My '90 325is LS3 Swap Build Thread

[CLM21]

Ahhh I see. Yeah, I'm just gonna get some 90s. Thanks for the pics though! That is the same radiator Im looking at doing, so I'll probably copy your mounting points for it. Yeah it looks like you have a bit more room from that pic. But you definitely have to do a pusher fan right? Doesnt look like theres any room there for a puller behind the radiator.

I guess I'll take a look at the pedals again today. Maybe I was just being dumb, thats generally the case.

[shiboujin]

Take pix of the pedals?

There's room for pullers. I want to swap over one day to a dual puller fan setup. Get WAY more CFM through that bitch. I'm not a pusher fan. I think the clearance is good in general. My GTO water pump is low enough profile too.

[CLM21]

Yeah nevermind, got it all out. Definitely didnt take me 20 minutes though.... took me at least an hour to get the box and the booster out. Some of those bolts were an absolute bitch to get to.

[TeXJ]

Take pix of the pedals?

There's room for pullers. I want to swap over one day to a dual puller fan setup. Get WAY more CFM through that bitch. I'm not a pusher fan. I think the clearance is good in general. My GTO water pump is low enough profile too.

hey do you have a build thread of yours? My dream car is an E30 with a LS motor. Screw the GTR, I'd rather have the e30 :D

Now I just need money...and the E30...just small details

[shiboujin]

I really haven't maintained a build thread anywhere. Sikky did the swap so it didn't seem worth it. I can answer questions or get shots if you'd like.

[TeXJ]

been wondering more about price and such. Sikky did the swap as in he was paid to do it? Was wondering about how much it would be to get somebody to do it. I could do a lot of it myself but the welding and fab I couldnt do.

[shiboujin]

Well I was the test car for the kit so I got a nice deal.

I'd estimate the cost to be ~$10k if you went with an LS1 and got a trans with it.

[CLM21]

been wondering more about price and such. Sikky did the swap as in he was paid to do it? Was wondering about how much it would be to get somebody to do it. I could do a lot of it myself but the welding and fab I couldnt do.

I really think the price depends on how far you want to go with it. If you just want a basic LS (Like an LS1 or a smaller LS block like a 5.3 or something) and a t56, you can get away with not doing a lot of the things I pretty much have to do for my build. Like the built diff, built halfshafts, reinforced rtas, etc, etc.... Not to mention you could find those blocks out of an old chevy for incredibly cheap. If thats the route you take, its not crazy to think you could do an LS swap for under 10k. On the other hand, I am going nuts literally replacing everything on the car, and will probably wind up spending over 25 or 30k by the time mines done. If you plan on taking over a year to do the swap, I don't think budget is as big of a concern if you're doing the cheaper swap. Just spread out picking up the parts, and it really isn't that bad.

[TeXJ]

How'd you do the wiring? Send off the motor/trans wire to have the excess wires clipped and other things turned "off" on the stock ecu? Or go complete aftermarket?

[shiboujin]

Sikky did my harness but wiring specialties does a wiring harness. The VATS has to be flashed out of your ECU but anyone that deals with LS motors can do that

[TeXJ]

mmm that sounds quite tempting :D

[CLM21]

Well coming from someone who doesnt know shit about electrical stuff.... its really not that bad when you take a step back and look at the entire picture. Its really just a shit ton of really simple tasks that seems overwhelming when you think about it as a whole.

Garretts guide does a pretty good job of explaining the entire harness ordeal with diagrams and whatnot. I really think anyone could do it if they just took the time to do the research and figured everything out.

As far as the ecu goes, not doing any of that myself. Any of the reputable LS tuners will be able to get all that stuff done. And theres been plenty of ls e30s done at this point, Im sure its well documented enough so tuners know, or can at least find out, what does and doesnt need to be turned off.

Oh right and like shiboujin said, as long as you go LS1, wiring specialities already has a harness ready to go. Unfortunately they dont for an ls3....

[shiboujin]

The problem with the wiring is that LS motors don't have consistent wire colors and sometimes the pins are different per ECU.

[Jean]

http://www.slidewaysonline.com/images/Sale04/IMG_4232.JPG
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.

What's the part number on this radiator? I want to see if they have a bunch of different ones that would fit the e30 chassis, looking for a good one for m6x swap.
Does it fit between the e30 "frame rails" w/o cutting them?

thanks

[CLM21]

I could be wrong... but I think its this one:

http://www.mishimoto.com/mishimotorsports-dual-pass-race-radiator.html