Non BMW swaps

[Dyno4mance]

No one has mentioned the Lexus/Toyota 1zu-fe from the LS400 4 Liter 32 Valve V8....I think there was someone from England or NZ that swapped one of these into an e30

[Farbin Kaiber]

Yeah, there is one owned by drifty340i

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=143685

^engine bay shots

[BeirBrennerE30]

Dent Sport had a 4G63 E30 a really, really long time ago. The guy went by the name, "Bimmubishi".

that car was a pile... just like everything that comes out of dent sport. they suck

[Emre]

Ah. I was unaware of this SR20 phenomenon. But with an SR20, the exhaust would be coming out the driverside and to have a turbo, it would be a bitch working around the steering column, yes?

You're right. It's a major PITA and requires moving a bunch of stuff around. Not really worth it in the end.

That's why after fooling around with the 4G63T swap followed by the SR20DET swap, the guys at DENT Sport Garage finally went back to a BMW (tuned M52B28) engine.

Personally, I've looked into a few different options for non-BMW swaps into an E30. The only ones that make any kind of sense are the Mazda 13B-REW, Ford Duratec 2.3, M-B 190E 2.3-16V, and Chevy LSx. And none of those are easy/cheap. Tons of custom fabrication in all cases.

[Emre]

that car was a pile... just like everything that comes out of dent sport. they suck

Based on what? I used to take my Evo VIII to them and they were the only shop that knew WTF they were doing. They had to repair the damage done by three other shops...two of which were highly respected Evo tuners who butchered my car. They also sorted out some issues on my E30 track car that were the result of poor-quality work by a well-known BMW shop.

In addition, they were always willing to take on lots of custom fabrication work that other so-called "race shops" didn't want to touch.

Overall, I've had excellent experiences with DENT Sport over the years.

[Farbin Kaiber]

I have heard both sides on this DENT Sport group. Didn't they run their shop out of a home garage?

[imdashiz]

more pics of s2k plz

[BeirBrennerE30]

ok well... here is the cliff notes of the Dent sport story I had. The DONT HAVE LIFTS. Whats garage doesnt have lifts. They fucked up my car like you wouldnt believe. I am still finding their fuck ups. They also cut into the frame of a friends Galant VR4 because the built his intercooler piping wrong and it wouldnt fit. If you want the full story ill post it below. Sorry for the thread jack but I just want to save people from this nightmare happening again.

[BeirBrennerE30]

The owner of Dent Sport is Alex. He is supposed to be an engineer so I figured that this seemed like a good local place to get some custom work done since I cant really weld. I took my car to DSG when my swap was 3/4 done. It needed an exhaust and xmember and i needed to put in the drive shaft and a few odds and ends. I gave him specific instructions and a diagram with dimensions of exactly what I wanted. He said it would take 3 weeks and cost $1500 for everything. I was pretty nervous since he had no pipe bender and no lifts at all in the shop. Well it took 8 weeks of constant calling and several unannounced drop in at the shop to motivate them enough to finish the car.... and when I got it the exhaust was at least 3" away the body in all places. You could stand 10 feet away from the car looking at the side you could see the exhaust under the car and daylight between it and the bottom of the car. the lowest parts of the exhaust were about 1cm from the ground.

I told them that this was unacceptable and the car was undriveable. Alex at this point said that he felt bad it took so long and that since I rented a trailer to get the car (since they said it was done!) I should take it and finish the swap. After the swap was done and I drove it, if it was in fact undriveable, he would fix the exhaust. I took the car and finished the swap the following weekend with much laughing from my friends about my $1500 pile of shit exhaust. Well I test drove the car. It scrapped all the way down my drive way and all the way out to the street ( I have pictures of this if you want). I called Alex the next day saying that the exhaust was terrible, wasn't at all as I had designed. I was pretty pissed I couldn't drive my swapped car. Alex at this point says that since I took the car he wants no part of it and it was my fault that my car was "too low to build a proper exhaust on". My car is low but not like some other peoples here

I showed up at the shop the next day. A yelling match ensued with him claiming that Ground control coilovers weren't a proper suspension and I needed to change them out so I could use HIS CUSTOM EXHAUST. We finally agreed that I would give him an EXTRA $400 and he would re do everything per my specs. 4 weeks later (yes thats 12 weeks to build a custom exhaust) I received the car. There was a hole in the dash where someone had put their foot through, the wheel wells were full of mud (offroading?), I was missing 1/2 tank of gas, some of the wires for my swap had been cut, there was mud all over the rugs on the interior and grease on my MOMO steering wheel, I was missing lots of random nuts and bolts including at least 1/2 of the brand new copper BMW hardware used to connect the headers to the head. I supplied this hardware for them to use. The trans xmember looked like it had been welded by a 2yo and the hardware they used for it was all mismatched (US, Metric, different sizes, etc). He also "FORGOT" to include on of the resonators that I supplied so the car is realllly loud. He then tried to claim that he supplied the resonator and refused to give it back after I realized it was missing.

I reluctantly took the car thinking that I could replace and clean the broken parts and hardware. Personally I feel you should get your car back in the same condition or better than when you drop it off at a place and that the hardware should at least match or at least be new. Most of the piping looked like it came out of their mismatched bin.

2 months later the best was yet to come. My drive shaft began making horrible noise. Put the car up on my lift to find the front mount near the guibo was all gauled out. After taking some measurements I find out that the xmember they made was holding the transmission and engine 7 degrees away from the axis of the car and was causing the transmission and driveshaft to miss align. My 6speed and brand new custom drive shaft were shot!! They didn't even measure!! I had to re fabricate the xmember myself.

3 months after that my girlfriend began to complain that we both smelled of gas after we drove in the car. Put the car back in the air and checked around. Found 3 different holes in the exhaust and a vband clamp that was welded at and angle and leaking. Brought my car to another shop (Motorcars international... great people!!! They used to race e30s in the 80s and 90s). They seriously asked me "Did you make this yourself? was this your first attempt at welding?" When I said another shop made it, laughing ensued. They had to replace everything. They said not a single section was reusable or up to their standards.

So I had to replace everything DSG did within 6 months of getting the work done. They have cost me untold hours and dollars fixing their mistakes. Well Alex charged me $1900 for a custom exhaust and a trans xmember. Everything that was done there has had to be replaced and it cost me another $2000 to replace things that broke or were lost. am still finding things wrong with the car 8 years after they worked on it. I found they forgot to put one of the nuts on the top of a motor mount. There was harware missing all over the car that they used to secure their xmember. After this I have talked to 2 others that went there. One had his car ( Galant VR4) severely scratched by DSG and they CUT into his FRAME in order to fit an intercooler pipe they incorrectly made. It was all a disaster. It is the number one thing about my car I regret the most. NEVER TAKE YOUR CAR THERE!!!! I hope this helps

[bimmer_E30]

jesus christ man, thats horrible......what a bunch of fucktards.

[ck_taft325is]

Beir... man... if I lived closer I'd say we could go all mafia on them and "recoupe" some expenses. That's just fucking disgusting. Actually made me want to punch a baby in the face. I can't believe that...

[Farbin Kaiber]

Well, it was almost a decade ago, so lets hope they got their shit together in the past 8 years.

[Iain]

No one has mentioned the Lexus/Toyota 1zu-fe from the LS400 4 Liter 32 Valve V8....I think there was someone from England or NZ that swapped one of these into an e30

Another good swap might be the Toyota/Lexus 1UZ-FE 4.0L quad cam V8. Plenty of people have done that swap and they're tough motors. Space is a bit tight 'cause of the x2 DOHC heads but people fit 'em in and there are mounting kits out there too (www.rodshop.com.au has a pretty comprehensive one). There is a guy from NZ on here with a 1UZ E30 - sounds tough and goes really well. Just needs big cams and a supercharger for more fun!

Post 31, mate. Problem with the UZ swap is A) fat cylinder heads that make it tight between towers, B) it's taller by a fair bit than an LSx, C) doesn't make great power compared to the LSx (built for luxury not performance), D) lack of aftermarket support, E) it's heavier than even the L98 6L or the new 6.3L

[Emre]

I took my car to DSG when my swap was 3/4 done...am still finding things wrong with the car 8 years after they worked on it.

I'm sorry you had such bad experiences, but 8 years is a long time. Eight ago Alex and Bill were in their early 20's and the shop was just getting off the ground. Sounds like they might have bitten off more than they could chew at the time. A lot has changed since then.

It's funny, but I also had them make a custom exhuast for me recently. This was for my E30 track car with M20 swap. They installed my Hartge long-tube headers (off an original E21 Hartge H3 323i RS) and built a custom 2.5" stainless exhaust, including a metal-core race cat, resonator, and Magnaflow muffler. Top quality work, good fit & finish, no rubs/rattles/dragging, etc. The exhaust is nice and tight to the chassis: though the car is quite low (Turner J-Stock suspension and undersized tires) and the exhaust diameter is much larger than stock, there is no scraping even going over large speed-bumps and entering/exiting sharp driveways. And the cost was very reasonable. No complaints.

Well, it was almost a decade ago, so lets hope they got their shit together in the past 8 years.

DSG is now a shop that many people go to when they need to fix work that was screwed up by other shops. Like I said, I guess a lot has changed.

Anyway, I don't want to sound like a fan-boi blindly rushing to their defense. I moved away from Boston a while ago, so I don't even use them anymore. But I think they're good guys and it's unfair to say that "everything that comes out of that shop is a pile." Maybe they got off to a bad start, but they seem to be doing great work lately.

[ethree]

4age would be an interesting swap.

Why? So you can have the power of an eta or slightly modded m10?

This thread is funny.

S2000 guy why is that your old car? R3v it or loose your job?

Lexus v8's are garbage compared to GM products, did I really just say that?