the one and only e30 s52 engine swap

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!

AsparagusMike

Sorry for the late update. Spent the whole last week in Arizona enjoying the beautiful warm weather. Before I left I was able to finish up a couple things.

After getting my timing cover gaskets in the mail as well as many other parts needed for the motor I got the timing cover back on and gave the upper timing chain tensioner bolt another shot at redemption... Success acheived

Not to long after, my buddy showed up and went at it finishing welding the reinforcement on the rest of the subframe pieces...

That was about it until I got back this last weekend. The following morning woke up, ate some asparagus, and began tearing apart the steering rack for rebuild...

Once it was dissembled, threw it in the wash tank for a good 2 hours for a thorough cleaning.

Would have the rack already back together by now but I have been struggling and struggling to get the last main seal in the middle of the rack housing out but nothing seems to be working.

So far I have tried removing the seal with a bushing remover kit which ended real quick as it seemed I was stuck in between two different sizes that was either to small or to big to grab the seal. Tried using a wooden dowel as well as a long thin punch and screwdriver which only got me breaking off the plastic molding pieces behind the bushing that are suppose to come out with it and be replaced.

That was pretty much all I had for an edge to tap on. Now it seems anything I try to tap on the back of the bushing slips off. At this point I am pretty much stumped and took a break from the whole thing for a bit so I don't lose my mind.

On the up side... bushings showed up!

As for other things accomplished... designed up a new gas pedal bracket today to replace the unsalvageable rusty old one. Checked it on the pedal itself to verify proper fit and then welded her into place at the same location as the original.

Between school and work lately it has been hard to get over to the shop and get anything done. Hoping to get a break this weekend and crank out a few things.

Things up next on the agenda include...

Get the holes for the alignment cams on the rear sub frame opened up to the same shape as the brackets installed.
There are three more small holes ate through by rust that need to be cut out and welded.
Once the above two are completed, POR-15 everything.
Work on getting the seal out of the rack
Start working on getting the carpet cleaned up.
Make up new brake and fuel hard lines to be installed as well as ordering the brackets which I seemed to have forgotten about getting on the last order.
Continue to work on getting the seal out of the rack
Begin working on cleaning up the gas tank.
Throw steering rack away and buy a re manufactured one like I should have in the first place instead of fucking around with this one.

B C

I wasnt aware some of those reinforcements existed, I only have a few of those. What is your spring and damper situation?

WIBIMMERS

the one and only e30 s52 engine swap