Modern BMW bell housing paterns

[polov8]

So the future project on my car is to replace the 1.8 M10 with a turbocharged M42 and 6 speed gearbox. As I understand it, the M40/42/44 has the same bolt pattern as the M50/52/54, but that mounts the engine at 30 degree slant. Reading up, I found out that the diesels are mounted at only 20 degrees, which will give me more room for the turbo, and more clearance for the brake servo/linkage, and the steering column.

My question is, does anybody know definitively if the diesels have the same bell housing pattern as the petrol cars?

[nas80]

The part number for the diesel box seems to have been fitted to a number of

http://bmwfans.info/parts-catalog/23001434452

[polov8]

Not quite sure what I'm looking at there?

[nas80]

Expand the sections. You could also do a part number lookup in realoem?

Basically the m51 has the same box as majority of other Bmws.

[polov8]

Aha, thanks Nas. I was looking on RealOEM and if you compare E60 manual 6 speeds for the diesel and petrol, they look different even in the pics, even though the bolt pattern looks the same.

530d: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=23&fg=05


530i: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=23&fg=05


I think I'm going to have to do a side by side comparison to confirm it, but it does look like the bell housings differ in order to hold the diesels more vertical, whilst still having the same bolt pattern. Whether the internals are very different I don't know, but I'm sure the diesel will be up to the torque of an M42, even if it is running alot of boost.

[nas80]

It's more the ratios you want to watch out for.

If your really rich you can buy a super duper sequential gear box

http://www.drenth-gearboxes.com/product ... arbox.html

With bellhousing

http://www.drenth-gearboxes.com/product ... e-s54.html

Nas

[polov8]

Yeah I don't need the ratios to be right, since they're all much of a muchness, the rear diff ratio can correct that, and I'll have plenty of torque.

The sequential boxes are waaaaaay out of my budget, I suspect the whole conversion will cost less than one of those gearboxes. Having seen many similar units at the Autosport show on friday, I'm guessing those are a number of thousands of pounds, and not really ideal for road use.

[nas80]

Haha yea I know I used the m3 zf box on my m52, gps Speedo job done.