Not Another Cheap V8 Swap... (Pic Heavy)

[E30Whore]

Not Another Cheap V8 Swap... (Pic Heavy)

Admittedly, putting the interior together this early is a bit premature but I was bored and didn't have an extra hand to tackle the suspension. Also, I have a few other suspension parts and breaks on the way. Figured I will set aside a whole day to do breaks and suspension when I can sucker a friend out of some time. Till then, here is how the interior came out. NO REGRETS!



The Renown wheel and refurbished cluster speak for themselves once installed. I'm a firm believer in the details.



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The NRG products came out great. I feel the shorty hub was a perfect match to the V2 quick release. It really shows here..



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LOL Not sure why this picture is massive, I guess it's important we all see the ZHP knob really well



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Com'n, if you don't like these seats, your a hater! They were a little tall, had to modify the bracket but I was able to make it work. There is about 1.5 inch of clearance to spare between the seat and the windows. Tight fit but the end result looks great!



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Looking ahead, i'll be taking on brakes once they arrive, I scored a killer deal on a used setup from another member. We will be getting the suspension thrown on and replacing all the 30 year old stuff with the rebuild kit. Sikky headers will be going on soon, I'm dreading this because I already know they will not work as-is so some modifications are going to have to take place. Stay tuned for more updates!

[z28]

I don't know if i missed it, but what clutch master cylinder are you going to use?

[The Dark Side of Will]

Looking ahead, i'll be taking on breaks once they arrive,

You can't go taking breaks from a build like this!

[E30Whore]

I don't know if i missed it, but what clutch master cylinder are you going to use?

It's the stock E30 Clutch Master Cylinder..

[z28]

It's the stock E30 Clutch Master Cylinder..

Do you know if its gonna work fine with the t56?... GM cars with the t56 sometimes have problems getting locked out of gear at high RPMs and the people at Ls1tech like to blame the clutch master.

[E30Whore]

Do you know if its gonna work fine with the t56?... GM cars with the t56 sometimes have problems getting locked out of gear at high RPMs and the people at Ls1tech like to blame the clutch master.

Per Sikky, the stock one should work just fine. They hadn't directed me to change/upgrade it so I wasn't planning on it. You raise a good question though, I will make a few calls tomorrow and report back with a update.

[E30Whore]

Not Another Cheap V8 Swap... (Pic Heavy)

Pretty sure It's the GM masters that suck! I think they are plastic or something and the square cut seals collapse making the pedal stick to the floor...


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[z28]

I just did a little digging around and found out that the e30 and f-body clutch masters have the same bore size, with the f-body having a 1.1" stroke. I could not find the stroke length of the e30 clutch master, but from what I have seen it looks like the stock one should be fine, especially with the twin disk clutch.

Thats is good because its just one less thing to mess with when doing the swap.

[E30Whore]

I just did a little digging around and found out that the e30 and f-body clutch masters have the same bore size, with the f-body having a 1.1" stroke. I could not find the stroke length of the e30 clutch master, but from what I have seen it looks like the stock one should be fine, especially with the twin disk clutch.

Thats is good because its just one less thing to mess with when doing the swap.

Thanks for the update, this is good info for those looking to do the swap but unsure. No need to spend where its not needed when it starts coming down to penny pinching ;)

[bmk]

Do you know if its gonna work fine with the t56?... GM cars with the t56 sometimes have problems getting locked out of gear at high RPMs and the people at Ls1tech like to blame the clutch master.

This definitely happens in the E30 or at least in my case. Ive been trying to sort it out. Ive replaced both the master and the slave and bled them over and over, changed fluid, even gave the clutch master its own reservoir which has helped a lot. The only thing that works is double clutching and even that doenst work all the time. Some times I have to coast until the RPM's drop below 3K.

Usually only happens at WOT on freeway pulls shifting at 6k or so

To be noted I am on the stock shifter which I suspect is at some fault...

Not sure if anyone else had has this issue?

[E30Whore]

Not Another Cheap V8 Swap... (Pic Heavy)

After a hell of a week, this is my current situation...



So let's go back a few days..

We started with the Sikky Booster Delete kit, master cylinder and abs. Everything went in fine, no problems and I was feeling pretty motivated so we decided to pull a all nighter and start playing with headers and suspension.

I know, I'm all over the place with no sense of direction but I'm working with what I have on hand and get bored easily.

Here, you can see the clean install of the booster delete. Also hard to ignore is the quality craftsmanship of all things Sikky. Motor mounts look amazing!



Next, we got the car on the lift and tackled the coilovers. Have I said how much I love Ground Control, they make quality stuff that installed painlessly.



Now that she's on the lift, it took no time to install the new hardware, it looks great in the fender wells.





Figured I'd throw on the stoptech rotors and lines while I'm down here. I'm starting to become addicted to new parts because they all look and fit so good. Except for the headers.... Yeah, more on that later!



Moved around back and installed the rear Ground Control setup. As expected, all went into place as it should. The underside of this car is really looking good. Makes me anxious to drive it!



Can't forget some chassis supports I scored from Bimmerworld.





Up to this point, all was pretty painless. A few hours in and the car is starting to come together nicely.

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[E30Whore]

Not Another Cheap V8 Swap...

Another look at the booster delete before we drooped the motor back in..

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Here is a good look at the GC camber plates tucked nicely in there forever home. :)

Also take note that I reused the Silverado truck coil packs and brackets. Per LSTech, this is uncommon but actually works well and a huge savings. You may notice they aren't as "sleek" as the LS1 Coil Packs but they do the job for now. I may come back and address these once the car is up and running.

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Here things are looking pretty good. With the amount of space between block and fender, I'm guessing the headers will slide right in. I paid good money for the Sikky swap headers, they must fit right?

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[E30Whore]

Not Another Cheap V8 Swap...

Sikky Headers Part 1

After roughly 6 hours, busted up knuckles, unbolted subframe and removing the motor mounts....we finally got the headers installed. It was a major pain in the butt, clearance is nonexistent and the only way to fit the passenger side is to slide them in from the top and loosen the motor mount. The drivers side however required a lot more labor, after unbolting everything, we were able to slide the header into place from the bottom. Bolted it in and reinstalled everything else..







As you would guess, it was extremely depressing to see how long the collectors were.

Check out how low the collectors are sitting. When the car is off the lift, I have about 1.5" of clearance between the collector and the floor. Currently, they are sitting about 6" below the subframe.





I called Silky and explained what's going on, our first thought is we have a set of Sikky's 350z headers and not E30. Time to take them off and mail them back...





One bit of good news, we got the power steering lines and E36 steering rack installed.



Sikky is mailing me new headers in the morning, to be continued...


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[Q8y_drifter]

Yep. Those right there are the same headers that I and others have received. They are in fact E30 headers given the bends in the primaries and collector which contour around the chassis/body/subframe/etc.

Kinda surprised you had issues with the passenger side headers though. Literally took me less than 20 seconds to drop in and a minute to tight all the bolts.

[E30Whore]

Not Another Cheap V8 Swap... (Pic Heavy)

After some sleep, we came back to finish up the suspension.

We still have control arms, tie rods, bushings, end links etc to install.

Let's get to it..







Again, everything Sikky "shows" real well. After finishing up the remainder of the ECS Suspension kit install, we moved around back to install the diff spacers (required to fit aluminum driveshaft), new axles and swapped the 2.93 for a 3.73 rear diff.











Oops.. Is that an inadvertent "teaser pic" of the wheels that made its way in this post. I think so!




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