the one and only e30 s52 engine swap

B C

You are kicking my trash with all this progress! [emoji1319]

Are you planning on bewst or revving over 7500? If not then I kindly disagree with the ARP rod and main bolts and cut ring gasket.

All bmw oem stuff is my suggestion

AsparagusMike

Snap said:

You are kicking my trash with all this progress! [emoji1319]

Are you planning on bewst or revving over 7500? If not then I kindly disagree with the ARP rod and main bolts and cut ring gasket.

All bmw oem stuff is my suggestion

Well I am just gonna stay N A and mostly stock motor for now but I wrestle around with the idea knowing that down the road I'm gonna probably want more power. I thought if I build it all to handle it now, then that would be that much less I would have to do if I did decide to throw in a turbo or supercharger. Or am I better of just building it oem and if I decided to build it for force induction down the road, just worry about it then?

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KaiserRolls

AsparagusMike said:

Snap said:

You are kicking my trash with all this progress! [emoji1319]Are you planning on bewst or revving over 7500? If not then I kindly disagree with the ARP rod and main bolts and cut ring gasket.

All bmw oem stuff is my suggestion

Well I am just gonna stay N A and mostly stock motor for now but I wrestle around with the idea knowing that down the road I'm gonna probably want more power. I thought if I build it all to handle it now, then that would be that much less I would have to do if I did decide to throw in a turbo or supercharger. Or am I better of just building it oem and if I decided to build it for force induction down the road, just worry about it then? Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

It will be way easier doing it now when it's all apart.

Also it's nice to get things sorted NA, then make sure it's rock solid for boost.

I went cut ring/ARP for my SC setup. Pretty overkill for 7psi but as you said, down the road I'll probably want more power

AsparagusMike

Got my car back Wednesday, new paint job looks spectacular! I didn't truly know how bad the paint was on that car until I got to see it with the new paint. The body shop guy showed me some videos of him taking an air gun and literally blowing the paint off the car. He said whoever painted this car before had not a clue what they were doing and pretty much halfass'd. It feels really good having new paint on the car and knowing that its gonna hold up much better now that it was professionally done. What I didn't have him paint was the rockers, front or rear valance, door trim/moldings or the bumper impact strips, so I got a little painting/work to do myself before the car is done, will be posting up some pics of the car as soon as I am finished.

Got all the bumper impact strips painted today! plus primed the rear bumper brackets and wiper arms.

Little broken cosmetic things that I will have to order replacements for...

just gotta get new bulbs for the front blinker lights, was thinking of maybe getting clear lenses and trashing those orange ones. Same with the orange and red side markers, maybe go to either smoked ones or clear.

Somehow the inside door handle was completely damaged from the door being dented in so until I get another one a rope is gonna have to do....

body guy broke one of the clips for the door molding on the passenger door when fixing the dent. Ordered two (one extra just in case) more at the dealership, gonna pick them up tomorrow then i can reinstall the strip.

Sunday I will probably begin masking off and prepping the door moldings and rockers/valances for paint.

Motor rebuild progress has been sublime. Looks like the block checked out great and minimal honing was needed to be done so reusing the original pistons should not be a problem, that was a relief. Also, the guy machining my block works at competition parts so he was able to order all my bearings, rings, and studs for me. Planning on this Monday coming over to his shop and starting the assembly of the bottom end. He'll probably start working on the head this following week.

In the mean while, came across a few a things that will come in handy down the road...

s50 obd1 wiring harness

325 driveshaft

m20 starter

ö

Getrag 260, needs a good cleaning but overall seems to shift pretty smooth, came out of a running car.

m50 manifold, picked this one up at Gibson's junk yard for cheap. most of the plastic is faded but besides that I checked it over like 5 times and didn't find any cracks or defects so I thought maybe I'd be able to give it some fresh paint to look good as new. If anyone has repainted one, what kind of black did you use? high heat?

B C

Sweet update, brosef

I would think regular paint should do fine on the manifold. It may be worth trying out that Krylon Fusion spray paint for good plastic adhesion.

stealthbimmer

The texture probably won't hold paint well. It's molded plastic....something like back to black will bring it back to life

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AsparagusMike

Masking = many hours of tedious bull@#$%@

i

Gonna try to get around to painting door trim tomorrow but time will tell. Was able to clean and undercoat rear valance tonight though...

After.....Fixing that nasty battery compartment rust hole/dent is definitely on the list of to do's, but for now it'll gonna have to do as is.

AsparagusMike

Was gonna get these pictures up and posted about 2 weeks ago but life happened and I ended up being out of town for a week. Pictures were taken on my phone and it had just rain so the car was a bit wet, oh well.....

So I also received the engine block back as well as the pistons and crank and all the parts to get the bottom end put back together. But, before I get ahead of myself the block deserves some ceramic primer and a nice coat of high heat ceramic black paint...

Was planning on painting it outside but the humidity took its tole and I was dying to get the thing painted so i can start reassembling. So I painted the block in my basement where it was cooler. Also decided I would keep the motor in the basement for the entire reassembly because the temperature was much more steady and the humidity was always low.

Paint is finished and the masking has been ripped off, overall I was very pleased with how it turned out, time for the fun part...:)

All the parts came in on time as well which is always a plus+...

\

Arp Studs are hand tight, king main bearings installed and assembly lube is on.

time for a crankshaft...

Was happy to see that each main bearing cap had a number indicating what order it needs to be in, thank you bmw.

Rings gaped, installed, and clocked

As of now the crankshaft is torqued and secured, Pistons are ready to go and will begin installing them possibly tomorrow.

wasnt m3

Nice progress!

Boris3

Looking good!

I get the work in the basement logic (though maybe not spray painting next to a water heater) but thinking of my own basement and its steep staircase I'm curious as to how the completed engine gets out of the basement to garage? Open door access to outside, you bench press/dead lift engine blocks on a regular basis, draft friends to help carry, or you have one of those little elevator seats you ride up the stairs?

B C

Put the engine on an upside-down Slinky at the bottom of the stairs and let nature take its course.

Looking real good man, I wish my project was half this good

AsparagusMike

Boris3 said:

Looking good!

I get the work in the basement logic (though maybe not spray painting next to a water heater) but thinking of my own basement and its steep staircase I'm curious as to how the completed engine gets out of the basement to garage? Open door access to outside, you bench press/dead lift engine blocks on a regular basis, draft friends to help carry, or you have one of those little elevator seats you ride up the stairs?

Well I was able to carry the engine block down the stairs myself with little issue, my thought was all together when its complete me and a friend could probably handle the task no sweat.

Snap said:

Put the engine on an upside-down Slinky at the bottom of the stairs and let nature take its course.

If plan A fails I'll make that plan B. If it does end up working, The car is yours when its done.

Earl

Ive helped lift an m5x by hand. It took one 260ish pound man, myself, and your average dad lol

jc43089

With the head on it will be approximately a 7 shots of brake cleaner to the eye job to get it up the stairs. Without the head only 2 sprays.

AsparagusMike

Was working on my first piston, had everything prelubed ready to go. Had all my piston rings compressed down (or so I thought) and I took one swift hit and the piston went in. Boom bada bing one down 5 to go. Nope...

The very bottom oil ring ended up not clamping down all the way and when I pounded down it ended up bending and getting pinched between the piston and the cylinder wall.

Right here was my problem, never again......junk junk junk!!!

So I went and found something that I should have used in the first place.

After I switched over, the rest of the pistons went in no problem and are torqued to spec.

So here's my question, How much of a risk am I taking reusing that ring? Should I not even consider it and straight up get a new set for one piston (if I even can)? All the other rings are fine.

Another question...

The arrow and the Letters AW next to it, anybody know what the AW stand for? After researching and coming up empty, I guessed and installed the pistons with all the arrows facing toward the front of the engine. Did I do it wrong? or does it matter?

B C

Do not think about reusing that ring.

Not even once.

AW is alpinweiß?

Yes, arrows point towards the front of the engine

Jdesign

ALWAYS WORRY

GunMetalGrey

In the last picture you posted, it works quite well, as AW stands for Awkward Wiener.
Don't reuse the ring, they are cheap enough and that's a vital engine part.

AsparagusMike

Snap said:

Do not think about reusing that ring.

GunMetalGrey said:

In the last picture you posted, it works quite well, as AW stands for Awkward Wiener.
Don't reuse the ring, they are cheap enough and that's a vital engine part.

Yup I thought I'd be better off just replacing it instead of suffering later. Called up Hastings and ordered a new set for one piston(which as you said was fairly cheap).

AsparagusMike

Came in yesterday

And all the pistons are installed and torqued to spec. Double checked, triple checked, quadruple checked, quintuple checked, sextuple checked, septuple checked, and octuple checked the torque on the main studs and rod bolts before confirming the Bottom end is done.

Now that the pistons and crank and what not are done its time for cleaning more parts and ordering gaskets and seals.

So, while I waited for the rings to show up I began to get needed things done, first up, drill oil pump nut...

Probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to drill because of the angle and it would have been easier if I had a vise for the drill press but all in all it ended up turning out half way decent and saved myself a ridiculous $14 to buy one.

N