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BMW M52 engine
matty h - 8/9/11 at 09:53 PM

Could anyone tell me the complete hieght and lenght of the BMW 2.8 straight 6 M52 engine.
Thanks Matty


Nickp - 9/9/11 at 09:56 PM

Mine's just arrived and is hopefully going in my Haynes chassis.
I did a quick measure and I think the length was 26" IIRC for block/head (not front pulley). Will measure the height for you when I get chance.


rodgling - 9/9/11 at 10:42 PM

Let me know if you need parts - I have a dead 328 engine in my garage with a lot of spare bits (sensors, ECUs, manifolds, etc). I can also offer advice on wiring it up, etc, but be warned, mine never ran right...

I will measure it up at the weekend and let you know about size.

[Edited on 9/9/11 by rodgling]


scottie - 11/11/11 at 10:27 AM

rodgling

im right in the middle of removing one of these engines and sorting through the wires

any advice you have would be greatly appreciated


scottie


Furyous - 12/11/11 at 10:17 AM

For future reference, these are the measurements Nickp sent me in a U2U. I've seen a lot of posts saying "I'll measure it and post later" without actually posting the measurements.

Front to back of engine -29"
Back of engine to back of gearbox - 20"
Width of gearbox -13" bell 6" tail
Width of engine - 18"ish or 22"ish with sump poking out
Front of engine to back of gearbox - 49"
Height of engine when the mounts are level. (In the tilted position it would be run at) -25"


rodgling - 12/11/11 at 11:35 PM

quote:
Originally posted by scottie
rodgling

im right in the middle of removing one of these engines and sorting through the wires

any advice you have would be greatly appreciated


scottie


Well, the wiring isn't too tricky. Keep the BMW engine loom and just attach everything at the big X20 connector, which is fairly well documented online. You will probably need to connect the BMW diff speed sensor or equivalent to a wire which goes from ABS to ECU , otherwise the ECU will limit you to about 5500 rpm which isn't fun. Very easy fix though, if you're using the BMW diff.

Apart from that... can't think of big gotchas with this engine. You'll probably want to find an M50 manifold for extra power, but I'd skip the BBTB if I were you, I suspect it makes bugger all difference.

A lot of people ditch the dual mass flywheel, this might be worth a look. I haven't done this so can't comment on this one.

If using the BMW box, go for the 5 speed as it's stronger.

It's a tall engine as you've found out - you will have to balance sump height against seeing over the top. You might consider shortening the sump while it's out of the car.

Any specific questions, drop me a U2U.


scottie - 13/11/11 at 10:28 AM

cheers for the reply

i finally got it rstarted on friday night after a week of fidiling and removing wires
only got it sitting on the ground at the moment and has no exhaust fitted so only had it running a short time

i was told about the rev limiting(limp mode) but the problem is there wasnt any wires to the diff and i wont be using any of the abs sensors

hope there is a way i can fool the ecu about that


rodgling - 13/11/11 at 02:40 PM

Just fit an ABS sensor to one of the front wheels (if using BMW hubs) and use that to keep the ECU happy. No big deal. If not using BMW hubs, you'll have to bodge something along those lines.

If you have got the BMW diff then it's dead easy, there's a plug for the speed sensor that goes into the back just above the fill plug.


scottie - 18/11/11 at 12:52 PM

now had the engine running for a bit, seems to rev ok and goes through the gears manually ok


having done more reading it seems for my year of box the n/s/r abs sensor gives the speedo it reading and the auto box

since im not using the diff or bmw hubs i will have to make somthing up atleast just to get the box to change itself

hopefully i can do this where the prop joins the box


rodgling - 18/11/11 at 12:59 PM

It'll be expecting to see about 48 (IIRC) teeth spinning at wheel-speed, so you'd need around 192 teeth on a wheel on the prop to match this exactly. But it might simply be the case that it's happy with any signal that makes it think the car isn't stationary, so you could try feeding it whatever you're using to drive the speedo to start with?


scottie - 21/1/12 at 10:54 PM

wouldnt it be a case of 48 teeth divided by the dif ratio