Roundel magazine - s54 swap article

[nyc951]

The latest issue of Roundel has been a pleasure to read. Just finished the article about Shawn Robertson building the m3 sedan and touring with SMG - is he on this forum? If yes, would love to get his guidance for putting an s54 + SMG (or DCT?) into my non-sunroof e39 528i that is an euro-delivery car with lots of sentimental value.

Anyway, great to see the guy’s work getting some attention.

[Slideways]

nextelbuddy

[Obioban]

The latest issue of Roundel has been a pleasure to read. Just finished the article about Shawn Robertson building the m3 sedan and touring with SMG - is he on this forum? If yes, would love to get his guidance for putting an s54 + SMG (or DCT?) into my non-sunroof e39 528i that is an euro-delivery car with lots of sentimental value.

Anyway, great to see the guy’s work getting some attention.

non sunroof e39 is also my optimal S54 swap candidate.

But, yes, the guy tagged above.

[RockyMtnM3]

The latest issue of Roundel has been a pleasure to read.

I agree! very strong edition. The GT2 cover and article are awesome and loved the e30 road trip; to your point, a pleasure to read. Is Alex McCulloch done with CCA? he is an awesome dude.

[PSUEng]

This latest Roundel is very good. As a 20yr member, I hope the new editor is turning it around. I hate to say, but it's been a boomer-fest mag for a long time. There have been some retirements and passings, and those old guys were good, but it's time for a generational change. BTW, I'm still waiting on my BMW CCA rebate for my X5 purchase...in July 2025.

[Obioban]

As of this month, for the first time in 23 years I am no longer a CCA member.

I couldn’t care less about their new cars, and my local chapter seems to be moving away from caring about tracking.

[1000hp]

. I hate to say, but it's been a boomer-fest mag for a long time

"Gordon Noodlebaum purchased his e21 brand new in 1976, and it's still going strong fifty years and twelve tweed sport jackets later."

[nextelbuddy]

The latest issue of Roundel has been a pleasure to read. Just finished the article about Shawn Robertson building the m3 sedan and touring with SMG - is he on this forum? If yes, would love to get his guidance for putting an s54 + SMG (or DCT?) into my non-sunroof e39 528i that is an euro-delivery car with lots of sentimental value.

Anyway, great to see the guy’s work getting some attention.

Here I am. sorry for the late reply been swamped with work.

S54 + SMG totally doable in the E39. it would be best to do what i did. I got an SMG body harness and literally just plucked out all the SMG specific wires.all the wires and harnesses from the:

- Shifter assembly
- shift speed switch
- Shift interlock
- Steering wheel shift paddle
- SMG hood sensors
- SMG longitudinal sensor (under carpet passenger side) (only M3 chassis have the backet welded onto the floor pan so you need to install rivnuts in the location to mount the sensor. it is used to sense the car moving forward or backwards and on hills for clutch engagement)


I created my own harness using the stock wiring and it works out well because you get all the wires, pins, connectors etc. makes it more plug and play than you think. i wouldnt waste time trying to reuse the original Auto trans body harness wiring. you will spend more time looking up pin outs in the TIS for the e39 auto trans to see what can be removed, moved, deleted or repurposed.

i think e39 DME is on the passenger side? compared to e46 on driver side but the wiring length should still work. i would have the dash and carpet out, makes it much easier to route your wires

i also traced all the wires in the TIS to verify they lined up with my body harness fuse box for the power wires portion.

as for going DCT with S54, last i heard and read... that was not working out so well. if you were going to go with a NON e46 trans then i think people like George Hill hill have better luck and experience with 8HP trans and the computer controller.

below are all my wire traces for the SMG wiring. for the hood stuff, dont HAVE to add hood switches or wiring. you can choose to just loop those wires which makes the SMG trans think the hood is closed. i just did it to be more factory correct.. car was already apart and just made sense.

SMG shift speed green connector:5 wires total

2 wires terminate into SMG DME body harness connector.

Blue wire yellow stripe - pin 12

Blue wire gray stripe - pin 16

2 ground wires into nearest ground bus

1 illumination wire into nearest grey red bus



Shift interlock 2 pin connector

2 wires

Red white stripe terminate into large SMG shift connector. Leave it in

Black purple stripe terminate into SMG body harness connector grey - pin 26



Large SMG shift 12 pin connector

2 ground wires terminate into same ground bus as first SMG speed green connector

1 12 volt ignition II red white stripe terminates into red white bundle with plastic cap in wiring harness

Rest 8 wires terminate in SMG body harness grey connector

Yellow grey stripe - pin 9

Yellow blue stripe - pin 19

Yellow black stripe - pin 8

Yellow brown stripe - pin 10

Yellow purple stripe - pin 7

Yellow white stripe - pin 4

White green stripe - pin 6

Green white stripe - pin 3



Steering wheel shift paddles

2 pin connector from clock spring terminate into SMG body harness connector black

Yellow white stripe - pin 40

Yellow black stripe - pin 41


SMG hood sensor terminate SMG body harness connector black plug and ground bus under hood


Driver side white red stripe - pin 45

Passenger side white green stripe - pin 44



SMG body harness connector

Black side - pin 48 brown black stripe to EWS pin 6

Black side - pin 49 black wire to bus 3 black wire junction


SMG body harness connector to longitudinal sensor

Grey side

Yellow red stripe - pin 18 - terminate 3 pin connector passenger side

Brown black stripe - pin 20 - terminate 3 pin connector passenger side

Blue black stripe - pin 13 - terminate 3 pin connector passenger side


Red green stripe - pin 14 - terminate bus bar fuse box area with other red green stripe wires

Purple brown stripe - pin 11 - terminate fuse box slot 8

Black blue stripe - pin 5 - fuse box slot 22 (also bottom slot os empty on non M. Need to add wire blue black from bottom fuse slot to EWS pin 3 which is empty on non M)
​

The latest issue of Roundel has been a pleasure to read. Just finished the article about Shawn Robertson building the m3 sedan and touring with SMG - is he on this forum? If yes, would love to get his guidance for putting an s54 + SMG (or DCT?) into my non-sunroof e39 528i that is an euro-delivery car with lots of sentimental value.

Anyway, great to see the guy’s work getting some attention.

"Gordon Noodlebaum purchased his e21 brand new in 1976, and it's still going strong fifty years and twelve tweed sport jackets later."

i think they are trying to address that stigma.

They have a new Chief Editor at Roundel named Travis Okulski former editor at car and driver
the writer i worked with is named Raphael Orlove and he came from Jalopnik. he was really nice to speak to

the only thing i was a bit bummed about was that i gave a LOT of info on how my projects were a team effort and i had a lot of collaboration and that I relied HEAVILY on forums. e46fanatics, m3forum and now NAM3Forum. I told them there was no way i could ever do these projects with out the collective effort and knowledge that these forums offered and how I loved forums so much more than facebook groups of today. i told them i must get like 5-10 messages a week on instagram or youtube from people asking me for help with wiring, coding etc... and all i can do is point them to the same resources i used. that is the ONLY way someone will learn is when they have to sift through pages and pages, you have to want it bad enough to make your project happen.

I explained how i had a lot of help from friends, and other people i met along the way but at the end of the day the article ended up making it look like I was humble bragging about myself and made me feel like i was it was all me me me and that simply wasnt the case.

i am very thankful of the information i learned from these forums especially when it came to coding, wiring and working with these DMEs and systems

thank you very much M3forum/NAM3forum for making my projects come true.