E30Rossi's Full Build - Overhaul - 5 Lug - Bay Shave - M54 Swap (Pic Heavy)

[E30Rossi]

SHE'S IN!!! this was such an exciting moment! Crazy to see how far it's come since November!


Pretty surprised how good the headers lined up, clears everything


Besides being pointed downwards a little, they are perfectly positioned, although we're not keeping these flanges



Enough clearance everywhere and to my surprise, more than enough room to remove them in the car!


Couldn't stop staring at this !

[E30Rossi]

Garagistic chassis mount shifter installed with DSSR. super simple setup!


M50 Intake on. small issue with clearancing the booster. didn't think this would be an issue with the X3 booster


Really love how this looks in here. all the effort was worth it


Vibrant catch can acquired. Didn't realize how big this thing was


Got started on wiring. stripped all the old sleeving off to verify all the wires and clean it all up and replace the sleeving

[E30Rossi]

Exhaust pieces picked up! going to look insane


Powdercoated my strut bar to match other accents on the car! love how it turned out


Got my welder to come weld up the pieces to my existing stainless line to match the headers
He did an amazing job with the tig welds


This is going to finish up the underside of the car so well


Full midpipe section all done up

[Panici]

Bay looking clean and exhaust on point!

[E30Rossi]

Bay looking clean and exhaust on point!

Thanks man! It's really coming along now. The next week weeks is grind time to get it done before summer!

[QuiqueUy]

coming alone great !

bay is beauty

[E30Rossi]

coming alone great !

bay is beauty

Thank you! Lots of hours in there😂

[varg]

That's a nice exhaust system.

[E30Rossi]

That's a nice exhaust system.

Got super lucky that my welder buddy wanted to practice making a custom exhaust🙏🏻 definitely wouldn't have been able to get such a nice job without that

[E30Rossi]

Finally found a bracket for the P/S pump so next was to install my new pump and aluminum pulley


Pump, pulley and belt installed!


The internet was right and the pan hangs wayyy too low...



Chop Chop! no going back


Didn't waste any time

[E30Rossi]

Boxed section to retain oil capacity


OEM drain plug retained and rewelded


Pickup tube shortened as well


All welded up by the same guy that did my exhaust! Welding pure aluminum to the cast pan was definitely a challenge

[E30Rossi]

VacMotorsports baffle shortened and welded in it's original position


Closer look


Gonna take all the stress out of driving

[Panici]

Love the custom oil pan. Even on my M52 it's the lowest point under the car.
Would like to change it in the future.

[E30Rossi]

Love the custom oil pan. Even on my M52 it's the lowest point under the car.
Would like to change it in the future.

It took some time to figure out but will definitely be worth it not having to worry anymore!

[E30Rossi]

Pretty happy to see that after all the modifications to the oil pan, the capacity remains exactly as OEM from dry! So I can still rely on my dipstick


Time to tackle this mess next


Got some heat wrap for the headers since they pass very close to the engine mount arm, subframe and swaybar
Did this to help with heat transfer but still wanted to leave the top expose since they're beautiful headers
I know I know, would be more beneficial to wrap them all the way but oh well!



Ran out of wrap for the second one, but happy with my choice of the black wrap!


P/S reservoir no longer fits in its place with the M50 manifold so had to make a custom bracket to hold it