M57 Engine /6HP Gearbox Control

Using the box standalone seems pretty hard. I looked into using one behind my jtd but could not find a standalone management for the 6hp. And although the jtd uses a quite similar Bosch edc16 the experts told me it would most likely not communicate in the same CAN language.

You could use the m57 engine and box as a standalone unit. There are people who make looms to do that and who can help modding the ecu to accept the missing stuff.

Or save up a little more money and go for the later 8hp gearbox, turbolamik makes a controller for it and there are different adapters to use it on different engines. Mate of mine is fitting one to a bmw m60 v8 for his e30.

If using both engine and box from the donor car it should be fairly simple. Not familiar with that model BMW but I did an Audi with 5HP box and a BMW v12 with auto box ( think 5hp ). Keep all the obvious bits and probably dash clocks, ignition barrel, accelerator pedal.
My method is cut a few wires then try the car. If all ok cut some more. Label absolutely everything as you go.
Really is easier than people think, just don't rush. Good luck and keep the updates coming.

I'm having fun with 6HP boxes at the moment. I'm of the view that the controller which is mounted on the valve body inside the gearbox is coded to the vehicle it came from. This is in the case of the Audi but I would imagine it is the same for all of them.

If you tried to use the box standalone without the accompanying electronics from the donor vehicle there is the possibility of terrible things happening. I can imagine a scenario where it'll only work in 3rd gear and not shift for instance.

Therefore if you were fully intent on using the 6HP you will have to either use all the electronics from the donor vehicle or find an aftermarket solution. I think both are possible but I don't think running the box without the electronics being properly taken care of is going to work out well.

Modern engine management is quite tunable and complete these days so if you did take a complete setup from a 15 year old BMW the engine could be tuned even if you kept the BMW management. You could research the available aftermarket tuning options before deciding which donor car to buy.

Got a link to anything like that? Sounds interesting.

Looks good if you can afford it. house-of-torque.com/product/can-tcu/ £900 nicker for the transmission controller.

I do like these sorts of companies but for them to do the research and make the parts available as a bolt-on does result with considerable cost.

It would be a dream of a job to be able to buy their full kit, an old land rover and a fully restored BMW M57 and ZF8HP and be left with just the bolting up to do... but it would cost you dear. Probably to the point where you might as well just buy a capable vehicle off the shelf.

Would still be fun to get all the kit and have the experience of building it all up with hopefully no headscratchers.

Spoolas.eu

You don't need a controller for the gearbox if you use it with the engine it belongs to.

M57n standalone loom from €130

Having worked in various companies that developed niche offerings it is hard to develop/debug and then sell a product at a price that enough people are willing/can afford to purchase in a volume, so often such things are as much a labour of love or drop out of a personal passion project so allows them to swallow/overlook a lot of those development hours.

Well looks like this is moving forward, 530d turned up locally at a decent price(if you include additional bits I can sell on, like set of 19" AXE rims). it's a 2003 218hp model. Possible issue with the 6hp transmission(not always shift up to 5th) but everything else looks decent enough as a donor.
Ideally wanted a couple of other things out the way, but felt this was a deal worth doing despite the timing issues.