the one and only e30 s52 engine swap

[HipMF]

AsparagusMike said:

I feel so lame with my wimpy amounts of progress lately.

Please.

Your progress has made most off the people around here look lazy and pathetic, myself included. That being said, it's all the little nit-picky PITA details that make the difference between a "finished" project and a pile of parts that runs and drives. Keep it up!

AsparagusMike said:

Don't tell @GunMetalGrey but I did the same mod to his 30mm this past weekend to get the input flange off my diff

[AsparagusMike]

(ya I know, the pics are terrible. I dropped my phone and the camera lens hit a small rock and cracked so now I get fun little glares on every picture)

[GunMetalGrey]

I like hearing these noises.

[B C]

Nicely done!  and it idles nice and smooth as well. 

[GunMetalGrey]

GunMetalGrey said:

I like hearing these noises.

Brought to next page for convenience

[m42b32]

Nice!!!

[AsparagusMike]

Aaaaahhhhh yaaaaaa!!!

I still can't believe how well the motor is running and the fact that it even started! it idles very smooth. Gotta be honest, Was a little worried whether or not it was gonna start at all and if it did that it was just gonna throw a rod through the oil pan right away or something.

Now the motor ain't perfect and in fact I may still have a possible minor problem that could turn into a major one. It wasn't tell the second time I started it up (for my grandfather who was very excited to hear it finally run) that Ben noticed a very bad oil leak coming from the right side of the motor where the engine block, head gasket, and timing cover meet.

Assuming my head gasket wasn't sealing properly and I was gonna have to pull the head back off I almost immediately felt like falling to the floor and crying. After chatting about it for a bit and running it another time I got a better look at where the leak was coming from and I can't even begin to explain how relieved I was. I never installed a crush washer on the primary timing chain tensioner and it was leaking very quickly.

Friday rolled around and right after I finished up at work I picked up the correct size crush washer from Napa, installed it torquing it to spec, and ran the motor one more time.

The super fast leak I was experiencing before is gone which is a plus but, as you can see there is still a small amount slowly seeping out of the area where the head gasket and timing cover meet, Shit.

As for right now I'm gonna get the rest of the cooling system hooked up and run the motor through a few heat cycles, re-torquing the head studs after. Only after doing this does it continue to leak I will most likely be pulling the head back off and assessing the problem in more depth which will probably conclude with me going back to a oem head gasket which is what I should have done in the first place but I'm a noob at this and sometimes I think I need things that I really don't and it comes back to bight me in the ass.

Onto other things... interior is almost completely reinstalled. At the moment I am on the hunt for another driver side sport seat of any color or fabric as long as it has a good bracket. Tomorrow I'm going to be giving a junk yard down in Milwaukee a call who apparently have some out of a 88 325is, really hoping they're sport seats)

As for things to get done the list is plentiful but definitely attainable. I have to take the intake manifold back off to finish up installing the coolant spider hose and upper heater core hose so that I can finally fill the system with coolant. I also have the bimmerworld sending unit block to install as well as sending units for oil pressure, oil temp, and coolant temp (still waiting on them to show up). If everything shows up this week and I find a seat, hopefully I can take the car out on the road for a short drive next weekend and break in the motor a bit.

Next big thing on the list though will be the exhaust system for sure as I do plan on making my own and I do not have that all figured out quite yet.

[B C]

Did you have the deck machined? If so, the timing cover needs to be machined the same amount. What sort of rtv did you use on the gasket? Black RTV all the things!!!!

[Jdesign]

snap said:

Did you have the deck machined? If so, the timing cover needs to be machined the same amount. What sort of rtv did you use on the gasket? Black RTV all the things!!!!

I second this comment!

[AsparagusMike]

snap said:

Did you have the deck machined? If so, the timing cover needs to be machined the same amount. What sort of rtv did you use on the gasket? Black RTV all the things!!!!

See this is where I went wrong, I never had the engine deck machined. I only found out after the fact that in order for a MLS or cut ring headgasket to seal correctly it is important to have the engine deck machined. Although, my machinist said that the deck was checked with a straight edge and had no warpage and I have yet to see any leaks other then this small area.

Every gasket on the motor was installed with a layer of "The right stuff" black gasket maker.

[straight6pwr]

you sure you got RTV between the front cover and the head? I see RTV seepage between the cover and the block, but not around the top.

[AsparagusMike]

straight6pwr said:

you sure you got RTV between the front cover and the head? I see RTV seepage between the cover and the block, but not around the top.

No I did not put any rtv between the head gasket and timing cover, damn it.

[Jdesign]

AsparagusMike said:

No I did not put any rtv between the head gasket and timing cover, damn it. 

I guess that solves that mystery wetness 

[AsparagusMike]

Now, whats the chances of that sealing up after a heat cycle or two and a re-torque of the headbolts?

[Earl]

I mean without anything to seal it the chances of it sealing are incredibly slim

[Daggerty]

AsparagusMike said:

No I did not put any rtv between the head gasket and timing cover, damn it. 

You don't need to. That's the headgasket's job to seal it. I would clean the area off with brake clean and verify it's still leaking from there in the picture it just looks like residual oil from the tensioner

[B C]

I put rtv on the head gasket portion of the timing cover since its not under the same clamp pressure that the head gasket is between the head and block. The head gaskets sometimes have a silicone bead in them which does a good job of sealing but the stamped steel profile gasket, not so much

[Daggerty]

snap said:

I put rtv on the head gasket portion of the timing cover since its not under the same clamp pressure that the head gasket is between the head and block. The head gaskets sometimes have a silicone bead in them which does a good job of sealing but the stamped steel profile gasket, not so much

Interesting, never done it before.

[Jdesign]

I guess it all depends on the brand of the gasket

[SteelBlue]

Hoping this all works out for you. This would be such a pain to pull this all back out and tear it down just to seal it.