My ECU programmer rang today to say he is almost ready to run his BMW M54 engine with my MS43 ECU, and should be able to post a video on Youtube by the end of September - fingers crossed.
If all goes to plan I hope to collect a Plug n Play ECU plus loom after my holidays later in October.
Maybe, just maybe, an M54 powered Marlin is moving a step closer?
Quote:
Originally Posted by peterux
This I've got to see! 
So will this be a 'stand alone' installation with no e46 chassis electronics? 
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That's what I'm being told!!!
The guy is ultra confident and says they have done it before.
I sent my MS43 ECU and engine harness, and he says he will drop his M54B30 into an E30 chassis just to act as a support frame, pipe fuel from a gerry can, and stand a battery along side. He will have to add an EWS, key and antenna, so will use his own matched ECU and will run it with fly by wire, operating on the standard BMW MS43 ECU tune running Dual Variable Vanos and DISA.
IF this works as suggested I will simply collect the complete and matched ECU, EWS, key, antenna and loom as a plug'n'play kit.
He promised to post a video on Youtube to show it running.
He will build an engine loom with an X20 socket on it, wired up to connect to the female X20 I have in my chassis which I added to connect to the X20 on the M50 engine harness.
It should quite literally be a Plug'nplay engine swap electronically - which is perfect for me.
It sounds almost too good to be true - Having trawled the www. for 12 months now I have not found anyone anywhere offering this service who can back up their claims with a working engine, so I have to remain cautious: but he is catagoric in his ability to have it running by the end of this month - so we will not have to wait much longer!
I know Timbo is watching this with interest as this guy is equally confident he can run the M52TUB28 in exactlythe same way.
As you said Peter, this is my engine 'Holy Grail'.
The torque 'curve' is fabulous - almost flat line and close to its maximum of 300Nm (220lbsft) from 1800rpm - 5500rpm: its maximum torque is achieved at only 3500rpm.
Top end power is rated at 228HP at only 5900rpm. For me, this is a much better road engine than the M50TUB25 which lacks quite a lot of torque below 4,000rpm.
I looked longingly at the S50B30, and B32, as their torque and HP are really impressive (286/316BHP and 320/350Nm) , but they make a lot of the power higher up the rpm range, and sell for a lot of money (£2k+ just for the engine, if you can find one), and they are likely to be thrashed (trashed?) engines, requiring money to be spent to refresh them.
They also require a lot of service attention to the heads, and are heavy on fuel (which has to be 5 star, due to their high compression ) so I decided the M54B30 is the best cheap (to buy in good order, and run) engine currently around.......... providing the ECU can be reprogrammed to give standard BMW tune performance????!
The difference between the M52B28, and the M54B30 is not great, (around 40BHP extra, and +20Nm torque at 500rpm less) but since both engines are now commonly available, I would like to go with the M54 for its bigger torque at lower rpm if it is a possibility?