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M3 Touring>E36 M3>E46 Sedan...

8544 Views 31 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  ewcmr2, 
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My wife informed me that she liked "my" '97 M3 more than "her" '04 325i and she was "inheriting" the E36. I said that was okay as long as I could get a touring and do an M3 swap.
Bought this Sport/Premium/Xenon/Hk 2003 with 220k for cheap.

Car Vehicle Automotive tire Mitsubishi Sport utility vehicle


Fixed/replaced a bunch of Little stuff; washer pump, fuel door catch, turn signal bulbs, CCV. Tan interior is in good shape but needs scrubbed. TireRack has Continental DW's en route.

CCV replacement stopped the idle and low power/rpm smoke but car still smokes horribly after a full throttle blast. Too much blow-by at WOT pressurizing crankcase and pushing oil back through CCV? I'll have to do a compression/leak down test. It would be nice to be able to drive the car until I source a wrecked M3.
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Compression was OK, 155-175psi, cold & dry. Leakdown 6-10%, again, cold & dry.

Yesterday, seeing reasonable numbers I drove it a couple miles down to the store, no smoke. Coming home, up hill all the way (800' elevation gain) it started to smoke again but not nearly as bad as before CCV replacement.
Today, drove it 40 miles on the freeway with little to no smoke except after long periods of significant throttle/load.

At this point I'm quite sure the previous owner continued to drive it with the bad CCV and the remaining smoke is coming from oil in the exhaust burning off. When I got home after shutting the car off there was a "boiling" sound coming from the tailpipe.
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Wow, tan interior on a titan silver car... I didn't know they made those. Is it possible someone swapped out a nice black or gray interior?
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Possibly, I don't know the cars history at all. If someone did a swap they did it all...
My favorite E46 interior is the Saddle brown with Black. I'll probably swap out the worn tan bits with black eventually.

Currently replacing intake cam sensor and pulling exhaust to pour oil out of it. The seam of the muffler has oil (stains) seeping out of it!
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Holy blow by Batman!
On a positive note, at least you know it won't be rusted out!
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my touring is nice and all but it doesnt hold a candle to my e36m. lets not get carried away here :p

your wife is a smart lady.
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Yep, wife is smart.

Some of the smoke was coming off the exhaust manifold so I replaced valve cover gasket today.

For the first couple of years the E46 sedan had the ZF automatic and we called it the rental -an appliance to get from A to B. I swapped in a manual and it was much better but the rental name stuck.

Me: "your throttle pedal is broken"
Wife "what do you mean?"
Me "step on the gas and nothing happens! Bwahahaa"
Wife "your key is broken"
Me. "Huh?"
Wife "no button to push, no memory seat/mirrors :p"

This M54/auto Touring is painfully slow. Hopefully the S54 conversion will liven it up enough that I'll want to keep it. The touring is big enough that the kids/dogs will fit for ride to grandpa/grandpas house, which is way better than un hitching the Dodge dually.
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Coming from someone who swaps M54B30 motors with 6spd boxes into tourings I can honestly say the S54 is going to liven her up and then some!
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Removed exhaust, nothing poured out of tail pipe. Stood exhaust, muffler up, in corner of garage overnight and in the morning there was a small puddle of oil in the drip pan.
Re-installed exhaust and when to grocery store, which turned into a 60 mile run up Angeles Crest :) good news is the car is running clean with no extra dash lights.
Black Plasti-dip on wheels was peeling so I cleaned it all off. New hubcap roundels on the way.

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Went up to the Northwest for a good bit of July. Came home and promptly turned around and drove touring up to central coast to visit family. My mom saw "new" car and said she didn't like her Camry (duh!) and I should get her a car like mine... picked up twin wagon last night.

Also, inside of first car engine looks great.
Aftermarket (cheap) cam sensors will get engine running but still stores codes. Replaced them with OE and DME is all happy.

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Nice read, thanks! My sedan, however, is starting to look a little plain...
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No 12 volt means no rear hatch open?
Disconnected battery to replace alternator on WWII. (Wanda Wagon two, first wagon was Wanda Wagon - said to the tune of Wonder Woman)
Guess I'll hook up a jumper in the engine bay.
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E46 have some mechanical release if you take the carpeted cover off, unlike e34 tourings.
Have to google it as I've never used it.
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Update;
Sold the ***8216;04 sedan Saturday. With no good (damage to dollars) wrecked M3***8217;s rolling through the auctions I figured I***8217;d be driving WWII with some regularity. I went ahead and changed the ATF/filter and put fresh synthetic gear oil in the diff. (Rad, expansion tank, oil/filter, tires were done right away)

As Murphy***8217;s law would have it, I do transmission service on touring and an ***8216;04 vert/smg/120k M3 appears at the auction. I***8217;m near LA, car is in Las Vegas, my friend in Georgia Did the bidding. We won, on approval, somprice went up but we made a deal. I***8217;ll head to Vegas early next week to pick it up. Hope it***8217;s as good as it looks online.
Unfortunately I just started a landscape/planter/driveway project which will put a hold on starting the swap process.
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Picked up M3 yesterday, 540 mile round trip. Car is attempted theft/vandalism victim. Actually looks better than expected, having thoughts of fixing it and selling it and finding a more wrecked donor. Is it some kind of BMW cardinal sin to rob all the good parts off a perfectly good M3?
Door & ignition lock cylinder are gone. Supplied key doesn***8217;t operate glove box or trunk, pushing buttons on key does nothing... hmm.
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SMG to manual

Landscape project is done, bought wife N54 135i, started building SCCA A-Mod chassis - spent Christmas/New Years in Texas laying up carbon fiber undertray/diffuser, remodeled garage...

Now I’m getting around to doing the M3 conversion. 2004 SMG convertible donor runs and drives so I know all the basics are good. SMG light is on and it’s lurchy at takeoff but once it’s rolling it it drives/shifts fine.

Piles of seals, gaskets, bearings, bushings, shims, dampers, clutch are on the shelf or on their way. At this point transmission is out and getting converted to manual.

Rough drilled holes then reemed to final size
Auto part Vehicle Engine Car


Hole for spring pin.
Auto part Metal


Solid roller is in Getrag parts list so I made one rather than use skateboard bearing.
Auto part Engine Automotive engine part Machine Tool accessory
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Yikes, time flies! It’s been a month since I started pulling parts off donor car.
During the week I adjusted valve shims, and replaced rod bearings/ARP bolts.
This morning I started disassembling Touring while waiting for S54 cam timing tool kit, Vanos parts, main bearings and ARP studs to arrive.

Anyone in SoCal need a ZF 5-HP19, M56/gas tank?

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M56, M54 and S54 all use different evap parts. -__-
Since I haven’t seem this mentioned anywhere I’d guess not many of the M3 Touring swaps have been done with M56 recipients.
M56 lines are Stainless steel, S54 has charcoal canister where spare tire well is, and M54 part do work to tie it all together. :)

Part #’s 16131183895, 16136751175, and 16137176508 are the M54 parts needed.

M3 on top, M56 middle, M54 bottom.

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Do work! I may have to do more reading on the SMG to full manual conversion, as SMG cars seem to be some much cheaper. Any difference between the ZHP 6 speed boxes and the M3? I already have a ZHP 6 speed waiting to go in...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
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yjsaabman said:
Any difference between the ZHP 6 speed boxes and the M3?
Click to expand...
M3 uses Getrag g420. If memory serves the ZHP has a ZF box.
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