e39 LSx swap guide?
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Teching In
Joined: Aug 2014
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e39 LSx swap guide? Hey Guys
I've been talking to a mechanic buddy of mine about doing an LS swap into an e39 5 series.
He's very interested in doing the swap for me, but is asking me a lot of questions that I just cannot answer for him to give me a good estimate.
Are there any guides, or walkthroughs I could look at?
I've been reading through all of the e39 LSx swap threads but none of them really spell out what parts I need, what needs to be custom fabricated and what doesn't. Im a bit lost.
I've been talking to a mechanic buddy of mine about doing an LS swap into an e39 5 series.
He's very interested in doing the swap for me, but is asking me a lot of questions that I just cannot answer for him to give me a good estimate.
Are there any guides, or walkthroughs I could look at?
I've been reading through all of the e39 LSx swap threads but none of them really spell out what parts I need, what needs to be custom fabricated and what doesn't. Im a bit lost.
Teching In
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
No offense, but your buddy may be in over his head judging by the questions he's asking.
Any mechanic worth his salt will know this swap will require all the obvious swap parts: custom mounts, power steering, a/c, fuel lines, driveshaft, integration of the BMW and Chevy harnesses to run the engine and cluster functions, etc...
From there it could get complicated as the E39 is run on a Can-Bus system
You should do some reading on Bimmerforums.com to learn about the swap from others that have completed it. A forum member on there "Jesusfreak" sells the LS E39 mount kit for cars with the I6 subframe. If you have a V8 model you can solve this problem by getting an I6 subframe from your local parts yard.
Any mechanic worth his salt will know this swap will require all the obvious swap parts: custom mounts, power steering, a/c, fuel lines, driveshaft, integration of the BMW and Chevy harnesses to run the engine and cluster functions, etc...
From there it could get complicated as the E39 is run on a Can-Bus system
You should do some reading on Bimmerforums.com to learn about the swap from others that have completed it. A forum member on there "Jesusfreak" sells the LS E39 mount kit for cars with the I6 subframe. If you have a V8 model you can solve this problem by getting an I6 subframe from your local parts yard.
there are pre-fabricated mounts AND headers available for both I-6 and V8 subframe cars.
You can get the cluster to work whether the car's cluster is CAN-BUS or not via some reprogramming.
The short answer is that you'll need everything that would normally be necessary to make a GM LS run in any chassis - harness, mounts, exhaust, accessories, cooling, a trans, driveline, etc. There is nothing special about the E39 swap that makes it more difficult than any other swap out there.
There are a ton of resources out there, you need to search them - there is no "DIY" thread listing everything out step by step. Most of it is common sense.
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...ne-Conversions
You can get the cluster to work whether the car's cluster is CAN-BUS or not via some reprogramming.
The short answer is that you'll need everything that would normally be necessary to make a GM LS run in any chassis - harness, mounts, exhaust, accessories, cooling, a trans, driveline, etc. There is nothing special about the E39 swap that makes it more difficult than any other swap out there.
There are a ton of resources out there, you need to search them - there is no "DIY" thread listing everything out step by step. Most of it is common sense.
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...ne-Conversions
