My N52B30 + GS6-17BG

[caelanng]

Hey guys, about 2 weeks ago I pulled the motor on my E30 because I got way too good of a deal on an N52 and 6spd so I guess I'm doing this swap now... I'm doing this swap with the help of my buddy who owns a shop in Campbell CA called "Geist Works", and big thanks to hoveringuy for all the help and support with all of my random questions / his custom oil pan.

Motor dropped in extremely easily, I'm running the Z4 Engine Arms + Condor 24V swap brackets (AKG was OOS). For my transmission I'm running the GS6-17BG with stock E30 transmission brace and stock E30 transmission mounts. Fully resealed motor, with new timing chain and guides, I didn't want to run into issues in the future and while the motor is out of the car, it's a "might as well" item. The headers are bull boost which I run into future issues with, all the basic N52 maintenance items new water pump, power steering pump, idlers, pulleys, belt, and mickey mouse flange. I'm running the N54 intake manifold and throttle body as well as the N54 Oil filter housing so I can run an oil cooler, I'm just going to make AN lines for this so I can just run the stock E30 oil cooler as it's already in a pretty good place.

For the transmission I'm using the Valeo single mass kit, it was on sale on autozone of all places for like $800 and shipped to my door in 3 days so I just said screw it might as well... New fork, brass pivot, E36 slave cylinder and I'm running the Lantzfab wilwood clutch cylinder with a stock stainless E30 clutch line. The shifter I replaced with Garagistic Delrin bushings, the entire shifter assembly is completely stock GS6-17BG shift lever / selector rod, and it PERFECTLY fits into the stock E30 shifter carrier, no modifications needed at all, and it shifts absolutely amazing. Maybe an autosolutions 25% reduce in the future? but I honestly just like the current shift throw and it's not notchy af. I haven't fit a driveshaft yet, but it honestly looks like stock E30 driveshaft may fit, not to speak too soon but the length is almost identical, my only concern is the guibo but every site says they are the same. I have a new CSB and Guibo which I'm going to test tonight with stock E30 driveshaft.




(you can see the header clearance issue here)

[caelanng]

Next up was pan, again thanks to hoveringuy. Super easy to weld because I had my friend do it so I put in absolutely 0 effort just $$$ into this aluminum pan. Was about $600 from SCS, beautiful pan here are a couple pics. Dipstick tube isn't shortened yet but it's just an M50 dipstick tube with an E30 325i dipstick. Had to grind down the end of the M50 dipstick to press fit right into the small tube on the pan, then cut the top of the M50 to get the length perfect on the dipstick side.

[caelanng]

For brake booster, I'm hoping to just use stock E30. I have trumpets on order from 22RPD, but they're still developing them so In the meantime I'm going to go OEM. I thought there would be horrible clearance issues so I also went with N54 intake, which perfectly clears the stock E30 brake booster, tonnes of room I honestly haven't even tried fitting the stock single stage intake manifold on it, but it would probably fit. I'm hoping to just make a simple line from the vacuum pump to the brake booster, we will see how that works out haha. When I eventually run trumpets I'll be going VTA catch can, but for now I have the printables auto n54 intake offset inserts, and their n54 intake manifold conversion kit.



(the dipstick tube isn't fully pressed in here btw)

[caelanng]

Now the worst part, wiring... I absolutely hate wiring. The E92 I got for $400 was an MSV80 car, so I said screw it I'm going to run MSV80. I have the Redline Motorsport N52 MSV80 E30 swap adapter harness connected to a stock E92 Engine Harness. I haven't figured any of this out yet but I still have the cas module, and ekp module because I'm 99% sure I need them. The E92 harness isn't long enough to fit into the glove box, but my OBD2 port sticks out from inside the glove box, where the old light used to be, hopefully no light in the glove box will be fine the only time I use my glove box is to reach for my reg and insurance for when I get pulled over, but that never happens because I'm a responsible driver (this is a lie). My ECU is going to sit in the battery tray for now and I'll make a small enclosure for it, unless I can find a way to easily fit the ECU into the glove box. For fueling I'm running a Walboro 255LPH as 22RPD said that's all I need for running our amazing (garbage) California 91 with the trumpets. The Walboro 255 also not CRAZY loud but it should be fine as this is still a "street car"...



Next up cooling system, again this may be a struggle on this car but we will see as I'm not entirely there yet. The stock E30 radiator fits but leaves barely any room for a fan. So I have to get a lower profile radiator, if anyone has any idea for what to do for a radiator and fan that they personally fit, let me know because I'm interested. I'm using the stock E30 expansion tank, I got a new one as it's super cheap and not yellow like everything else in my engine bay. I might have to cut the lower part underneath the rad to tuck the radiator behind the AC condenser, oh this car will also have air conditioning and heat, still need to figure out custom lines for that.



Final bit of my initial photo dump will be about the exhaust. I have bull boost headers because they're pretty local and cheaper than the alibaba ones, they were like 350 and came in less than 48 hours. They interfere with the lower control arm bushing so my solution was to get some AKG spherical bushings so the header can clear, and well it still only BARELY clears, so I'm going to cut them and shift them slightly to the driver side to clear the passenger side lower control arm bushing. For the exhaust I want it to be quiet, I already have a magnaflow dual 2.25" catback on the car. I'm going to run a dual 2" inlet to single 2.5" outlet, into a vibrant ultra quiet 2.5" resonator, back into a single 2.5" inlet to dual 2.25" outlet to my standard Magnaflow catback. All 304 stainless from summit and ebay although the "ebay 304 stainless" doesn't seem to actually be stainless lol... so I wouldn't recommend buying from them in the future... I don't really have great pics of the headers not clearing so here's a picture of my catback and another picture with the lollipop removed so the headers can stay bolted on.




Anyways that's it for the first 10 days of my N52 swapped E30, hoping to get it running by mid february I'm honestly just waiting on parts and exhaust to be welded. Let me know if you have any questions or any insights on what I can do for the swap. Really need some help with cooling system ideas and AC ideas. Also where can I get the EKP wires/connectors from?

[Caperix]

Only your first page of pictures are loading but it looks great. On the wiring, there are a few places that claim to be able to do an ews delete on MSV80, then you would not need the cas & key. E70 MSV80 cars use a fuel pump relay instead of an EKPS so the shop doing the ews delete may be able to change the coding for that as well. There were also MSV80.1 e83's that use ews 3 and e46 bus structure, I'm not sure if hardware difference are present between the two other than the radiator outlet temp sensor input & sulev radiator sensor input as e9x n51 cars also used MSV80.1. I think as more is learned about these DME's it will open up more swap options.