N52 > e30 CAD templates for oil pan, engine arms, and other fun parts

[hoveringuy]

Why do you need to move it?

The M20 mounts are 45mm tall and the DOHC ones are 65mm.

45mm is a much better height, actually, so there are plenty of ways to adapt to the M20 ones

There may even be DOHC ones that aren't as tall as AKG.

[plain325]

Looks like I'm ordering e85 arms. I liked the idea of having oe rubber mounts, but if these fit without mods, i am going to have to deal with the poly.

I am about to order the material for the oil pan, but looks like I will have to move the back wall by about 1/2", This looks like it will cut capacity by 1/3 quart.

[hubcapboy]

I could have saved a ton of time and effort if I’d slowed down a week or two and tried the combo he did above. Most of our challenges adapting those arms now are as a result of pieces we made to fit *around* the steel arms and it’s a miracle they’re backwards compatible.

[hubcapboy]

I would love to help out the community, i have taken so much info over the years. Hubcapboy hasnt been active since June, i hope everything it ok....

I’m here and there… the car is paused on stands with the engine waiting for a cooling system. Hoveringuy keeps me honest by reminding me I should be working on it 3-4 times a day, but he sets a high bar. Fourth engine, fourth subframe?

[hoveringuy]

I have an important update!

I have, up until now, been running the CAD developed steel engine arms with the hydraulic mounts. Really no issue with them, except that clearance to the radiator was very tight, and the hydro mounts were very close to the Power Steering ports on the rack, to the point where I had to slide the rack a bit for clearance.

There's long been rumor and innuendo that the E85 arms could work, the last person to mention it was CWLO who said he cut them and repositioned by 1". We never really got the explanation of why those were cut and shifted 1", but took it as fact that they wouldn't fit without modification, hence the CAD steel arms.

I've now switched to the E85 arms, completely unmodified, and they fit GREAT! I'm running a set of AKG generic DOHC mounts. The motor is now about 14mm further back and about 10mm higher in the front. The lifting of the engine actually aligns it better with the radiator and my total clearance at the top has increased a whopping 7/8".

So, E85 arms fit perfect. The motor will have a solid 1 1/2" of clearance to the radiator. The shifter will sit where it should. LOTS of clearance for exhaust, steering shaft and such. The CAD oil pan at the beginning of this thread still fits, although clearance to the rack decreased from 3/4" to maybe 1/8".

Finally, I will add that the hydro mounts DO work for being smooth. I have noticeably more vibrations with the 70A poly mounts.

[plain325]

I would love to help out the community, i have taken so much info over the years. Hubcapboy hasnt been active since June, i hope everything it ok....

[DEV0 E30]

Would you be willing to rent your original prototype arms out? I am on the east coast, so shipping will be necessary. I am thinking that i could make a few templates off your arms, then share them with the community(after i make myself a set of course)
I am in the "collecting parts" phase of swapping to an N52, supposed to pick up an engine monday.

If you or others started making copies for parts needed for this swap, the community and myself would be thankful.

[plain325]

Would you be willing to rent your original prototype arms out? I am on the east coast, so shipping will be necessary. I am thinking that i could make a few templates off your arms, then share them with the community(after i make myself a set of course)
I am in the "collecting parts" phase of swapping to an N52, supposed to pick up an engine monday.

[projectJTv4]

This is quite amazing, thank you for sharing to the community!

[DEV0 E30]

Many thanks to you both. You and the other N52 people in here are the real MVPs.

It was said some time ago, can we get an N52 subforum now?

I think it's time for me to start planning this to happen in the touring.

[hoveringuy]

My engine could move aft maybe 8 or 10mm but no more. At that point the pan is getting close to the rack
The pan could be made narrower, but then you lose oil capacity
It's fine how it is

[hubcapboy]

No guarantees on how helpful any of this will be to anyone else, but throughout my project people have been asking for CAD or for parts to follow along on their own cars... I haven't wanted to do this up until now (preferring to concentrate efforts on getting my car done, and worried that I'd get everyone to the same point in a project that couldn't be completed) but we have a solid year of running on hoveringuy 's incredible machine using these parts, and he's getting very lonely. There are a few things to know if you download these and rely on them:

1. The best guide is just following through the other threads here (the huge discussion thread and my build thread) and whenever you see a part that was laser cut, you should find it flattened in this file.

2. The engine arm geometry proved to be too tricky for a "self assembling" engine arm. I have jigs that were built from my early prototypes that my engine arms and hoveringuy's engine arms were assembled on. Someone will need access to either these jigs or my prototype arms to make engine arms, but once a set is out there my hope is that they'll get copied if people like this design. Hoveringuy's set isn't available because they're firmly secured to his engine block under the hood and kicking ass daily. I'm in the Seattle area and I haven't had electrical service to weld here at my house for about 6 months (long story) so we'll need to make arrangements. My original plan was to tack these up myself and distribute them as "you finish welding."

3. There's been dispute over the longitudinal position of the engine (that it could be moved back further.) My engine position was partially decided by wanting to use the N52 3-stage intake, which is enormous, and would conflict with the e30 heater hoses coming out of the firewall if I went back any further. It would also create clearance problems with my choice to use the Bosch electric brake booster. If you have any other combination of intake and brake booster, hoveringuy has a best guess that if you re-locate the motor mount holes in the arms when you have them cut by 8mm, you'll still have 10mm clearance between this pan design and the steering rack. This isn't enough to be able to cut a second hole (it would turn into a slot) so it's not possible to cut both and choose later. You could further modify both the oil pan and engine arms to shift further back, but you'd start creating conflicts that we haven't discovered.

4. There is an absolute ton of work to do in addition to having these cut, but I think anyone tackling this is well aware.

5. The only piece that I made for the swap that isn't included here is the adaptor for the oil pick up tube to the oil pump, because it was turned on a lathe and not cut from plate (so the sourcing is very different). If you have access to a lathe, this is a very easy part to reproduce.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jH2NTVyfXpbvH98rMXtXlgL9ND-waoTZ/view?usp=sharing