My '90 325is LS3 Swap Build Thread

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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]

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]

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

[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.

[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]

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]

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.

[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]

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]

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]

Bye bye m20!

[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.