*Updated & only kinda shitty now!* The definitive 5.0/302 swap guide

[tokoloshe]

New to the site but not to e30's

Hello all! Just stumbled on this thread, Its great I laughed my a$$ off on the first page all the stuff about e36v8 was spot on. I also bought the mounts and quickly found out they were scrap. They traded me another set and same. Ended up making my own... I used to be an auto tech so I picked up quickly reading through the e36v8 site that they were wacked! Who the hell would recommend welding two drive shaft halts together anyway heres a few pictures of my $hitbox, this winter I'm pulling the exploder motor out and its getting a Scat 347 rotating assembly AFR 165 heads and a Trick flow stage 2 cam, Just re did my exhaust this evening still using backwards headers but removed the Y pipe and made full dials with an of road X pipe I picked up from Craigslist for $50.




MEH...Looks like I cant post pictures

[e30_302]

My *guess* until I dive deeper is the contact killed the rod bearing, breaking the rod.

[jalopi]

would that really cause a thrown rod though?

[e30_302]

Stock '90 short block, GT40-Y heads milled .030", custom cam that I don't have the specs on with me. I don't remember the PTV clearance off the top of my head when I measured it but it was very close. No fault but my own.

[jalopi]

damn, well that sucks. what was your combo?

[e30_302]

So turns out I had multiple cases of piston to valve contact. I'm absolutely amazed it lived as long as it did. Heads seem ok except for two valves. I'm going to take them to my machine shop to see if they're worth fixing, if not, daddy's getting a set of AFR's.

I knew PTV clearance was on the ragged edge of safe and chose to roll with it; lesson learned.

[e30_302]

Block's most likely going to the scrap yard. No sense in keeping it with the amount of money I'm sure would be required to make it useable again. I don't know any more at this point than what the picture shows.

[jalopi]

fuckin a man. well at least the block might be OK (though i'd be hesitant to use it)

kinda hard to tell in the pic but did the rod snap in half? looks like that's what's poking out

[e30_302]

All I know right now, tear-down starts tonight.

[jalopi]

Oh yeah I forgot you had one of those.... that's weird. You know, maybe the low oil pressure was an early sign of the rod letting go. You know, like the bolts started to stretch or something before letting go.

How bad was the carnage? We talking hole in block?

[e30_302]

True but I also have an Accusump. I never lost pressure, it just dropped about 15 psi over the course of about 15 mins.

[jalopi]

Nope, at least mine didn't. They were press-in dealies. Twas revving that shit to 7k sometimes (this is before I read how you really need to keep the revs down)

One thing you gotta remember is that you're reducing the oil pan capacity by about one quart. IMO that's a big enough difference for me

[drift e302]

It wouldn't be the pan as I was drifting mine for a year with no baffling and changing at 6,500rpm and if anything the reshaping of the pan would help oil stay around the pickup.

How old are the bearings?

[e30_302]

Shift at 5,000, rev-limiter at 5,200. No ARP rod bolts, they require machining to install correct?

[jalopi]

how high are you revving your engine? got ARP rod bolts?