Another N52 swap attempt!

[Striker01]

Got some goodies today. Huge Thank You to hoveringuy!!

[Striker01]

I pulled up the carpet on the driver's side to weld in a nut for the e90 pedal and found some rust. Because I'm unable to leave well enough alone and just fix around the pedal and move on, I decided to pull the carpet and see how much more there is. Not my brightest moment I guess. Found a bunch more, especially on the passenger side. I guess the swap will have to wait a couple weeks while I fix the holy floor.

I know I'm not going back with that thick rubber firewall insulation, it was rusted through on a few of the studs for those plastic nuts.

Do you guys see any issue with permanently sealing up these giant plugs that were loose despite the seam sealer?

[Striker01]

Slowly but surely making progress. Got the N52 stripped down and cleaned up, just waiting on parts for it now.






My headers arrived from Poland, weird they were faster than stuff I order from some places here in the states. The OD of the headers is 2" at the flange so I think I'll just try to run my Stromung M20 exhaust to get started, it's 1 7/8 OD, and just have to build a center section with new cats.


The M20 is out of the car, hopefully I can sell some of the stuff off of it to fund a small portion of this swap.



On a side note, with no engine in the car, all I need is a Saltlife sticker on the back and I'm ready to cruise the streets of NC. ;)

[Striker01]

Not much at all. Look for broken bolts when you pull the valve cover off, the oil filter housing gasket is a must. eccentric shaft sensor seal and VVT motor seal. All easy.

Thanks, I'll add those seals to the order list.

I made a little progress this weekend. Built a stand to hold the N52 while I clean it up and prep it and got the underside stuff out of the way so I can pull the M20. My brother helped label the harness, what we could figure out anyway, and pulled that off.






Z4 arms and DOHC mounts are ordreed, unfortunately one of the arms is a 3 week estimated wait. Found some AA looking headers from Poland or somewhere for about $300 shipped so I ordered those to try. I have the MSV70 DME, Z4 Harness and IVM on hand, EKP on the way.

Hoping Nando stops in here so I can get in touch with him to get my DME ready to go, sent a PM.

[hoveringuy]

Kinda wondering how far I should tear it down before installing. It's so filthy the only thing I can tell that needs replacing is the valve cover gasket.

Not much at all. Look for broken bolts when you pull the valve cover off, the oil filter housing gasket is a must. eccentric shaft sensor seal and VVT motor seal. All easy.

[Striker01]

Thanks guys!! I've got hubcapboy's incomplete of stuff needed and started ordering parts.

Kinda wondering how far I should tear it down before installing. It's so filthy the only thing I can tell that needs replacing is the valve cover gasket.

I kept the front section of the 328 driveshaft, wasn't sure if my driveshaft will bolt right up or not and haven't seen much discussion with the shorter 6 speed about it.

[hoveringuy]

Perfect combination! Start shopping for E85 Z4 engine mount arms and that motor will drop right in.

[DEV0 E30]

Welcome to the fold!

[Striker01]

Hi gents. Been following the N52 stuff for quite a while, amazed at the progress and solutions you have come up with to get this swap working. Maybe one day I'll have the skills to build a set of headers as pretty as those LukeJ made, that's impressive work.

My car is an 88 325IS.

I was hoping to do this swap later, ideally when we build a shop, but my M20 had other plans. Just got my head back from a machine shop because it's been losing a little coolant since I ordered a rebuilt one almost 5 years ago and I've changed every component of the existing cooling system since then, oil has never looked peanut buttery and compression is fine. Shop said the head was warped and my cam was bad but just needed to be resurfaced and cam replaced. Got it home and installed a new Schrick 272 cam, valve springs and rockers. Got it all back together and 14 minutes into the cam break in it started spitting coolant from what I thought was the water pump gasket. Turns out I was wrong, pressure test revealed this:




I have no idea how it cracked there, temp gauge never even got to half while we were running it. Anyway, I'm tired of spending money on this engine, 2nd head job in 5 years, adjusting valves, and a rattling G260 that's getting up there in age.

I started browsing the web and found a crashed 2011 128i with 107,000 miles and a six speed. Guy drove the car into the garage where my brother and I pulled it, so I at least know it runs. Pretty nasty but the power steering reservoir had a crack that was RTVed so hopefully it's mostly from that. Although that probably doesn't say much for the overall care this poor engine received, at least it runs, more than I can say for my existing one.




I'm excited to get started on this, my progress will be slower than some of you guys but I'll get there.

Hopefully hoveringuy will be willing to provide advice and help to another rotor driver ;)