E36 motor in W124

  • Hello everybody, (Guten Tag)


    I hope some people on here speak english, I will try to do my best to understand german :) This is very great forum! I am from London, UK.


    I have a E280 W124 (1995 - 2.8 M104), but I want to upgrade to the 3.6 M104 engine. I already have a 3.6 engine but no ECU or wiring loom.


    [Blockierte Grafik: http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4049/4544009116_e97647472b_z.jpg]



    Can I still use my E280 wiring loom and ECU with the 3.6 engine?


    What can I do to get full power from the 3.6 engine? Has somebody done this conversion before?


    Any help with be appreciated :)


    Vielen Dank
    Nik

  • Hi Nik,


    :welcome:


    I know someone who's done that already. He isn't registered here. He converted a E280T-model 4-speed transmission into a E36T 4-speed transmission. Anyway I think you'll get enough information here, to upgrade your E280. Here we have enough w124professionals with lots of knowledge. :)



    Gruß,
    Carsten

  • Hello Niks and greetings to London! First of all, welcome to our Forum.


    Second, i can guarantee you that it won't work with your ECU. You can try to get a spare E36 ECU, but i don't think it will work neither, because of the imobilzier. The ECU of the imoblizier communicates with the ECU of the Engine. But at the moment i'm not sure if they exchange the codes of eache other, or only the signal "yeah, i got the right key, you can enable the starter relay".


    But if you don't want to be overtaken by those diesels, you should fit a turbo to your M104 ;) It's probably cheaper anyway and if you're headgasket fails on the 3.6 M104 you're in deep trouble, because they are tremendously expensive :D Everything that has "HWA" written in front of the part number, is going to be expensive, very expensive...;) Since the 3.2 had 310 NM (i honestly don't know what it is in lb/ft) and the 3.6 "only" got 385 NM, you won't pull away that easy from a 250 CDI (for example ;) ) Personaly, i would get me a turbo kit and run it with modest boost...around 0,5 Bar. And with a Megasquirt, you could tune you're maximum torque output up, but at lower RPM's...


    Edit: Well, i think i'm talking bullshit. If i am correct you can indeed swap a E36 ECU into you're E280, and it should run, because the code from the IR-Unit isn't transmitted to the engine ECU...


    Anyway, you've got a VERY nice E280 there. And may is say so, that the picture is absolutly astonishing and beautifully made...i just love pictures that have a real nice and focused edge...


    Now, i hope you understand my english, but as i'm told it shouldn't be that bad... :P :angel however, if it is, i'm sorry, but i tried my best :pfeil:

  • Hi David,


    Thank you very much for your comments about the car and the photography! I love photography.


    I have thought about many possible ways of getting more power from my car, including twin turbo, normal turbo, supercharger, a C43 M113 engine, M117 5.6 engine and a M119 engine. Unfortunately all of these is a lot of hassle when it comes to tuning and because this is the only car I have, I won't have time to keep on fine tuning the car. The 3.6 swap is probably one of the easiest to do, providing if all the connections and everything will marry to the E280 wiring loom. The logic is, if I can put a 3.2 engine in the car then why not the 3.6, the only hardest part will be just the ECU to get the extra power. As long as the 36 ECU has HFM fuel management data on it, then it should be plug & play.


    Some guy here in London has a E36 estate with 250,000 miles on it almost and it still runs very solid, so I think these engines are very strong. People only blow head gaskets because they constantly rev to 6400rpm all the time, doing burnouts, 0-100kmh time runs and use it as a track car! I plan to overhaul the engine before it goes into the car anyway, thats including a new head gasket too so hopefully this will then drive like new!


    Your english is excellent by the way, so don't worry ! :thumbup:


    I have been informed about the May W124 meet in Germany, so hopefully if my car is all done by then, it will be great to attend and meet the whole W124 family :D


    Nik

  • Headgasket is 68 euros! Ecu can be coded by mb dealership, will see if i still got the codes. wiring is the same (motorwise), but keep your temp sensors, and knock sensors if you keep your Loom!! you can interchange all the ignitionstuff, the Throttle, everything thats expensive except the headgasket (be sure to use your old 280e VIN when bying spareparts.).

  • Hi, thanks for the reply.


    In the end I decided to put the 3.2 M104 engine into my car. The engine is running on the 2.8 ECU and the 5-speed auto transmission. For now, it is already a big improvement over the 2.8. I had the top end rebuilt on the 3.2 so it runs very smooth and has good power.


    I decided to put the 3.2 in so later I can add a turbo system and run it with a modest boost as mentioned earlier by David.


    One thing I would like to know is, can my 2.8 ECU be remapped to run on the 3.2 spec? I could not find a 3.2 ECU for a 5-speed transmission here in UK.
    I didn't know that the ECU could be reprogrammed by MB dealership?


    Thanks
    Nik

  • I can only say what i know self:
    For any kind of chamge your Motor and co. you need the wireing from your Motor what you want to plug in your car.
    You must use the 3.6 ECU and air mass sensor.
    Your transmission will be changed too and you must keep an eye on your rear axle (wight and acceleration).
    Here are reading more people than answer to it but we understand english (often only from school) and would not to blame us with incorrect english tenses and so.
    You see my english...is more than 14 years ago that i speak english and longer time that i write it :D

    Heute Morgen gab es Kaffee mit RedBull statt Wasser. Nach 10 Min. auf der Autobahn fiel mir auf das ich mein Auto vergessen habe. :patsch:

  • Keep ECU and loom. Dealership can code ecu (5 digit code entered by stardiagosis somehow). code also describes aditional extras communicating with ECU like: Transmission ASR and somesuch. Take some tea with the guy at the Partscounter and ask him for the codes. (works for e(c)36, 3.2 and so on)

  • Sorry for a very late reply, but thank you for the above information and to everybody who helped me. There have been many things I have been working on with the car, the first was to rebuild the 3.2 engine because I am building a turbo system for it.


    Also, other information about the gearbox you might find interesting. The 722.5 gearbox for a 2.8 and 722.5 for a 3.2 are different, they have different valve body's inside them. My gearbox completely stopped working after a few months so I had to have that rebuilt also, this is when the garage found the differences between the 2 722.5 gearboxes.


    I also had the car colour coded and fitted AMG bumpers, I also modified the AMG exhaust box so it fits to the bumper...


    From this...


    [Blockierte Grafik: http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6089/6143338873_2c7d408940_z.jpg]


    [Blockierte Grafik: http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6073/6143344301_d03f95524f_z.jpg]


    To This...


    [Blockierte Grafik: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7256/7490371658_e82fc38196_z.jpg]


    [Blockierte Grafik: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7111/7490369918_7575e3bccd_z.jpg]



    It has taken a long time to get this far with it, especially because of the problems I had with fitting a new wiring loom, engine rebuild and gearbox rebuild.

  • Hi Rod,


    Thanks! Yeah I was experimenting with the grille but this one has 2 big dents from stones on the motorway so I need to buy a new one anyway. I'll go back to the original one.


    I have a company who is making me adjustable coilovers for the car, least then I can adjust the height without removing anything. It will be a direct bolt so anyone can easily put it on and remove them without having to worry about chopping their head off if the spring comes lose!


    I'll be making the arches wider too because I have these beauties sitting in my garage waiting to go on...


    [Blockierte Grafik: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8546/8605310359_6f1b52484b_z.jpg]


    :)