the one and only e30 s52 engine swap

[Earl]

You can buy those HVAC gaskets new from the dealer. Check realoem.com for the part number

[Daggerty]

@straight6pwr bought a carpet from stockinteriors.com or a similar site. 

He could tell you what the pros cons are of it.

[stealthbimmer]

Told ya, those extractors are a life saver. Lookin good

[Jdesign]

So many pictars. Keep it up man this thread is great.

[GunMetalGrey]

You're really digging into this thing! 

You are going to love the feel of the brake pedal after swapping all of the lines. While you are at it make sure to replace the soft brake lines, and may as well replace all of the hardlines (trailing arm lines etc.)

Keep up the good work! 

I'll dig for the vanos tools sometime this week, should be able to get out to the shop.

[straight6pwr]

Daggerty said:

@straight6pwr bought a carpet from stockinteriors.com or a similar site. 

He could tell you what the pros cons are of it.

pros:

• color choices
• lightweight
• synthetic material so better stain resistance
• cheap, relative to new OEM carpet

cons:

• fit is not great
• takes a bit of effort to install
• more cabin noise than stock

basically, if your carpet could be R&R'd back to good condition, I wouldnt bother with an aftermarket replacement. mine was ripped and smelled awful from water intrusion.

[AsparagusMike]

straight6pwr said:

pros:

• color choices
• lightweight
• synthetic material so better stain resistance
• cheap, relative to new OEM carpet

cons:

• fit is not great
• takes a bit of effort to install
• more cabin noise than stock

basically, if your carpet could be R&R'd back to good condition, I wouldnt bother with an aftermarket replacement. mine was ripped and smelled awful from water intrusion.

Thx for the info! Hopefully the original cleans up well.

Earl said:

You can buy those HVAC gaskets new from the dealer. Check realoem.com for the part number

Got the part number. Called up the dealer, 35 dollars for a piece of foam. Ya, no.

KaiserRolls said:

Awesome progress!
As far as the purge valve stuff goes, I let that line vent to atmosphere & have the purge valve still connected to the harness, just let that hang out wherever

That's exactly what I want to do. Thanks for confirming it.

[Earl]

I mean $34 sounds more than fair for what it is lol. I replaced the one in my compact new and it was painless. I think being such a funky shape, it'd take a while to try and get a piece of strip to apply nicely.

[B C]

For the charcoal canister, I will see if I can cut the line back closer to the fuel tank then install an inline fuel filter just to allow it to breathe but not allow dirt in. I will post more once I get there

[jc43089]

Snap said:

For the charcoal canister, I will see if I can cut the line back closer to the fuel tank then install an inline fuel filter just to allow it to breathe but not allow dirt in. I will post more once I get there

That will stink, literally, anytime the car is parked and the temperature increases you will smell gas.  Maybe I missed something?  Why are we not connecting charcoal canisters?  There are aftermarket universal ones for cheap if the original is broken.

[B C]

jc43089 said:

That will stink, literally, anytime the car is parked and the temperature increases you will smell gas.  Maybe I missed something?  Why are we not connecting charcoal canisters?  There are aftermarket universal ones for cheap if the original is broken. 

I wanted to keep it but I already had to relocate it 2 "above the stock E30 location in order to clear the E36 engine mount arms. Now the top of it hits the master cylinder. I will proceed with removing it as planned but if I can find a suitable smaller replacement then I will consider it.

[KaiserRolls]

FWIW I don’t smell gas

[GunMetalGrey]

I had my tank vent through a small filter and had a small line going towards the ground right by the fuel tank. I had removed all of the stock hardline and canister stuff. 
Never smelled gas, never had the car start on fire.

[Bassboy3313]

I've never smelled gas from my canister removal. Only when the fuel rail line leaked. 

[AsparagusMike]

I'll start off right away by saying that dash repair, is not as easy as it seems. I spent right around 8 hours total body filling and sanding the shit out of this thing. Many times I came upon more small cracks I hadn't noticed before and had to go back and open them up and fix em.  All in all it ended up turning out really great and I couldn't be more pleased.

The dash flocking was pretty straight forward as there is a pretty well written instructions that comes with the kit. I would say the one and only struggle about the hole process was the amount of time I had to get it done. You get 15 minutes total to get the black undercoat and the fibers on. Luckily I had a friend help me with the painting and so it took us about 10 minutes to get the painting done and the last few minutes to frantically get the fibers blown on before the undercoat dried. I went overboard with the fibers as the kit advises u to in order to cover all the areas. The cure takes about 15 - 17 hours before u can shake the excess fibers off and another 72 hours to a week before u can install it back in the car.

We'll see how she looks tomorrow once I shake it off.

On another note, got the driver side rust hole fixed up, 16 gauge worked so much better and welded up with little issue.

Subframes and trailing arms back from blasting!

Reinforcement time...

Front subframe all welded up before calling it quits tonight. All credit goes to my buddy Forrest and his master skills with a tig welder...

Gonna help finish up the reinforcement welding tomorrow as well as two other small rust holes on the passenger side that need to be cut out and welded up. Also praying that my parts show up from fcp so that I can get the timing cover back on the motor. Was suppose to get a few parts I was having powder coated back about week ago but it seems that their oven broke down and was unable to get it back up and running tell about a day ago, so once again, I wait.

[m42b32]

Dang, you're making the rest of us look bad with all this progress!

[B C]

m42b32 said:

Dang, you're making the rest of us look bad with all this progress!

All that healthy asparagus eatin'

[Boris3]

Man I've got to learn how to weld.  Nice job!

[jc43089]

Looks good!

[Jdesign]

Looks awesome, much congrats on tons of progress. Please take some nice close ups of that dash when its ready to go back into the car!