the one and only e30 s52 engine swap
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Differential was fully dissembled for the case and cover to be sent in for sand blasting.
That Thursday I dropped the case and cover off at a local industrial painting shop. I stuffed the casing full of newspaper and duct taped the holes to help prevent to much sand from getting inside or hitting the bearing races for the pinion gear shaft.
The following day after work I picked them back up.
As for the smaller components I threw a wire wheel on a die grinder and went to town cleaning them up.
After going through and de-greasing/blowing everything off I prepped all the metal with some por-15 metal prep to add an extra etch to the metal for better adhesion.
It's a pretty simple task, just simply brush it on all the areas where paint will be applied and let it sit for a half hour. Once a half hour has past rinse everything off with water and your set to go.
Did two medium coats of por-15 waiting about an hour in between coats. After the last coat I let it dry for a full 24 hours.
While the paint dried I started on the lsd rebuild. As a refresher this is getting the 3 clutch disc upgrade from thayer motorsports increasing the lock up to around 50%.
The rebuild is very straight forward and Thayer includes a link on their site with a step by step process. Biggest thing here is taking your time and double and triple checking yourself making sure everything is in the right order facing the correct way. After removing all the guts I did soak the lsd unit in de-greaser cleaning it thoroughly before beginning reassembly. Remembering to lubricate every component with diff oil as it is being installed is crucial. Left over parts after the rebuild was the two old clutchs and dog ears, 4 mm spacer that the third clutch takes the place of and the eight old carrier cap screws.
The following day I removed the masking off everything and cleaned everything once more through. I also threw a few light coats of satin clear to the diff cover to protect from corrosion.
First part of the rebuild is reinstalling the rear pinion gear. I did replace the clamping bushing and the dust cover. After inspecting the bearings I chose to reuse the original ones as they were still in good shape. Being that I hadn't changed anything with gear clearances I simply torqued the nut down to 137 ft lbs as specified from bmw and what I confirmed on a couple threads on other forums and called it good.
After installing the freshly rebuilt lsd with the ring side retainers and axle shafts I took a little red paint and brushed it on the ring gear and spun it a full turn to ensure that the gears were still properly meshing. I also checked for any crazy amounts of backlash which was also within spec.
Used some permatex "the right stuff" gasket maker to seal the diff cover to the diff.
After ensuring the preload of the pinion gear was within spec I popped in a new locking plate for the nut.
Added 1.75 qts of castrol 75w-140 diff fluid which includes the lsd additive needed for the clutch plates. Also popped in the speed sensor with a new o-ring and metal plate. She is ready to be installed in the car.
3.73 diff that was in the car on the right.
On to the next thing. In a previous post @KaiserRolls mentioned the detent pins in the zf trans. I had not looked into these and did a bit of research as well as checking that it didn't need the replacement done. One of the major signs of failure was the shifter not popping back to center after pulling it out of 5th gear. Luckily everything still felt good.
New guide tube came in and the damaged one from the clutch disc was replaced.
After that was all said and done and the clutch disc was flipped around the correct way the trans was re-installed.
Also installed a fresh guibo
For the manual e36's the 325i guibos were thinner and a bit smaller while the e36 m3 guibos were slightly larger and thicker. If you chose to run the m3 guibo which I preferred the dssr has to be modified. They usually are bent in order to add clearance. Being that I would have had to make a whole new dssr I instead chose to grind away the area that came in contact with the guibo. I over did it on the grinding in order to insure I had no clearance issues. I always knew about the bent dssr's but never knew why until now.
After re-installing I found that I had plenty of clearance now.
Up next... brake cooling. About a year ago I drew these up on Solidworks in a class I was taking and had them cut out on the water jet. As for the tubing portions I had some left over 2.5 inch stainless exhaust tubing laying around that I cut into sections and had my buddy tig weld them up.
In order to get the adapters for the air ducts on the valance attached I picked up some jb weld plastic bonder. The stuff is designed to attach plastic to metal so I thought I'd give it a try. After letting it dry for about an hour it was solid and definitely not coming off.
Towards the beginning of March I ordered some ducting tubing 2.5 inch on amazon. I ordered two 1 meter sticks which would be more then plenty for both sides.
Unfortunately, I did not take any pics of the backing plate installed but it fit up really well. I did have to cut out the original dust shield in order to fit these up. My bigger challenge with this hole setup was where to route the ducting. Originally I thought I'd just run it right through the hole that the factory duct ran through but I ran into issues with the wheel rubbing on it when turning in. I found that my only option was to route straight back and then along the bottom of the frame rail up to the front.
I didn't really have any other method to hang it other then zip ties so I got some beefier ones to make sure it was tight in place but not to tight that it would collapse the tubing.
Plenty of clearance with the wheel turned in and enough flexibility with it all the way out.
After this was finished I had the car back on the ground and buttoned up the last little bits and pieces. The same day I took the car out for a short drive around the neighborhood and I found the car was running really rich and there was a ton of drone in the cabin. After taking a look through tuner studio I had found that I had left the flex fuel sensor settings enabled and it was messing with the tune. After disabling it the car was back to normal running at the right afr's and no more drone.
I never did take any pics or mention anything about it but I did get a flex fuel sensor installed. I ordered a gm sensor which seemed to be the popular option among many tuners. I ran the sensor on the feed line right below the intake manifold where it goes from hard line to rubber hose. I ordered a gm pig tail as well and wired that in except for plugging it into the ms unit which I decided on waiting to do tell I get the car back into the tuner to get it tuned for 91 octane fuel so I have the option to run both e85 and 91.
The following Sunday morning I took the car for a drive down to the local gas station and ran it through the car wash. First impressions with the new setup were pretty great. The zf trans shifts so smooth compared to the g260 and with the power numbers I am making it handles it so well. The stage 3 clutch surprisingly does not feel that much heavier over the stage 2 and with the zf trans the pedal feels like it is much less grabby and has a more consistent feel. Right away I took the car for a 25 mile drive of very easy driving to break in the new lsd clutch packs properly.
Still on the list to get done is finding some replacement seats and ordering some fresh rubber for the upcoming season. Very excited for this summer and really hoping this pandemic pans out soon.
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Had some some fresh rubbers installed over this last weekend. Last set was starting to become a bit of a hazard to drive on.
This was one of the better ones of the 4 on the old set.
I decided to go with the same exact ones I had, Toyo proxies r1r. The overall performance of them were better then expected and for all the abuse I put them through I was surprised they lasted as long as they did. Also, they were my best option being that I only have four tires to pick from on tire rack in a 225/45r16 (who by the way have the best selection in that size)
After having the new tires installed I had the car re-aligned.
It really is quite amazing what a fresh set of tires does to the handling of a car!
So on another note. My drivers seat had some adjust-ability and support issues so I pulled it out and started dissecting. It didn't take me long to find out my issue...
The other side of the bracket was cracked in the same place. Took the seat over to my buddies that afternoon and had him throw a weld on both sides.
Yes I understand how jank as hell this is but I have been hardcore shopping for a nice set of used seats that would fit me and what I use the car for best and have so far been unlucky. For now this will work and I hope to find something to replace it within the next month or so.
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That tire is criminally low on tread!
Though I certainly know why!What kind of seats are you looking for? E30 sport seats, or other?
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Had some some fresh rubbers installed over this last weekend. Last set was starting to become a bit of a hazard to drive on.
This was one of the better ones of the 4 on the old set.
Wow talk about getting your money's worth out of tires. Well done!!!
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That tire is criminally low on tread!
Though I certainly know why!What kind of seats are you looking for? E30 sport seats, or other?
I currently have the e30 sport seats. It seems there is always something breaking on the brackets with them, their support during auto-x have been iffy at best and they don't really sit as low as I'd like. I was originally looking for something with a fixed back but now that I have figured that this car will most likely see more street driving then track or auto-x I have been on the hunt for something that has good support for the occasional auto-x track days but also the recline-ability and comfort for longer drives and cruises. Through my shopping around and research I have taken quite a liking to recaro srd seats but its been a struggle to find a pair reasonably priced and in the area that don't get sold within a couple days. I am of course open to any suggestions or recommendations if you have any.
Good to know on the R1R's, they were the ones I was also looking at.
As you said, there is very little in terms of selection for this size tire.
The only other good option was the dunlop direzza ZIII which I haven't tried yet but they were gonna be around $50 more for a set of 4 and the toyo's had all the same ratings and was considered the better performing tire in rainy conditions which I can vouch for from the hand full of times during wet auto-x's when I didn't think I'd have any grip and they proved me wrong.
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I have taken quite a liking to recaro srd seats but its been a struggle to find a pair reasonably priced and in the area that don't get sold within a couple days.
The only other good option was the dunlop direzza ZIII which I haven't tried yet but they were gonna be around $50 more for a set of 4 and the toyo's had all the same ratings and was considered the better performing tire in rainy conditions which I can vouch for from the hand full of times during wet auto-x's when I didn't think I'd have any grip and they proved me wrong.
Recaro SRD's are likely one of my favorite seats, so I can certainly stand behind you looking for those.
I'll do some browsing but I do believe there is a similar style that is available currently from a reputable manufacturer.jI ran the Direzza ZII for a bit, I have not run the Toyo so I can't provide a direct comparison, but I can certainly agree that the ZII's get a bit spicy in the rain! I enjoyed it for all other reasons, but as noted never ran the Toyo's. I do believe one of the next "Auto X killer" tires is being released in a 225/45/16 @KaiserRolls may know more about that. I can't remember what tire it was, but Brooke had posted about them and I recall that size being available.
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Recaro SRD's are likely one of my favorite seats, so I can certainly stand behind you looking for those.
I'll do some browsing but I do believe there is a similar style that is available currently from a reputable manufacturer.jI ran the Direzza ZII for a bit, I have not run the Toyo so I can't provide a direct comparison, but I can certainly agree that the ZII's get a bit spicy in the rain! I enjoyed it for all other reasons, but as noted never ran the Toyo's. I do believe one of the next "Auto X killer" tires is being released in a 225/45/16 @KaiserRolls may know more about that. I can't remember what tire it was, but Brooke had posted about them and I recall that size being available.
Falken RT660
245/50/16 though IIRC
EDIT. meant to say 225. @m42b32 has quoted me into humiliation though
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Falken RT660
245/50/16 though IIRC
Found the sizes on tirerack, a few options for us e30 folks!
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Shit. Meant to type 225. I blame the NyQuil
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Found the sizes on tirerack, a few options for us e30 folks!
Yes the 225/45-15 is calling my name. Supposedly more sizes are going to be released as well
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Yes the 225/45-15 is calling my name. Supposedly more sizes are going to be released as well
That option is making me consider 15's again. Price is decent too.
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So I fixed/improved a few things on this car a couple weekends back. Even though I had thought I had fixed it entirely with the turbo drain line I have still been having some oil leaking issues lately, Just couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. After some close inspecting I had reason to believe my valve cover gasket was leaking. A few days later a new valve cover gasket appeared on my door step and I spent an evening swapping them out.
After that was finished I started the car up and began inspecting. That's when I noticed something after bumping the oil feed line for the turbo...
You can also see that the 90 on the -an fitting had been kinked. I knew about this prior to the leak but new that oil still flowed through it fine and kind of just put it off. well sure enough that's where the leak was all along. When I lifted the line ever so slightly it would begin dripping drastically. After spending a few hours searching around I ordered a new -4 an line from rally road. Also, after some more inspecting I found that the oem breather fitting coming out of the valve cover wasn't cutting it anymore and blow by was getting past the fitting and making an oily mess underneath. While on rally road's site I also found that they sold a fitting to fix this exact issue so I ordered that as well.
A week later or so and the fitting and line were here. The following day after work I got to installing the new pieces.
Old line vs. new
Unfortunately I could not find a -4 an line in black which would have been a little more ideal looks wise but it is what it is.
New breather setup installed.
The rally road breather fitting was an awesome piece! It has two o-rings on the shaft that slides into the valve cover hole which sort of snaps into place, its a tight fit. Coming out of the other side is a -an fitting so I ordered a -10 an 90 with a hose barb on the other end to adapt to my rubber hose running to the catch can. I love the look of the new setup and best of all, no more leaks!
After all this was finished I figured it was also about time for an oil change as well. After some debating back and forth I figured it was time to switch over to synthetic. I had been running shell t4 15w-40 for the last 12,000ish miles with a zddp additive and I had been doing this partly because of engine break in reasons and the fact that if I switched to synthetic that the leaks would get worse. With the new fittings and valve cover gasket I felt much better about making the switch. I chose a t6 5w-40 full synthetic oil.
Underneath the car was an oily mess so after completing the change I pulled the skid plate and used about 4 cans of brake clean spraying down everything top to bottom. Two weeks later and no signs of oil leaks anywhere!
For the longest time I had been running stacked washers to space the nut out for the momo hub instead of buying the oem spacer. Well when i ordered the valve cover gasket I threw it in with and decided it was time to swap it out for the right part.
The spacer was a few mm longer then my washer stack and actually fixed a steering wheel squeak I had been dealing with sometime now so that was neat!
First auto-x of the season for me this weekend. Looking forward to seeing how the car feels on the track with the new gearing setup and a non-squeaky steering wheel.
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A few days later a new valve cover gasket appeared on my door step and I spent an evening swapping them out.
Is it possible to learn this power?
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Unfortunately I could not find a -4 an line in black which would have been a little more ideal looks wise but it is what it is.
100% why I ordered stuff to make my own lines, though you had the exposed silver end on the turbo so it was a bit of a wash anyway lol.
It's crazy to think the motor has seen 12k miles! I look forward to seeing many more updates after many more miles! -
Well I figured it was time I come back and update this thread lol. Last season was an absolute blast with this thing. I got a fair amount of seat time in and got a better grasp on controlling the car and it's power.
(FVSCC auto-x at the Waupaca airport last year)
Other then regular maintenance and up keep I didn't do much to the car in terms of upgrades. However, I did end up having a stone hit the windshield causing a small crack on the lower passenger side. On top of the crack there were many scratches all over and it was beginning to become a pain to see through (it was the original one). So I set up an appointment and had it replaced by Tri City glass and door up in Appleton. They did an excellent job and I was very pleased with the finished product.
That was about it. After the last auto-x in October I enjoyed the car for another week or so and put it away in storage for the season. Unfortunately I was unable to gain access to my grandfather's shop over the winter to work on it and I had a lot of other things going on that I just wasn't gonna have anytime to work on it anyways. I shared a cold storage unit instead with my cousin where it sat for the winter.
March rolled around and I started thinking about the upcoming warm weather and what I wanted to improve on the car before I started driving it again. Seats were the biggest thing on my mind as I still had the old ones that were getting pretty bad to drive in and I had a hard time getting comfortable in them. I was set on finding a set of Recaro srd's. I knew that was the set I wanted in the car and I did not want to compromise for anything else so worse comes to worse I was willing to drive with the old seats a while longer tell I found the right set. Well after several weeks of watching marketplace and other bmw pages/forums I came up with nothing. It seemed that the only sets that were going up for sale were selling within a few days and fetching to high of a price for the condition they were in. I gave up on looking in the midwest area and for shits and giggles started looking around the whole country to see what would pop up. Sure enough a set popped up In Denver, CO. The owner had them mounted in a mustang but sold the car so the seats had to go. I jokingly shared the ad to a friend of mine asking if he wanted to do a road trip to pick these up in which he replied "lets do it!" Over the following days since I had talked with him I thought it over while messaging the owner to see if he would be willing to hold them with money down tell I got out there. He agreed and that weekend my buddy and I made the 32 hour round trip to go pick these seats up.
He was the original owner of this set and had taken very good care of them. On top of that he was including wedge brackets and sliders that he used to mount them in his mustang.
Being that a new set of brackets and sliders were gonna run me upwards of around four hundred bucks for both seats I wanted to see if I could make the mustang ones work first. I took some measurements of the bolt hole distances and what I would need to modify to get them to fit properly. The following day I took them over to a friends and we went at modifying the brackets to fit the car.
After they were all welded up I took them over to the shop and drilled and slotted the holes.
The next thing was to figure out how I was gonna get the seat belt buckles to mount. I liked where the mounts were originally but with the e30 buckles it was not gonna work. In order to keep the location and fit the buckles I cut down the vertical piece of metal in half and drilled and tapped a new hole for the bolt.
I ended up snagging some 5/8's size bolts from my grandfather's spare bolt bins at the shop and hacked them down so they were smooth without the outside surface. Worked like a charm and I mounted the seats back up to confirm there was no rubbing with the new set up. All that was left was to get them sand blasted and repainted.
I put one coat of etching primer and two coats of SEM black trim paint.
Purchased some new stainless hardware to bolt down the brackets to the car.
The fitment of the seats in the car was exactly what I had hoped for. The fact that I sat lower and could slide back further to get more comfortable and secure in the car was awesome! These definitely were a game changer for the cars comfort and secureness. I can't wait to put these to proper use!
After I finished those up I switched gears and started working on a spare sub-frame I had bought the year before. After having enough trouble with not being able to adjust the eccentric bolts I had in the rear (because of the raised sub-frame bushings) and driving the car with something like 2 or 3 degrees of toe out on one side and 1 degree toe in on the other was nothing short of a headache. Same went for the camber adjustments in the rear. I came to the conclusion that I need to swap out the rear sub-frame all together for another one and do everything besides the adjusting bolts. The spare I had was pretty rusty and still had the old rubber bushings in it.
After taking an angle grinder and wire wheel to knock off most of the big chunks I sent it in to be sandblasted. I had ordered some new reinforcements for it from garagistic which included the differential mounting holes and trailing arm plates. Once I received the frame back from blasting I brought it over to my friend's place to get welded up.
Time for a little por-15 for protection!
A few days later the car was brought to the shop and I went to work pulling the rear end out. Took me a whopping two hours to pull it all out. It sure is nice when things come apart nicely.
When I had everything apart I went ahead and re-greased the RCAB's and sub-frame bushings as they were already pretty dry from last season. Once the new sub-frame was bolted in and torqued down I went ahead and changed the diff oil out. Checked the old oil for any metal shavings or odd debris and then added some fresh Castrol Syntrax 75w-140.
Rear end was popped back in the car afterwards and I swapped out the e-brake shoes and springs with some fresh ones.
Over the summer last year the e-brake got left on by accident once or twice while driving the car. That just about roasted the shoe pads off to the point that it no longer could hold the car on a slant. Thankfully those parts were ordered through fcp euro so I went ahead and took advantage of that life time warranty.
Once I was done torquing the rest of the bolts down holding the rear end in and inspected everything thoroughly I bled the brakes flushing out the system and added some fresh ATE typ 200 brake fluid.
Switching over to the engine side of things I pulled apart the exhaust system and re-wrapped the down pipe and a section of the exhaust pipe. The old wrap had tore in a few places and wasn't looking to great.
Ordered some Design engineering titanium wrap as a replacement hoping it will do a little better job at reducing exhaust temps in the engine bay.
The kit I bought came with clamps and a tool for easily tightening them down. Unfortunately it took me a few to figure out how tight I could go before the clamp would break so that was a learning process but overall I was very pleased with the finished look.
After that was back in and installed I did some maintenance related things: Changed the oil and filter, pulled the plugs and inspected/gapped them, and thoroughly cleaned the under side from oil and grease. The following day I took the car into town for a good wash and detail.
I am working on possibly ordering a new breather setup for my pcv system. The catch can I'm running on it currently is sort of a cheapo and is doing a lousy job at filtering out the fluids so I'm looking into something a little better. Also would like to get the car back to the tuner at some point and get a 93 pump gas tune made now that I have a flex fuel sensor in there.
Other then that the car is running great! Definitely looking forward to the upcoming season!
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