the one and only e30 s52 engine swap
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Looks great!
I dont think you can use an upgraded double shear selector rod with the sheetmetal shift carrier (i believe UUC has an outrageous addendum on the price of a DSSR if you need the late model aluminum carrier)
Check the South Bend stage 2 or 3 street clutches depending on your future power desires. Basically its South Bend’s own sprung hub disk with a Sachs 918 pressure plate. I have the stage 3 carried over from my former turbo M20 setup “conservatively rated for 400 hp” I definitely dont like twin disk or 6 puck unsprung clutches from my driving experiences.
Twin disk are noisy and unsprung are bog-or-burn
Are you going to be keeping the AC? I see the bracket is still on the engine.
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Awesome progress, it’s looking great. What kind of rack did you pick up?
Non-m Z3
I dont think you can use an upgraded double shear selector rod with the sheetmetal shift carrier (i believe UUC has an outrageous addendum on the price of a DSSR if you need the late model aluminum carrier)
I do want to run a dssr eventually so that would be a good enough reason for me to switch over to the aluminum carrier if that's the case. I'm just curious why you can't use a dssr with the sheet metal.
Check the South Bend stage 2 or 3 street clutches depending on your future power desires. Basically its South Bend’s own sprung hub disk with a Sachs 918 pressure plate. I have the stage 3 carried over from my former turbo M20 setup “conservatively rated for 400 hp” I definitely dont like twin disk or 6 puck unsprung clutches from my driving experiences.
I've actually been looking at clutch kits through grip force. They sell kits including an aluminum flywheel and clutch disks with either stage 2 (carbon/Kevlar) or stage 3 (6 puck) Sprung hub clutch disks and a Sachs pressure plate. I do think I will be adding boost to this motor in the near future so I'm just curious if a stage 3 6 puck sprung hub clutch disk is manageable to drive with a fairly stock s52.
Are you going to be keeping the AC? I see the bracket is still on the engine.
I do plan on having AC in the car, not right away though. Right now my goal is to get the motor in the car and get it running. A/C can easily be added in later on.
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Right. In my brain, I cant determine why a DSSR wouldn’t work with a sheetmetal carrier (i also lack a lot of familiarity with the sheetmetal carrier)
The ultimate shifter, though, is the UUC Evo III. It is expensive but man it feels incredible!
https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-339053-uuc-evo3-short-shift-kit-e30-e36-e46-z3/?pdk=AQEB
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Any shifter with a DSSR would be excellent. I have UUC EVO3 with DSSR and wish I had gotten just the DSSR. I also have the UUC aluminum flywheel with Sachs e34 M5 clutch. Amazing upgrade, the best thing I ever did. Driveability like stock, my wife didn't notice, but rev matching and quick shifting out of this world. Best upgrade ever IMO.
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FWIW I run gripforce stuff
Haven’t had an issue yet
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You should contact garagistics and have them make you a blue diff cover bushing mount to match.

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Twin disk are noisy and unsprung are bog-or-burn
Everyone says this, but I ran an unsprung disc on a 11lb flywheel in my m52 setup with an aggressive clutch, and never had an issue. It engaged smooth, shifted smooth, and seemed just like normal. Not that all experiences will be the same, but just throwing that out there.
In regard to the sheet metal carrier, I find them to be more of a pain to install / put motor in with them on, but other than that I can't determine a solid reason to remove it. Though I don't know if the shifter bushing is removable, and that would certainly be a reason to ditch it.
The car is looking great!
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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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