My '90 325is LS3 Swap Build Thread

[CLM21]

Damn a procharged ls6? Which head unit?

Im out in oswego. And mine isnt even close to nearly done haha, i wish it was. slightly jealous of you. How much power are you expecting? Im assuming youll be 600 plus to the wheels...?

And why did you go ls6? Just happened to be the engine you could get your hands on or what?

[blusylver]

I believe ill be around 615 at the wheels. I purchased the prochager from a friend who was dynod using a mustang dyno at 597rwhp on a stock ls6. Im ported and polished, bigger valves and a custom ground cam.

ls6 revs higher and makes more power. seemed to be a no brainer


youll get there, just don't do what I did and half ass stuff. im now going back and doing everything the right way

[CLM21]

Yeah I'm planning on doing everything right the first time, hence why I probably won't be done for about a year.

But that should be a hell of a fun car when you're done. What have you done to strengthen the frame? And what size rims/tires are you running?

[blusylver]

I have a 8 point cage in it , ill be putting it on a lift and reinforcing the entire frame once I get it driving.

as of now I just have some cheap rims/tires. im not going to spend money on them until I build the rear end and go 5 lug. I want to run a 245/40/16 up front and a 305/35/17 in the back.

[CLM21]

Holy! 305s! That seems like it would be a bitch to get them to fit. I was thinking 275s probably. 305s on what, 11ish inch rims?

[blusylver]

I'm going to have a completely custom rear end and some form of fender flares

[DER E30]

Lots of crazy things in this thread, do carry on!!! Nothing but LS love from me! :up:

[KamakaziX]

Sub'ed. Interested to see where this goes!

[CLM21]

Welp, I've literally been able to do zero work on this in the past 2 months for various reasons. But Ive been able to get a lot of work done this week. Engine/trans are ready to be pulled tonight....



E36 rack waiting to go in. Trying to figure out what I'm gonna do for the steering shaft since its airbag....

Wilwood calipers, 310mm rotors, stainless steel braided brake lines waiting to go in.

Ordered some wheels from CCW this week. Doing a 10" wide square setup. I'll put some pictures up when I get them in 3ish weeks.

Have the shortblock sitting in my garage, but have yet to order cam/heads.

Stuff is finally coming together.... hopefully a lot of progress to come in the next month or 2.

[CLM21]

Finally some progress. Crappy cell phone pics. Hopefully I can get the steering rack/shaft and brake booster delete done this week as well.

[shiboujin]

Bye bye m20!

[CLM21]

Welp, I tried taking the pedal box out yesterday and quickly figured out its a pain in the ass on an airbag car. I had read that all you had to do was remove 6 easy to get to bolts to take it out on a non-airbag car, and the pedal box comes out in like 20 minutes. Definitely not how it goes on an airbag car... anyone done this before? Tips?

I am quickly realizing that I made a huge mistake in picking up an airbag car lol.

[shiboujin]

I was pretty sure that's all it was. There's a spring that you need to undo and the master cylinders and all that jazz though.

Also, you wanted pix of my rad mount setup right?

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-cpz1Id8BJGA/VAIZ4IUFCAI/AAAAAAAACGY/7SZAn-q8t4E/w859-h483-no/20140830_143653.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UCtmXXLmijQ/VAIZ54ibhjI/AAAAAAAACGk/tTJbG1iZWNc/w859-h483-no/20140830_143705.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-q5L_jiJnQtk/VAIZ9YGcLVI/AAAAAAAACGw/_pDdSPYi_9k/w859-h483-no/20140830_143718.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-SwPGAy3699Y/VAIaZP7ODtI/AAAAAAAACG8/dok-P_j5F40/w859-h483-no/20140830_143724.jpg

[CLM21]

I saw a few posts with guys that have airbag cars saying its a bigger pain. Something about shear bolts that you literally have to cut off?

And yeah thanks, we talked about the radiator a while back. Any pics of the modifications you did to the outlets? Damn that looks snug with your intake.

Oh and is that the mishimoto universal with inlet/outlet both on the right side im assuming? Or did you actually buy a mishimoto for the LS?

[shiboujin]

That's the best I got on me right now. The rad is a mishimoto generic race radiator. Thickest one they got I think. Then the shop that did my swap tig welded better outlets onto it. You can easily get some of your own 90s and do rubber hoses. They just like things nice and tidy.

The intake isn't that bad. It's really just in there for the sake of being huge. There's plenty of space in that whole area. Especially compared to my old M50 based swaps.

Dunno about those pedals. I took out a pedal box on an airbag car once but I don't remember it being that big of a pain.