RHD e46 sedan, RB swapping.

[OutToWinPAHC]

I picked this car up about 8 months ago for a decent deal. It was an ebay find it was supposed to be a good running car. It was on ebay for a while and eventually I got the seller into a price range that worked for me. I hired a transport company to ship me the car and when it showed up there were issues. However the car was still loaded with some amazing parts (10k in paint, suede headliner, MB quart speakers, tons of new suspension items, KW coilovers, Brembos, CSL trunk, OEM M3 bumper custom molded for sedan, and the roof wing.








The biggest issue was rod knock galore and no oil pressure. Interior needed some help, and some aftermarket rats nest wiring, and a broken window regulator.








The mistake I ordered a replacement motor from England and imported it. Took 3 months and then once I regasketed it, and spent about 2K on the situation I could not get it to run. The new motor was a M43b19 from an e36 and the trigger wheel is aligned differently so it could not run the timing.

So im sitting in the car after I could not get the motor to run and the whole time I had the car BMW fanboys tell me noting works if you swap it. I understand the K bus and all but they say wipers, windows, all that. So I pulled the DME aka ECU and start messing with things. And it all works minus fuel pump control and AC. Since I'm RB heavy I said screw it and planned the RB swap.

I already have a RB20DET, RB25DET neo, a RWD converted RB26 trans, and a Z32 trans hanging out.

Not sure what motor I'll use at the moment but I'm going to try to use the GTR trans with the RWD transfer case. However it might be too wide at the tail so as back up I have the Z32 unit.

I contacted Dryden in AUS to get more info on their e36 RB swap kit. They never tried fitting on into a e46 before. So I ran some part numbers and my transmember is the same as e36. So I took a gamble, picked up a cheap e36 engine crossmember and the mounting and suspension points are the same. I made a test price deal with dryden for the RB swap parts, without oil pan. After looking into pans I decided I hated theirs. For the money its so ugly and basic. I found a new pan from CXracing for Z32 RB25 swap and this is the pan I decided to go with.

So right now I am waiting on parts to come in. Both 20 and 25 are apart for building. Thinking RB25 neo with long collar, jun oil pump, king bearings, stock rods (RB26), stock pistons with new rings gapped for 15 to 20psi (ring packs and lands are stronger on the neo), I have a set of tomei type A cams for it, a tomei cam gear, 3076r on a modified external gate manifold. I have so many RB parts I can build a 400 hp setup on what I have. I have R35 injectors for it, as well as a few PFC units likely run it on a r33 harness and PFC.

[wacko2]

I can't wait see rb inside e46

[KendallH]

I saw the thread title and said "oh god..." then I saw the username and said hell yes!!!

[IIIXziuR]

This should be quite interesting!

[OutToWinPAHC]

this is actually just one of my little side project cars most of my time and focus go to the skylines basically I'm going to be putting this one together out of spare parts. I'm pretty sure I'm going to throw the 20 motor in it that I built last year. and I used to hate on these things but that motor is very impressive.

R32 rb20det
N1 oil pump, spool gear set
Arp studs and cometic and oem gaskets
front face upper intake
Rb26 injectors (444cc)
Rb25det neo turbo
Rb20/25 exhaust cam on intake.
tomei cam gears (both exhaust with the timkng mark moved)
Rb26 power fc
Z32 maf
11 lb flywheel (havent broke one)
Picked up a spec stage 2 clutch on black friday.
And rwd rb26 trans unless it wont fit... then z32 unit with an rb bell.

basic

[g35gabby]

Originally Posted by KendallH

I saw the thread title and said "oh god..." then I saw the username and said hell yes!!!

Same.

Curious, did the seller refund you anything for a "good running car" with bearings looking like that?

[OutToWinPAHC]

not enough but I got about 800 bucks back

[OutToWinPAHC]

Sent these out for 24K gold plating... Not powder but plated....

The motivation


This is the RWD transfer case for the RB26 trans. It's been all cleaned up and on my trans ready to go.



Ported the exhaust humps from this neo head. It's at the machine shop now, but wont be going in this car


Picked up this for pennies


This is the 20 going into the BMW, with some new cam gears and the gold covers.


The oil pan for Z32, has trap door and comes with pick up



The mounts while will be mounted onto a crossmember and come with isolaters (TB48)

[g35gabby]

how much did that gold dip run you, that is freaking AWESOME, and who did the work?

[OutToWinPAHC]

Unknown Coatings... He is in SLC utah but worth it. I send all my power, plating and chrome to him.

[g35gabby]

Kind of wondered if it was Shawn. Looks great

[OutToWinPAHC]

Shawns work is worth the shipping. Best in the business

[OutToWinPAHC]

None of this is for the BMW but will be working to getting the BMW done. The R34 RB25DET is going into the car which has the RB20 now... And then I'm working on my R33 as well. As soon as the R33 is back together and tuned I can pull the motor from the R32 and start that. Once that is buttoned up its game on for the E46.

I removed and ported the exhaust side of the neo head and cleaned up the casting marks on the intake side. Then had it machined and rebuilt by BMS racing engines. New guides, milled, valve job, cleaned. I did all the porting by hand.






Block is low mile, stock. I pulled it from Akins Gold R34. We did a 800HP rb26 swap into that car and he gave me the R34 neo for helping. I painted it teal. Its got about 80K kilo, and I am using stock, block and cams, RB20 oil filter housing, JUN machine shop oil pump, OEM water pump, ARP head studs Cometic .051 head gasket aka 1.3mm, and complete oem gasket set minus HG.





And I did a much bigger cam swap in my R33 I also took my time to gasket match and port the junk greddy manifold. Yes junk they are still cast trash, just more convenient to be front facing. Anyhow it had a chrome bath.... clear coat shots arent up yet, but unknown coatings again.


While I was typing this fedex showed up with my oil pan for the Bmw.

[dmragecm]

Do you have a red r32 by any chance?

[OutToWinPAHC]

I do now... the neo is going in there. I have a silver r33 too

[kevinzhou]

i want that paint code for that "red" r32 lol

[EmpyreS13]

Shawn is amazing. I have had all my work done by him as well. It's a plus he's local to me. This build is going to be crazy. sub'd for updates

[OutToWinPAHC]

These are video

Oil pan and mounting kit




24K gold plating

[wacko2]

keep up the good work, cant wait see it done

[Ratpack_Chad]

This is awesome.

[Oakville]

Is this a swapped car? Or a english/jdm import?

[OutToWinPAHC]

Factory rhd from the uk, hs7, federal emmisions approved, cali legal too. but all that's pretty much out the window now

[bc.]

Shit! This is the end already, I thought I had a morning to kill reading this.

[OutToWinPAHC]

well what has to happen is I'm waiting on my intake manifold to come back so I can install that on my r33 and then take that to get retuned. Once that car is mobile again I can actually pull it out of the garage and do some work on the BMW but more importantly swap the r32 and start prepping the r32 motor as for the BMW

[Toomuchboost12]

wow very interesting build . hope you figure shit out . i seen a 25 in a 36 looked sweet

[OutToWinPAHC]