MtecII S38 swap

[M-technik-3]

That's the car from DC correct that was rusty? Wondering where it made off too.

[Sharino]

The car is from Saskatchewan, Canada, where it was imported from Japan. It now resides in Winnipeg, Canada awaiting engine. Its free of rust, only has 33,000 miles.

[Alpina]

This is a major case,, and i dont mind if sombody else do not agree with me,,

1) take the subframe from the car and locate the engine in position 2,, dont take nr3 if that is an option,, because then it is a firewall sledgehammer operation.. put the engine ON the subframe incl gearbox,, and up it goes,, the airbox must be disambled from the engine,, belive me it is the dead easiest way,, and remember dont forget the gearbox.. i am taking the box out of my car at the moment and this is like ,,, TAKE II everything was lowered 10+ cm so i could get to the bolt on the box,, a nightmare and a tremendeous amount of work ,, just so i could take the gearbox out,, it is imposseble to stall the engine ,, BELEAVE me

2) you can use the ix booster or E34 M5 as i did,, as oem BMW .. there are other solutions on other boosters as well,, the M5 booster have 25 mm master (( i have E30 M3 5 lug and the car brakes extremely well )) i had to redrill som holes,,10-15 mm to the left for the booster so the airbox would fit,, very tight indeed

3) 300mm.de engine mounts BUY them,, dont be a welding genius if you have no experience with welding or metalwork,, i had to rework A LOT on the exhaust side of the mounts,, a lot cutted away and welded together for max strength,, i was pissed about this job,, and i think it have something to do with the B38 headers

4) lower the subframe ,, also from 300mm.de ( i had them made by lathe )
you must lower the subframe,,, why?? ,, if not ,,you will accept a ugly bulge in your bonnet,, do we want that.. no i guess not


5) I am not familiar with S38B36,, but on S38B38 you must ,, get the speedsignal in to the ECU,, if not,, the engine will be running like freereving,, and a loads of torque and ponies are missing ,, belive me,, BEEN THERE DONE THAT,, and the difference is astonishing

6) Wiring together E30 vs S38 loom is out of my knowledge,, had it done for me and all infos are on 300mm.de

7) driveshaft,, haha,, I do not know how other guys are doing it ,, but i used the front of the E34 M5 driveshaft ,, and welded together with the rear part of E30,,
notabene,, be aware of the location of the driveshaft bearring,, this was done on a lathe shop,, everything must be balanced,,

8) unplugg the emission pump,, and the A/C unit.. it will never fit anyway and is also useless IMO

9) be aware about the Steering pump,, and pay atention,, ALL E34 M5 have SLS/NIVAU regelerung (( self leveling suspension )) therefore there are 3 output on the pump
1 in 1 out and one 1 for rearsuspension,, inside the pump there are pistons that pump the fluid to the rear ,, pill them out,, if not ,, there is a SURE result for overcooking the pump

You must mix together the e30 steering unit with the S38 pump unit

Here is a picture,, and you must connect 2 of them together,, look how i had it done ,, on a hydralic shop,, take all the oem pipes with you and measure it up,, it would be best that a pro man who knows about this would take a look first



10)The radiator.. make it out of a heating element ,, and the radiator must be located behind the kidneys and inside the frame of the car ,, CUSTOMBUILDT,, totally

11) cooling fan is an E34 540 A/C fan,, going reverse,, and it is superb,, you must figure out how to get the fan to run,, when temp is up on the right turning point


12) use THR balljpoint,, for clearance of the exhaust,, you can not use oem




some pictures..

















If you are thinking using S38B35,,, FORGET IT,, it is utterly slow vs S38B36 and B38
then i would use the M30

This is a lot of a project ,, and my advice is DONT DO IT,, take the EURO S50B32 and the performance is similair,, but cost of the instalation is a joke vs S38

S50 is as long as m20.. the length between the sparkplug from cyl 1-6 is exactly the same by 000.000 mm and you can use the same radiator,, oem S50 engine mounts and so on
but the booster have to be small

BUT on otherhand the S38 is a lot cooler project vs S50 ,, and IMO S38B38 is the ultimate 6 cyl swapp,, thats why i did it ,, but i dont recommend it,, the overall pricetag went to the moon ,, unbeliveble how many ,, all kinds of bills were totally going on

My car is 1450 kg dryweight,, and the performance on slower speed is almost equal with Z3 ///M roadster ((321 hp)) but on higher speed i think i have the advantage
the 335 E9x dont have a chance at all,, the best 1/4 time is 13.28 on 36psi in tires @ 107 mph.. the torque of B38 is fantastic,, 400 nm/295 lbs-ft and 340 hp if everyting is working as it should,, stunning power and enogh for an E30

i hope this helps a little bit,, and sorry for all the pictures of my car ,, it was not meaning to STEAL your thread

[Sharino]

Thanks for the info, I found your pictures elsewhere already and have them bookmarked. I have the mounts already from 30mm.de and I have a 2 E34 M5s, one is my daily driver, which I already did the sls delete on, so I am familar with the pump, and the second is the donor engine, it is the S38B36.

I am sure I will have more questions as I go on, I will probably order the spacers now and get the Treehouse CABs.

[Alpina]

Thanks for the info, I found your pictures elsewhere already and have them bookmarked. I have the mounts already from 30mm.de and I have a 2 E34 M5s, one is my daily driver, which I already did the sls delete on, so I am familar with the pump, and the second is the donor engine, it is the S38B36.

I am sure I will have more questions as I go on, I will probably order the spacers now and get the Treehouse CABs.

Ok,, then keep us informed ,,

i will take pistures of my ..Take 2 engine install,,

[msinger]

not strikers car, i work on mine/have mine worked on in his shop. I almost got this one but the paint scared me off, this a dream swap of mine, but not financially viable for me at the moment. good luck with the swap, do a full writeup so those of us who still dream about it can see how its done!

[bimmer_E30]

Awesome!

[Massive Lee]

Is there anyway to run that motor without the bulky front-mounted twin-tube manifold from the cooling system?

[ja burna]

This swap is becoming coming in europe as these become more and more available.. The pics on the E30.de is for the the M88 engine. While it looks the same you still have some fab work to do. Not much if you take ur time. I did this swap and mine is 95% complete, just got install the meth/water inj kit..

I ran 3.46 diff ration
I used the CR dogleg box from the E30M3, bolts right up.. Driveshaft will have to be shortened

Spacers and mounts were from 300mm.de. I also use my e30 solid mounts to make stronger.
I used a custom radiator w/spal pusher fan that sits between the front rad support and frame. The radiator sits at angle for better cooling
Im using the BMC CDA carbon airbox instead of the regular airbox

This motor was stroked out using an s38b38 crank, so my diplacement increased so now I call it a b37 motor! Motor was built from the ground up with everything performance minded. Im expecting at 400hp!..
Let see how this meth/water inj works!
Tuning will be done via ALPHA-N

PM me if you have any more questions!
Lets get this thing done!

Don't forget to upgrade your suspension and brakes!
When I get back from patrol I will be ordering Lees 332x32 fr/r kit!

[Sharino]

I have been going slow on this swap lately, been busy with other things, as well as doing my research. I have the E30 MtecII engine bay gutted and cleaned up, removed the front subframe and getting it ready to paint, as well as powder coating the E30.de mounts.

The M5 donor car has been gutted and scrapped. The S38 sits on my garage floor waiting to get installed. I carefully undid all the wiring and labeled everything. There was a strange heavy module I wasn't sure what it was for by the DME. I will post pictures/part numbers to see if I need it or not.

I am waiting for poly motor mounts to arrive and I will test fit the S38 in the bay and start massaging the firewall.

I am sure I will have more questions as I go along.

[jibbajabba]

Is there anyway to run that motor without the bulky front-mounted twin-tube manifold from the cooling system?

Yup...Use the S38-B35 cooling system. That's what I did.

[Alpina]

Is there anyway to run that motor without the bulky front-mounted twin-tube manifold from the cooling system?

Yup...Use the S38-B35 cooling system. That's what I did.

I guess it is the same as M88..

that is a lot of space that the oem S38 cooling pipes are taking in the engine bay

[Sharino]

Alpina, did you have to cut up your exhaust headers much? Any more pics of what you did there?

[Alpina]

Alpina, did you have to cut up your exhaust headers much? Any more pics of what you did there?

Very very good Questione,,

no need to cut the header,,,,,,,, except just where the collector ends,, the oem pattern with flangs and bolt had to be removed,,

seen here..,, but not a perfect picture

WHY ?????????? THE TUBES WILL ALWAYS ,, go to the direction where the controlarm-bushing is located,, so i reccomend THR ,, it is actually a must solution

Good luck with your project

[bmwss91]

s38

i used 86 m5 headers and didnt have to modify the mount or header