Frank Macaluso's E30S62 Swap Thread

[Garageaholic]

PS- only the early build date S62's need 10w60. Its like march or may of 00' if I recall. Everything after that takes 5w30. If it were my engine I'd probably just use the 10w60 for peace of mind though.

Interesting, but I'm just looking to be safer than sorry.

So in other words you'll be beating Brandon.

Haha, there really was never any race. It was just a motivation method that he wanted to do and I went along with it.

Awesome project! Could you just run two intake pipes to a larger airbox on the passenger side? That may be easier than a custom plenum.

With alpha-N, you don't need a plenum at all, just run some sweet velocity stacks with foam filters on each. I don't know how well alpha-n will work on a street car though, how often do you drive this car?

I want to do a custom 2 into 1 intake. Likely welded thin-walled aluminum as opposed to carbon fiber. Quicker and I could powdercoat it.

I'm doing Alpha-N for 2 reasons - More power, but also I had no choice but to eliminate the AFM's due to lack of room. Yes, I'll be occasionally daily-driving the car during the summer, not winter, so I'll adapt to its behavior.

Really think about Alpha-N though. I would figure out how to make the MAF's work if I was going to drive the car a lot. Alpha-N works fine for a race car, but it's the most simplistic fuel and spark control method. It doesn't monitor airflow or manifold pressure, making part throttle and idle not nearly as smooth.

I did research on AlphaN and it said that the torque and HP curves were smoother as was the idle itself. I do not have anything to compare it to, so the way it will behave is the only way that I'll know...and I'll adapt to it.

Some updates - Just got back from Gutenfest yesterday evening and started teardown today at 4pm. What you see is 4 hours of teardown.

I started completing my Sport Button, which activates the ECU to sharpen the throttle behavior/mechanism when pushed. I wanted to keep the E30 style button, so I decided to modify the Defrost switch. I had to do some very significant updates to the internals of this switch to make it work, including a custom LED to indicate when SPORT mode is actually on.

Sanded/polished the defrost insignia:


LED soldered with small, flexible enamel coated 22gauge wire in line with a 470ohm resistor, since the LED soaks up about 20ma


The yellow light works as normal with dimming controlled by the light control switch. I will be adding a small vinyl "S" where the yellow light is for indicating during the daylight what the switch is for, similar to the current Defrost, hazard, A/C, and Recirc switches.


Green LED indicating SPORT ON


Final Switch assembly with wire pigtail


2 wires go to SPORT indicator LED (1 to Ground, 1 to DME)
2 wires go to SPORT on/off (1 to ground, 1 to DME)
2 wires go to E30 yellow light & dimming

Now on to the tear-down: Started removing all front bodywork, exhaust, driveshaft, shifter...etc Boring stuff really.


Doing some C101/X20 wiring labeling for the future owner of this M60 making it easier for them to swap....



And finally, a little test fit.



This is going to happen fast, so try to keep up ;)

[deutschman]

Man I wish I understood electrical stuff better so I could build cool switches. Maybe Ill use my next project car as an excuse to learn a bit more.

[MT325is]

Very nice! Lots if love done to that sport button! Keep at it man.

[CrusherCurtis]

Oh lord

[Vtec?lol]

Good stuff Frank.
I'm very interested in your manifolds if you're willing to ship.

[keefy6]

Nice, looking forward to future updates.

[MrSlacker]

You should get yourself a lift!

[ST1G]

Seriously, a lift would helpful. This is super bad ass.

[bmoores]

Great project. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

[MJCRO]

Looking good! Can't wait to see it in person tomorrow.

[ME30W]

I've gotta say, I think this was my favorite car at Gfest...so clean.

[Swanny]

Wish I was around to have helped! Can't wat to feel the difference between this and the m60. You're getting close to ludicrous speed...

[dude8383]

You should get yourself a lift!

I'd like to second that motion!

Awesome build man. Would love a ride in this once its all said and done :)

[MattAvino]

Just so you are aware, I creep around your garage while you sleep.

[Garageaholic]

Updates 5/21

You should get yourself a lift!

Seriously, a lift would helpful. This is super bad ass.

I wish I could, boys. Wish I could.

Looking good! Can't wait to see it in person tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by. Good luck with that exhaust and let me know if you have any questions!!

Started removing the Engine last night


Thanks to the help of Chris and Brandon, I was able to get it out in no time.

Making the front radiator core support removable


My creepy face....

We devised a method of making the core support removable relatively easy, but it made the removal of the engine so easy an I can't wait to repeatedly test fit the S62 to perfection with no mechanical interferences of any kind.



yeah, I was trying to break a smile and enjoy this captain morgan shot. All I was thinking was, "Can I install the S62 now?"




Next steps are:

• Pin the X0004 Connector
• Await the ECU from Adem Ergen
• Finalize the Radiator Core Support Welding/Hardware
• Test Fit the S62 and begin welding/building the Headers