1990 325i Touring S50 Swap Thread

[nl328i]

Update: E36 Steering rack is in. s50 being dropped in later today or tomorrow.

[328ijunkie]

woot! :P

[Roysneon]

Moving along! As for the driveshaft, either get an m20 manual trans shaft and use the revshift disk or get a 328 shaft and use it with an e30 center bearing.

[nl328i]

It fits! Haha. Still a lot of things to do, but the s50 is in.


Still a little worried about clearance for the cooling stuff. Might go with an electric fan rotary and save space. Might use the fan that came out of the 95 m3 for that.


The front of the engine looks to be sitting a bit high. Worried it will strike the hood. Stuff to figure out as we go.

We are going to angle the cai down and try to scoop up air from down low. Anyone have any suggestions as a good place to grab air from down there or the best way to do it? We could hook it up to the brake cooling duct, but then that is robbing the brakes of that cold air. Thoughts?

[nl328i]

....Bueller?........Bueller?

[Roysneon]

I thought the same thing about the hood fitting with my m50, had no problems with the hood hitting the engine. I used a Spal fan in front of my rad as I also had very little room in the rad area.

[aldur99]

Why not just connect the Kamotors filter to the headlight opening just below? You should have received with that kit some ribbed piping which will bend to meet the opening from the headlight.

[nl328i]

That sounds perfect. I didn't realize there was a place to hook up to there that would have good air flow. Thanks for the tip!
I was going to use the accordion tubing to reach down lower, but that sounds better.

Does anybody happen to have a pic of that setup?

[nl328i]

Getting things a little cleaned up! Spring is just around the corner!

[nl328i]

Things are all coming together. The battery is being relocated to the trunk (my suspicions that the rear battery tray would also be in the touring boot was correct!), with the cable from the e36 m3 being run from back to front. Worked out perfectly.

We went to fill it with fluids to start this weekend, however, water started going everywhere. Turns out one of the metal tubes coming from the firewall to the heater core valve was split. Just waiting on the parts to arrive (first order from Blunttech!- have heard great things, and so far very impressed with the customer service). Once the tubes are replaced, we are going to fire her up!

Exhaust is in, but needs to be tweaked, just slightly. The exhaust setup is the stock e36 m exhaust to the cats, and then e36 borla from the cat back. It is looking good!

The e36 rad and cooling system fit in, with the mechanical fan. The fan looks like it might strike the plastic fan shroud we put back on the rad, so we might have to move it back just a little bit, or remove the shroud entirely.

Can't wait to take it for a spin and to a few BMW events around town!

those parts can't arrive soon enough!

I'll keep you guys posted on the progress!

Edit:

When removing the seats to run the battery cable, I came across this printout which seems to be like an order receipt for the car when originally purchased. Pretty cool.

[nl328i]

It's alive!!! Fired up first try tonight. The end is finally in sight.

Big thanks to markert motorworks for the great wiring job!

[328ijunkie]

Win!

[Roysneon]

Feels good, eh?

[cbouchez]

Very nice!

[nl328i]

Sweet lord baby Jesus! I just had the first drive.

Couple observations:

1. Wow.

2. adjustment to the clutch and brake are necessary. The brake was soft and the clutch wasn't fully disengaging making it hard to shift gears.

There sounds like a vibration comin from te driveshaft and it you push down on the shifter it rubs on the driveshaft. Almost no clearance.

The e36 exhaust and borla catback dot fit 100%, but good enough for now. Sits a bit low.

So happy that it runs. Now to button up the lose ends and get the interior back together!