My Budget S51.5 Swap. w000t

[mpowerful]

Its been forever since I updated this thread so I figure why not right now since someone local was asking me about the thread. Haha. So far ive put about 10-11k miles on the swap. I daily it so. Anyway I have done a few small things since the swap.

1. After the last post where I broke the thermostat housing I let e30bulldog drive my car and it blew a radiator hose off of it. Anyway I replaced it but cracked the old plastic neck on the radiator so I put a new(used) late model radiator in. No biggie really.

2. I went to a 3.46LSD for a while. At the time I had a gf in atlanta so I figured I might be going there a lot from nola (1000 mile round trip) but then that ho stopped talking to me so whatever. I recently swapped by to a 3.73. I think if I didnt do so much in town driving and was on the road more the 3.46 is more ideal however for mostly in town driving the 3.73 is just zippy with the g260.

3. The euro diesel fan is a beast. SO beast in fact it trys to pull that radiator into it. There is a good 1.5cm gap between the top of the radiator and the fan but I noticed under hard throttle the fan would grow out and the radiator would move in causing them to rub ever so slightly. The stock radiator stay rubber just wont hold it. I took some giant zip ties and zip tied it back to the core support which has helped. If i ever get unlazy I will fab up a solid radiator stay.

4. I went ahead and did the vanos seals and anti rattle kit about 6 months or so ago. It definitely needed it and I should have done it when I had the motor on the stand but thankfully its not a big deal to do even in the car. I am still not convinced that my tune is the best but I have not bought another tune to compare to yet. I am getting about 17-18 in town and around 24-25 on hwy. I feel like I still lack low end that could be resolved. Car still kicks like a damned mule starting around 3500.

5. I am seeping a touch of oil from the junction between the head and the block. It just enough to make some wetness on side of the block for a little bit. I am not super concerned yet but it is in the back of my mind. Ive changed the oil atleast 2-3 times now and I am still using motul 8100 5w-40 which has been fantastic.

6. Ive done numerous additional things to the car since swap too that arent exactly swap related. Full cardinal interior, keyless entry, finally upgraded the front struts to bilsteins and tossed the kybs (believe or not they werent blown after like 20-30k miles lowered). Added IE strut bar. And probably a bunch of other small shit ive forgotten.

7. I still need to fix the exhaust. I clamped the ebay SS headers to my stock pipes and they definitely leak. Ive been busy and havent had a chance to get up to mississippi to e30bulldogs place to fab the exhaust up right. Im still running stock cats to straight duals out the back and I love the sound. Loud as hell on hard throttle and completely tame at speed.

[mpowerful]

Hit my first real snag yesterday. I was waiting on someone to pick up a tire after shop closed so on a whim (and due to some upcoming road trips) i decide to throw her on the lift for a once over. Its been 2000 miles roughly and this is first time the car has been back on the lift since the transplant.

Only thing i noticed was a small drop of coolant on the lower hose bottom. I had thought it weird that over the couple of months i had added a quart of water to the expansion tank at two different times but i could never see or smell coolant so i thought the cap was just starting to possibly get weak. Car has never ever passed the 3/4 mark either and in fact rarely even gets close to it.

Needless to say i didnt replace the plastic thermo housing with alu one. Add that to the list of things i shoulda done. If i hadnt had this super early morning fishing trip id waited for the part from a friend last night and fixed it. Anyway im gonna fix it this afternoon hopefully. Doh.

[mtech325]

Thanks for the info on the distribution block, super handy info for vert owners!

[mpowerful]

Oh and review on SSSquid tune. Ok so in the beginning there was some communication issue. I ordered the tune through someone who apparently represents Jesse. I dont really know what that situation is but I was offered a discount for a tune for my setup. To skip all the detail I was sent the wrong tune because the order was placed wrong through this third party. The tune ran fan in my car but the CEL was on, and if you look in the video above you can see it. Shortly after I installed the tune I got Jesses number and he, as promised, sent me the correct tune while I was gone to florida. I drove about 500 miles on the other tune and it was pretty good. I got about 25mpg with A/C on and the car loaded down doing 80. Not bad. The tune seems a bit on the rich side. The power on top end is fantastic. Anyway I just installed the other tune yesterday when I got back. I havent put a whole lot of miles on it just yet but it seems to be running pretty good. Makes good power on bottom and top. Waiting to see how fuel economy is going to be as well. I will report back when I get a few more miles on it. I would like to say that in the beginning I was skeptical because of the week of back and forth with the third party but Jesse has been nothing but helpful.

[mpowerful]

Before the power block stuff.....Here is a video of my car headed through the tunnel in mobile. Fun stuff. Car sounds fantastic. Oh if I sound weird I wasnt drunk. I just came from vacation at the beach so I was sunburnt and exhausted hahaha. Skip to about 1:08 for the good part.

Link since my embedded videos never work: S51.5 Through the Mobile Tunnel




So I mentioned in another thread that I would give details on my power distribution block. So basically the vert doesnt have the same power distribution block that a coupe/sedan has because in a vert the battery is in the engine bay. The result is that the positive terminal on the vert basically has everything strapped to it. It works fine but it kind of looks like crap to have several wires coming off of it. Anyway so to change this I decided to add a block. I used a stinger block that I ordered off ebay.



I made a new positive battery cable using some 2 gauge wire I had and crimped on new terminal. I ran that down to the stinger block right next to the battery. I bolted the block down onto the battery tray. I then ran everything off the block. It has multiple large gauge inputs/outputs as well as a few smaller in/outs. Easy breezy. Now all the power wires hide behind the 318 cover. Unfortunately I dont have any good pics of what it looked like before I did this. If you watch some of the videos youll prob see the before. Anyway here is the after.

[mpowerful]

Is it possible your core support has been replaced or hit at some point?

[Gooch]

Yup.

[mpowerful]

Are you sure you had the fan mounted in the right direction? It will mount either way and one way it sticks farther out.

[Gooch]

Not enough clearance between the fan/clutch and the rad is what I mean by not fitting (even with taking the rad out). I have revshift blue mounts (not really by choice, but they work). Your picture of the overall width of the euro fan/clutch combo looks much thinner than when I tried my euro fan and e36 clutch.

I ended up buying an eBay aluminum e36 radiator and late model coolant tank, but since I have a 318is I don't have any of the mounting provisions for the expansion tank and I'd rather not start drilling holes if I can use an off-the-shelf clutch/fan combo considering I already have the euro fan.

I'm currently running the backwards Audi fan (which also requires removal of the rad to install/remove) and want to get a permanent solution.

[mpowerful]

They are all same size. You mean that the euro fan wont fir with your radiator? What type of engine mounts are you using? My engine seems to sit a hair high in the front although generally this should make a difference. Do you mean you just cant get it onto the clutch? You might have to take your radiator out to get it started onto the clutch. There might not be enough clearance with it in the way.

Oh and I put a new goodie on my car yesterday :)

[Gooch]

11522243303 is the pn. You can use basically any of the three bolt clutches (e30, e36, e38, e39). Im using an e39 540 one.

Do you know if the 540i fan clutch is thinner than the others? I bought a brand new e36 3-bolt but it still doesn't fit with my M42 radiator, but the 540i fan clutch has a different part number.

Unfortunately I'm home from break and can't measure mine but if you/someone has some measurements handy I'd really appreciate it.

[mpowerful]

11522243303 is the pn. You can use basically any of the three bolt clutches (e30, e36, e38, e39). Im using an e39 540 one.

[AlpineEdirty]

Can give more detailed info on you fan set up?
Part #s or what model and year?

Thank you

[mpowerful]

Im currently on a bus in baton rouge on my way back to nola from houston. I was dropping off my dads truck to my brother so no e30. Anyway i have an sssquid tune waiting on me at home. If i feel up to it im gonna install the 24lb injectors and throw on the 3.5hfm and tune. Cant wait. Will review when i put some miles on it. The only bolt ons i really lack are proper cold air setup, and big bore tb. I plan on eventually getting the riot racing tb at some point. I am mulling over ideas for the cai intake now.

[Mesarina]

Nice project, keep the pics coming!