S54 motor tranplanted into an E36

[MarkD]

Well can you guys guess what I've been doing for the past few days? Two cars have been converted to use the S54 in Toronto Canada.
(an E36 and a Z3)

Here are a few pictures of the E36, it still needs a bit of cosmetic work but it's completely driveable, and for now the rev limit is 8000 rpm.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/mdsylva/images/e36S54a.jpg

http://www3.sympatico.ca/mdsylva/images/e36S54b.jpg

http://www3.sympatico.ca/mdsylva/images/e36S54c.jpg

http://www3.sympatico.ca/mdsylva/images/e36S54d.jpg


Here is the webpage of the company that performed the software work to allow the DME to operate without ABS and the speed sensors normally required on the front wheels.

Apu's Software Emporium (http://www.dsylva-tech.ca)

MarkD

[Derek A.]

Those are great engines..until the rods come shooting out of the bottom of the block. Those motors require valve adjustments like the older M motors - interesting that BMW takes a step back in their engine development.

[Jon K]

There's a guy on E46fanatics.com doing an S54 transplant, SMG transplant, and E46 M3 rear end transplant into a 4 door E46 323i. It's cool to watch, yeah its faster, yeah no one has done it... but I can think of a lot of things people haven't done with $20,000 :). Cool Mark, I am not sure I'd do an S54.... I'd rather have a S52B32 converted to OBDI, its almost the same horsepower!!!

[sweet///Motion]

Sent you an email. Hope to hear from you regarding this swap.

[kyleN20]

looks nice and clean, wanna sell it for like 4 grand?

[digitaldragon03]

Those are great engines..until the rods come shooting out of the bottom of the block. Those motors require valve adjustments like the older M motors - interesting that BMW takes a step back in their engine development Its a 3.2 pumping out 343 hp. You think thats a step backwards?

[Brandon J]

Those are great engines..until the rods come shooting out of the bottom of the block. Those motors require valve adjustments like the older M motors - interesting that BMW takes a step back in their engine development.
Are you sure about the valve adjustments?

[jjw]

Yes, S54 engines require valve adjustments from time to time. BMW get rid of the sutomatic valve adjustment for S54 so the engine will have better response and high rpm. The ports are polished to maximize aire flow. It is a very fast responding engine. Love it.

[Brandon J]

Yes, S54 engines require valve adjustments from time to time. BMW get rid of the sutomatic valve adjustment for S54 so the engine will have better response and high rpm. The ports are polished to maximize aire flow. It is a very fast responding engine. Love it.
Yeah. Thats right. They needed to change in order to handle the higher rpms. As with BMWs ///M engines' multi-throttlebody the TBs need to be synched once in a long while. So every 100k or so. So thats also more maintenance. The individual throttle bodies really give it the quick response, try driving an S38 and you will know what I mean. Quick on and off. I don't feel so bad now with the maintenance on my S38. And the fact that the e46 M3s that I have seen on the highway can't pass me, I am liking the S38 and its "old" technology even more.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Brandon, how much extra work was it to put the S38 into your E34? I always thought that would be a sweet swap to do if my M60 goes south.

The S54 into the E36 is nice, but has anybody seen the guy on bimmerforums putting the S54 into his E30 M3? Now that would be a blast!

[granit_silber]

Yeah,

BMW mandated that the S54 would rev to 8,000rpm. I guess they wanted it to sound like the F1's
-ashley

[MarkD]

looks nice and clean, wanna sell it for like 4 grand?


It's not my car, it's owned by the owner of Munich Motors here in Toronto. That was a very early pic, it's all finished now and has a complete e46 M3 suspension in it. (I don't know exactly how he put that in, but it's in)

The car is very fast. He drove it out to the east cost a few months back. It revs to 8600 rpm. (I don't recommend it, but he can easily find another motor if it fails, and that's what he wanted)

MarkD

[MarkD]

Yeah,

BMW mandated that the S54 would rev to 8,000rpm. I guess they wanted it to sound like the F1's
-ashley


I've heard from a very good source that the engine designers said the S54 is safe to around 7600 but it was MARKETING who pushed for 8k.
And the source heard directly from the designers when they came to visit his company. (he works for a company that supplies suspension parts to various manufacturers) He had an E39 M5, but sold it as his new M5 is on order.
He currently drives an E46 M3.

MarkD

[Brandon J]

Brandon, how much extra work was it to put the S38 into your E34? I always thought that would be a sweet swap to do if my M60 goes south.

The S54 into the E36 is nice, but has anybody seen the guy on bimmerforums putting the S54 into his E30 M3? Now that would be a blast!
There is a guy who had the S54 swap done here in his e36 almost 3 years ago. He sourced the engine from England and had to have the engine converted to left hand drive. He went from a supercharged S52 to the S54 swap.

If you swap in an S38 you better get a donor car. That is the only way it should go. Too much to just get the engine. You need all the wiring, the tranny, etc etc. If your M60 goes, get an M62 4.4L. That would be easier and cheaper to drop in, with some software tuning, and would yield good numbers.

[Anton CH.]

Wow, that is amazing.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Anybody know, is it possible to put in a later M62, the one with 340 or so HP? Just curious/ dreaming.