there are race engines that have a vacuum pump just to pull vacuum on the crankcase. https://www.gzmotorsports.com/SPVPK-LSX-vacuum-pump-kit.html
On the M50 it just routes the blowby into the intake manifold without a the CCV and a fair amount of oil gets run through the engine. The CCV is really just a factory installed catch can that automatically drains itself back to the sump.
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you can either connect the two coolant lines together, or cap both ends. either is fine for the engine, as the stock system functions in both ways. personally, i hooked mine back up like stock, but added a manual valve in place of the thermostat that was in the intake box on the e36 chassis, that way i still have the option of running coolant through if the car gets driven when its cold outside. unnecessary? maybe. but even with a 1 in 1,000 chance I'd experience intake icing, i'd rather be safe than sorry.
another vote for keeping the CCV. if its cost of replacement you're concerned with, you can fit the smaller, cheaper e39 m5 ccv in its place. these engines burn up enough oil already, do you really want to burn through more unnecessarily?
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So after doing some more reading and taking your suggestions into consideration, I will keep the CCV and just order new hoses for it.
Is there any issue with the hose that drains into the dipstick now that the oil pan is in the front as opposed to the back? Or should routing the house really not be that big of an issue? I'm having a hard time imagining what the distance between stock S52 oil pan location and M50 oil pan location would be.
Hose #6 in the below diagram. Which is this part 11151740393

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Was waiting on that brake line for what felt like forever. Finally got it, bent, installed. Brake booster bake on, interior back together.


I still need to attach the spring to the brake pedal as I forgot to while I was reinstalling everything.
Motor mount arm clearanced for manifold.

Got the rear main seal and housing gasket done. Forgot to put gasket maker on when I put the housing back on so I pulled it off and redid it.

Don't have much scarp metal laying around. Did have like 4 T's for some reason. It worked though. Flywheel bolts loctited and torqued to spec.

Clutch and pressure plated installed. This deeper portion of the garage makes the perfect little area to work.

Before I put the trans on I wanted to test fit the motor in the bay to check for any clearance issues. Exhaust manifold appeared to clear the heat shielding on the firewall and around the LCAB.
Went to mock up the trans brace as I thought the ZF trans brace was the one I used(read it incorrectly on a post), but it's actually the stock 325 manual one. So I'm gonna have to buy one of those unless someone on here has one they can sell.
Motor is ready to go in. Wondering if there is anything else that I should install now while the motor is out? I have all the accessories installed on the front. Manifold is off, wiring harness is off, none of the cooling plumbing is in. I still need to modify the coolant pipe and the dipstick yet.
As soon as I get a trans brace I'll get the motor in.

Also, when installing the starter, is there any lining up of the teeth that needs to be done? It seemed to go in rather easy. I bought the S52 flywheel/clutch kit and it looked like the flywheel was about as big as it could be in the bell housing. Just really don't want to get the motor in and then find out the starter won't engage.
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I have a trans brace sitting in a box around here I am not gonna be using anytime soon.
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I have a trans brace sitting in a box around here I am not gonna be using anytime soon.
Sent you a PM
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Also, when installing the starter, is there any lining up of the teeth that needs to be done? It seemed to go in rather easy. I bought the S52 flywheel/clutch kit and it looked like the flywheel was about as big as it could be in the bell housing. Just really don't want to get the motor in and then find out the starter won't engage.
Starter will just slip in, the gear extends out when the starter is engaged.
Ensure the starter you are using came from something with the same size flywheel as what you are using. So if the starter was from the s52 manual (240mm clutch) and you put a clutch on for a late model 328 or M3 you're good to go!
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