LQ9 into E39 Swap

When your done I'm gunna take what you learned and try this out

Originally Posted by nsogiba

Just took a deposit on the BMW motor. The BMW 6 speed trans, clutch and flywheel assembly are still for sale.

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=656287

Hey OP, do you think u can take a pic of the M62 and the LQ9 side by side? I would like to see the difference in size

Nice work, I was looking in to a M3 swap. Didn't come up with much.

Originally Posted by toofpik

Hey OP, do you think u can take a pic of the M62 and the LQ9 side by side? I would like to see the difference in size

My LQ4 is stripped down to just the block right now; the heads and intake are off it currently. I can put them back on temporarily though and show for comparison.

The LQ4 block looks TINY next to the M62.

Idk what an LQ9 or how much power is makes, is this engine worth the troubles? because if the diff is 20 HP its not worth all of this, and remember the BMW feel will be gone. but if does have a big power gain then i guess this is a cool project.

Originally Posted by MikesE39

Idk what an LQ9 or how much power is makes, is this engine worth the troubles? because if the diff is 20 HP its not worth all of this, and remember the BMW feel will be gone. but if does have a big power gain then i guess this is a cool project.

More power more reliability and so many damn parts available while running on 86 octane

Originally Posted by MikesE39

Idk what an LQ9 or how much power is makes, is this engine worth the troubles? because if the diff is 20 HP its not worth all of this, and remember the BMW feel will be gone. but if does have a big power gain then i guess this is a cool project.

You should have read the first paragraph in the first post…I explained the motivation for everything

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what+is+an+lq4

Originally Posted by eparayno

More power more reliability and so many damn parts available while running on 86 octane

: )

a member on BimmerFest asked to see the LQ4 and the M62 side by side. keep in mind that the M62 is fully dressed, with all front accessories and belt drives, ready to plop right in. the LQ4 has the heads and intake just sitting on the motor not bolted down, and is missing the headers, front accessories and etc, and a ton of other things.

however, if you look at just the basic engine architecture, the difference in size is pretty striking. remember, the BMW V8 is a 4.4L, the GM is a 6.0.




See ya later M62, it's been really fun.

a member on BimmerFest asked to see the LQ4 and the M62 side by side. keep in mind that the M62 is fully dressed, with all front accessories and belt drives, ready to plop right in. the LQ4 has the heads and intake just sitting on the motor not bolted down, and is missing the headers, front accessories and etc, and a ton of other things.

however, if you look at just the basic engine architecture, the difference in size is pretty striking. remember, the BMW V8 is a 4.4L, the GM is a 6.0.




See ya later M62, it's been really fun.

Thanks OP! I didnt think the request was gonna come thru...

Sure thing, I was curious about it myself.

So, I passed my LEED Green Associate Exam last night, was pretty stoked about that after having done nothing but study in my free time the last few weeks.

Dropped off the heads at Klispie’s, nice guys. They cleaned up the heads already and will be replacing the valve stem seals. Also will have them CC’d to see how far down we need to go to get to about 66cc chambers.

Definitely getting some stuff done in the garage tonight, I plan on removing the 3.15 open diff (for sale, not that anyone here will ever buy it) and probably getting the LQ4 block ready for paint. I used a whole can of aircraft stripper on it and it did a nice job, but not all of the paint was removed. If I have time I’ll mask it up and maybe paint it. Gunmetal grey engine enamel

So are you planning on tuning the LQ9. There is a lot of potential with that motor. For $1000 you could get another 100 hp. I might be interested in your 6 speed. If its made for the m62b44 would it fit on a m60b30?

not sure if the trans is compatible, you might want to ask the E34 guys. however assuming the V8s changed little (which i assume is correct) i would think it would fit up fine. my friend has a 1995 E34 540i and it's a 6 speed.

Still watching this with rapt attention! I too am wondering what mods you might have planned for the new motor once the install is completed :-)

Originally Posted by Psalm11_6

Still watching this with rapt attention! I too am wondering what mods you might have planned for the new motor once the install is completed :-)

LS2 cam from a Corvette is already in the motor. Higher lift and duration than stock, but not by much.
Yellow LS2 valve springs as well to support that.
Milled 317 heads (which flow very well) to bring compression up to 10.4:1 or so.
Custom fab’d headers (not really for performance, more for fitment, but if I make gains over stock manifolds, who’s to complain?)
QTP cutout for lots of good noises. I MIGHT attempt a side exit exhaust later in the build if I have time and don’t wanna kill myself getting it working yet. Priorities first.
M5 LSD (rebuilt)
Rebuilt T56 (don’t have it yet)
Some sort of lightweight flywheel (possibly aluminum)
Possibly LS7 clutch/pressure plate (new)

Once it’s all running right, I plan on spraying a 50 shot just to get used to it, and then working my way up to 100-150. This car won’t see the track, just a fun daily driver for the summer and something to take on long distance trips while still retaining all creature comforts (AC, heated seats, power everything, DSP, etc etc, basically everything that made me fall in love with this car in the first place).

Pictures of your car is like ****** And I want to see more of it

Op, are u gonna tune the car for N2O? I had a friend that had N2O on a 04 mustang gt and it was a ****ty daily (the timing was retarded for the N2O and it was slow off the bottle)... It my not b the case with this block, I just hope u looked into that...

Slow bits of progress here and there. Had a cousin in from out of town so was busy with him all weekend.

Picked up the heads from Klispies and they look great. Ended up removing .026” to get chambers down to 66cc. Picked up new valve stem seals and threw those in. I installed the valve springs, keepers, and retainers on Saturday, so those are all set.

Painted the block gunmetal gray, will have to snap a few pics of that if I remember.

Had a line on a really nice built T56 and clutch/fw setup on St Catherines, but it fell through. I still need to sell the BMW trans.

Things are looking up!

found a T56 from a 2002 Camaro SS in Pittsburgh just 3 hours from me. It's said to be in good working condition and includes trans, bellhousing, crossmember (though i wont use that) and hydraulic slave.

best part is it's under $1000! so, my fiancee and i will be hopping in the station wagon and going on a day trip to grab it.

i will end up rebuilding the trans to be on the safe side, but this is great news because this means i can finally start mocking up the mounts and pan.


Also, heads are done. Klispie’s shaved them down .026” (cc’d to put me at 66cc). They did a really nice job cleaning them up and repairing one of the exhaust bolt holes. I installed the LS6 yellow springs and retainers with my homemade tool (let me know if you’d like to borrow it) and they look good.

so, here's the trans i'm looking at. before i drive all the way down there i'd like to make sure it's LS1 application.

i don't think the case casting number can tell me the origin (1386-065-902).

i have the seller working on getting me pictures of the sticker and the metal tag under the bolt on the rear extension housing.

in the meantime, can anyone here with a trained eye tell me if this is LS1 application T56, and how can they tell? maybe the bellhousing?

i'm not a GM guy but the trans crossmember looks LS1 application.

Spend some time running around town yesterday picking up flange head metric bolts for the T56-motor connection. Fastenal and a local specialty contractors supply store did not stock them, but Sears Hardware did, go figure.


Mated up the motor just for fun. I'm going to mock up the mounts once I settle on an oil pan (still need to think about that one) and while I'm taking care of the harness and wiring, I'll have it sent out to have Jason @ TDP look over it. Super nice guy, by the way.




Laid the heads down on it just for mockup. The next step is to buy all the gaskets for reassembly, the motor is ready to be put back together.


I put it in the bay just for sh*ts and giggles. For some reason at the time (maybe it was the fact that I was tired from work all day, or had a few too many beers) I was convinced that the shifter was supposed to line up exactly with the hole. I didn't have an oil pan mounted at the time, but if I did, it would not have agreed with that idea. I'll get into the garage tonight and play with it some more.




Measuring driveline angles will be crappy, because the nose of the car only is on jackstands. The car is too low when it sits normally, the engine hoist legs hit the lower control arms when plopping the engine in. May just have to take the angle of the car and then subtract it from my measurements.

The engine looks so tiny, and sit so low, properly because of the cylinder heads.

in reality it will sit at least 3" higher. this was with no oil pan on the motor, so it's not an accurate placement. i just plopped it down to see roughly what i was up against.