5.3 LS Swap into 91 318i

[Fatalmk1]

Bump! First post here, actually but Ive been building rad stuff since 2005 and Im hooked on this thread. Picking up an 88 325es coupe on the 3rd and planning for an LS turbo build. In for progress pics on this!

[E30auddie]

Bumping this thread a little bit to check on progress! I haven't gone through the whole thread yet, but anxious to go back through and look! Just bought my 5th E30 after not having (a legitimate) one since roughly 2012. Just like yours it is a 91 318i sedan, and like you, my plan from the start was to LS swap! Can't wait to see your finished product!

[Elysian]

Not surprised you're considering dropping the "budget" part of the title No such thing as a budget big power build in these cars, so much has to be reengineered

Very cool about the photography stuff. I met Jeremy at the Cleetus and Cars in Houston right before the pandemic, got him to sign a hat, really nice dude.

[DividedBeing]

Started on my build vlog again yesterday after a year. Got some work done in that time frame without making videos that I go over a bit here. Stripping down rear subframe and rear trailing arms today for reinforcement in the next video.

E30 LS Swap (Part 11.5) - Diving Back In To The Project

[DividedBeing]

That's largely similar to how I've been going about it. I usually block off a morning where I figure I'll work on it for a few hours, then a few hours turns into 9-10 because I'm having fun.

I keep spending money at the same time though Looks like I'll have the power steering completed this weekend, the last of those parts will be here by Friday.

Very nice. Spending money on parts is way too addictive, haha. I think that's why "the project's never done." I'm waiting for some gopro mounting parts to get here and I'm going to start back up with my vlogs and power through some projects on this car.

[Elysian]

Thanks! It's moving along. I keep telling myself "Just go outside and work on it for 20 minutes" and obviously that turns into a bunch more stuff getting done once I'm on a roll lol.

The urge is there to just keep spending money on parts right now, because it's fun to get parts in the mail, but I'm trying to get all the stuff done that I can with what I've already purchased before I spend another dime.

That's largely similar to how I've been going about it. I usually block off a morning where I figure I'll work on it for a few hours, then a few hours turns into 9-10 because I'm having fun.

I keep spending money at the same time though Looks like I'll have the power steering completed this weekend, the last of those parts will be here by Friday.

[DividedBeing]

Good progress. I hate those little bolts on the rotors.

Thanks! It's moving along. I keep telling myself "Just go outside and work on it for 20 minutes" and obviously that turns into a bunch more stuff getting done once I'm on a roll lol.

The urge is there to just keep spending money on parts right now, because it's fun to get parts in the mail, but I'm trying to get all the stuff done that I can with what I've already purchased before I spend another dime.

[Elysian]

Good progress. I hate those little bolts on the rotors.

[DividedBeing]

I talked to Condor Speed Shop about the steering knuckle, and they said they'll make one with different joints on each end if I just tell them how many splines each shaft has. So that's gotta happen at some point.

I disconnected everything from the rear subframe yesterday so I could pull it today.

I hate those damn rotor retaining bolts. Driver side came out ez-pz, and the passenger side, of course, was seized up even after a bunch of PB Blaster and hammer taps. Stripped with barely any force. I was going to heat it up, and try hammering a screwdriver in there, but I just said f it and drilled the thing out.




So I got everything disconnected yesterday and went back out today to drop the whole subframe.

Dismantled everything, and I'm going to weld up all my reinforcement plates later this week.

I'm going to need a different diff. Can't remember what ratio I settled on for the AR5, but I'll figure it out once I've got this all reinforced.
The bushings are totally rotten on this thing. To be expected, but it's just wild to see. Gonna be interesting getting these bushings out of the trailing arms and everything.
Always looks like a pain in the ass every time I've seen it done on video.

I'm thinking I'll tig weld these reinforcements just to get some practice in on that machine. Should be fun.
Going to start my build vlog back up for this reinforcement process as well.

[DividedBeing]

Swapped out steering columns today so I can accommodate my wilwood pedal box mount from Garagistic . That was a success -- went super smooth.



Got the new non airbag steering column installed.




But now I've got a bit of a road block at the moment with my steering joint plans. I'm using an e46 purple tag rack, and I planned on using these E46 steering shafts that I was going to weld together and make a coupler at a fraction of the price of one of those condor speed shop or sikky shafts.



What I did not realize is that the non airbag column and the airbag column have a different spline count.
Airbag splines on left, non airbag splines on right.



The airbag/coarse splines fit with the e46 joint/coupler I planned on building, and obviously the e46 joint fits up to the e46 rack.

But now I need to figure out how to adapt the fine splines from the non airbag shaft to fit the joint that will accept coarse splines.
I could chop off the splines on the non airbag shaft and weld the coarse spline end on I suppose, but I'd like to avoid that.
Anybody have any solutions -- I'd also like to avoid buying one of those hella expensive Condor Speed Shop joints, but they could probably send me one with mixed splines.

[DividedBeing]

Yeah totally hear you on getting seat time like that lighting a fire. I started autocross last season and got hooked, really want to use my E30 for that now, so been working on it a ton.

Autocross is a blast. I used to go with my buddy to events in his 1st gen turbo MR2 that was so much fun to ride/drive in.

But yeah, seat time -- I started putting all this money and time into this car and at some point, other priorities sort of took my time. Which was for the best, tbh. But riding in that drift car was one of the most pucker inducing experiences I've had in recent times, and as cliche as it sounds, is the first time I've felt really alive in a while lol. Instantly hooked and need to learn how to drift like that.

[Elysian]

Yeah totally hear you on getting seat time like that lighting a fire. I started autocross last season and got hooked, really want to use my E30 for that now, so been working on it a ton.

[DividedBeing]

I've been going to different events recently. I went to a drift event at Orlando Speed World the other night and got a ride-along for the first time in a well tuned car with a dude who really knows how to drive.
All of this has lit a fire under my ass to finish my car so I can be in the drivers seat.

I ground down the welds on the front subframe, and stripped the whole thing as best as possible with an abrasive pad on my grinder, then primed/painted with VHT Filler Primer/Chassis/Roll Bar Paint.






Then I installed her with a pair of jacks since I didn't have anyone around to help. This is literally the first thing I've re-assembled since I started work on the car lol.




I ground off some random mounting points that were sticking out around the engine bay from the old components -- I kind of ground a bit too much off of that spot on the right
where you see a square cut-out..so now that's a brake duct vent. Primed all the spots that were down to bare metal.



Pulled the old seats and hit the carpet with a shop vac. It's eventually going to get a steam cleaning and black dye job, probably once I pull it out to do some sound deadening.


#4DoorGang

I've gotta swap the steering column out for the non airbag setup, so this is going to be a lot more pleasant to work inside of without the seats in my way.
Will also be nice for wiring and other such things. The seats were trashed anyway, and it's getting some sort of racing seat set with 5-points. Haven't decided what I'm going with yet.

[DividedBeing]

So, I figured out that I need to switch the polarity on my welder. Didn't even realize that you could until someone pointed it out to me on a facebook group. Hopefully that will solve the splattering, I'm pretty confident it will. Going to give it a test today on some scrap. I'm kind of bummed that I did the whole front subframe with the wrong polarity, but oh well. This is a good lesson to actually read an instruction manual every now and again.

[DividedBeing]

Not to bad for your first time. Nothing a grinder cant fix.

Thanks man. Someone was telling me to crank up the gas a little more and that might fix it. Going to experiment when I'm ready to do the rear subframe. I think I'm going to give my new tig setup a go with that one.