E89 N54B30 transplant in E85
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simonlpearce
Senior member
I had an Emerald fitted to my track car for £1000 supplied and fitted with custom loom. That was kind of mates rates, but i doubt it would cost a whole lot more than that. In the grand scheme of things for a project like this i wouldn't say that is overly expensive when an engine is probably a few grand on its own.
Yorkie Z said:The Guy sticking the M5 V10 said that the electrics is relatively straightforward.!! He's doing an amazing job on his, you should pick his brains.
Great project, the forum needs people who push the boundaries
ill stick my neck out on this one and im happy to be corrected as its something i dont really know about.
does the engine run on its own ecu? by this i mean its not just 1 big box where all the wires go and control everything from the radio to the ignition. i was under the impression that many systems have their own ecu. so if this is the case and you can "run" the rest of the car without the engine ecu then controlling an engine with an aftermarket ECU shouldn't be too much of a problem. the likes of omex/emerald/dta etc do this. i guess items like the speedo/ rev counter etc may be an issue maybe?
simonlpearce
Senior member
You can run dual ECU's if you need to. Mate of mine fitted a LS engine into an E46 and this is exactly how it was wired.
The problem here is EWS 
And that an aftermarket ecu probably won't be able to drive the n54 directly (or it will be very difficult) as I said. Maybe bosch motorsport has something for $$$ or you can hook up some DI driver module.
Mating the e85 EWS to the original n54 ecu is probably also next to impossible, so fitting an ls engine to an e46 is rather different than fitting a n54 to the e85.
And that an aftermarket ecu probably won't be able to drive the n54 directly (or it will be very difficult) as I said. Maybe bosch motorsport has something for $$$ or you can hook up some DI driver module.
Mating the e85 EWS to the original n54 ecu is probably also next to impossible, so fitting an ls engine to an e46 is rather different than fitting a n54 to the e85.
simonlpearce
Senior member
GuidoK said:The problem here is EWS
And that an aftermarket ecu probably won't be able to drive the n54 directly (or it will be very difficult) as I said. Maybe bosch motorsport has something for $$$ or you can hook up some DI driver module.
Mating the e85 EWS to the original n54 ecu is probably also next to impossible, so fitting an ls engine to an e46 is rather different than fitting a n54 to the e85.
Not going to argue with that. I have absolutely no knowledge on computers, let alone tiny ones that power cars, or even two of them in that fact. I guess everything is possible it just depends on your skill or depth of your pockets.
domsz4 said:Yorkie Z said:The Guy sticking the M5 V10 said that the electrics is relatively straightforward.!! He's doing an amazing job on his, you should pick his brains.
Great project, the forum needs people who push the boundaries
ill stick my neck out on this one and im happy to be corrected as its something i dont really know about.
does the engine run on its own ecu? by this i mean its not just 1 big box where all the wires go and control everything from the radio to the ignition. i was under the impression that many systems have their own ecu. so if this is the case and you can "run" the rest of the car without the engine ecu then controlling an engine with an aftermarket ECU shouldn't be too much of a problem. the likes of omex/emerald/dta etc do this. i guess items like the speedo/ rev counter etc may be an issue maybe?
Just copied this off the other thread. I was asking Steve about fitting a V8 into the Z..
Yorkie Z wrote:
Hi Steve
Awesome project mate.
Is fitting a different motor into the car an absolute wiring nightmare.?? I've been looking at Bmw V8 engines on eBay wondering "daydreaming" if it would be a good idea for the z.
From Steve....
Seems fitting a supercharger to the 3.0 costs 3k, so a 2.5k V8 sounds a lot more fun. Part of me has a burning desire to have a V8 car :evil: :evil:
Thanks Yorkie.
The supercharger route is well proven and fairly pain free. Dropping in a whole new engine not designed for the vehicle is a minefield that's certainly had me scratching my head numerous times. The wiring for my project has turned out to be one of the simpler areas, thanks to Specialist Components excellent ecu they have configured to suit S65/S85 engines. There's a maximum of 14 wires to tie into the chassis loom, I've actually only have 12 to do to make it run. Two thirds of your 3k supercharger would be spent on the ecu and engine loom.
The tricky part is making the drive train fit with new engine crossmember, steering rack/column, engine mounts, clutch, gearbox mount, custom exhaust, new oil cooler setup, dip stick, complete new fuel system, radiator setup, induction, and the list is still growing.
I've had a quick tally up of my hrs and 500 wouldn't be unrealistic, if not more. Times that by £45 and I'm well shocked at a possible labour cost for something similar, as for parts including 6k for the car I'm sitting at £18,500.
So Yorkie V8 would be a very interesting car and in my opinion easier to install, it'll still be very costly.
EWS?...ah yes the imobiliser right?. thing is if this is a project car then why bother with it? the aftermarket ecu will run the fuel pump anyway so push comes to shove install an imobiliser on that so long as it doesnt kill anything else. the physical fitting in sounds the issue
there is a 7 type car that uses the M3 engine so it must be possible
id echo sort of what he said about wires. its surprising how little you actually need to get some motors going.
there is a 7 type car that uses the M3 engine so it must be possible
id echo sort of what he said about wires. its surprising how little you actually need to get some motors going.
Yorkie Z said:domsz4 said:Yorkie Z said:The Guy sticking the M5 V10 said that the electrics is relatively straightforward.!! He's doing an amazing job on his, you should pick his brains.
Great project, the forum needs people who push the boundaries
ill stick my neck out on this one and im happy to be corrected as its something i dont really know about.
does the engine run on its own ecu? by this i mean its not just 1 big box where all the wires go and control everything from the radio to the ignition. i was under the impression that many systems have their own ecu. so if this is the case and you can "run" the rest of the car without the engine ecu then controlling an engine with an aftermarket ECU shouldn't be too much of a problem. the likes of omex/emerald/dta etc do this. i guess items like the speedo/ rev counter etc may be an issue maybe?
Just copied this off the other thread. I was asking Steve about fitting a V8 into the Z..
Yorkie Z wrote:
Hi Steve
Awesome project mate.
Is fitting a different motor into the car an absolute wiring nightmare.?? I've been looking at Bmw V8 engines on eBay wondering "daydreaming" if it would be a good idea for the z.
From Steve....
Seems fitting a supercharger to the 3.0 costs 3k, so a 2.5k V8 sounds a lot more fun. Part of me has a burning desire to have a V8 car :evil: :evil:
Thanks Yorkie.
The supercharger route is well proven and fairly pain free. Dropping in a whole new engine not designed for the vehicle is a minefield that's certainly had me scratching my head numerous times. The wiring for my project has turned out to be one of the simpler areas, thanks to Specialist Components excellent ecu they have configured to suit S65/S85 engines. There's a maximum of 14 wires to tie into the chassis loom, I've actually only have 12 to do to make it run. Two thirds of your 3k supercharger would be spent on the ecu and engine loom.
The tricky part is making the drive train fit with new engine crossmember, steering rack/column, engine mounts, clutch, gearbox mount, custom exhaust, new oil cooler setup, dip stick, complete new fuel system, radiator setup, induction, and the list is still growing.
I've had a quick tally up of my hrs and 500 wouldn't be unrealistic, if not more. Times that by £45 and I'm well shocked at a possible labour cost for something similar, as for parts including 6k for the car I'm sitting at £18,500.
So Yorkie V8 would be a very interesting car and in my opinion easier to install, it'll still be very costly.
aper: I agree about the tricky part is making the drive train fit, steering rack/column, engine mounts, on top of the wiring to make it live. But engine mounts, clutch, gearbox, custom exhaust, new oil cooler setup, dip stick, complete new fuel system, radiator setup, induction, i dont see those being a major head ache. There essentially mechanical / engineering / plumbing relocations / fabrication problems that are easily solved with a little bit of time and ALOT of swearing.
:scratchhead: Typically, now the ball starts rolling, i have been offered a written off 2007 Interlagos Blue M5 Touring, Pro Nav, 110k miles with full BMW service history. Every pannel at the front is caved in, windscreen is gone and all the airbags have blown and 1 wheel is broken in half. Hmmmm...
Mates rates its £6k hmmmm :|
It would be easier and quicker to sort and get back on the road, and its a Bloody V10
domsz4 said:
The problem is that you can't easily run the n54 on an aftermarket ecu as it is direct injected. Do you have a specific ecu in mind?
There are some ecu's that can do that (motec 182, bosch), but at big $$$.
Including wiring probably above 5000gbp (and then you still have to tune and sort out tons of bugs).
ah right, i thought it used a manifold based system rather than having the injectors inputting directly into the cylinder, i would have expected an omex (or the like) to have done this but don't know about the fine control needed for direct injection. id still be beating a path to their door (or one of the others) as i cant imagine they are not looking into direct injection control especially on thier top end models.