flyboyX's obd2 s52 engine swap blog

[flyboyx]

actually, i haven't gotten to that solution yet. the key and tumbler with ring antenna is still hanging from the wires and laying on the floor of my car. what you mentioned above is a good idea. i was more thinking along the lines of mounting it under the knee bolster somewhere out of the way that wouldn't be seen. this way i could choose to leave the key in the tumbler or remove it at my discretion. one way or another, i need to go to the stealership and get a spare key made, just in case. i still have the tittle laying around from the parts car but it isn't in my name.

[flyboyx]

after carving pumpkins with the kids this evening, i finished up my cooling fan and took a few photos in the event someone else would like to use the same system. since the 750iL fan is about 3 or 4 inches larger in diameter, the condenser brackets had to be changed to make it work. i cut the bracket off the top of the condenser and welded it to a reshaped lower bracket on the passenger side of the car.


my solution to make this fan fit was to rotate it about 60 degrees clockwise. that puts the upper right mount at the 360 degree position. i cut out some of the metal on the bottom of the upper core support because the diameter of the fan is too large to fit in the core support opening. this also gave me a good solid place to mount the top bolt.





the third mount was a little more complicated. i had to fabricate a bracket to secure it properly to the condenser. i folded the original mounting point flat and bolted the top part of my fabricated bracket to that point. i welded to the bottom condenser mount but that probably wasn't necessary. two #8 bolts would have worked if you don't have access to a welder.



here is a pic with the fan installed. it pretty much takes up the opening in the core support plus another inch.



this is a closeup of the top of the fan installed in the opening i cut in the underside of the upper core support



finally, the wiring pigtail on the 750i fan is really short. my solution was to cut the pigtail off my old fan and also about a foot and a half of the wiring from one my parts cars. they are spliced together under the black plastic sheath.



for me, this solution was a lot cheaper than the spal that most everyone uses. from an electrical standpoint, i think it is a better choice because it is a factory part that you can just extend the wiring and plug in. also, like the e30 fan, it comes with the three wire design with resistor so you get two speeds just like a factory fan. i have not run it yet to test it, but i think it will do a good job of keeping my engine cool. it may also allow me to use my m42 radiator so i can eliminate the reservoir on my driver side fender well.

[flyboyx]

this morning before i started my trip, i tested out the aux fan circuit. to do this, i turned on the ignition and jumper-ed the circuit at the three prong radiator switch. low speed worked great, but high speed blew the fuse. after cross referencing, i found the number three fuse that i blew is actually for low speed. it turns out that the high and low wires in the 750i fan are in opposite positions compared to the e30. good news with this plug: it can be taken apart very easily. all you have to do is slide the tie wrap off the connector, open up the plastic retainer, and swap terminals to the correct position. when the high speed circuit is connected, that thing will really blow some serious air! now that it is tested and i know it works, i feel really confident that all of my cooling issues are taken care of.

[SS350]

hey man, i haven't heard from you in a while. send me a pm and let me know how your swap is going.

for your fan, can't you just splice the wires into the original three wire plug that powered your fan? that is what i plan to do. this way i get low and high speed when it gets really warm. that way it comes in automatically and you don't have to worry about turning it on manually.

Hey, yea I was sorta MIA for a while trying to get everything together in time, all sorts of minor fit-up issues and going to Manual Brakes last minute (fit up of the hydro-boost was SO tight in the LH side of engine bay- and I didnt want to extend all the lines and mount it on the RH side of the bay b/c I wasnt sure about line losses) soo that got in the way... I had an original goal of late Sept to run the car... and a worst case goal of Thanksgiving to be driving it. I made it... The car runs and drives (With exhaust) as of early this week. It pulls GOOD :D There are obviously little things i need to finish.

Anyways I did figure out how to wire my fan, i broke apart the stock seized AC fan and cut the 2 wires such that i connected the brown to the fans ground and the hot to the hot and maintain the resistor and 3pin plug. I did have to change the red and black pins around on the 3-pin connector going into the harness to allow it to turn ON with the AC switch in the dash. Once everything is working I will double-check the wiring and get it to turn on per the actual switch in the radiator.

The Spal puller fan WAS more expensive, I like your solution, but I was rushing and already messed around with a bunch of other brackets on the engine, It DOES however have nice dovetails in it to mount it to the supplied straps, check out some of the newer pics of my swap when you have time so u can see the fitment.

Goodluck on yours, keep it up! I'm sure you will be pleased with the end result! BTW that supercharger will be AWESOME!!!!!! I'm kinda thinking, now that I have one (mostly) down, a turbo M52 might be kinda fun! Epecisally if it truly is a project car which needs no deadline, that way i could take my time and shop around and keep the budget down this time!! Or LS1, or turbo-diesel plow truck, or drift car....

Or... i'll just save for a house!

(btw, unlike e30tech, my account wasn't set here to subscribe automatically once a comment was made, but NOW I am subscribed!!)

[E30m52b28]

I know its a long shot but did you ever get a final wiring pinout?