the one and only e30 s52 engine swap
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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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Hey! When you gonna help with my vanos?
Whenever, haven't figured out where the soft jaws and socket ended up...
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Got very little done Thursday because, life. Friday though......very productive indeed.
I think I spent half of Friday just getting the rear end out. Words can not describe how relieved I was when this thing finally broke free from the car.
Still working on disassembly of the trailing arms.
I should add that when the rear sub frame did finally come free with some gentle shaking, the subframe bushings ended up staying connected to the car instead of coming out. Simple enough...removed the rear seat, pulled out the long studs and knocked the bushings right off. Right side popped out just fine, as for the left.
snapped off flush with the hole. Still figuring out how I will go about removing this.
Transitioning over to the gas tank...
Out of the 6 bolts, 5 came out fairly well. As for the sixth one...fml
The nut completely rounded so I can no longer fit a socket on it. As of right now I am still stumped on removing the gas tank until I get this last nut out. Also contemplating on possibly ordering a new aftermarket tank as this one is in rough shape with multiple dents as usual.
I kind of make a mess when I'm ripping and tarring...
In between this fuss I was able to remove a few more things from the engine bay including the pretty much the rest of the A/C lines and condenser as well as some interior stuff.
Carpet is in rough shape. Recommendations for carpet restoration is always welcome.
Got a call from my machinist. Flywheel and cylinder head are done! went and picked them up that night. Very pleased with how both turned out overall.
Cylinder head received a valve job, decked, and magnafluxed. Sense I will be running a m20 single mass flywheel, I had him remove a 1/8 of an inch on the back side to clear the e34 oil pan.
Head gasket also arrived as well as a few things from bimmerworld...
Saturday I took a break from the car and its problems and started tinkering on the motor some more.
Still gotta get the cams torqued down so gonna work on that tonight. Hopefully I won't snap any of the threads out of the bearing cap stud holes when torquing them down, but we will see.
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For the stuck piece of the subframe sleeve you can try threading in a big lag bolt and see if that gives you enough bite and leverage to remove it, unlikely but still worth a try. If that doesn't work it's time for a small hole bit or a large drill bit and just hone out the aluminum. Wear eye protection, the small pieces fly around.
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