Part 3: The Engine swap.
When I started this project I knew of one other S65 '1M' in the world. Marco Svizzero in the US had built one with Performance Technic in California. They imported a whole E92 M3 wreck from the UK and estimated the build and development cost at nearly $US100k...
I started out by asking Performance Technic if they could support a local workshop through a similar build but they thought it couldn't be done without someone onsite. I talked to a few workshops here about it without much luck until I came across Brintech Customs in Sydney. They had done an S85 V10 into E46 M3 swap and a few interesting E30 transplants. When I talked to Brintech they thought it was possible but then spent a fair bit of time researching how to get it to 100% OEM standard. We spent a few months brainstorming it until they had the plan sorted and a suitable donor car in hand.
The swap basically needs a whole M3 donor car. The parts for the swap include the whole front subframe assembly with steering rack, suspension etc (I had already swapped in new 1M control arms etc so these were retained), engine, gearbox, diff, rear subframe, dash cluster, DCT control switches, multiple modules for ABS, DSC etc.
This swap used a 2012 E92 M3 (supposedly Bernard Tomic's car...)
Before being installed the S65 was inspected, serviced and had a set of BE bearing rod bearings installed along with ARP rod bolts.
The sump was modded to fit a VAC Motorsports sump baffle.
The guys at Brintech say it's about a week of swapping parts and at least a month of wiring, coding and testing.
A few other details were sorted during the swap with M3 front & rear swaybars going in and poly subframe bushes installed.
The Megan racing exhaust was hooked up to the OEM M3 exhaust which had me wondering how loud it was going to be!
Once the engine was in I could see why people say this is a combination that BMW must have tried- it just fits so perfectly. Even the S65 airbox bolts to the E82 mounts...
