Newbie in Madison -- fell off the wagon again
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Hi,
Had given up on car projects for several years but the e30 drew me back in. The plan from the beginning was to pick a small car chassis that was proven to accept a v8 swap, looks and handles well, has good support, can fit a tall driver and preferably had a back seat. Z-cars, 240sx, Miata, etc. were considered... the e30 and e36 had the best combination. End goal is a fun, 3-season street car and something to get me back into autoX and occasional high speed event (just for fun though -- car would be uncompetitive in its modified classification).
I picked up a pretty clean, southern, bronzit 2-door 87 325e about 1.5 years ago pretty cheap. It was not running and the auto trans was likely smoked from being tow dolly-ed it from SC to WI. The car was otherwise destined for the scrap yard, so I felt a little better about my plans for molesting it.
Working with a relative's shop, we've added a MegaSquirt-controlled, single-turbo 302 with aluminum heads, EDIS and a massaged-in FMIC. I am using a WC t5, which is likely weak link that will need to be minded w/r/t driving style. Fuel, cooling and exhaust have been upgraded.
It has been a casual build as the shop is a couple hours from me and family/work/travel make wrenching a once-a-month kinda thing. I benefit from a bro-in-law who has done quite a number of different swaps and is handy with the wring and MegaSquirt. The car is running but is in the tuning and clean-up stage. Idle is still rough so we have some troubleshooting to do. Suspension, brakes, wheels/tires will be addressed once it is driving.
I am excited to find an active WI forum here. However, I know the non-BMW engine swaps are met with negativity in some forums. Feel free to give me the heads up if my forum participation is unwelcome. Otherwise, I look forward to meeting and learning from the wibimmers community.
I could use a decent left front fender, lower front air dam, simple side skirts, sun roof crank handle and glovebox. Naturally, bronzit body parts are preferred.
Thanks all!
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welcome!
in for pics
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Just a test pic. This was bringing it home... sitting outside the A&W in the Kenosha-Racine area. Ah... many moons (and dollars) ago.
More to come. I have to organize my pictures into one place. Thanks for the welcoming words.
Taurus skirts, really? Which year/body style?
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Crank-y said:
I am excited to find an active WI forum here. However, I know the non-BMW engine swaps are met with negativity in some forums. Feel free to give me the heads up if my forum participation is unwelcome. Otherwise, I look forward to meeting and learning from the wibimmers community.
All are welcome
We have a couple members that don't even drive bimmers but just like the company! We're a crazy bunch so we hope you get along with us 
. Hope to see you at the Madison meet thats being planned. -
Heads resurfaced, crank turned, block and bores cleaned up.
Pan from Matt at e36v8 modified to include an internal baffle and a dipstick and turbo oil return bung. Had to modify the rec. oil pick-up tube to fit this pan. Added a windage tray and upgraded oil pump. ARP hardware.
Mostly assembled engine awaiting last bits and trans (5.0L e36 track car in background). Fairly stock rebuild specs... planning for lower boost and reasonable RPMs. If all goes well, a hot rod short block will be built up in the future. This was spring of '12 by this point.
This is my kiddo disassembling T5 #1 (which ended up being junk).
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Reinforced the motor mounting point (painted it later). Massaged the firewall and tunnel in a few spots and then started testfitting.
We ended up cutting and adjusting the motor mount adapters provided by Matt (E30v8.com/e36v8.com) to get the engine position a little better. Also added a couple gussets to each for a little more strength (piece of mind... and we had the welder out anyway). The first test fits were used to understand how much room might be available for the turbo on the passenger side and fans/radiator.
For the radiator, the first one I selected fit OK but was a bit small. I found this big 3-row, all-welded aluminum radiator at Summit. It fit with a little massaging of the framerails, modifying the inlet/outlet and repositioning of the lower supports further down on the backside of the radiator core support. By using the Explorer accessory brackets, as suggested by Matt, there is nice room between the nose of the water pump and the radiator. Without fans it actually looks roomy.
For the turbo, things were going to be tighter than desired. Although the monster turbo in the picture wasn't to be used, it was still clear that there would be minimal room between a blazing hot turbine and the alternator and its wiring. The solution was to chop the top of the alternator bracket off, weld on a plate, and move the top of the bracket 1-2" towards the center. It is subtle (in the pic below you can see the alternator is now inline with the headers), but I think it is one of the challenges to be addressed with the smaller engine bay of the e30. I don't think we would have done this with an e36.
This is one of a bunch of little modifications that makes me so grateful for the two competent guys helping make this project happen.
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Next up was getting the exhaust from the backwards shorty headers to the turbo. It is pretty tight, but we wanted to have reasonable bends into the collector and a divorced wastegate. The plan is to run low boost (<10psi for now), so a fair amount of exhaust will needed to be dumped. An integral gate seemed like it would present creep challenges. After building a bracket to hold the turbo's weight (and doing the necessary clocking), we could be creative in getting the 2.5" piping from either bank to the passenger side. If this works well, I'll pull it and have it coated. For now, we'll just see. The turbo and gate are kind of cheap placeholders I plan to run for the first few thousand miles to determine if I like the performance of this size (I copied the specs of a common Mustang kit when selecting this one). I couldn't justify spending a mint on a turbo before I even know what I really want... so many expenses to get this thing running.
Also, a simple 4" cold air intake was made. Picking up air from in front of the wheel well. The bracket to support the turbo weight can also be seen.
A 3" downpipe was made and a bung added for the wideband. Down below this goes to 3.5" and eventually the wastegate will merge in there just before heading into the trans tunnel.
(is it too early for me to share that kind of picture?)
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I really like the clean look of no fans in the engine bay. I'm taking a bit of a risk and going to try two thin pusher fans in front (sandwiched b/w the FMIC and radiator). If it doesn't keep the engine cool at stops and low speeds we'll need to flip to the other side.
To prep, I found the thinnest fans with the biggest diameter I could find. I trimmed the core support just a bit (and repainted) and attached the two fans. I can still pull the radiator, with the fans attached out through the engine bay if the top radiator hose is removed.
My buddy fabbed a simple upper radiator bracket (rubber underneath; not bolted to the core support in this pic) and we added a little foam between the endtanks and the back of the core support to help direct air through rather than around the sides. Still need to think about directing air through on the bottom as you will see later the bottom of the radiator is the one part that is unobstructed by the FMIC.
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After that we turned to the intercooler. I liked the e30 folks that minimized the path length by running the piping just under the headlights. I also wanted to fit an oversized FMIC. However, I love the look of the four headlights and I wanted a stock appearance from the front.
We also planned to flip the Ford 5.0 intake 180deg so the throttle body is on the driver's side. With a modification of the fuel rail (remove the FPR), the Cobra/GT40/Explorer intakes can do this pretty easy. This way the passenger side of the engine is downpipe, the driver's side is charge pipe. On the standard Mustang single-turbo everything is jammed in on the passenger side. I like this altrnative routing.
The best path seemed like a big eBay intercooler with some modifications to the end tanks (to fit the headlights) and welded on elbows. 2.75" piping + couplers added that much more interference with the headlight baskets so going hardpipe off the endtank saved a tiny bit. The cast elbows look cool too, IMHO.
More handiwork with charge piping... lots of aluminum welding.
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With a lot of trimming to the headlight baskets and the metal valance and splaying out the gussets that support the upper core support/hood hinge area (cut, bend, reweld, paint), it all fits. Well, we had to massage the rails ahead of the core support a bit. It all goes back on and looks pretty benign (sleeper?).
I will want to add the lower air damn to force more air through the FMIC and radiator. I am thinking about some ducting to split what goes through the FMIC (and not just spill down the front) and force what naturally goes below the FMIC into the radiator. Have to think this out though.
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