Frank Macaluso's E30S62 Swap Thread

[MrSlacker]

You should get yourself a lift!

[keefy6]

Nice, looking forward to future updates.

[Vtec?lol]

Good stuff Frank.
I'm very interested in your manifolds if you're willing to ship.

[CrusherCurtis]

Oh lord

[MT325is]

Very nice! Lots if love done to that sport button! Keep at it man.

[deutschman]

Man I wish I understood electrical stuff better so I could build cool switches. Maybe Ill use my next project car as an excuse to learn a bit more.

[Garageaholic]

PS- only the early build date S62's need 10w60. Its like march or may of 00' if I recall. Everything after that takes 5w30. If it were my engine I'd probably just use the 10w60 for peace of mind though.

Interesting, but I'm just looking to be safer than sorry.

So in other words you'll be beating Brandon.

Haha, there really was never any race. It was just a motivation method that he wanted to do and I went along with it.

Awesome project! Could you just run two intake pipes to a larger airbox on the passenger side? That may be easier than a custom plenum.

With alpha-N, you don't need a plenum at all, just run some sweet velocity stacks with foam filters on each. I don't know how well alpha-n will work on a street car though, how often do you drive this car?

I want to do a custom 2 into 1 intake. Likely welded thin-walled aluminum as opposed to carbon fiber. Quicker and I could powdercoat it.

I'm doing Alpha-N for 2 reasons - More power, but also I had no choice but to eliminate the AFM's due to lack of room. Yes, I'll be occasionally daily-driving the car during the summer, not winter, so I'll adapt to its behavior.

Really think about Alpha-N though. I would figure out how to make the MAF's work if I was going to drive the car a lot. Alpha-N works fine for a race car, but it's the most simplistic fuel and spark control method. It doesn't monitor airflow or manifold pressure, making part throttle and idle not nearly as smooth.

I did research on AlphaN and it said that the torque and HP curves were smoother as was the idle itself. I do not have anything to compare it to, so the way it will behave is the only way that I'll know...and I'll adapt to it.

Some updates - Just got back from Gutenfest yesterday evening and started teardown today at 4pm. What you see is 4 hours of teardown.

I started completing my Sport Button, which activates the ECU to sharpen the throttle behavior/mechanism when pushed. I wanted to keep the E30 style button, so I decided to modify the Defrost switch. I had to do some very significant updates to the internals of this switch to make it work, including a custom LED to indicate when SPORT mode is actually on.

Sanded/polished the defrost insignia:


LED soldered with small, flexible enamel coated 22gauge wire in line with a 470ohm resistor, since the LED soaks up about 20ma


The yellow light works as normal with dimming controlled by the light control switch. I will be adding a small vinyl "S" where the yellow light is for indicating during the daylight what the switch is for, similar to the current Defrost, hazard, A/C, and Recirc switches.


Green LED indicating SPORT ON


Final Switch assembly with wire pigtail


2 wires go to SPORT indicator LED (1 to Ground, 1 to DME)
2 wires go to SPORT on/off (1 to ground, 1 to DME)
2 wires go to E30 yellow light & dimming

Now on to the tear-down: Started removing all front bodywork, exhaust, driveshaft, shifter...etc Boring stuff really.


Doing some C101/X20 wiring labeling for the future owner of this M60 making it easier for them to swap....



And finally, a little test fit.



This is going to happen fast, so try to keep up ;)

[MT325is]

Finally an s62 in the states! This is epic!
Keep us informed man!
Already in for updates!

[smalcol]

Really think about Alpha-N though. I would figure out how to make the MAF's work if I was going to drive the car a lot. Alpha-N works fine for a race car, but it's the most simplistic fuel and spark control method. It doesn't monitor airflow or manifold pressure, making part throttle and idle not nearly as smooth.

[deutschman]

Saw this engine on Instagram. Subscribing.

[smalcol]

Awesome project! Could you just run two intake pipes to a larger airbox on the passenger side? That may be easier than a custom plenum.

With alpha-N, you don't need a plenum at all, just run some sweet velocity stacks with foam filters on each. I don't know how well alpha-n will work on a street car though, how often do you drive this car?

[einhander]

Epic.

[RobertK]

Curious to see how it works out. I've got 2 S62s waiting to go into E30s probably this fall. Going with a stock tune though. I live in the mountains where temps and altitude can change on a mountain drive in minutes and I've been told that AlphaN is not designed for that kind of driving.

Recently tore down 2 other S62s that were badly beat up in rollovers so I have lots of odds and ends if you need anything.

Just make sure those timing chain guide rails are fresh before the drop in. ;)

[Jean]

Nice dude! Frank - wish you were closer so I could get the exhaust from you! It probably wouldn't work here in CA, but I am sure it would save me time in terms of cutting/welding one up.

[F34R]

So in other words you'll be beating Brandon.

Looks like an awesome recipe. Good luck sub'd

Just sold my 2002s and the m30 manifold is getting made next week. The race is still a toss up.

Awesome build Frank, this is really the only way to 1+ an m60 swap. Unless you twin turbo an m60...