Hello, I have build a locost, pretty basic design with a 2.9 cologne v6 coupled with an mt75 4x4. I want to fit an e46 or e36 m3 instrument cluster, an m5 one would be fine as well. Just wondering does anyone know how, or has anyone done this before? I really want the BMW dash but if it is completely not possible then I will have to use something else.

Thanks

You'll need to find out what sensor inputs are used for all gauges etc, and get speedo recalibrated. The fuel consumption gauge will become irrelevant. You can probably get most of it working using eg the bmw water temp sensor in the other engine - if it'll fit.

I'm afraid you should have used all the bmw engine/running gear, then all sensors etc etc would match and work.

ATB

Simon

Hey Simon,

Get a hold of a Bentley BMW E36 manual, that will tell you all the pins/dash leads and a lot of the info you need in terms of resistance ranges used for BMW parts.

I built a E36 donor locost, but used all the BMW parts again, diff, fuel levelx2 (+pump), temp sensors, etc.

Cheers,
Taffy

Depending on its age, you will find that some BMW electrics work on a Canbus system, i.e. the signal is digital rather than analogue with one wire carrying multiple data streams. The minor sensors (water, oil pressure etc) may well be OK, but I would check what sort of signal the rev counter and speedo are looking for before you get too far into it. I know that when I was doing this the other way around (i.e. BMW engine into a Viento), I spent ages looking for a way to con the ECU into seeing a fake speed signal from the non-existent ABS sensors but couldn't do it because of the Canbus issue (without the speed signal, the ECU defaults to limp home mode).