the one and only e30 s52 engine swap
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I have put just about 3500 miles on the car sense I put er into storage 2 months ago. Over the couple warm months I was able to enjoy it, I got some bugs worked out of her and figured out what needs adjusting/fixing and what I need to change/improve.
To follow up a bit from the last post, Trans leaks have been completely resolved. As for my temp issues, It seems that all is good now. My gauge reads slightly off. When I brought the car up to its op. temp. (the gauge read 210) I shot a temp gun at the cylinder head just past the thermostat housing and I was getting a reading of right around 192. The other day though, I took the car up to Appleton and all the way up the gauge stayed right below the 200 so I may take a look at the wiring to the gauges and see where there may be an interference or what may be causing this inconsistency otherwise I haven't been too bothered by it as the car hasn't been having any issues keeping itself coo
l.
SO... I have compiled a list of everything I have noticed needs work and what I hope to accomplish over the project season. There will probably be more to add to the list but this covers the major things I want to get to.
Issue #1
Oil has been changed twice now and it looks that I burn just about ¾ of a quart every 1000 miles which is supposedly quite normal. Also, about every 100 miles I find that the rear bumper gets covered in oil spots. So, I have added a catch can to the list of parts to order to hopefully solve some of my oil consumption issues.
Issue #2 (still on going) Jumpy idle.
I have detected that the weird idle I get once in a while is a bit more serious then I figured.
After driving it for a while I did end up getting a CEL to pop up and immediately stomp tested the system to retrieve those codes. 2 codes were saved...
1263 (Purge valve)… not worried about this one as it makes complete sense why it is on since I don’t have it hooked.
1222 (Lambda control 1)… My cause for the idle issue. Big fix that I have read is the O2 sensor failing. Problem with this is the fact that my o2 sensor was brand new. I have not yet pulled it out and tested it but I have hi doubts it’s the cause. As for other things I have inspected/checked, I pulled the maf and thoroughly cleaned it as well as hooking it up to a power source and testing that its working properly. I pulled the IAC valve out and made sure it was clean. Reinstalled and confirmed good connections of all vac lines ( all lines are new anyways). An idea of mine is maybe I’m not getting a strong fuel pressure because of a possible original e30 fuel pump not cutting it for the s52’s requirements. Other possibilities may be injectors or a possible faulty ecu. We shall see.
Issue #3
A while back I started noticing a squeaking noise coming from underneath the car in 1st and 2nd gear. At first I didn’t think much of it tell it started clunking more than squeaking. Lifted the car up and gave the drive shaft a little jerk and there was quite a bit of slop in the center and outside u joint. After pulling the heat shield off I was able to notice what really was causing the issue…
The same day I pulled the driveshaft out and brought it over to my buddies to weld up. Since I was worried about burning a lot of the rubber, we decided to braze it instead. There was still some rubber that burned of course but it was only minor and worked out well.
I haven’t had any issues since but I do notice the slop in the u joints when changing over from reverse to 1st so I am now on the lookout for another used or possibly a new driveshaft (for the perks of being able to service the u joints then).
Issue # 4, 5 and 6
Although the car was a blast to drive the alignment was just not right. Unfortunately, I installed the wrong rear sub frame bushings and earned myself a bit to much negative camber on the rear wheels. I found that there were bushings made for this to correct this issue when your car is lowered. These bushings are now in my hands so that will be the first thing I tackle this winter. Not only will I be fixing the sub frame bushings but also the eccentric hardware. Unfortunately, the garagistic’s smooth cams on their hardware like to walk quite often and its been throwing my rear toe and camber all out of whack. I have a couple ideas to solve this issue, but my plan is to center these and hopefully not have to mess with them at all as I have found that you can't properly tighten the outside bolts when the sub frame is in the car. With the trailing arms out, I will be messing with the rear dust shields, so I can install the e-brake system as that is something I have been greatly missing.
Issue # 7
I have no heat. Over the time that the car was being re-built I temporarily shoved paper towels in the heater core inlet and outlet ports to avoid any dirt getting in the heater core so I can't see it being clogged. Also, I do remember the heat working with no issues before the engine (M42) came out so I doubt it’s the heater core at all and the blower motor works without flaw, but I only get cold air. I will be starting with the heater controls and making sure its not something net working right there.
Issue #8
One part of the exhaust sits to low. When the y-pipe was welded in it angled lower then I wanted mostly because of the way the headers sat. The plan is to cut the collector off, fab up a pie cut to angle it correctly and re-weld. My plan is to drop the motor, trans, and sub frame as one to make it a bit easier to work around for welding.
Issue #9
Interior sucks. Will go into depth on what I want to do, still working on some ideas for what I want to do but changes definitely need to be made.
So far that’s it for major issues first on my list to get done. There is some painting needed to be done including re-doing all the trim on the exterior and re-undercoating the rocker panel and front and rear valance. Unfortunately, the old undercoat in those places faded because of exposure to the sun and the fix is spraying a layer of clear over for protection.
I also have a list of things I’d like to get ordered in terms of spicing up the look of the car.
Tonight and tomorrow I will be spending making a solid list of everything I need and getting that order out asap. Unfortunately I need to buckle down on making the most of the time I have as not only is my next semester's schedule going to be quite busy but my use of the shop this year is going to be limited, my grandfather owns the place and he has his own projects he wants to get to.
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Your o2 could have also been fouled if it's consuming enough oil to end up coming out of the tail pipe
o2 was definitely pretty dirty so I cleaned that up but I did another code check on the system and I no longer have either of the codes listed above and instead have one code, 1281 (control unit memory supply). Whats the chances that being anything other then a bad ecu?
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someone said:
I have no heat. Over the time that the car was being re-built I temporarily shoved paper towels in the heater core inlet and outlet ports to avoid any dirt getting in the heater core so I can't see it being clogged. Also, I do remember the heat working with no issues before the engine (M42) came out so I doubt it’s the heater core at all and the blower motor works without flaw, but I only get cold air. I will be starting with the heater controls and making sure its not something net working right there.
occam's razor: did you remember to take the paper towels out?
second idea: needs a proper bleed. i believe m42s share the challenges of e36 24v engines (get the front end up high, massage her gently, say sweet things into her ear)
the coolant system is relatively simple. clogged core, dead water pump, dead blower, and trapped air are the only things that will cause no heat.
Dan
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occam's razor: did you remember to take the paper towels out?
second idea: needs a proper bleed. i believe m42s share the challenges of e36 24v engines (get the front end up high, massage her gently, say sweet things into her ear)
the coolant system is relatively simple. clogged core, dead water pump, dead blower, and trapped air are the only things that will cause no heat.
Ya paper towels came out lol.
Water pump is solid
blower motor works fine
I suppose trapped air is a possibility but I thought I did a pretty good job using the air lift tool and the system held vacuum great with no leaks.
My guess comes down to either somehow a clogged heater core or possible faulty heater check valve, that is where I think I will start.
Just in case, check to make sure you installed the new setup's hoses to the heater core correctly (inlet/outlet). With everything else going on in a swap, mix ups can happen.
I will definitely double check this but I am fairly certain I had them routed correctly.
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Update!
Got to work last weekend on pulling the rear sub frame.
Took me about an hour and a half total to drop out of the car, man is it nice when everything is fresh and easy to pull apart.
First things first, got the diff pulled out and got the new seals installed.
Replaced the output shaft seals and lock rings as well as the o-rings to seal the outer section.
Pulled the trailing arms off and came up with a little fix for my eccentric hardware.
I bolted one arm back up and just lightly tightened it and wow, much better. Hopefully wont be having any more issues there.
Last thing I gotta do is figure my dust shields out so I can install my-e-brake system and then I can install the new bushings and slide the sub-frame right back in.
After this is in, I will be working on fixing the y-pipe on the exhaust.
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force flush the heater core via the hoses at the firewall. if it wont flush in the correct direction of flow, try reverse flush and see if any muck comes out. (i know its a giant PITA due to needing to remove the intake mani.)
Dan
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force flush the heater core via the hoses at the firewall. if it wont flush in the correct direction of flow, try reverse flush and see if any muck comes out. (i know its a giant PITA due to needing to remove the intake mani.)
Speaking from experience?
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Speaking from experience?
pulled the intake mani thrice last year. 3rd time was a breeze but its annoying doing all that just to get to a pair of hose clamps.
Dan
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About time for another update...
E brake dust plates are fixed. Originally my plan was to pull the wheel bearings and hub in order to replace with new until a friend a mine came up with an idea for just reinforcing the holes in order to save myself a lot of work of pressing in new bearings and what not. Simply just cut out 4 pieces with 14 gauge stainless to the shape of the inner con-caved area and cut a new shape for the holes where the pins come through. Welded them in and re-painted the area with por-15.
Before re-attaching the trailing arms I went ahead and pulled the RTAB's and re lubed them all.
Keep them nice and quite.
New modified sub-frame bushings lubed and pressed in as well as spacers for the differential.
With a couple extra helping hands we got er popped back in.
Super excited to see how she feels now that the eccentric hardware hopefully won't be walking all over the place and that I finally get my e-brake back.
Yup, that's about it.
O and one more thing... She's gettin a turbo
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I'm excited to see my old stuff going to good use!
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Diagram from The Book of E30 Ownership
someone said:
before e30 turbo announcement:
perpetually non-running e30s ---------------------you-----running e30s
after e30 turbo announcement:
perpetually non-running e30s -------------you-------------running e30s
after e30 turbo installation:
perpetually non-running e30s -you-----------------------running e30s
Dan
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More updates!
For the last week I have been enjoying the nice warm weather of Arizona. I got back Saturday and on Sunday I headed on over to the shop and got a couple more things accomplished.
As for the rear end, I still had to re-install the brakes and got my e brake installed and dialed in, feels great!
After going through and torquing everything in the rear end I moved on to the next big thing I needed to get out of the way, fixing the exhaust. After some cutting of the y-pipe my buddy stopped by and fab'd up some small pie cuts to raise it and then tacked them in place.
Once that was secured I got the fluids drained and everything disconnected on the motor to be pulled.
raised the motor enough to get the headers pulled with ease. Threw em on the bench and welded em back up.
With the exhaust finished up and soon off to its new owner I can now turn my attention to getting the motor pulled and prepped.
After I got out of class today, I spent a couple hours over at the shop getting the motor pulled completely out of the car. Ya, that's all I got done.
A few things on the to do list before she goes back in...
- Pull the valve cover and re-torque all the head studs
- Pull the oil pan off to weld in the fitting for the oil drain line as well as a baffle for the pick up
- Replace the s52 oil filter with s54 housing
- Pull the trans to replace the input shaft seal as well as inspect the clutch
- Mount the turbo manifold and turbo
Also will need to do a bit of trimming to the battery tray in the engine bay to make room for the down pipe.
Progress is on hold tell this weekend where my goal is to hopefully get a few of these things done.
Stay tuned!
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Stay tuned!
This is something that should be in your research!
Getting after it I see! Good work!
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I yearn for a large garage that I could work on things year round.
Ya, I am pretty spoiled. I continue to remind my grandfather every chance I get how grateful I am to be able to use some of his shop space for my projects, I literally wouldn't be able to do this without it.
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