Frank's E30 M60 V8 Swap Build Thread

[bmwmech1]

Why not lose the engine cover altogether? That is what I will be doing, I would rather look at intake runners and valve covers than a vast expanse of plastic.

Lol... not to knock your choice of not using the engine cover, it's your car after all... but you do realize that under that "vast expanse of plastic" are plastic valve cover covers and a plastic intake, right?

I just laughed out loud when I read that...

Garey

[Garageaholic]

You wont have a problem installing it for the most part. Kink it down with trans drooped. Get diff studs in and get center mount on front driveshaft on the output flange of trans and push DS and trans up into place together. Thats how you have to do it with most of the 6 bolt rears from the factory.

What are you talking about? I already sent the shafts to get rebuilt to the plan I laid out last week.

Lol... not to knock your choice of not using the engine cover, it's your car after all... but you do realize that under that "vast expanse of plastic" are plastic valve cover covers and a plastic intake, right?

I just laughed out loud when I read that...

Garey

Definitely using the cover. Much cleaner.

[bmwmech1]

Definitely using the cover. Much cleaner.

100%... just look at my sig...

Garey

[Garageaholic]

Some more updates

Some updates. Got some stuff in and am ready to get more stuff welded.
Carpets came back from having been professionally extracted & shampooed.
Carpet for my 335i


Carpet for the up and coming 340i. Looks and smells great.


Heater core back from welding - I had them shorten the aluminum pipes and put a slight bend in them to conform to where the hoses will hook up.


Closer look


Accelerator pedal (which is also aluminum) needs to be shortened and relocated. The instructions are shown as well, but I need to formalize them.


Steering column. I decided to use 2 E34 U joints and cut each of the steering rods to length. The overall length of the welded rod will be 4 3/8" end to end. I am not welding this myself because my welder won't go through to the core of these rods.


Here is a relatively useless (haha) snapshot of where the E34 coolant tank will be mounted to the firewall. I simply used QTY:2 M10x1.00 - 40 bolts and created an assembly that will fit nicely in the engine bay. I am not sure if it will require hood modifications. It likely will. No big deal.


Tomorrow I will complete the C101 wiring. Not bad, only 16 pins to solder and heat shrink. Shouldn't be too bad.


I know I'm posting more pictures of piece-part stuff and less of it installed in the car. By day's end Friday, I'll have many more "interesting" pictures of the car and progress on the engine.

Driveshaft should be coming back on Tuesday next week latest. $575 total for the shortening & rebuilding. My goal is to have this thing fired up at least once on Friday. If it starts, then I wait for the driveshaft to come in, test fit it, and then remove the engine to start the engine rebuild.

perhaps I'll make it to Gutenfest after all. I'm way ahead of schedule.

[JGood]

Accelerator pedal (which is also aluminum) needs to be shortened and relocated. The instructions are shown as well, but I need to formalize them.

LOL, this is EXACTLY how I'm modifying mine. Funny we both came up with the same idea without discussing it. How were you planning on stabilizing the side of the rod that was shortened? I drilled the spot welds on the factory bracket and was going to weld it in place over further, so it should act just as it was stock.

I'm going to wait until you get yours installed to make sure everything will work properly, in case there is anything to be learned. So please keep me updated :)

Is that rod hollow, and if so, how thin are the walls?


Also, that bend in one of your heater core pipes looks like it kinked it, it looks almost completely closed off. I assume it's just a weird angle in the pic? I was just going to cut the ends off the pipes to shorten them and then run the rubber hoses through the firewall... any particular reason they needed to be bent?

[Garageaholic]

So after sizing up the pedal assembly, I knew that the accelerator pedal would need to fit somehow. after moving the master cylinder over, the accelerator pedal no longer fit, so i had to shorten it. But shortening it wasn't enough. I also had to re-locate the connection of the throttle cable. The picture I showed doesn't depict that quite yet, but it will. I cut the rod (which is solid aluminum by the way) to the correct length and the guy needs to big it together. I'm also having him relocate the throttle cable connecting rod.

As far as the heater core pipes go. I know that the picture makes it seem like it's pinched, but there is plenty of room in there for flow. You can still get your pinky finger in there without a problem. I think it's just the angle.
The rubber hoses will not run through the firewall. I determined that there's enough room for the bends in the engine bay, however the shortened heater core pipes add a good amount of room for these hose bends to take place.

FYI: the coolant reservoir hose will go into the top pipe. The rear cylinder head hose will go into the bottom pipe.

[Garageaholic]

Not to DP but yes. I modified the location of the other mounting point for the accelerator linkage. It will be relocated to the exact distance over that the linkage has been shortened, which I believe was ~60mm ish. The master cylinder outlet directly interfered with the farside acc linkage mounting bracket.

[battlecattle]

I'm way ahead of schedule.

You should know better than to ever say that!

[iamsam]

Lol... not to knock your choice of not using the engine cover, it's your car after all... but you do realize that under that "vast expanse of plastic" are plastic valve cover covers and a plastic intake, right?

I just laughed out loud when I read that...

Garey

Right, well instead of a piece of FLAT plastic, you get CONTOURED plastic!

duh...

[bmwmech1]

Right, well instead of a piece of FLAT plastic, you get CONTOURED plastic!

duh...

I know... I didn't want to sound like a douche, but it just struck me as a funny thing to say, considering...

Garey

[Jonsku]

Why do you do a separate rod for steering?

The water hoses would fit through the firewall-rubber, but require of course bit of a squeezing.

[Nick_V]

Awesome thread. I was given a fresh M50 that I was gonna swap into my sedan this spring, but this thread has my mind racing. I did a B40/6 swap into my E34 touring last winter, and although that was child's play compared to this, I can't stop thinking about what it would be like to have that motor in an E30. Thanks for taking the time to document your journey, and good luck!

[Garageaholic]

Update 3/6/12

Exhaust:

I bought 2.25" V-Clamps with Mild Steel Flanges. It will make removal/installation so much easier.



I finished welding the headers, too. They'll be wrapped eventually. I ensured there were no leaks by sticking my LED flashlight inside the pipes and looking for light leaks. It worked really well.









Accelerator Pedal and Steering Shaft came in. The Steering shaft mates with the 95 M3 Rack and is approximately 2 3/8" long. The accelerator pedal was modified significantly.





Some installation photos. I had to relocate the other acc mount. Yes, it's sturdy. This is not complete yet as I haven't modified the firewall for the cable.









404 ECU ready to go!







I know that this question is embedded within a sea of photos, so hopefully someone will see it. What is that wire with the red heat shrink near the loophole with the label on it? I couldn't get continuity to neither ground nor + power.



I got some updated brake booster photos. I got the booster in place. I still need to grind/weld a second pass.











Figured out the brake lines - The Master Cylinder from the E34 has 2 outlets that are different sizes. 1/4" line and the normal 3/16". I had to buy some shit to get down to 3/16" by the time it gets to the ABS module.







Got the driveshaft back from Driveline service of atlanta. Fits PERFECTLY.









Worked on the AC a little bit. Turns out that the AC lines are steel, so they can easily be welded and grinded to make a nice smooth transition from the E30 lines to the E34 compressor.







I need to cut away at the frame rail to get the compressor to fit without much more modification.



Cruise control is ready to go. Mounted it (although I need to beef up my method of retaining that motor). The Cable needed to be modified by way of disassembling some of the original E34 cable.





Finished wiring up C101. I haven't started the engine yet, so I'm leaving the wires exposed until I can verify that everything works in case I crossed a wire.

Here's where I'm at. My Vert is patiently waiting in the background.......Trust me, the paint is beautiful under that dust.





Plan for tomorrow - Figure out the power steering lines. This won't be an easy task as I tried to fit the existing E30 ones and realize that I might need custom lines. I can always heat and bend them to shape, which I've done before.

[jaywood]

Looks pretty nice. Good progress.

How do you like that Jawhorse? I used one at OSH one time and it was, and still is, a must have...but I didn't pick it up :( Hopefully soon!

[Garageaholic]

I can't get enough of it. it is my main tool for everything that I need to hold. As you can probably see, I'm not easy on my tools....and this one has lasted years so far.