Re: swapping motors?

Posted by Anthony Pallett On 2014/3/16 22:49:50

I have never used the BMW V12 personally but I had a friend in the Navy that was a huge BMW fanboy. The V12 is a great engine and all things considered they are fairly light weight. The engine is resentally 2 L6 BMW engines smashed together. They are pretty much completely computer controlled and if I remember correctly so is the transmission. The more modern ones are fly by wire so I feel that packaging all this in a vintage car would be an issue. the transmission tunnel would very likely have to be cut and new crosmembers would have to be made but this is true with most engine swaps. If you did away with the fuel injection you would still need an ECU for the ignition timing and variable valve timing and from what I have been led to understand the BMW computer does not like to be messed with. Also these cars have a security system that may or may not be able to be bypassed in the factory ECU so a key with a chip and the related software may need to be used. There is a reason you don't see many BMW engine swaps dollar for dollar they are a very cheap V12 with only an 80s era Jag being cheaper. With all that said it can be done several months ago Hot Rod Magazine had an article where a man swapped a BMW (if I remember right) engine into a Cobra Kit car but that was a mega dollar build. The torque numbers on a vintage Packard engine are very good considering the age of these engines (the big L8s coming in at 270-300 ftlbs) and dollar spend to make the BMW do what you wanted (unless of coarse you already have what you need or have a line on a wrecked V12 car with everything you need)or running the Packard engine would be pretty close in cost IMO and the value of the car would go down quite a bit with the BMW engine. It really comes down to you, your skill level, and dedication to the project. A slow Packard with a Packard engine is much better than a non running cut up Packard with a BMW engine half installed.