flyboyX's obd2 s52 engine swap blog

[jasapp]

Hey, I just read that it's running. Nice work! That fuel pressure (or lack thereof) will get ya!

[MIKe30]

Jrez, I'm going to add t my thread so I don't hijack flyboyX's

[flyboyx]

Please don't take this the wrong way, as this thread is GREAT.

But my only question with this entire thread in mind - if I wanted to put my s52 in and keep it obd2, have my ews, rear o2 sensors, and secondary air pump deleted through software - couldn't I just have an adapter made through somebody like a treehouse racing, slap it on and call it a day? Or is there something that's part of the bigger picture that I'm really missing here?

I understand the feeling of doing it yourself and the pro's of knowing the ins and out of your car, but I'm just wondering if there is something else I'm missing and there's more to it.

yes, i thought about that too. in the end, my conclusion was that the factory engine/dme was designed to run all of those accessories (other than ews which is nothing but a complicated on/off switch). in the long run, if you eliminate the secondary air pump, o2 sensors, and fuel tank pressure sensor there is simply no way that the engine will run quite as designed. it couldn't possibly. will it run good enough? sure it will. it will beyond any shadow of a doubt suit every purpose that any of us r3vers could dream up for it. i admit that i am an anal bastard when it comes to all things mechanical. since i had all the parts, i just couldn't see any good reason not to incorporate them into my car. my plan is that when i get the wiring issues buttoned up, the car(engine) will run like a 2000 mz3 and look factory when you open up the hood. my intention is not to push my point of view onto any of my fellow members, but simply to document my path for those that wish to follow. was it easier this way? hell no! however, i do take a strong sense of pride in bringing the project to a sucessful conclusion and showing others that they too can take the road less traveled.

i didn't really have the option to delete ews for two reasons. first, every tuner (that i know of) offers ews delete for the seimens only with a stage 2 or greater upgrade except perhaps the racer's market. 99 and 00 mz3's have ews 3d. as far as i can tell, no one offers a delete for that. so, if i really wanted to delete my ews, my only option would have been to go obd1 and that would completely defeat the purpose of my project to begin with.

Jrez, I'm going to add t my thread so I don't hijack flyboyX's

no worries mike, i definately encourage discussion that makes this a better thread as long as it doesn't veer off topic. for a long time there i was posting new information and never receiving any feedback. i was starting to wonder if anyone was even reading this.

[flyboyx]

Hey, I just read that it's running. Nice work! That fuel pressure (or lack thereof) will get ya!

thanks jeff. you're the guy that gave me the idea to even think of that. i appreciate your help.

[MIKe30]

yes, i thought about that too. in the end, my conclusion was that the factory engine/dme was designed to run all of those accessories (other than ews which is nothing but a complicated on/off switch). in the long run, if you eliminate the secondary air pump, o2 sensors, and fuel tank pressure sensor there is simply no way that the engine will run quite as designed. it couldn't possibly. will it run good enough? sure it will. it will beyond any shadow of a doubt suit every purpose that any of us r3vers could dream up for it. i admit that i am an anal fucker when it comes to all things mechanical. since i had all the parts, i just couldn't see any good reason not to incorporate them into my car. my plan is that when i get the wiring issues buttoned up, the car(engine) will run like a 2000 mz3 and look factory when you open up the hood. my intention is not to push my point of view onto any of my fellow members, but simply to document my path for those that wish to follow. was it easier this way? hell no! however, i do take a strong sense of pride in bringing the project to a sucessful conclusion and showing others that they too can take the road less traveled.

i didn't really have the option to delete ews for two reasons. first, every tuner (that i know of) offers ews delete for the seimens only with a stage 2 or greater upgrade except perhaps the racer's market. 99 and 00 mz3's have ews 3d. as far as i can tell, no one offers a delete for that. so, if i really wanted to delete my ews, my only option would have been to go obd1 and that would completely defeat the purpose of my project to begin with.



no worries mike, i definately encourage discussion that makes this a better thread as long as it doesn't veer off topic. for a long time there i was posting new information and never receiving any feedback. i was starting to wonder if anyone was even reading this.

Well I don't think there's any arguement that it can run just as well, if not better, without the secondary air pimp which is on there for emissions purposes or the ews. Admittedly the rear o2 sensors may be a different story. I just hope that I'm not over simplifying the process. I do understand exactly what you were trying to accomplish though.

On a side note regarding your dme, you mentioned your options were limited by the one that came with your donor car. Can't you swap dme's from any s52 car to another? Should read all the sensors just the same right? Seems silly to let your options be limited over a $50 part unless you already know what you intend to do regardless.

[flyboyx]

i had the hydraulic hoses made for my hydroboost brake setup this week. here is a pic.



the 4 hoses at the top of the photo are the return lines between the reservior and the 4 components. they are r101 hydraulic hose. they had to come from a hydraulic shop because pep boys and autozone do not carry this stuff. you can see in a previous photo where my reservoir is located. assuming that you choose this same location, you can buy 2 feet of each hose and that will give you about an extra foot for the small one and about an extra 5 or 6 inches for the other three. the hose sizes are 1/4", 5/16", 1/2", and 5/8". the shop i picked up the hoses from only had blue for the 5/8"s so i intend to change it when i get the chance.

also in this photo, you can see what i did for the pressure lines. the upper one routes between the power steering rack and the side of the accumulator. the second pressure hose runs between the power steering pump and the larger orifice on the back of the accumulator. the lowest hose in the photo goes between the smaller orifice on the back of the accumulator and the rear orifice on the top of the hydro boost.





the pressure hose is 3/8". i purchased this and the shell couplings on line at discount hydraulics. the hose was about a buck a foot and the couplings were about a buck each. i purchased twelve feet of hose and twelve couplings in case i screwed something up. the pressure hose is R1 and rated to about 2300 psi. according to my bently manual, the power steering system pressure is about 1400 psi max, so this lends a nice cushion. the i cut the hoses to length and fit them to the fittings that were already installed in place. you will need to mark the hoses in relation to your fittings because you cannot allow them to rotate. once they are crimped, you will not be able to make any adjustment. as i mentioned above, i used an angle grinder with a thin cutoff wheel to cut the crimp off of the old fittings. now that all of the fittings have been re-crimped, i am going to tig weld the left over flange to the new crimped shell. there are two flare fittings that i had to cut off short to make them work for my application. since they didn't have a flange to weld to, i slid a 12mm metric nut over the tube. this nut will be welded to the tube and then in turn welded to the crimp. my local napa store makes hydraulic hose assemblies. i took my hoses down there and they crimped them for free. i just tipped the guy ten bucks. all together with all of the parts(new and used), i have less than 150.00 invested in my hydroboost system. this doesn't include the price of any welding, because i handled all of that myself.

a word of wisdom on scrounging used fittings: if you can't find the right flare fittings for your application, you can use the banjos for the three smaller orifices because the threads are the same. i was actually planing to use a banjo in a couple of places, but i found that i could just cut a metal line, stuff it in a hose and put a crimp on it. i think it is pretty important to weld the universal crimp shells to old fittings because you can't afford to have one of those suckers blow off when you are out on a drive a couple hundred miles from home. the old fitting have very little barb on them and the newer style have none at all.

here is my engine compartment to date.


i still need to work on modifying my shifter assembly. i am going to order my air conditioning line couplings tomorrow so i can get those taken care of as well.

[SS350]

FlyboyX, I really like the run-through on the hydraulic hoses, thanks for the heads up. I just fought a power steering line on my Camaro and had to source adapter fittings and such so I really like this direction. Set-up is looking good.

[flyboyx]

i haven't updated this in a while, but i was just reading mike30's obd2 thread and it got me motivated to throw down a couple of words. since i last made an entry a month ago, i put together my a/c lines. i hooked them all in and tried to draw a vacuum, but i have a serious leak in the system. i was able to draw down to about 23 inches, but when i disconnected the pump, it went back to zero in about 5 minutes. that is a pretty good sized leak. rather than wasting a bunch of freon, i made an adapter for my air compressor. i plan to spray soapy water on all the joints until i find the bad spot.

i welded on the bracket for my intensive wash bottle, the cruise control, and also the late style m20 radiator reservoir bottle. i cut/ground off the brackets for the airbag sensors. all of the worthless brackets are now gone from my engine compartment. i don't know why, but with the washer bottle bracket in the stock location, the bottle interfered with the hood strut. i had to move the lower bracket toward the driver side about 1/2 inch. the cruise cable from the mz3 turned out not to work after all. it was too short. i ended up taking one from a junkyard 325 e36. it was close to 3 feet long. it needed to be modified to fit the obd2 throttle body, however. the end had a hard metal ferule about three inches long where it attaches to the throttle body. i cut off the ferrule, and a matching amount from the sheath. i then crimped a butt joint electrical connector to hold that little transverse rod on the end of the cable. my cruise control bracket came off an 87 e30 cabrio parts car in my lot. it is mounted just above the abs pump on the inner fender. pretty much the same place it was located on the parts car. the radiator reservoir is mounted in the stock facelift location.

i found a few coolant hoses to go from the engine to the heater core in the fire wall. after installing them, it looks like they are hooked up backwards compared to the other late style cars i have in my sig. i have the one from the back of the block to the upper and the one from under the intake manifold to the lower. should i suppose that i won't get any heat in the cabin this way?

all of the belts and pulleys are installed.

i started working on the front half of the exhaust. in case you haven't read this thread in a while, i am using the stock front half from the mz3. unfortunately, i didn't get very far. the passenger side control arm bushing is in the way. i need to get the treehouse bushings. if anyone has a set to sell, please let me know. also, looks like the rear o2 sensors are in the way and will interfere with the body/heat shield. i might need to get the bungs relocated.

so, other than exhaust, the only thing left is to modify the shifter(which i have been talking about for months), finish up the wiring, pull the engine back out, and send the body out for paint (and of course assemble the hell out of everything).

every once in a while, when i need motivation, i just start up the engine and let it idle for 10 seconds or so. it sounds really sick with open headers.

[flyboyx]

before i left on my trip this week, i spent about 2 hours modifying the shifter arm and carrier. i didn't get a photo of that, but i will when i get it welded together. originally, i was thinking to weld a hardened 10mm bolt in between the ends of the shifter arm and double nut it tightly. at first thought, it seems like a good idea to have some adjustment to move the shift knob forward and back until i find a comfortable location for it. eventually, i decided against since lever has to work in torsion.

i purchased a set of treehouse control arm bushings from a member this week. they supposedly only have 500 miles on them. i really hope they are at my doorstep when i get home wednesday. that will give me something to do when i get home. somehow, in my mind, i am thinking they will make the ride harsh.

i tried to load a couple of photos that mostly go with the post above. unfortunately, the internet blows here. its apparently too slow to make web shots work.

[flyboyx]

here are the photos that i couldn't load the other day.

as you can see real estate on my inner fenders is at a premium. the only place i could find for the cruise module is behind the radiator reservoir and abs pump. its a very tight squeeze, but it fits without touching anything. if anyone has a better idea than the stock reservoir, please let me know


here is the intensive wash bottle and the a/c lines. not a great example of the a/c system.



the a/c compressor is really close to the radiator. also, my engine is canted slightly. my transmission tail shaft is about 3/4 inch or so off center toward the passenger side.



i spent the latter half of the day working on wiring. i made a mounting bracket for my 8 circuit aux fuse box. i have my power seats all wired in. the heaters too. i worked on my ews permanent wiring but did not have time to finish it up.

[MIKe30]

admittedly i haven't read through your entire posts so you may have mentioned it, but a better idea for the stock resevoir is get an m42 type radiator with the resevoir built in. BAM! instant free space...

[flyboyx]

thanks mike. i have an m42 radiator that came with my car. i may use it at some point, but i hate to reduce the cooling capacity that much. in comparison to the s52 radiator, it is about 20% smaller. i know that lots of guys use them with their swaps. it would probably be fine with a good spal pusher.

i almost had an epiphany at the junk yard last month. there was an e34 with a integral expansion tank. i pulled it out of the car and compared it to an e30. unfortunately, it was about 4 inches too wide to fit between the frame rails.

[flyboyx]

my treehouse cab bushings arrived last week. the guy i bought them from said they have 500 miles on them. that was probably bull crap, but the bushings are in really good shape. i installed the one on the passenger side so i could try to fit my exhaust. compared to the driver side which i have not changed yet, the offset of the treehouse units pushes the wheel forward about 1/2 inch for anyone's future reference.

anyway, (as advertised)the stock mz3 exhaust now clears the cab by about 3/8ths of an inch. finally i put it in place, but unfortunately, it hits the engine cross member and the sway bar. dammit! also, it doesn't line up right down stream. it doesn't fit well into the stock e30 heat shield. looks like i am going to have to bust out my torch and tig to make it fit. it is going to take quite a bit of work to make it right. the guy that told me it would fit in there stock must have been cra-zazy.

i may have mentioned it above, but my shifter parts are all welded up and installed. the mz3 shifter is the ultimate in short shift. may even be too short. it hangs down a long way below the carrier. i am a little worried that it might interfere with the driveshaft.

the shifter carrier fits well and i don't think there will be any interference issues with the console installed. however, i need to tweak it a slight bit to make it perfect.

my mz3 3.25 differential sat around in the car for a couple of years with the passenger side axle out of the hole due to the accident the car suffered. i took it apart this week to clean the dust and grit out of it and to install new seals. i also swapped out the axle shafts with those from an e30. it is back together and ready to be installed when i get home from my trip.

my almost new drive shaft is sitting there next to the car ready to be installed or actually test fit.

[flyboyx]

i installed my s3.23 differential today. i also test fit my drive shaft and the good news is that it clears my shifter by a very small margin. perhaps 3/8".

i mentioned above that my engine seemed to be misaligned so i worked on that situation. first, i jacked up the passenger side of the engine and rotated that engine mount 180 degrees. now i have a little less than an inch of clearance between my a/c compressor and the radiator. compared to the 3/8" that i had previously, this is a huge improvement.



that did the trick, but unfortunately, my tranny mount was built to accommodate the misalignment. the tail stock of the transmission was touching the tunnel on the passenger side. i spent about two hours reworking my bracket so everything lines up. below is a photo of the mount with modifications. i had to move the mounting holes over toward the driver side about an inch. further up on this thread is a photo of my first version. the hole on the passenger side was an easy fix. but on the driver side i had to cut off the hump and move it over and re-weld it.


this is the new position of the right side.


according to my bently manual, the drive shaft needs to be centered between the bracket bolts. on my car, there are 13 inches between these two positions. previously it was an inch to the right. now it is centered quite well.



here is a pic of my modified shift arm. the front half is from the e30 and the rear half came from the mz3. the e30 part slides into the z3 piece with an interference fit. that worked out well because i was able to hold it in place easily to weld the two together. also, toward the front of the shaft, i put an upward bend to clear the large eta guibo.



this one is a photo of my modified carrier. it is centered well but i think i may put a bit of twist to make the socket completely flat.



i'm really happy with the position of the shifter in the cockpit. i won't know if it is comfortable until i start driving the car but it is centered almost perfectly.

[flyboyx]

today was a good day because i accomplished two things. i fixed the leak in my air conditioning circuit and i got my diagnostic port working.

my air conditioning leak was due to the fender bender the car had been in before i purchased it. there had been a slight accident on the front passenger side of the car. the hood, passenger fender, headlight and the core support had been pushed back a couple of inches due to my neighbor's wife rear ending an suv. anyway, this pushed the hood support brace back into the valve stem on the high pressure line, tweaking it slightly. that was enough to cause a little break in the line that isn't visible to the eye. i replaced the line with one from a parts car. i found the leak by making an adapter that fits between the low pressure valve stem and my air compressor. i filled the system with about 80 psi and squirted soapy water everywhere until i found bubbles.

the other milestone of the day is that i got my diagnostic port working so i could read the fault codes. i had two wires to fix. the first wire was my #19 of the x20. i had it labeled as tachometer speed out from someone else's obd2 diagram. this was completely wrong. it is actually the service interval reset. and should be connected to c101 pin 11 which is a white/blue.

so i took care of that and the diagnostic port still didn't work. dammit! i picked up my volt meter and compared the voltage at the pins that line up with the reset tool and found that i didn't have any 12v power going to the pins. the ground was ok, so i started reverse engineering the the wiring and comparing it to my wiring diagrams posted above. the culprit is pin 22 (green/white) of my x20. i have it listed as x6002 data link connector(reverse light) to a 10 amp fuse. it was not connected to anything so i tied it into a 10 amp fuse in my aux fuse box. presto!

i have a shitload of codes. since i have stock obd2 wiring and dme from an mz3 roady, the directions with my peake scan tool say to use chart #2. the codes are:

e4- o2 sensor adaption limit cyl 4-6
e3- o2 sensor adaption limit cyl 1-3
4f- after cat o2 sensor heater cyl 1-3
37- precat o2 sensor heater cyl 4-6
19- precat o2 sensor heater cyl 1-3
3d- after cat o2 sensorheater cyl 4-6

these above, i am not that concerned about because i don't have the exhaust hooked up after the manifolds. this means the rear o2 sensors aren't even plugged in. i think all of those will go away once i get my exhaust modified and hung on the car.

there are 4 more codes for me to worry about though.

45- electrical fuel pump relay i am going to have to look into this one, but i am pretty sure that the e30 has its own fuel pump relay on the body. i know that i have 50 psi of fuel at the rail when the key is on.

32- evap systems running losses valve.

06- fuel injector cylinder 1

08- air mass sensor

i can't imagine that my air mass sensor is bad, but what the hell do i know? i think if i get the last 4 on the list taken care of i'll be good to go.