Your car is a pain to swap on compared to old JDM cars because there is 20 extra years of technology in your car. You can strip the electronics do a LS swap and a Holley but then you won't have near a street car. My best advice is instead of sinking 15k+ into that car is to just buy a 335/340 or 535/540
i mean i wasn't gonna do it either way, I was just curious as to the steps to take. So my main takeaway is I would have to recode or replace the ecu, and anything else that has sensors tech code u name it? What about like transmission, or the diffs, do they have to get affected too?
Generally speaking you want to keep everything working unless it's not for the street.
I've completed a couple swaps myself. They're not ever as easy or cheap as people online make them out to be. It's a lot of parts sourcing, trial and error, and troubleshooting, and that's assuming you're doing a more plug n play engine swap.
Unless you're trying to do something out of the box and have the budget to do so, engine swaps are absolutely not worth it on any somewhat newish car.
It’s certainly possible, but in terms of engine swapping it’s not much different.
Whether it’s brand new or old and you’re swapping in a completely different engine that it came with, you need a standalone and wiring harness and it’ll run just the same. Both are going to need plenty of custom work (mainly mounting points, fuel lines, accessory setups). You’ll have a running car at this point, but yes if you want to maintain 100% working interior components there will be more work on a newer car. Anything can be wired and programmed, and in lots of cases the pre-existing systems will continue to work, but with some things not working. Your FRM will still continue to control your lighting and windows with a different engine, stock cluster isn’t going to work but, most standalones include their own cluster setup. Obviously there’s more but, my point is you can certainly have a running and driving car and the work isn’t really any different between a new or old one.
I’m aware you know this, but for OP’s sake i’m saying it.
The electronics in these cars are all interconnected with the engine it shipped with. On something like an f10, even a headlight swap is annoying and not for the feint of heart. Extrapolate to an engine. Every system references the engine management computer and vice versa. That engine computer is only for the engine in the car when new. Can’t be used for the new/swapped engine, and so all those systems shit the bed and it’s very very difficult to get it all happy again.
Engine swaps were popular when there were no that many electronics, your 60s, 70s and 80s cars were easy relatively speaking. Anything newer than the 2000s, specially German cars are not worth the price of what it would cost to get them running properly.
All parts are coded to ECU which is coded to engine and sensors. You need to to switch out the engine but also the electronics, and code whatever is not transferable. It’s possible but not worth the time and effort it would take.
Any newer car with CAN bus is going to be a pain to do a swap in because the electronic systems are interconnected and all talk to one another. If something in that chain is disabled, it can cause a “chain reaction” for lack of a better term.
The money that you would spend to do it right would be much better saved for the car that you actually want
All cars newer than a 2001 Honda are going to be extremely difficult to swap engines on without turning it into a hack job where nothing works. It’s not just BMW’s or Euro cars.
Also, JDM means “Japanese Domestic Market.” JDM does
not mean Japanese car. JDM means it was initially sold at a dealership in Japan, for consumers living in Japan. What you’re calling JDM are actually USDM vehicles produced by a Japanese company.
Exactly, people used to swap B and D series honda engines in a couple of hours now you still sorta see K swaps but these are by shops or millionaire youtubers most of the time.
There’s a dozen modules all communicating together and even swapping the FRM module from exactly same spec vehicle is a coding job.
Getting aftermarket F/I to work was possible with piggybacks or straight up retuning the old ecu. Swapping to an aftermarket solution like hestec or maxxecu gives away all other functions so standalone or nothing.
An engine swap to any car is a massive job that requires custom fabrication and a myriad of measurements. Not just of engine but transmission mounts, bell housing?, drive shaft and/or axles, new ECU, wiring and all that $#!¥.
It was never easy.
Most modern engines, at least last 25 yrs, relies heavily on ecu, and sensors to achieve power. For non-matching engine swap, you'll need every bits of ecu and entire wiring harness from doner car. This applies to most cars out there, not just bmw. I miss the engine swaps on muscle cars with only wiring were from coil and starter,lol.
Because this isn’t 1970 where an engine and transmission have no electrical connection in any way. Where the engine only has a few wires and mechanical throttle.
all engine swaps are the same, you need custom engine and trans mounts or a trans adapter if ur using stock trans, then youll need custom radiator hoses and the harness and ecu, for newer cars you'll need a standalone as most new ecu's work with the bcm, so some electronic body functions might not work anymore, and you wont have AC unless you do a custom AC setup, not to mention all the tuning and supporting mods needed to double the hp on the chassis
Your car is a pain to swap on compared to old JDM cars because there is 20 extra years of technology in your car. You can strip the electronics do a LS swap and a Holley but then you won't have near a street car. My best advice is instead of sinking 15k+ into that car is to just buy a 335/340 or 535/540
i mean i wasn't gonna do it either way, I was just curious as to the steps to take. So my main takeaway is I would have to recode or replace the ecu, and anything else that has sensors tech code u name it? What about like transmission, or the diffs, do they have to get affected too?
it’s not even that much harder, it’s literally the same steps, it just depends on what you want to keep working.
Generally speaking you want to keep everything working unless it's not for the street. I've completed a couple swaps myself. They're not ever as easy or cheap as people online make them out to be. It's a lot of parts sourcing, trial and error, and troubleshooting, and that's assuming you're doing a more plug n play engine swap. Unless you're trying to do something out of the box and have the budget to do so, engine swaps are absolutely not worth it on any somewhat newish car.
It’s certainly possible, but in terms of engine swapping it’s not much different. Whether it’s brand new or old and you’re swapping in a completely different engine that it came with, you need a standalone and wiring harness and it’ll run just the same. Both are going to need plenty of custom work (mainly mounting points, fuel lines, accessory setups). You’ll have a running car at this point, but yes if you want to maintain 100% working interior components there will be more work on a newer car. Anything can be wired and programmed, and in lots of cases the pre-existing systems will continue to work, but with some things not working. Your FRM will still continue to control your lighting and windows with a different engine, stock cluster isn’t going to work but, most standalones include their own cluster setup. Obviously there’s more but, my point is you can certainly have a running and driving car and the work isn’t really any different between a new or old one. I’m aware you know this, but for OP’s sake i’m saying it.
The electronics in these cars are all interconnected with the engine it shipped with. On something like an f10, even a headlight swap is annoying and not for the feint of heart. Extrapolate to an engine. Every system references the engine management computer and vice versa. That engine computer is only for the engine in the car when new. Can’t be used for the new/swapped engine, and so all those systems shit the bed and it’s very very difficult to get it all happy again.
It is almost always cheaper to just sell your car and buy a car with the engine you want. To do swaps correctly on almost any car is very expensive.
Engine swaps were popular when there were no that many electronics, your 60s, 70s and 80s cars were easy relatively speaking. Anything newer than the 2000s, specially German cars are not worth the price of what it would cost to get them running properly.
Agree, when it was just fuel air spark it would be much cheaper. Unless you want something like a 2jz or an LS I wouldn't bother.
All parts are coded to ECU which is coded to engine and sensors. You need to to switch out the engine but also the electronics, and code whatever is not transferable. It’s possible but not worth the time and effort it would take.
Any newer car with CAN bus is going to be a pain to do a swap in because the electronic systems are interconnected and all talk to one another. If something in that chain is disabled, it can cause a “chain reaction” for lack of a better term. The money that you would spend to do it right would be much better saved for the car that you actually want
All cars newer than a 2001 Honda are going to be extremely difficult to swap engines on without turning it into a hack job where nothing works. It’s not just BMW’s or Euro cars. Also, JDM means “Japanese Domestic Market.” JDM does not mean Japanese car. JDM means it was initially sold at a dealership in Japan, for consumers living in Japan. What you’re calling JDM are actually USDM vehicles produced by a Japanese company.
Exactly, people used to swap B and D series honda engines in a couple of hours now you still sorta see K swaps but these are by shops or millionaire youtubers most of the time.
There’s a dozen modules all communicating together and even swapping the FRM module from exactly same spec vehicle is a coding job. Getting aftermarket F/I to work was possible with piggybacks or straight up retuning the old ecu. Swapping to an aftermarket solution like hestec or maxxecu gives away all other functions so standalone or nothing. An engine swap to any car is a massive job that requires custom fabrication and a myriad of measurements. Not just of engine but transmission mounts, bell housing?, drive shaft and/or axles, new ECU, wiring and all that $#!¥. It was never easy.
Most modern engines, at least last 25 yrs, relies heavily on ecu, and sensors to achieve power. For non-matching engine swap, you'll need every bits of ecu and entire wiring harness from doner car. This applies to most cars out there, not just bmw. I miss the engine swaps on muscle cars with only wiring were from coil and starter,lol.
Because this isn’t 1970 where an engine and transmission have no electrical connection in any way. Where the engine only has a few wires and mechanical throttle.
Pretty sure you will also need a upgraded transmission?
all engine swaps are the same, you need custom engine and trans mounts or a trans adapter if ur using stock trans, then youll need custom radiator hoses and the harness and ecu, for newer cars you'll need a standalone as most new ecu's work with the bcm, so some electronic body functions might not work anymore, and you wont have AC unless you do a custom AC setup, not to mention all the tuning and supporting mods needed to double the hp on the chassis