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

[E30Rossi]

Engine rebuild looks like it's coming along great!
I like how you port matched the intake, think I will do that on the next M52 I build for my E30.

Excellent that you have a sandblaster, you must have a fairly big workspace?

Thanks man! The port matching is definitely less stressful out of the car but love to learn new things! Basically my car is stored in a warehouse of an industrial plastic recycling company that belongs to a friend's dad. So after hours I have access to a lot of industrial equipment like a massive sandblaster, a whole welding room, and all kinds of cool tools. Super grateful to have that opportunity or else I'd never be able to go this deep in the build!

[Panici]

Engine rebuild looks like it's coming along great!
I like how you port matched the intake, think I will do that on the next M52 I build for my E30.

Excellent that you have a sandblaster, you must have a fairly big workspace?

[E30Rossi]

After a long day on motor stuff, took a break for now and tackled a little wiring
Been putting off the front end harness for months now
Fixed a couple of cut wires, and exposed wires
Taped up the harness with Tesa tape, in preparation for the wire tuck through the fender hole


Passed through the hole I cut in the side of the fender area, made a grommet with some vaccuum hose


This was not fun to do, had to cut all the big ground connections off to pass the whole harness through
will redo all the ground on the front of the car since I have to probably extend some wires anyways


Mission success, got all the harness through this passage, one step closer


Finally was able to close the fusebox, after looping brake pad sensor wire, removing the auxilary fuse connector, and some other details to clean this area up

[E30Rossi]

All the engine components laid out and ready for assembly!


Freshly decked head that I already scuffed by trying to wipe it down


Valves were all lapped, cleaned, and installed!
Water test to check for leaks
nothing leaked through after 15-20 mins

[E30Rossi]

After figuring out that the brake lines were the wrong way, the motivation hasn't been there for the past few weeks
One of my friends who has lot of patience for these sort of things, passed by the shop and convinced me to redo the lines the right way,
and a lot cleaner than the last time.


Fixed the T fitting to where the OEM proportioning valve sits, so nothing moves around and it's all very neat
Installed the new grommets as well since OCD is a thing
Not a fan of using a union, but don't have the time to make an entire line front to back at the moment


Everything in it's place and hooked up correctly now


This one was very long to make and get right, but worth it
Love that BMW replaced the white line holders with these new black ones.
Fits my engine bay so much better!

[E30Rossi]

Started cleaning up the pistons and removing old rings as these will be replaced


some elbow grease and a scotchbrite and these are good as new!


Finally received that last big part of the puzzle
Valeo Single Mass Flywheel Conversion Kit
took a longgg time to decide on which flywheel/clutch setup I was going with
since the motor came with no flywheel or anything
Excited to see how this goes


Took the block and head to machine shop to get checked for straightness
Block was perfect, head was almost perfect but 1 small part had the tiniest gap,
So they convinced me to deck it, and also hottanked it no charge so I was glad I went through with it


Everything was good as new, and happy to know there's no chance of hidden metal shavings from the porting

[E30Rossi]

Last week's mission was to port match the head for the M50 intake manifold.
Wanted to get this done before sending the head to machine shop to get checked
Printed some 3D templates and got to grinding


To say this is stressful is an understatement if you've never done anything like this before
I don't envy people that do this with the motor in the car. Way too many metal shavings for my liking

Moving along with all 6



All port matched and ready to send to machine shop

[E30Rossi]

Scraped as much gasket residue off the block as possible


Gave the inside of the head a quick cleaning to get rid of the biggest debris



Worked on the oil pump to get rid of the crust


A lot better, doesn't need to be perfect since it will be living in oil


Received the RallyRoad ICV Fitting and Hose kit for the M50 manifold I will be using!

[E30Rossi]

All that's left now is to clean EVERYTHING


Cleaned as much carbon and gasket residue off the head as I could


More cleaning, this time the exhaust manifold contact surface


Passed these in the sandblast, which still has plastic material in it, so doesn't remove much rust, but doesn't affect aluminum surfaces at all



Need to figure out a good way to remove rust from the harmonic balancer and paint it

[E30Rossi]

Spent some time wire brushing the valves to clean all the carbon off them
This is such a long process but my OCD won't let me not do it


Good as new!


Just need to be lapped and good to go


Spent a few hours cleaning all the carbon off the head
CRC Intake & Turbo Cleaner works great for this, just need to get over the fishy smell


Progress!!

[E30Rossi]

Found a really good deal on an E30 page and got a few things I've wanted since owning an E30!
One of them was this late model heckblende, going to be the only person with one around here so pretty cool find!
The seller was AWESOME to deal with and after only paying for the heckblende and euroclock, these are all the "gifts" he included in the shipment!


Free tweeter covers, Turn signal lenses, shift boot, Fuel neck cover, clock pigtail and license plate bracket for heckblende....
I was in shock when I received this package, especially that it got here from Lebanon in 2.5 days... INSANE




Next on my list was the rebuild the dual vanos unit!
Bought the deluxe kit from RaceGerman with the rattle bearings and all the seals required.
This was fairly easy to rebuild


All back together and cleaned as much as possible for now

[E30Rossi]

Cams removed, we move along!


Everything was in very good shape! No surprises at all



Time to remove valves and springs to be cleaned, lapped and seals changed


I'm so glad that nothing was broken or major wear found

[E30Rossi]

Next step, remove pistons, rod and crank! No stopping now


Bare block, nothing beyond normal wear on anything.
Super happy I will be able to have peace of mind after this.


Next was to dismantle the head before getting to cleaning


Going to be so satisfying to sandblast and powdercoat / paint all the covers and other components



Ready for cleaning

[E30Rossi]

This was definitely not my original plan, but I was quickly convinced by a buddy who's taken apart tons of motors to just refresh
the M54 while I had it out! This escalated real quick :P


For a high mileage motor, it was actually pretty clean inside


Removed the head and found some crustiness under the valves. Nothing too unusual.
Leakdown test had shown that 2 valves were possibly not seating correctly so time to do some cleaning


Next step was to dismantle the block. My OCD thanked me for going this deep now


Block was pretty clean as well. Obvious carbon buildup on pistons but nothing surprising at all

[E30Rossi]

You're going to love the X3 booster.
IMO it modernizes the pedal feel while still being able to threshold brake without ABS.

I like how you mounted the rear prop valve. Mine is tucked underneath and makes adjusting with a hot engine interesting. 😅
BTW if you want to delete the level sensor, there is a cap available without the wiring.

can't wait to actually feel it!! Yeah, I really wanted to place it somewhere I'd have easy access to just in case. I actually swapped the cap without the sensor for the one with. Told myself if it's there and it works, might as well use it!