10 Day Build! E21 S54 - Bertha

[garagistic]

WE will have behind the scenes photos on our Instagram. Please give us a follow:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKQhvEtDgGq/?taken-by=garagistic

Trying to see where the e46 m3 exhaust lines up on the e21.

[2mAn]

OH!!... this is what you meant "we will be in the shop on saturday for a few hours"... I should've stopped by. Stupid family always ruin my fun car days.... I will see you guys this Friday for sure

[garagistic]

OH!!... this is what you meant "we will be in the shop on saturday for a few hours"... I should've stopped by. Stupid family always ruin my fun car days.... I will see you guys this Friday for sure

With production the way it is during the week, this is the only way to meet deadlines on cars.

[dude8383]

curious to see how you guys end up mounting the e30 subframe! looks like a fun project :up:

[Garageaholic]

Day 2

Some more detailed info at the blog.garagistic.com!

Today was all cutting and grinding. Turns out I didn't need to do any E21 fuel tank siphoning. I just needed to bang it back a little. So with a bit of persuasion, it turned out just fine and cleared the subframe.

Installed parking brakes. E30 parking brakes fit just fine, but the crimp does not fit into the tunnel like the E21 does, so I will need to simply tack weld it in place so it stays solid.





Cutting out the rear wheel well. Making room for the exhaust. That's for tuesday.


Look at the interference on the E30 subframe to the E21 body.



I then installed the diff housing and got a rear engine position. Very exciting.




Installed the driveshaft just to make sure it clears the gas tank hose. It clears!!




Now that I have the diff in place, I can see where the rear cover ear will mount up. Very close, but still offset. I'll need Garagistic's custom offset diff ear mounts to get this mounted!

It looks like it will fit, but it's way off. So I cut it off and am welding new ones to the frame, beefing up the frame in the process.



I welded the driveshaft center bearing brackets to the body and the front half driveshaft now attaches to the body without the need for the rear half. Effectively separating both halves independently so that I can work on the front or the rear. This is a big convenience factor for the swap.

Did some sizing on the shifter position. I can easily cut and tig this shorter to be the perfect size. This part of the swap is a cinch. THis is preliminary, but should work in the final design



Some more pics of the extra cut out. There are actually like 3 layers of 14 gauge metal here that make up the subframe. I plan to weld more metal higher in the frame to strengthen it back to stock.




Continued to collect parts for the entire swap. Thanks Garagistic for the stainless steel brake lines, clutch line, and Z3 shifter!!

Here is the E21 in all its glory. Not bad for a days work!


One of the setbacks i can see is a resistance of the subframe from getting pushed up as high as possible and that's due to the fuel filler. It will hit it. Subframe must be a bit lower than I desire, but still high enough to get plenty of thread engagement.

Next is to sort out the fuel filter/pump/regulator area. it's clearly going to hit the half shaft.



Tuesday:

Weld subframe triangle holes in, hang muffler, cut rear skirt, relocate gas filter, put my battery on a charer, rear trailing arm work for the shock mount. Assembly ZF trans to S54! Stay tuned!!

[Garageaholic]

Day 3

Sorry for the large size pics. Don't know why they're so big for this post. So today I spent about 5 hours on Exhaust, Suspension, and radiator mounting.

Fuel filter stuff removed. I am going to a walbro 255 external pump for this assembly. I'm sticking with the same fuel filter (new), and fuel accumulator to keep fuel pressure up on starts.



Mounted the E46 M3 exhaust - Had to cut out some of the piping to fit. I didn't want to do a completely custom exhaust system, but it looks like that's what may happen. Everything is custom.





Thus far, I'm going with 2 mounts for the muffler assembly itself. Then after I start welding the mid pipe, I'll be adding a 3rd one in the same vicinity.

The top of the muffler is just at the top of the spare wheel well I cut out. Might need to figure out a new method of capping the wheel well.


I decided to use the new exhaust cut outs to plug the old exhaust outlet. I maintain the same curvature, bend, and character line, so it's seamless.



For now, I'd like to simply add weather stripping, but in the future outlook, we've got some cool Ares LS1 ideas for this exhaust. More info on Garagistic's E30-LS1 Ares swap coming up soon.

The radiator mounting is being prototyped, but at the moment this works very well. Used some M12 bolts, 19mm head actually fits these poly bushings perfectly.



Clamp the bolts down - to be welded later.




Bushings slip right on top. Square off the head of the poly bushing so it accompanies the radiator and it's not moving anywhere!


Out with the old!



In with the new, Let's get that S54 in tomorrow!

[Swanny]

[2mAn]

Got a sneak peak earlier today, wish I couldve hung around more. Maybe I can show up again later this week,

[Garageaholic]

Day 4

Today was monumental. Got a whole lot done in 4hours!

Because the E30 parking brake cable did not fit into the E21 tunnel, I simply tacked it together. I'll paint it later.



So day 4 I got the S54 in the car. Lifted it by traditional means with a hoist. It wasn't all that bad getting it in. I needed to cut the front radiator shroud area to get it fit. Please note that this is NOT the final resting place. it will get pushed back at least another 4-5 inches.

Below, I installed the front half of the driveshaft. That already defined the center bearing location as shown in Day 2. Now that it's sitting suspended as shown, I can place the engine and mate it to the driveshaft. Once mated, the engine is now in place.

It took no more than 45 minutes to get the engine in. It's sitting much further forward than I'd like (aka the driveshaft and transmission are way off and the engine needs to sit further back).




As of today, the S54 is sitting on the subframe, unobstructed and the trans bracket is installed, but will need to move much further rearward to mate to the driveshaft.

I didn't do too much with the subframe. No welding today. Stay tuned for tomorrow! Garagistic has some pretty sweet 80A mounts that I plan to use that will allow it to sit exactly where it will live with minimal movement and minimal vibration transfer.



I welded the exhaust hangers up a bit better today. I welded lips on the exhaust stem so that the hanger sits right in the center and doesn't move side to side on harder cornering.



I also welded studs for the rear subframe lower poly hold-down brackets. I did this because the E30 subframe is wider and the subframe was actually hitting the bracket weld-nuts. So I removed the weld nuts from the brackets, I welded studs from the inside flush, and will now bolt the bracket on the OUTSIDE of the body. The only thing I need to do is elongate the subframe bolt.


Welded studs (countersink screws) from the backside pointing outward.
View from outside looking in:


View from inside looking out:


I need to clean these welds up, but the idea is that now the E30 subframe will not hit the body due to it being wider than the E21 subframe.






Thanks for reading. Standby for more work tomorrow as we set this drivetrain in it's final resting spot!

[Garageaholic]

Day 5

Not too much progress. In fact, I realized that the sump on the S54 is rear and as a result I could barely install the subframe, let alone fit the steering rack. The result was to acquire an E34 525i M50 oil pan, which I then fitted and got a much more desirable result.



So today was a learning experience. I am at today where I thought I was yesterday, Now I need to acquire an E34 525i oil pump and pickup, probably going to mock additional front sump baffling and some pickup running to the rear of the pan as well. This prevents the engine from starving of oil during hard acceleration.

Other than that, just banged back the firewall a bit more to make the clearance I need to mate with the driveshaft. It's going to be tight - real tight.



I've been resting the drivetrain on the ground as I drop the car down on it, then bring the hoist to lift it INTO the engine bay, guiding it on the trans side by a floor jack. That helps me then position the subframe.


So the advantage is further back center of gravity and radiator clearance. For all I know I might be able to fit the radiator without a hiccup. Let's find out Friday!

Get the engine and trans brackets welded and it suspended on its own.

Slightly modify oil pan for steering rack clearance - easy.

Lower the car and start measuring for other items of concern!

[Garageaholic]

Day 6

Today I got a couple hours to work on her, but I did go a long way in establishing engine position. Using E36 Arms, I was able to get very close on both sides using Garagistic's M60 mounts. I might shave them down to get the right size, but the M20 ones might be more appropriate. I'll try it with that tomorrow

Drive side: No interference with Steering shaft


Passenger Side - No interference with Headers


Got the Transmission mounts in, This is just temporary and will EITHER be welded together and utilize 4 rail bolts, OR I'll adapt an E30 trans brace and extend the arms to install into the 4 rail bolts.



Again, this is temporary so I can get the proper driveshaft alignment. Need to beef these up to prevent twisting/sliding. Definitely going to make use of the second pair of rail bolts.



Before I get the engine arms in the final spot, I had to ensure that the radiator AND coolant reservoir fit. Everything fits perfectly. Upper and Lower hoses must be adapted to fit. This is no big deal. The thing that concerns me is that the alternator pulley comes very close to the coolant reservoir. I think I must shift the reservoir a bit to the driver side so that the clearance is adequate, regardless of the polyurethane mounts (which should, by the way, hold the engine very steady with minimal movement).




Things are looking grim to get this done in 10 days, but I keep making progress each day. Saturday should be a big day. Stay tuned.

Got a few things to solve in the short term including driveshaft being too short (might get custom length made) and Intake manifold interfering with brake booster (might go boosterless in short term to solve issue).

Garagistic has been helping a lot with the build, bailing me out of some of the technical issues I've had. 10 days is really tough, guys. But I'm doing my best and will continue trying to get it done by mid next week.
Lead time on parts (driveshaft, E34 oil pump) might push this out.

[R3Z3N]

Well, you had a clear goal with timeline. Step 1 to success. Looking forward to this as well!

[Garageaholic]

Day 7 post coming soon. Sunday is an off day - no work being done. Just a day of rest.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Garageaholic]

Day 7

It may not look like it, but a lot of progress was made this Satuday, Day 7. I was able to effectively place Garagistic's M60 80A poly mounts in place on the modified/shortened E36 M50 Arms. The Arms bolted right to the S54 Block. The Driver side mount only has 2 bolts utilized, so I must add an adapter plate to adapt the 2 unused holes to the block's other holes. Not a big deal. More on that later this week. Here are some of the pics: Final pics will not be posted until later this week:

Passenger Side:


Drive Side:


I also took some time to update the subframe brackets. While Garagistic works hard at creating my custom offset rear subframe bushings, I am working on holding those bushings down by virtue of the modified brackets, now holding down on the OUTSIDE of the body as opposed to the inside. The reason for this is because of the wider E30 subframe would make contact with the weld nuts on the existing version E21 subframe bracket. So with some modifications of the bracket, weld bolts, we've got a pretty solid setup!
I also had a chance to shorten the shifter lever arm as well as the shift carrier, but I have not welded it yet. More on that this coming week.

Due to the final placement of the drivetrain, I had to modify the placement of the center bearing location and I decided to add rivet nuts as opposed to weld studs. This was actually pretty easy to implement.



Day 8 is Monday. I'm taking off this Sunday, so no work or progress is being made today. I want to accomplish the following:

Weld the entire Front Subframe complete - Paint it.
Side Radiator Clearance - Cut/Weld if necessary
Install rear subframe bushings - Weld Diff Mount to Frame
Measure rear driveshaft length - send out for lengthening
Weld downpipes.
A lot planned - Stay tuned!

[Garageaholic]

Day 8

It's clear that this will not be a 10 day build. More like 13-15 days. But I've done my best and Garagistic has been an excellent proponent. Today, I got the Differential reluctor ring installed. It involved contracting the carrier by freezing it overnight....



Putting the reluctor ring in the oven at 500 degrees F for 1hr....



Then immediately, after install it. Within 10 seconds, it will have contracted enough to stay on. Then after 1hr, almost impossible to remove without a press. Very easy way to install!



Got some front subframe work done today. It's not pretty, but it works, and now the S54 sits on its own weight in the car. Nice an aligned!!



For the driver side mount, using the E36 Arms, I found out that I was only able to utilize 2 of the bolts. So I had Garagistic cut me a custom piece that adapted 2 other holes, thereby allowing me the use of at least 3 holes in the assembly.



Had to shave off the Aluminum arm to make room for the 11ga bracket.



I might end up utilizing an additional hole. Not sure yet.



Shortened the shifter mechanism. Just need to weld it up!



After final alignment of the drivetrain, I couldn't push the engine back any further. Disappointing because now the driveshaft is just too short to feel comfortable. Therefore, I'm having the rear half lengthened and re balanced professionally.

Stay tuned for tomorrow - no welding work, but a lot of ancillary tasks like intake, brakes,