the one and only e30 s52 engine swap

[Boris3]

AsparagusMike said:

Well hopefully find my way into doing some auto-x/track events as well as enjoying it occasionally on the weekends driving around to meets and what not. On what I've read up and researched, people that have done the conversion say that when tracking the car the brakes are quite a bit better over the stock calipers with the same pads and the longevity of the pad life increases substantially. Also, the conversion itself is so so simple and inexpensive that I almost feel its worth giving it a try.

Maybe try the autox/track events first with the car to see if you need the upgrade? You won't for street driving and unlikely for parking lot autox. Once you get more comfortable with the car and learn how to be faster with it on the track you might. For an e30 the combination of brake lines and hoses in good shape, stock blanks, high temp fluid (ATE, Motul) and brakes properly bled, race pads (PFC 08/11, Hawks HT-10 or DTC 60/70), sticky tires, and proper braking technique go a long way. With the above the only stopping issues on track I've had are when I've overcooked a corner by going in way too deep with too much speed before braking, or when a car in front of me dumped fluids/oil.

[AsparagusMike]

Alright, for now I'll stick with the e30 calipers, invest in better pads and rotors, and upgrade later if needed. I am considering of still switching over to a master cylinder from a e32 750i as it is said to have a stiffer feel from the pedal.

So, originally I had planned to rebuild my own calipers but now that I look at what it costs to buy a reman'd one, I might as well go that route. Is there any reason I should switch over to the ate calipers vs. sticking with the girling? I understand that with the brass bushings they are suppose to have a better feel... any experiences with those as well?

[B C]

The master cylinders and calipers are paired together. You can mix and match, but your mechanical advantage may not be what its supposed to be. There is no reason to switch to the ATE and brass slide bushings in my opinion. this is a good resource if you havent already come across it

http://www.massivebrakes.com/

[KaiserRolls]

If you go with brass, keep up with cleaning them so they don’t bind.

[P_Roloff]

Can’t comment on the ATE calipers, but I bought rebuilt rear girling calipers from centric last year after snapping a bleed screw and I have nothing bad to say about them, they seem to be pretty good value for the money. If you care about how they look, make sure to get paint on them ASAP, they start to get surface rust pretty quickly.

[Boris3]

Snap said:

The master cylinders and calipers are paired together. You can mix and match, but your mechanical advantage may not be what its supposed to be. There is no reason to switch to the ATE and brass slide bushings in my opinion. this is a good resource if you havent already come across it

http://www.massivebrakes.com/

There was a buzz for a while in the E30 racing community about switching from the Girling fronts to the ATE fronts with the brass bushings but this is low on the mod scale say compared to brake ducting kits. The advantage was supposedly better braking due to even pad wear throughout the life of the pad rather than the tapering which can happen with the Girling's rubber bushings in heavy track use.  Not really worth the cost or the additional maintenance like KaiserRolls noted. Like Snap said put your money elsewhere. Good indication of current interest is that there's a guy on R3V that's been trying to sell the ATE caliper/bushing combo for over a year with multiple price drops and no takers. 

Rebuild kits for calipers are cheap and the rebuild process is not hard if all the metal bits are in good shape, no stuck broken bleeders etc. Like P_Roloff I've also had good luck with remanufactured Centric rear calipers.  I got my rebuilt rear ATEs from ECS Tuning.

[AsparagusMike]

Chassis pieces finished... finally

The fact I had to paint one side at a time on each piece was probably the biggest time killer, as well as the fact that I put three coats on each side. I'm really happy how it turned out though, originally the plan was to get them powder coated but the cost wasn't worth it IMO and after looking at how well por-15 turned out on other people's vehicles and the fact that it prevents the pieces from anymore rust, I had to give it a try.

Painted the rear dust shields and push rods in por-15 while I was at it...

Got around to putting in the new bearings tonight as well as the dust shields.

Probably put the hubs in on Wednesday, forgot got to blast the small brackets for the e brake cables at the same time as the calipers and its much easier installing them before the hubs are on. Gonna try to get around to doing that tomorrow and then throw a bit of por-15 on em to keep them in good shape. Spent a little time tonight cleaning up the hubs...

Finished up repairing the last few rust holes on the passenger side floor panel/drive line tunnel. The two circle holes were locations where there were stud screws originally, It had gotten to the point where there were all these small little holes around them from the rust eating through so the only real fix was to cut it out and weld in new. Still gotta spend some time smoothing everything out better before paint.

While letting the subframes dry I killed some time by pulling apart the flex disc from the swivel joint. Rivets were kind of a pain in the ass as they took a little force to punch out after cutting the top off. Once removed spent a little time cleaning up the corrosion and making it shiny with a Roloc disc and some brake clean. Thinking I might go with the poly flex disc from IE. The price is cheaper then the oem rubber one and it comes with all the hardware needed for installation.

Rear calipers are dissembled and blasted. Will be putting the new seals in tomorrow.

So went back to messing with the car and noticed that I will be unable to reuse the floor pan plug. After doing a little research it doesn't seem those are replaceable so It looks like the only fix is to weld the hole shut.

Will have to wire wheel the por-15 I just put on it back off now...

Besides that everything seems to be coming along alright. Haven't started on the gas tank at all yet. Got all excited cause I saw a new e30 gas tank for sale near me on Facebook. The dude originally payed over 300 for it and only wanted 90 bucks, immediately sent him a message for availability and sure enough, he sold it. On another note, look at the beautiful flocked dash!

[Earl]

I think a coat of black paint before flocking may have helped eliminate that but otherwise it looks nice Good progress on everything

[B C]

You do nice work

[Jdesign]

POR15.  I haven't used that stuff in a long time but its awesome. Looking good man!

[YoungCR]

Great work!

[KaiserRolls]

Jdesign said:

POR15.  I haven't used that stuff in a long time but its awesome. Looking good man!

It’s awesome

[GunMetalGrey]

Jdesign said:

PEN15.  I haven't used that stuff in a long time but its awesome.

Fixed that for ya

[Bassboy3313]

KBS FTW!!!!!!!

[AsparagusMike]

Earl said:

I think a coat of black paint before flocking may have helped eliminate that but otherwise it looks nice Good progress on everything

I suppose but its a little late for that now and honestly I think it looks like shit. So I'm down to three options now, get another kit and redo the dash (try Earl's paint first method), try something different like a vinyl wrap, or forget about it all and just go find a crack free dash and pay out the ass (which could also take sometime to source). Right now the plan is giving "just flock it" a call Friday to figure things out. According to their website they state and I quote, "Flock IT! ensures a quick turnaround of orders, quality products, and 100% satisfaction."

As for further progress on other tings. Tuesday got the calipers reassembled with all new oem seals as well as getting the e-brake brackets blasted and painted...

Was able to make it over to the shop later today and get the painted brackets installed and the hubs pressed in. Once that was completed I started on pressing in the subframe bushings. Took time to make sure there was plenty of lube on them so that they function quietly, I know it only lasts for maybe a year before they become dry and start squeaking but I read somewhere that sil-glyde (which I use a lot on caliper guide pins and works awesome!) seems to keep them quiet the longest, so that's what I used.

Here's my sloppy mess...

Used a c-clamp with a socket on the end to press them in

And for the trailing arms

Voilà..

Had to do a little modifying of the subframe bushings in order to clear the eccentric hardware nuts and so that a wrench can fit up in there to loosen and adjust during alignment.

Up next... fuel lines, brake lines, gas tank.

[stealthbimmer]

AsparagusMike said:

 go find a crack free dash and pay out the ass (which could also take sometime to source)

There is a  crack free one for sale on FB up in Minocqua.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/183905868629577/permalink/565800997106727/?sale_post_id=565800997106727

[AsparagusMike]

Ugh... that looks like a good one too. The only problem is the fact that it's in woodruff and the only time I could make a drive like that would be next weekend Saturday, doubt it'll still be available by then.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Jdesign]

Ask him if you can paypal him to hold it or meet you closer.

[GunMetalGrey]

Yeah no kidding, woodruff is quite far away! 
Sucks that the white shows through the flocking. Looks nice other than that!

[AsparagusMike]

So just got off the phone with "just flock it". According to the lady I talked to its not uncommon for people to flock their dash twice in order to cover everything completely. They said to simply paint right over what i have on there. I do have enough paint glue from them to cover the dash again but not enough fibers, I would have to order more fibers which will run me another 42 dollars. I should also add that she can't confirm this will work to solve the bondo seeing through issue, its just what other people swear by doing. So now I'm down to two choices... Possibly keep digging myself a grave flocking the dash again not knowing if its gonna work or see if I can get my hands on this crack free one in wood ruff.