Im as far from a car mechanic as you can get. I really may only have basic repairs under my belt. But Im looking at doing a lq9 e36 swap and was looking for a bit of advice on the plan.

So tomorrow Im picking up a salvage title running 95 318is for just over $600. I had plans on pulling a lq9 from a truck of some sort in a junkyard about 2 hours from me for roughly $1k. Its got 105,000 on it and im pretty sure ill beable to gut just about everything, trans included to sell off and recoup some of the cost. I believe the year is 2005.

Now with the engine the plans were to get:
New Camshaft (hoping to get 400 at the wheels, suggestions?)
All new gaskets
ARP Rod Bolts(still need a part number)
ls6 intake
ls1 fuel rails+injectors
Port the throttle body
New lifter springs(suggestions for stock lq9 heads?)
Firebird Oil Pan
and of course belts+spark plugs.

Wondering if I should change anything else in the internals due to the mileage or not? Also wondering if I should get the block machined for about $700 as im on a budget but still trying to make this thing last. Plus can I perform a leak down test myself or would it be better to have a shop do it for about $100-$200?

Anyways beyond that I was also still hunting a transmission alternative to the costly t-56. I want something thats manual for sure and not wallet deadly. I heard the T-10s arent a bad alternative but im wondering on their fitment to the lq9 and whether their worth the trouble. Any suggestions here would be a huge help.

Also for electrical purposes, i definitely will be getting the stock ecu tuned but was wondering about the wiring harness. I'm at a complete loss here and need help or atleast someone to point me in the right direction. I will have the original BMW harness and the lq9 harness but was wondering how exactly I mesh these series of cords in to one working piece of electric art. If someone could lend me a helping hand and possibly post a write up of just how you do swap wiring harnesses, you may possibly be the bro of the day

Then after that, we plop it in and drive away. Easy as that! But really if you guys could answer my questions and tell me anything you would do differently, that would be a huge help. I know its a big task, but thats what I wanted. I know the bank account wont be pretty but I planned that. This has been something ive been craving for almost a year now and with all these things popping up on craigslist and Car-part I got sucked in and am honestly more excited for this than the socks I get every year on xmas.

PS: Thanks for the help guys and happy holidays. Cant wait to do the swap in below freezing temperatures!

 

I wouldn't bother touching the rod bolts or anything else internal. Swap the cam and go. You're probably good for another 100k miles. Some have suggested doing the rocker arm trunnion upgrade if you're going to be revving it up high and often.
At least this is what I would do.

 

Should I do the springs well I'm working on the rocker arms or do you think the stock ones would hold strong even with constant high revving?

 

Throw some decent valve springs in it if you're doing a cam swap. lt1swap.com is great for wiring harness modifications. From what I hear the headers are a pain getting around the steering shaft on the BMW's. Good luck, the car will be awesome when you're done!

 

Alright Ill check them out ^ And for the steering shaft, I already plan on offsetting the engine about 2 inches towards the passenger side or as close to that as I can to give myself some more room on the headers. and thanks!

 

You'll have to let me know if you need any Bimmer parts to get it going.

 

Definitely got you in my tabs! The only downfall is your Texas and I'm Washington

But for the right price, I may smell a road trip coming on

 

There's lots of good information in the engine conversion section on Bimmer Forums. Have a look here.

I'd recommend looking for an engine from an F-Body or a GTO. There's a lot you're going to have to change if you're starting with a truck engine. In addition to swapping the intake, you're going to need a complete front end accessory drive (FEAD) from either an F-Body or a GTO. This means you'll need a water pump, balancer, power steering pump, alternator, etc. and all of their supporting brackets and pulleys/idlers.

Unless you're fabricating your own mounts, you're not going to find any "kits" available to support anything but a T-56. You can find LS1 "drop-outs" compete with a T-56, harness and computer for relatively short money. I've done the math. Starting with a truck engine might be worth while if you're swapping into a pick-up truck or something with a huge engine bay that will allow you to use the full truck dropout (engine, intake, FEAD, trans, harness, etc.) but that's simply not the case with the E36. You'll effectively need to strip that LQ9 down to the long block and go from there.

Tipsy

 

you might look into the z33 transmissions. prices on them are going up though.

 

Are you sure that the truck accessories wouldn't fit? What are the size differences and how much more poke do they have towards the radiator? I know they are larger but I've never seen a side by side comparison or got the actual measurements.

And for all the mounts, they will be custom so thats not a problem.

 

Tipsy hit the nail on the head. I started with a 6.0 lq4 that I got from a Denali. I had to source a car intake (ls1 or ls6), f-body oil pan, GM ctsv accessory drive (close to fbody but with vette depth), vette balancer, vette water pump. Those things add like $2k to the price of the motor. You still have the trans to deal with. I went with a 4l60e automatic. That meant I had to make my own headers and mounts.
Even if you have to pay $3500 for a f-body ls1/t56 dropout with accessories and harness, you will be ahead of the cost of making the truck engine work and coming up with a trans. The kits are expensive, but make it easy to swap. My build took over 2 years because I had to fabricate everything. Good luck.

 

Well my point in not buying a LS1 is sourcing a LS1 will run me about 2k to get complete with out transmission and about 3.5k with. Most that I have found that are at about 2k are at 100k miles or up and are coming from either ebay or craigslist. The power is great but fails to match the 6.0 lq9 and falls behind with the torque specs.
Now if I got a LQ9, one is onsale for just under 1k about 2 hours from me and has 105,000 on the clock. It will have a short warranty, but at the least a warranty guaranteeing it will run within the time of buying it giving me a small sense of security. When I pull it, I will be pulling it myself so I will beable to retain nearly everything under the hood including some things that arent usually sold with a engine on its own. One of which includes the transmission. So I will be able to recoup some money by selling some bits and pieces I wont be utilizing. Then from there, its a possibility the accessories would fit, although small so theres a chance that only a intake and fuel rail swap would be necessary. Now if they were required to fit the engine in the bay, which I plan for, the accessories and everything are less than half a hour from me at 3 neighboring junk yards at where I would imagine the cost rounding out to less than about $500 for all the parts knowing them.

and with all the savings the LQ9 exceeds LS1 specs stock, gives a much larger variety for pistons due to its 4" bore and on top of that is overall a stronger engine due to its negligible weight differed iron block. Not trying to be rude of course, just turns out in my research and location, It would be cheaper to get a lq9 with ls1 accessories rather than sourcing a ls1.

 

You can probably fit the truck accessories if you don't run a radiator I don't claim to know everything but I've not seen a single LSx/E36 conversion that running anything other than F-Body/GTO/CTS-V/Corvette accessories.

If you think you can save money starting with a LQ9 vs. a $3500 F-Body drop out, have at it. I can tell you I did thorough math prior to getting started and I'm money ahead with my LS2 dropout...and I paid a lot more than $3500.

Keep us posted and good luck!

Tipsy

 

Yeah thats as much as i figured ^ and to be honest I already know this is a project where I start off going 'thats reasonable' and look at my bank account later on fighting back the tears BUT! Cant spell fast with out money

Ill try to make what I can work and if I cant, ill spend the extra bit and swipe it off the next vette or GTO. Now I just wanted to verify even though its been brought up a million times here, for the swap, to effectively get a ls1 sized lq9 (acc. inc.)
I need the water pump, alternator(I have to tap in a hole on the block), and GTO Oil pan/wtray, correct? Now im wondering do I need a harmonic balancer, from a vette or are the truck ones identical? and also are the throttle bodys the same size? Thanks!

PS: That sounds like a awesome swap Tipsy!

EDIT:Also I havent found information on the power steering pump. Can someone inform me on whether that needs to be swapped to.

 

You need an F-Body oil pan. The GTO pan is front sump.

The truck and 'Vette offsets are not the same:



I've data-dumped much of what I researched about the interchangeability of truck and LS1 parts but it's all been asked and answered previously.

Use Google to search the forum. You''ll find your answers in seconds. Example:

site:ls1tech.com truck throttle LS1

Tipsy

 

I agree with trying to source an engine with the correct intake and FEAD. It will certainly be easier than trying to piece it together. With that being said, you can probably piece together everything if you are thrifty. The truck alternator will work on the Fbody or Corvette bracket with minor modifications. Looking on eBay, a corvette short pump can be purchased for ~150, alt bracket ~100, balancers seem to vary quite a bit. You will also need a p/s pump and belt tensioner. I sourced my p/s pump through Autozone at a reasonable price (reman).

Regarding intake manifolds, an LS6 is what you want... But get ready to pay the hefty price. An LS1 intake will be less costly, but the potential for HP is less than LS6.

You also need to seriously look into headers/ mounts. Mounts aren't hard to fabricate, headers are a pain in the ***. Off the shelf headers don't fit without modifications to the car and/ or headers. Vorschlag, CX racing and JTR are good places to start looking.

 

Thanks for that picture! I was looking for that! But as far as piecing it together I can get a Vette fead for a couple hundred from the yard. The f body oil pan will be a bit bigger of a hunt but I couldn't imagine it running more than 100 from one of my local yards. I plan to snatched a ls6 intake off eBay for about 300 when the time comes. And I can probably get the fuel rails well I'm under the vettes hood for like 15 bucks. Now it's just finding a way to get the amazing z 33 transmission to work or taking a plunge on a t-56.

 

Might want to rethink those prices. LS1 manifolds are going for $150 just for the manifold.

If you can get an oil pan for $100, can you send me one?

 

Would a vette oil pan do me any good or would that have clearance issues still in comparison to the F body one?

CSMC, I got a quote for a oil pan from the yard, he said about 100-150 depending on which car it comes off. If you honestly want one I could snag one... unless that was sarcasm

 

I don't think it will fit. I can't remember anyone trying one though. It's significantly wider than the FBody pan. My FBody pan clears the engine crossmember with ~3/8 between the front of the pan and crossmember (vertical) and about the same between the sump and the crossmember (where the sump begins to drop in the rear).