Bay Area E30S52: No More Slush Box + More Horsepower

[bernzpeed]

this is gnna be a sweet day for you! awesome !

Thanks, do you work at Castro's or are you the owner?

[obes]

this is gnna be a sweet day for you! awesome !

[bernzpeed]

Hopefully by that time, it's up and running. I was planning before the year end but I'm gonna be busy the next few weekends.

[freeride53]

This is sick! I'll need to drop by sometime this summer and check it out Christian.

Sina

[bernzpeed]

The gaskets arrived, thanks to BMW Concord.

Oil sump installed, and then this.(insert expletives here)


Got it out with this after a trip to Monument Parts.

[bernzpeed]

The Start of the S52 Tear Down

My dream is almost within reach. S52 engine sitting in my garage waiting for my full attention. For the last 2 years, I have been dreaming about this day. Reading articles after articles, thread after threads soaking in all the information I need to make this swap happen.

I am not a mechanic. I am a sister to one. But because my brother had been asking me to help him wrench on his car, I learned a few tricks and some I learned on my own just digging into it. I may have broken a few or messed up on a few (broken camshaft to name one, I hate M42 with a passion!) but it has been a great learning experience to prepare me for working on my M50TUB and now the S52.

I guess I can brag about several top end rebuilds I've done (I know for some of you, it comes easy and I learned that indeed it was) and restoring quite a number of E30s and Miatas.

The most important factor I've learned is to take lots of photos. Secondly, have containers for nuts and bolts and label accordingly. The first time you tear down an engine, you won't remember where everything goes. But I guess the beauty of my experience is that I've practically parted out 5 E30s to know where each nut and bolt goes. But this engine is different.

Although my M50 never got any further from sitting on my engine stand for almost a year, I am pretty much done with it. Now with the S52 on hand, the M50 will provide a few new parts that I may need to refresh my M Power.

The M50 awaits it's fate



I am excited about doing this but at the same time scared. But my confidence comes from the many members here who are always willing to share their knowledge and experience.

So to start off, let me introduce my E30. 89 325i automatic, 73k miles. Yes, my friends, I've got a slush box in there. I've enjoyed the convenience of it and I hate to see it go honestly. I've driven a stick all my life and I think I deserve to enjoy just cruising in my little automatic.

The car now has 17# injectors and chip and I must say, it gets pretty exciting once you kick down. Although I don't drive like a maniac on the road nor race anymore, I like to hear the roar of an engine. It is exciting for me and it just gives me a shot of dopamine. This engine will probably be seen on the for sale ads soon or I might grab another E30.

The plan of attack is, refresh the S52 and clean it up a bit. Mate the G260 to the engine and plant it in AWII (That's my car's name btw). But before planting it, I have to take the dash out because it's cracked and start on replacing the pedals, installing the IX booster, the clutch hose and metal pipe and prepare for the 5 speed swap underneath the car.

Things I've thought of needing:
Bearing shifting arm P/N 25111220707 (Automatic cars don't have them)
" " nut 07129946400
DSSR
Modified transmission brace.
ZHP weighted shift knob

I already have G260 w/ a short shift kit and almost everything I need for the swap that came from Chitty earlier this year when he parted his car out. He now drives an S52 swapped E30 and that thing flies. So many things to him!

Just waiting for the oil sump gasket so I can install the e34 oil pan.
Here's a few photos of the chaos I made in my garage. I need a bit of organization I know.

I'm happy that I have the VIN of the car so I can check the history and mileage.


Looks to be okay inside.


Oil pan off


It comes with the pink injectors that I am cleaning and "rebuilding."


I replaced the water pump and I am about to replace the thermostat housing with the aluminum one and found this:



Cleaned off the rust a bit using a copper wire brush on my drill. My arms are tired now so I might have to push for that tomorrow.


Who's who?

Anyways, I've been trying to get the old valve cover gasket off and it is brittle and hard to come off especially the round ones. Any special trick to it?

EDIT: Never mind, I drilled a small hole and used my pick to pull it out.

[e30vince]

great build

[catuned]

Looking forward to this!

[bernzpeed]

It has been a while since I last updated this and so much has happened since then.
I sold my Calypso to a friend of mine who is such a happy owner.

Also went to Hawaii for my big birthday and jumped off an airplane at 14,000 feet.

Because Bad Ass



So much more has happened but the most important part is that my dream for the E30
has finally arrived. The plans for the M50 (after finishing the rebuild) has been scrapped.

Soon... my precious!

[bernzpeed]

I'm liking how your car has turned out.

But I don't know if you said this...why did you switch to an E34 oil pan?

Thanks guys! My M50 engine did not have an oil pan when i bought it. I bought a new one so it would be ready to drop into an e30.

[!AjHoWzA!]

I'm liking how your car has turned out.

But I don't know if you said this...why did you switch to an E34 oil pan?

[MJCRO]

Freaking love this thread, great job!

[bernzpeed]

Nice Day for a Photoshoot

[bernzpeed]

MY Calypso








Working on refreshing my E46's paint due to PO's messed up paint job

Before


The bottom was severely scraped and so Dan and I sanded it down and applied putty and more sanding was involved.




After I was done polishing.

[bernzpeed]

Getting ready to wire the M50TU harness