My '90 325is LS3 Swap Build Thread

[tyeler18]

Thanks man. Unfortunately I don't think bleeding is the issue. It ran fine up north but as soon as I brought it down to the Florida summer, it started having cooling issues. I kinda wanted to do a tubular front end anyways, so thats what I'll probably end up doing.

Just saw sikky post a cover video of this and had to run here to see if it was the same car. Sure enough! Looks and sounds great, if you want to update the cooling without getting crazy with the front of the car, I have the Becool 35202 in my LS1 with milled 243s. Fits the chassis literally perfectly, way bigger core than the m20/sikky style factory replacement radiator and its dual core/triple bypass. I use the exact same radiator in my turbo 6.0 montero which has AC, a giant trans cooler, one single taurus fan, and zero heat wrapping on any of my exhaust parts and it keeps me under 210F in 110F AZ heat. I don't have a fan on my e30 yet but a buddy and I were cruising it around the other day with zero fans in 108F heat and it stayed at 180F if I was moving and barely made it to 192F sitting still for 5+ minutes. For the $240 I've paid for both radiators they've been well worth the money and still have plenty of room for 2 puller spal fans and A/C.

[Nick_08]

I’ve got sikky mounts with an LS1 water pump and have plenty of room to clear this massive griffin radiator (1-28222-xls). It’s a true dual pass with a 26x19x3” core. It’s really massive and it just works, hell it even has a port for your steam tube. Good luck.

[CLM21]

Just saw sikky post a cover video of this and had to run here to see if it was the same car. Sure enough! Looks and sounds great, if you want to update the cooling without getting crazy with the front of the car, I have the Becool 35202 in my LS1 with milled 243s. Fits the chassis literally perfectly, way bigger core than the m20/sikky style factory replacement radiator and its dual core/triple bypass. I use the exact same radiator in my turbo 6.0 montero which has AC, a giant trans cooler, one single taurus fan, and zero heat wrapping on any of my exhaust parts and it keeps me under 210F in 110F AZ heat. I don't have a fan on my e30 yet but a buddy and I were cruising it around the other day with zero fans in 108F heat and it stayed at 180F if I was moving and barely made it to 192F sitting still for 5+ minutes. For the $240 I've paid for both radiators they've been well worth the money and still have plenty of room for 2 puller spal fans and A/C.

Thanks for the radiator ideas guys. Havent decided what I’m gonna do yet, but will probably make a decision once I go widebody and figure out whether or not I wanna tube the front of the car.

Yup the car that was at sikky is mine. I tore apart and rebuilt the suspension, steering, entire braking system, rear end, and built the engine from an ls3 block using fully forged internals in the bottom end, some trick flow heads, a custom cam and fast intake manifold. Then life got in the way, I moved halfway across the country and the car sat on my family’s farm for prob 4 years. Wound up having sikky finish it as it wasn’t feasible for me to do anymore.

Just as an aside for anyone thinking of working with sikky, they make great products but they’re also awesome to work with on builds. Ben who deals with the build side rather than manufacturing side is a great guy.

[CLM21]

Doesn't look like this place gets much traffic anymore, but I figure this build started here so may as well end here. The car isn’t truly done (i guess project cars are never truly done...) but this is probably how the car will remain for the foreseeable future. Only question mark is the rear bumper - I didn't like the fitment of the one I had made, so just wound up re-using the stock rear bumper. Looks a bit goofy but oh well. I'll get some more pictures up this week, but here is a quick one of how it sat after the final wrench:

[moatilliatta]

Need more deets.

I like the rouge diff cover, that is on my to do list.

[Supadave]

Good to see this project is still alive.

[CLM21]

Dropped the diff and opened it up this week as I’m trying to troubleshoot an issue I’m having with the rear end… I think I finally found the issue, fingers crossed. I’ll get some more pictures and whatnot up once I get it back buttoned up.

[Gmwwgn]

What did you end up going with for a brake setup? Massive booster delete? Looking for feedback before I go all out and design/build a remote hydraulically assisted setup

[CLM21]

Yup, it’s the massive booster delete. The way I have it set up now, it takes more force to actuate the brakes than I’d like. So I may either switch out MCs or change the lever for the brake pedal.