E36 n54 engine swap

What is up guys! I’m Frank Macaluso and I recently took on a lofty endeavor, but I’m no stranger to engine swaps.

I started this swap literally on March 1st - Looking to complete it in 3 months exactly. I have a 1997 M3 (auto), looking to swap a 2010 N54 Twin Turbo Drivetrain with a 6 speed. So there is a pedal swap being done too!

I’m here to tell you all how I did it! I do have a youtube series, but I wanted to help on the forum too. There are many ways to skin a cat, but this is the way I’ve chosen. I am getting ya’ll while in the middle of the swap, but I value your help, so any advice you’re willing to dispense, questions you may have, or general comments about the technology and common failures would be most welcomed!

I plan to bring this puppy to Gutenfest 2019 in June, along with my E30 S62. So I hope you enjoy where I’m going with this build and have some constructive comments!

This is a 1997 Alpine M3, bought by a customer of mine earlier this year. He bought it because he was in a front end accident and wanted to swap the drivetrain. This was an AWD E92, so we had to purchase a few parts to make it more user friendly to a RWD swap!

E92-1.jpg
E92-2.jpg
E92-3.jpg

So I purchased
RWD oil pan from a E90 335i
RWD 6sped from an E90 335i
Other than that, most everything else can remain.

Engine positioning is always first on the list, and the most important because it dictates everything else on the car and as a result, all other ancilliary devices must work around the engine position.

I have a video on how I determined engine position here:



From there, I was able to build my transmission bracket, then shorten my shifter linkage. I did some live IG videos, but i shot myelf in the foot because I couldn't save it and take screenshots to show pictures at a minimum on how I did it.

As of today, the driveline is perfectly positioned where I need it but because of some part shortages, I am having to get creative with schedules and do some other things before I can complete the engine positioning.

I wanted to share my progress with the group here because I have done a lot of lurking up until this point to better understand E36 and E9X. So here I am offering an amalgamation of the 2! I hope you guys enjoy where I go with this swap. I should be done by May, so this will be a pretty quickly moving swap.

Again, any comments, updates, help, or advice you have I always welcome! Many thanks and stay tuned for more updates this evening!!

Description

Want to experience the future of BMW Vintage Chassis Engine Swaps? This Guide is the Latest Edition to the Family of Engine Swap Guides Featuring:

There are 237 Pages of Detailed, Annotated Figures.
Contained within this document is a section dedicated to continually inspire you!
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First Half of the guide is specific to the N54, treated as a black box. This guide provides you everything you need to know in order to integrate the N54 to ANY BMW chassis. This pdf guide includes dimensions, plumbing, pinouts, diagrams, and annotated mechanical figures.

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