the one and only e30 s52 engine swap
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Thanks for all the feedback guys, I very much appreciate it.
Steering rack showed up today!
Like I said before, I picked it up off eBay. Payed $150 for it plus shipping. According to the seller its out of a 2000 non-m z3, unknown miles. Both tie rod assemblies are pretty much shot but that's fine cause I got a brand new pair of oem e30 tie rod assemblies sitting in a box anyways that I was gonna put on the old rack a while back.
Pulled the old tie rods off and spun the rack back and forth to see how she feels. This thing is gonna be awesome!
Also received a whole bunch of different size tech flex split loom rap today for my wiring. Hopefully will get a chance to work on that tomorrow or Friday.
Couple questions sway bar related
Do I need to grind down this tab so the blue spacer sits flat on the washer and sub frame bolt hole?
The rear sways aren't working out real nicely either. The way it is right now pretty much just maxes out the joint on the link and its adjusted to the smallest length it will go. The only way to fix this issue is to turn the U bracket the other direction of course. Well yets just say the trailing arm reinforcement doesn't really let you.
I'm thinking of probably welding the hole up on the U bracket and re drill it off-set so I can turn the U bracket the other direction and it lines up with the bolt hole on the reinforcement tab. Any one have similar troubles with this particular thing? I suppose a lot of you probably used the reinforcement triangles that came with the ST kit which in that case you would not have had this issue. Sigh...
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Yes, grind that peak so that the spacer sits flat.
I thought I remember having to use regular E36 tie rod ends on my rack swap... or was it E36 inner rods andE30 outers....I just remember that the Z3 rack does not have locking tab provisions foe the inner tie rods like the e30 and e36 rack do, so you just use loctite.
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Yes, grind that peak so that the spacer sits flat.
I thought I remember having to use regular E36 tie rod ends on my rack swap... or was it E36 inner rods andE30 outers....I just remember that the Z3 rack does not have locking tab provisions foe the inner tie rods like the e30 and e36 rack do, so you just use loctite.
I just looked quick and I think all you have to worry about is using the same for both inner and outer rods, so either inner and outer e36 or inner and outer e30.
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FWIW I think e36 outers are a tad thicker than e30 tierods
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Is that at full droop?
Should be setting the swaybar endlinks with the car on the ground
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Found this pic, I didn’t use the st reinforcements - can’t remember what you bought - but I think (??) I went with garagistic reinforcements. This is the orientation of my mount on the RTA
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FWIW I think e36 outers are a tad thicker than e30 tierods
I think you may be right. I actually have a set of worn out e36 tie rods from the m3 rack laying in the scrap bin so I'll dig them out when I get over there later on and do a comparison.
Is that at full droop?
Should be setting the swaybar endlinks with the car on the ground
Ya. I knew I wouldn't be able to adjust pre-load tell the car was on the ground. I just wanted to get the links bolted up.
Found this pic, I didn’t use the st reinforcements - can’t remember what you bought - but I think (??) I went with garagistic reinforcements. This is the orientation of my mount on the RTA
I am running the garagistic reinforcements. It looks like you are as well. Did the holes line up for you or did you have to do a little modifying? I think I may just try notching out the hole on the U-bracket so that it lines up correctly like yours and probably just fill any gap up with weld so there's no slop with the bolt.
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Gotcha on the links, just wanted to make sure there wasn’t preload on them in the air
Holes lined up after a touch of modifying if I remember correctly
I’m not at all surprised that something from garagistic needs to be modified
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Welp, looks like I won't be using the e30 tie rods after all.
E30 outer tie rod diameter... (measurement is slightly large because of the packaging)
Aaaand E36/z3 outer tie rod...
obviously that's quite the difference and it seems even larger when looking at them side by side. Threw e36 tie rods in the cart for my next order.
On the other hand got a few more small things finished up/fixed.
My rear sway bar links are looking better now.
Went ahead and slotted the hole out with a tungsten/carbide rotary bit till the U-bracket hole lined up and faced the correct direction. Worked like a charm and sense its tight againest the reinforcement it won't slide anywhere and no welding will be necessary.
Also got around to grinding down the tab that was in the way for the front sway bar bracket. After grinding it down I touched up the exposed metal with por-15.
Also finished up stripping the blue paint off the oil pan. Before installing I did go ahead and replace the oil pan gasket and applyed rtv to both sides. All 25 Bolts cleaned up and torqued to 89 in lbs.
Clutch kit and flywheel ordered. Hoping to get some time tomorrow to go over to the shop and take the pressure washer to the transmission housing and get it cleaned up a bit more.
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Clutch kit and flywheel ordered. Hoping to get some time tomorrow to go over to the shop and take the pressure washer to the transmission housing and get it cleaned up a bit more.
What did you end up going with?
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What did you end up going with?
I went with a kit from gripforce. The kit includes a lightweight billet aluminum flywheel (10.6 lbs I believe) and a stage 2 sprung hub clutch disk and pressure plate rated for 342 ft/lbs of torque.
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I went with a kit from gripforce. The kit includes a lightweight billet aluminum flywheel (10.6 lbs I believe) and a stage 2 sprung hub clutch disk and pressure plate rated for 342 ft/lbs of torque.
If it comes with a pilot bearing and throw out bearing, toss them in the trash and never look at them again - go OEM for those parts
Good time to replace the pivot pin on the clutch fork as well
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Update...
Did a few little things while waiting for parts to show up.
Swapped out connectors on the engine harness. After ciphering through a good amount of shitty pin out charts I located one from mega-squirt that literately couldn't have been more helpful. link below for others:
http://www.megasquirt.325ix.com/MS_to_Motronic/C101 to X20.html
Used a c101 connector off I snatched off an e30 at Gibson's salvage yard.
Only wire I had a little confusion but I think I got right was pin #20 abs relay wire. After some digging I found the popular choice was to wire it back on to pin# 6 which is a switched power wire on a 15 amp fuse. Only extra wires I did not hook up was pin # 2, #10, and #16. 2 and 10 are oil level sensors for the m20 and don't even exist on the 318is c101 connector and #16 is airbag related which of course will be unneeded as I removed the entire airbag system in the car. As for all the wires I did not hookup on both sides, I shrink rapped the ends of each one to avoid any hot wires short circuiting with each other.
Once the connector was complete I started cleaning up the harness and wrapping split loom around everything. Haven't finished the harness yet as I need to pickup some better electrical tape then the junk I have.
Also was able to snatch up a pigtail for the diff sensor at the salvage yard. Soldered in the wires, covered it with shrink rap and split loom, good to go. The wire or tab that held the sensor were broke and I wanted to be original so I did something a bit more creative with it
. (notice I used blue zip ties to go a long with the powder-coated pieces.)
Went ahead and started dissembling the injectors for a rebuild. Purchased a kit on amazon coming with all the filters and o rings needed to refurbish them. Used a wood screw to pull out the old filters...
As some of the injectors had some minor surface rust and the paint was wearing off the only right thing to do was to put a fresh coat of paint on them. I did apply a light coat of primer before the paint.
Finally got myself a brake booster that was much needed. Picked it up out of a salvage yard in fond du lac (diamond auto parts). The booster is from a 86 Porsche 944 turbo and I was very pleased with the condition of it.
As it did have some surface rust and what not I got to repainting that as well... A lot of bare metal was showing after I went at it with a wire wheel and scotch brite so I threw on a coat of primer first. Gonna head over and throw a coat of flat black paint on it in a bit. Injectors should be dry by now and ready to be installed.
As that was drying I dissambled all the shifting linkages off the trans and took the pressure washer to it one more time to see if I can't get any more grim off. I was very unsuccessful.
After a half hour of 3500 psi of water on a 0 degree tip I gave up, shit ain't comin off. Blew the thing off with a air hose and put in some fresh trans oil. Quick tip: I used MT-90 as it is recommended to be used on all getrag trans with a green tag. If yours is not green taged it is recommended to stick with redline MTL.
Quick question: On this particular trans, it came with a harmonic dampener on the flange. This was in particular is not like the one's where the dampener is on the driveshaft that I'm familiar with. Was gonna remove it but I failed miserably as none of my sockets would fit correctly. I'm thinking I'm probably just gonna keep it, any reason to be rid of it?
Received some headers in the mail from amazon the other day. Pretty cheap ones but should do the job well.
Plan is to ceramic coat them so the following day I threw them in the blasting cabinet.
I will be using the ceramic coating from eastwood (same stuff @snap used) which should hopefully be here in the next day or so.
Clutch kit showed up! as well as many other things greatly needed to get this car a few steps closer to being finished.
Parts above:
Gribforce clutch kit with aluminum flywheel
CSS clutch line
Oem control arms
Oem E36 tie rod assembly's
Oem tie rod boots
2 liters of ate typ 200 dot 4 brake fluid
oem clutch fork pivot
oem clutch release arm spring
oem throw-out bearing
oem pilot bearing
2nd bosch knock sensor
2 oem grommets for brake master cylinder reservoir
vdo oil pressure gauge I picked up on r3v
custom ashtray gauge pod a friend of mine designed and cut out for me (will be wrapping it with oem vinyl)
1 lb of black nylon flocking fibers
Stuff hoping to see in the next day or so:
IE front adjustable sway bar links
IE poly steering coupler bushing
eastwood ceramic coating
UUC EVO III short shifter
Right away I ripped open the clutch kit and did what needed to be done.
Now that that's done, on to the next thing of business... steering rack.
Applied red loctite to threads before tightening and applied some grease around the inner tie rod joint before installing the boots.
I was so very pleased with the gauge pod my buddy made for me I feel a need to post a more justified pic of it.
As u may of noticed above I did end up getting the UUC shifter. After looking around a bit I noticed a guy selling one hardly used and in nice shape for less then half of what they are new also including the aluminum shifter carrier and a weighted shifter . It was posted as an auction so for my very first time I played the bidding game and Won! For only about 5 dollars more then the starting price. Hopefully gonna be seeing it here sometime Friday.
Got myself a lot on my plate to get installed. Plan is to start getting the rear end assembled and get the trans and harness installed on the motor this weekend.
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Nice trash pic Lol!Â
Might want to test fit those headers in the car before going through all the ceramic coating. They will most likely need some coaxing with a hammer to clear the subframe/engine mount. Might have to widen out the flange holes as well
awesome progress!
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Also use OEM gaskets on the headers if you can.  The ones they provide will probably leak after 1000 miles.Â
Cant remember if you bought exhaust studs yet, but I think(?) people buy n54 because they have an Allen on the end for easy install (no two nut method, unless you’re into that)
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For the trans dampener you have to remove the output flange with a thin wall 30mm socket **after removing the lock plate** around the flange nut. Most guys just grind down a cheaper impact socket but you also need a good impact too.
TLDR it’s a pain, so leave it if it’s fine.
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Looks like you need boost.
Just sayin' -
Are those harness wire connections just twisted together and heat shrinked? I am breaking up with my soldering iron because I have discovered the joy of a properly installed crimp connector. I spend way too much time soldering things.Â
The o2 bungs on those headers are worthless so dont toss the plugs that come with them. I didnt really have too much issue with fitment. The engine mount arm I have has already been clearancedfor the header and I just had to compress the relatively soft heat shielding material on the firewall where it bends down into the floorpan.
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Nice trash pic Lol!Â
Might want to test fit those headers in the car before going through all the ceramic coating. They will most likely need some coaxing with a hammer to clear the subframe/engine mount. Might have to widen out the flange holes as well
awesome progress!
Thanks for the tip! I will take a look at that
Also use OEM gaskets on the headers if you can.  The ones they provide will probably leak after 1000 miles.Â
Cant remember if you bought exhaust studs yet, but I think(?) people buy n54 because they have an Allen on the end for easy install (no two nut method, unless you’re into that)
Shit! that sucks. When I sold the exhaust manifolds to a guy last week I gave him the oem gaskets I had purchased for these headers as well sense I saw that they came with new ones already. Live and learn.
I did go ahead and use the n54 exhaust studs, I very much like the torque head on the end to tighten them in, lots of time is saved going that route for sure.
For the trans dampener you have to remove the output flange with a thin wall 30mm socket **after removing the lock plate** around the flange nut. Most guys just grind down a cheaper impact socket but you also need a good impact too.
TLDR it’s a pain, so leave it if it’s fine.Â
Like u said I noticed that I would probably have to modify a socket to get it off. Seems like a pita so I'm just gonna leave her on there.
Are those harness wire connections just twisted together and heat shrinked? I am breaking up with my soldering iron because I have discovered the joy of a properly installed crimp connector. I spend way too much time soldering things.Â
The o2 bungs on those headers are worthless so dont toss the plugs that come with them. I didnt really have too much issue with fitment. The engine mount arm I have has already been clearancedfor the header and I just had to compress the relatively soft heat shielding material on the firewall where it bends down into the floorpan.Â
Yup I just twisted the wires tightly, helps if you have longerish thumb nails to get them really tightened together. I use to have a really cheapy soldering iron that barely got hot enough to melt the solder, made me hate soldering tell I finally invested in a better one that I couldn't be happier with and it makes soldering very quick and painless. I have used the crimp connects as well on other applications and I don't mind them but for the little extra time it takes for the soldering and shrink tube I think its worth it cause IMO they seem to hold up much better.
Couple more things showed up at the old doorstep dis mornin...
Also got around to finishing up with the injectors and getting them reassembled. Before reinstalling them I want to run some injector cleaner through them to make sure they are working properly.
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