the one and only e30 s52 engine swap
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Don’t forget the cam sensor o ring
New valve cover rubber grommet things are also nice. Old ones are usually rock hard
FWIW I ordered beisan systems stuff as well for the vanos
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So the other day I was experiencing some issues cleaning my ps pump. Brake cleaner just wasn't cutting it.
As I have the availability to a good parts cleaner I decided I would take advantage and just rebuild the whole unit at the same time.
New rebuild kit on the way, got the pump all dissembled last night...
All in all the disassembly was fairly easy. One thing that did give me shit was the little snap ring that held the shaft into the casing. Took 2 pricked fingers and a small flat head partly up my finger nail to get it out.
Luckily the refresh kit does come with a new ring as I did end up slightly bending this one to get it out.
Things also ordered and on the way: All needed Sensors, aluminum water pump pulley, and some misc. sensor o rings. Also received my vanos seals the other day, gonna try to get to rebuilding it this weekend possibly but the rush isn't to large as I am still waiting on my frickin cylinder head to get back!
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Motor is no longer in the basement!
So the shop is now ready to go for the winter project. I decided that its time the motor comes out of the basement before it gains any more weight. No plan was made prior to this attempt. Simply called a friend up telling him I needed a hand with something for 10 minutes. Half hour later he showed up and we carried the thing right up the stairs. Now I'm not gonna say it was a piece of cake cause it honestly wasn't. It was still very heavy and trying to handle it while walking up the stairs backwards was as bad as it sounds. All I can say is that I'm really REALLY glad that the head was not on that thing. Not sure we would have gotten it up the stairs if it had been.
As for the cylinder head, I talked with my machinist and he has been swamped with work lately and was confident that he was gonna get my head done by the end of this week so we will see.
Brought the car over this last Friday!
\\Saturday I had other items to attend to but luckily I got all that stuff finished and out of the way.
This morning had a tasty breakfast and headed on over to the shop to begin tear down...
Got a pretty decent chunk of stuff done today. Almost have everything on the motor disconnected from the car except for the A/C lines and shifter linkages from the transmission underneath. I would have been able to get to the A/C today but the system still has refrigerant in it. I did talk to one of my buddy's dad on the phone today who's in HVAC and he's gonna find out tomorrow if they have a refrigerant recovery system around their shop and get back to me. As for everything else, the car seems to be looking good so far. Everything except for this...
Had to disconnect the ecu from the engine harness so Idiot me decided that I would remove the hangers from the glove box before disconnecting it from the hinge in the back. Well, when I did the box hit the floor and I heard a snap as it completely broke of the hinge. Looks like I'll be looking for another glove box.
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Glad you were able to get it out of the basement!
I have an extra glove box in good shape if you're interested.
I'll keep that in mind. Thx!
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Mike, bad news. I have mentally associated your username with your profile photo to the point where I think you are a 13 year old kid. So every update leaves me imagining a middle schooler wrenching on an S52.
Hopefully a different pic will help cure you from these absurd images.
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4 bangers...be gone!
Rack is out as well. Struggled for a while trying to get the shaft + u joint disconnected but she wouldn't budge. I'll Mess around with it some more tomorrow. May also have a lead on a 98 m3 steering rack for a decent price, not gonna get my hopes up though.
Few more parts showed up today for the motor. N54 exhaust studs and nuts, exhaust manifold gaskets, NGK iridium spark plugs, oem belt, valve cover grommets, intake gaskets, vanos gasket, and a few other little things.
Hoping to get the front and rear sub frames off and the rest of the suspension out tomorrow and Friday as well as the rest of the ac lines and condenser removed. More updates to come!
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Having dicked around with the steering system a bit too much, here are some of my lessons learned for dealing with the steering joint.
Drill out rivets and replace steering flex disk with new unit using the replacement BMW "Fit bolts" (higher precision shoulder bolts, wave washers, and oval lock nuts)., urethane versions are also available from Revshift and others. This will allow you to separate the steering joint for ease of install/removal.
installing the steering joint pieces first, then bolting up the flex disk seems to be the easiest way to go about it.
Wedge a screwdriver into the slot to help split the collar to help with install/removal.
Make sure you take note of the way the steering joint is on the rack right now as the splines are different between the rack and the steering shaft. This is more obvious when the engine is out but far less obvious and prone to wrecking the steering joint splines when in a dark garage under the car with the engine in place/
Apply a little bit of grease to the splines
If you install an E36 rack you will need to grind the steering shaft opening in the firewall a bit larger
The 32mm collar nut that retains the steering shaft halves together under the dashboard needs to be VERY snug to avoid having a light clunk/thud in the steering. You may want to use blue loctite on the threads because it can loosen up a tad over time.
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Drill out rivets and replace steering flex disk with new unit using the replacement BMW "Fit bolts" (higher precision shoulder bolts, wave washers, and oval lock nuts)., urethane versions are also available from Revshift and others. This will allow you to separate the steering joint for ease of install/removal.
This is brilliant. Why have I not thought of this before. I'm doing that this winter.
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May also have a lead on a 98 m3 steering rack for a decent price, not gonna get my hopes up though.
The 96+ M3 rack will be an upgrade over the stock unit, but it's not much different than the standard e36 rack so a price premium isn't worth it. The actual ratio is the same, but its travel is limited due to the M3's geometry (Hence 3.2 vs 3.4 turns lock to lock, same ratio just less travel).
https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=172261
I have a non-m Z3 rack in my car, and it is hands down my favorite thing I've done to it so far. The liner rate is amazing, it's really not touchy on the freeway like some people say. You can find a low mileage Z3 rack for under $200 pretty easily. You can tell it's the short ratio/linear rack because of the plated steel body as opposed to being entirely cast aluminum, though you should probably verify the part numbers on realoem in case they were swapped at some point:
These don't have a ton of information but you could get the part number or pictures from the sellers to confirm, both cars would've come with the 2.8 turn linear rack:
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Damn you joe
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Damn you joe
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The 96+ M3 rack will be an upgrade over the stock unit, but it's not much different than the standard e36 rack so a price premium isn't worth it. The actual ratio is the same, but its travel is limited due to the M3's geometry (Hence 3.2 vs 3.4 turns lock to lock, same ratio just less travel).
Well, the guy only wants 50 bucks for the 98 m3 rack so I thought that was a pretty good deal for a e36 rack. I knew the e36 non-m and m racks were pretty much the same ratio, its just what the guy had sitting in his garage. If this deal ends up falling through then I'll look into the z3 rack. To be honest, I actually thought z3 racks went for 250-300 bucks, so under 200 bucks for a z3 rack is big news to me. Or maybe its just all that r3vlimited brain washing me into thinking that every part is worth double its value.
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Upgrading racks, 10/10 worth it.
Makes the car a joy to drive. -
Well, the guy only wants 50 bucks for the 98 m3 rack so I thought that was a pretty good deal for a e36 rack. I knew the e36 non-m and m racks were pretty much the same ratio, its just what the guy had sitting in his garage. If this deal ends up falling through then I'll look into the z3 rack. To be honest, I actually thought z3 racks went for 250-300 bucks, so under 200 bucks for a z3 rack is big news to me. Or maybe its just all that r3vlimited brain washing me into thinking that every part is worth double its value.
They typically go for 250-300 when people know what they are, aka r3vlimited/bimmerforums/etc. Junkyards and people parting out cars who don't know anything about BMW's will list them on ebay without doing much research and just slap a generic price on them, you just have to watch ebay and you can get a good deal. Make sure you get pictures of the rack/part numbers before you buy obviously, they can be swapped with normal e36 racks if the previous owner was being cheap.
$50 seems like a decent deal for a good condition e36 rack, and once the work is done with the swap it would be easy to upgrade down the road too since they are a direct swap.
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BTW, if you want to get rid of that dusty old M42, I know a guy...
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I have read that the M rack is progressive rate (slower on center for better high speed stability) but that could be hogwash
You're right! My understanding is that the only linear rate racks are the non-m Z3 and the e46 ZHP
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Upgrading racks, 10/10 worth it.
Makes the car a joy to drive.Hey! When you gonna help with my vanos?
BTW, if you want to get rid of that dusty old M42, I know a guy...
Let me know, I have no plans of keeping it.
I have read that the M rack is progressive rate (slower on center for better high speed stability) but that could be hogwash
Yes all e36 racks, m and non-m are progressive rate except the 95 M3 rack which is even slower in the center of the rack and has less overall travel than the regular E36 rack, aka...shit.
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