BMW M52B28 Engine Inspection [E36 328i Motor] M52 24v Engine Swap Prep For the E30 Build | 044

BMW M52B28 Engine Inspection [E36 328i Motor] M52 24v Engine Swap Prep For the E30 Build | 044
In this video, I delve into the BMW M52 engine I've had sat on a stand for a long time ready for my E30 24v swap. This particular M52B28 motor is from a 90s BMW 3 series, in particular the revered E36 328i sport. The objective for the day was to inspect the engine from top to bottom and determine whether it was in need of a rebuild or not.
Here's a much better borescope than I used, from Teslong: www.amazon.co.uk/Inspection-T...
I start off by considering which E34 sump I want to use. When fitted into an E30, the M52 24v engine needs to be switched to front sump rather than rear sump so it's compatible with the E30's front subframe. The issue however, is on a lowered E30 the E34 sumps are famous for hitting speed humps. So i picked up a modified shallower sump locally and I'm debating whether to use it.
Following this I remove the welded up E34 sump that's already fitted and start inspecting the bottom end of the engine.
The first thing to note is that the engine has quite a lot of varnish within it, which is potentially a sign it hasn't had as many oil changes as I'd have liked it to.
The oil pump looks to be in good condition, and I noted that the oil pump sprocket nut is original and not a lock-wired one. Which is a good and bad thing.
The rods have slight play on the crank journals, but in reality probably no more than the expected amount. They do rotate after all. I didn't take any of the caps off the big ends to inspect the bearings. M52s are not known to chew through bearings like a wear part, unlike the S54.
There are no witness marks on any of the fasteners which implies to me that this engine has never been apart and is in factory condition. I personally think this is a positive as it hasn't been bodged or blown up before.
Switching over to inspect the top end, I removed the coils and the valve cover to reveal the camshafts, which both appear to be in excellent condition with absolutely no scoring or pitting, or even any sign of wear. The timing chain and its guides look in excellent condition too.
Regarding the VANOS unit, it's very difficult to say whether there's anything wrong with it or not without running the engine. Even stripping it down and giving it a visual inspection doesn't always yield the answers with these so I'm going to leave it alone for now.
I then cracked out the cheap borescope to look into the intake and exhaust valves, which all look nice and consistent with no obvious signs of a problem. There was however some general dust and trash sat in some of them from storage. I attempted to blow some of this out with compressed air.
Following this, I whipped out the spark plugs and inspected them. They were OE spec Bosh Super Plus spark plugs and although a bit grubby, in reasonable condition. I checked their condition against a few sparkplug charts and determined they are all in the normal range, which implies the engine was running well prior to being pulled from an E36.
With the plugs removed, I could use the borescope to peer down into the cylinders and look at the tops of the pistons. All of them looked excellent aside from debris from storage. Unfortunately, I did find a little bit of valve cover gasket in cylinder 6, but it's just plastic so probably not going to cause a big problem.
With the cheap borescope, I was unable to see the cylinder walls which would have been great to inspect. However, with the tops of the pistons looking so good, I'm feeling confident that this engine is healthy and there's no reason why it wouldn't just run.
From here, I decided to take off the thermostat housing and thermostat, along with the water pump, to peer into the coolant channels. The water pump came out fairly easily the proper way. It's far easier when the engine is off the car. It appeared to be an OEM BMW water pump, which is good, but I will replace it with one that has a metal impeller down the line.
Unfortunately, the crank position sensor did not survive the strip down.
For more helpful how-to guides and restorations: www.spannerrash.com/
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#m52b28 #m52 #bmwe30 #e30build #e30

[@spectreplayer3231]

I have a 316I e30 and just bought a 328I e46 m52tuB28 and this video and series is absolutely amazing for me, this is going to be my bible for some time😅😉🤣

[@SPANNERRASH]

Haha really glad the series is helping you out. I tried to keep as much detail in as possible for this exact reason. :D

[@vagkos3060]

Awesome video as always !!! Cant wait to see this thing running !! Keep up the great work !!

[@SPANNERRASH]

Cheers mate, you and me both! 😄

[@mixymand]

Great stuff as always

[@SPANNERRASH]

Thanks Milos 😃

[@bogdandnila8062]

Great video like always

[@SPANNERRASH]

Thank you pal!

[@johnzervoudakis2835]

One more excellent video of e 30 series!!

[@SPANNERRASH]

Thanks John! 😁

[@Graham.-E30]

Argh I need that sump

[@SPANNERRASH]

So far so good, but hoping I don't find it to be a liability for engine oiling. We will find out! 😅

[@e30_318is_project]

Niceee!! Engine time 😄 looks good to me, i would try to get that rubber piece out the piston i guess. I totally get you by not rebuilding it fully right away. Projects like this have the tendency to snowball 😂 speaking from experience. Oh, let's do this too while i'm at it. I think your choice is the right one for now, and try to have a first drive as soon as possible. Looking forward to the engine refresh! 👍

[@SPANNERRASH]

Yeah, I'll see what I can do to remove it. I think it looks a lot bigger on the borescope camera than it is, to be honest. 😄 And you're 100% right about it snowballing. To be honest it already has done to levels well beyond my original plan. I reckon this M52 will run well based on what I can see, we will find out either way! 😅

[@DigwithAthelstan]

Yet again another great video. Although I really think you have got an ideal opportunity to get the head off and ensure its running tip top for sure. It will be sad to have problems after fitted.

[@SPANNERRASH]

Thanks Martin! Yeah I know what you mean, and I'm extremely tempted to be honest. Part of me was kind of hoping I'd find something to warrant stripping it down, but in reality, it looks in good order to me. I'm half expecting to have this engine in and out a couple of times before it's a finished car and that should be made easy after my removable front core support mod. So it's not like I couldn't pull it back out and do a full rebuild down the line. I am very keen to figure out how to make it run this year though, and maybe even drive it before winter! 😂

[@DigwithAthelstan]

@@SPANNERRASH yeah I know what you mean. My E36 project is the same but early days following your steps with welding ATM. Although my engine I have had running but so tempted to strip apart. I guess clean it up as you say and see how it goes. Think your only issue if any will be valve guides as I have found the 6 cylinders suffer for drying out if not used.

[@SPANNERRASH]

@@DigwithAthelstan Aha! Thats a great tip about the value guides. I'll keep a very close eye on that. Hope your E36 project welding goes well, takes a while to get into a rhythm with it, but worth the pain. 🤞

[@bluecheese861]

Greeat video man! Regarding your sump dilemma. I would say the issue you will run into with the cut one is understanding the oil level as the pick up will ready higher. Ofcourse you will always know how much oil after filling it up but something to consider. Keep it up, look forward to more videos.

[@SPANNERRASH]

Thats a great point about the dipstick with the sump. Someone else mentioned that. I think my current plan is to use the modified dipstick tube that came with the sump, and fill the engine with the correct amount of oil (6.5L I think for M52). See where the level lands on the dipstick, maybe re-mark it if it's higher up. Then use that as my guide going forward. I'm hoping this engine doesn't use a lot of oil though and I can just annually drop and replace the oil. But I'll definitely want to monitor it. Currently, I think I'm going for this modified sump!

[@bluecheese861]

It will be just fine. Enjoying the build, hope you are too.@@SPANNERRASH

[@mcjjordan]

Ive got same sump on my e21, You have to cut down the pick up, dipstick & tube so youve no real reference on the oil level….

[@SPANNERRASH]

Interesting! The guy I bought mine from said it was for an E21 build. Maybe its a more common mod for those, where did you get yours? And yep, I realised that about the dipstick. I got one that has been cut down to size already, the actual plastic tip of the dipstick is just about to poke out when its in place. I was wondering if it would work, or whether I'd need to somehow make a new mark on the dipstick and use that. How have you gotten around it?

[@666afgunkhan5]

Love oil pan that tops 🎉

[@SPANNERRASH]

It should definitely help with my ride height concerns. 😄

[@discustio2769]

Great Video! Out of curiosity why not an M54? I have an M54B30 I am about to refresh to install in my E30. Is it worth it?

[@SPANNERRASH]

Thanks! To be honest, no particular reason. I feel like the M52 swap is better documented so I wanted the security of it being tried and tested. I also wanted an aluminium block engine, but I actually think M54 is alu too. I think the results will be broadly similar between M52 and M54. What are your thoughts?

[@mcjjordan]

Check the one way valve on the oil filter housing - theyre plastic & have a tendancy to fail allowing the oil to drain out of filter overnight & then the oil light takes 7 seconds to go out on start up . As mine did😡

[@SPANNERRASH]

Aha! I wondered what that valve did, luckily mine seemed in good condition when I cleared the oil filter housing, so hopefully plenty of life in it yet! Thanks for the tip. 😃