M54. Let the foolishness begin.

[StereoInstaller1]

Wow, what a build.

That thermostat housing, just beautiful.

I really don't understand why you care so much about your bench grinders' speed, but I am sure you have your reasons.

[evil_twin]

Hey, so are you going to run both vanos? I don't know if you found a way to run both of them, but if you haven't let me know, I have an idea for you :)

[hoveringuy]

Exhaust

No suprises here. The OBD2 manifolds bolt right up. The exhaust ports have more of a square shape than I remember on the M50 or is that my imagination? One thing I learned from my last swap is to not tighten the manifold nuts down until the downpipe flanges are mated. Those were a b!tch to line up last time.

The air injection port on the M54 head is blocked and the manifold ports are welded.

Did I mention the engine is aluminum? It's super-duper light. I'll use the engine hoist to pull the M50 out but will probably just lift the M54 in by hand...

[318isbmw]

Looking good. I'm seriously excited to see this work in an e30.

[GiedriusLTU]

what will u do with ASC/DSC unit? :) (sorry for mistakes, low grammar)

[DaN]

Good work dude, keep blazing that trail.

[hoveringuy]

Veteran's Day

A day to thank those that have served before us, relax, and work on projects.

FedEx also delivers today which means I got the last pieces of my cooling system puzzle in. I had previously ordered e36 radiator hoses but still didn't have a way to connect them to the new-style modular connection on my Bling! thermostat housing. I've been planning on scrapping some M54 hoses to salvage the plastic connectors but since I didn't find a place to mount the e30 temp sender I had to re-think everything.

My final piece is the lower M54 hose which has the two plastic snap connectors, but the one that goes to the radiator also has a bung for mounting a temperature sensor. On the M54, this measures radiator outlet temp and is used to trigger the variable speed electric fan.

For me, I've moved it to the outlet of the thermostat and it's where my e30 gauge sender will find a home. The bung was the perfect size for an M14 tap and the sender screws right in. It's not the perfect solution, but I'll be measuring water temp close to engine temp once the thermostat opens.

I'm not sure why they added a temperature sensor to the thermostat housing, but it also measures inlet water temp. I'll probably plug that hole.

I've cut a few inches off the top e36 hose to compensate for the plastic piece and I may need to trim another 1" off. Better to do that in the car.

The lower hose is completely stock M54 with the radiator connector removed. I found that the e36 hose would NOT work because the angle of the thermostat housing is changed to clear the exhaust VANOS solenoid.

Notice the lack of a crank position sensor mount and toothed wheel. I don't even think there's room for one with the revised hose routing. Unfortunately, the A/C pulley is part of the vibration damper and can't be removed seperately. Will I need to remove the whole thing to clear the motor on install?? Maybe.

Yes, that's a new NAPA 2 ton folding shop crane. Thanks for noticing.

[Mot]

awesome work, I'm enjoying reading your progress, that motor should be a lot of fun in an e30.

[hoveringuy]

Heater hose

I went to Napa auto parts and got a generic molded heater hose with a 90 degree bend to go on my newly grafted fitting. The hose will get a "T" fitting at the appropriate place when I get the motor in the chassis for the coolant resevoir.

I put the manifold back on and am really pleased with how well the pipe modification came out. In addition to greatly simplifying the plumbing it also gets the pipe out of the way of the throttle mechanism, which was a problem before.

I'd love to bolt the manifold down permanently and call it "done" but I haven't touched the knock sensors yet. I either need to buy a set (anyone have some spares?) or wait until I pull my M50 out and use those.

In any case, the motor is getting close to being done.

[hoveringuy]

More signs of progress

I've finished all the big-ticket items and have been chipping away at the little details, there's a lot of them.

First, I visited Willise30 and installed the Hall to VR circuit in his beautiful S52. It didn't run at first (no voltage due to voltage at crank. Duh!) but when we got the right power connection it started right away and revved gloriously with his sweet new exhaust. So the circuit works end-to-end with a rear mounted Hall sender on OBD1. That's done.

I also completed a VANOS check with compressed air and the solenoid to verify that the cam advances and retards Ok. It did. More importantly, I rotated the engine through 720 degrees with the intake cams advanced all the way to verify no mechanical interference between valves and pistons . I've heard that's bad. Fortunately, no problems even with my head skimmed .006. Also, I measured the actual advance and it came out to 21 degrees. I've heard it will be less than that with oil.

Some people have asked how I intend to run a dual-VANOS motor on a 413 ecu which is obviously only designed for the intake cam. What about the exhaust cam and what about the full variable operation? The answer is that I'll leave the exhaust cam fully advanced at all times, just like an S50. The intake cam will advance and retard just like an S50, but will have greater advance. How will it run? I don't know. Might need to physically limit cam travel if the advance turns out to be too much.

The exhaust cam, from what I have found, is used mainly for emissions on this motor. It's used to heat the cats quicker at startup and also increased part throttle torque by reducing pumping losses.

I still haven't found a home for my e30 cluster temp sender. There's no obvious place to put it.

The picture is the water return pipe. The one on top goes to the heater core and the one with the brass adapter comes from the core and the expansion tank. I cut about 8" off that pipe because it originally went down to where the PS resevoir is. This will allow me to keep an e36 PS resevoir which will let me keep an e36 alternator. The Turner adapter won't fit in the M54 block, so I epoxied a brass adapter on the pipe. The pipe has almost exactly a 1"OD which made this really easy!

[matt]

Edit: I should add that I've noticed it seems to run in wasted spark mode without the cam sensor. That is, plugs 1 & 6 are firing simultaneously, not sequentially.

Yep, that's one of its many failsafe modes. It can't know specifically which one to fire without the cam sensor.

This is cool, keep up the good work.

[hoveringuy]

Dry fire!

I've finished mashing the two harnesses together. I used most of the e34 harness and spliced in the M54 injector and coil sections, which look nice on the motor. In addition, the m54 runs the coolant temp sensor, intake temp sensor and intake VANOS actuator through the injector wiring box so I moved the e34 ones there, as well. Almost all the sensors match the plugs exactly, the only exception being that the cam sender plug is male and so is the engine pigtail. I guess I'll switch to an M50 sender.

The cool part is that I got the motor to dry fire. That is, I connected the ECU, connected power and the ignition voltage, generated a crank signal and watched the sparkplugs go off. It's pretty cool. I'll verify a few more little things like injector signals and the fuel pump relay.

To do: where is my e30 temp sender going to go? The M54 has a mounting bung on the inlet side of the thermostat that was meant to help control the cooling fan. I could mount it there and read inlet water temps or find a place on the head.

Edit: I should add that I've noticed it seems to run in wasted spark mode without the cam sensor. That is, plugs 1 & 6 are firing simultaneously, not sequentially.

[hoveringuy]

Maybe you covered it but I still dont get how youre going to run a dual vanos motor on a DME that can only run single vanos.

You're right, the 413 can only run the intake. I will only have the intake VANOS and leave the exhaust VANOS disconnected. Intake will be an on/off affair. Motor should end up looking like an S50 to the ECU. I could be wrong. There's a difference between getting it running and getting it tuned and running well, I hope to get it running first. I've read in a few places that 90% of the exhaust VANOS function is for internal EGR and for fast cat warmup. Maybe 10% is for power.

Instead of changing to the M52 injector and coil wiring stuff, I would get rid of the e34 injector harness box and replace it with 6 individual injector connectors and leave the coil connectors the same. I would use the stock OBDII e36 coils (I would think they would fit) and the e34 coil harness.

Yeah, I suppose that's another way of doing it. The M54 fuel wiring box also has water temp, air temp and intake VANOS connectors nicely integrated into it. Is that the way the M52 is, as well? I don't know if it's the same as M52 or not.

[matt]

Instead of changing to the M52 injector and coil wiring stuff, I would get rid of the e34 injector harness box and replace it with 6 individual injector connectors and leave the coil connectors the same. I would use the stock OBDII e36 coils (I would think they would fit) and the e34 coil harness.

[madjurgen]

Maybe you covered it but I still dont get how youre going to run a dual vanos motor on a DME that can only run single vanos.