Meet "Blue Nose" M62b44 swap (Pic Heavy)

[2mAn]

Moral of the story; if someone hasn't ever done this type of swap or isn't familiar with these motors. Most likely you shouldn't let them work on your car it's a hard lesson learned that cost me a shitload more money and time.

I had a similar lesson when I was getting my aluminum M52 built. It was very similar to every other M5x/S5x motor, but the tiny little differences caused all kinds of problems...

Now that all that shit has worked out Ive put almost 40k on my setup and love it everytime I drive it. I know once you're doing that you will get that love back.

...waiting for the pics...

[DIIRTY-30]

So before my hiatus from the e30; I pieced together the AN lines for the catch can, tapped & timesert'ed the timing cover for the CPS bracket, swapped on another oil pan, notched the steering rack for the joint, wrapped the exhaust manifold, polished the exhaust nuts, and some other random stuff.





















Welded a fitting onto the coolant pipe for my water temp sensor on the alpina gauge..



Put the AKG shifter in & made the shift selector..



Then moved onto the OCC & AN lines..







Swapped out the old oil pan for the modded one..









Notched the rack...





Dropped the motor back in...



Acquired a TIG & MIG after someone who was supposed to do my welding took another 4 weeks when they promised 3 days. Got fed up and bought my own stuff to learn, still haven't gotten around to getting argon but its not priority #1 at the moment..



Then I picked this up off a buddy who wanted to part it out, didnt overheat just had small issues which I could handle. Got it for $700, found some ACS on clist a few days later and switched them out. Went ahead and buffed the oxidation off the headlights, candied the tails, bought an m3 bumper painted it and slapped some fog lights on it..











Polished up my ACS for the e30 since theyve been sitting for 2 yrs..







Got these ACS caps for $25 off craigslist for when i powder the 17s :)))) STEAL



Got my tach splitter from Garagistic...



Pieced together some coolant hoses, at the moment this is where I've left off, I need a few clamps, a hose for the overflow tank, and the exhaust to be fabbed up. I'm planning to take it to Castro soon to have the final touches put on it & drive it home for my bday.




LAST but not least the moment some of you have been waiting for.... the first start up after so long. This put the biggest smile on my face, also made my ears bleed (almost) my neighbors across the street just stared at me down my driveway like "this asshole..."

I'm not sure how to embed Flickr videos so heres a link...

https://flic.kr/p/N5sdS9

[DIIRTY-30]

I had a similar lesson when I was getting my aluminum M52 built. It was very similar to every other M5x/S5x motor, but the tiny little differences caused all kinds of problems...

Now that all that shit has worked out Ive put almost 40k on my setup and love it everytime I drive it. I know once you're doing that you will get that love back.

...waiting for the pics...

It just sucks doesn't it lol... I mean the only true reason it ended up there was because...

A.) I was getting sweated by my father to get it out the driveway since I couldnt keep it at my apt. He wanted to repave the driveway B.) I didn't have a lot of time because of school so 4 hrs on the e30 a week wasn't making a lot of progress. C.) I was hoping someone with more knowledge than me would finish it up and fine tune any issues. It's not like i was broke, after 3 weeks of not seeing anything done it kind of felt like my car was a burden...

At the moment it seemed like a good idea cause I was tired of being chewed out and wanted to drive it before summer was over. Just upsetting that I paid for labor, got a blown motor back, only to figure out a month later it was someone else's lack of giving a fuck or idk. It still kind of bugs me cause looking back on it, if someone didnt want to take on my project to help me & make money then dont take the car. After 5 weeks it almost felt like a burden and collectively between two people, i've lost almost 4 months on my project just waiting. Whats really sad is in the 6 years of owning this car, i've only had 3 people touch the car other than myself. That reinforced my faith in just doing shit myself, and the reason I don't take my cars to mechanics.

[2mAn]

Yea that totally blows. It usually happens when circumstances arent working in your favor. I was moving from Seattle to Orange County just when my engine was finally built and my options were to leave the car with the person who started the madness with me or drag it 1200 miles and have a totally new person deal with it. Shit hit the fan, it took ~6 months to finish and 3x the original cost...

[stonea]

The first time I ever took my car to a shop they installed the clutch backwards and tried telling me that everything was fine and I just needed a new transmission. AAMCO ended up finishing the job and guess what? I didn't need a new transmission. Shops suck...

[jeenyus]

Awesome video.

[DIIRTY-30]

Yea that totally blows. It usually happens when circumstances arent working in your favor. I was moving from Seattle to Orange County just when my engine was finally built and my options were to leave the car with the person who started the madness with me or drag it 1200 miles and have a totally new person deal with it. Shit hit the fan, it took ~6 months to finish and 3x the original cost...

That's a much harder situation than what I dealt with; I've learned one major thing while doing all this... Nothing ever goes as planned haha, it always costs more or takes more time. I've gotten to the point where I don't even look at what things cost anymore. I keep records but after talking to a few people and hearing what they have into their cars. Which sometimes makes me feel good cause I'm not nearly as deep, it just makes me step back and go "Holy shit!"

The first time I ever took my car to a shop they installed the clutch backwards and tried telling me that everything was fine and I just needed a new transmission. AAMCO ended up finishing the job and guess what? I didn't need a new transmission. Shops suck...

I still dont get how people put clutches together backwards especially when most say "engine side or gearbox side" haha. I really don't mean to sit and talk shit, but it was sickening how disappointing it was when I figured it out. I just really got the feeling the person who did the work didn't give one fuck about my car and just saw $$ signs. It isn't like I brought it to the neighborhood JiffyLube or backyard Joe you know?

Awesome video.

Thanks! Took that video before splicing together the camshaft sensor & had to address a leaky fuel hose on the filter. Idles a lot better after addressing those two things. I probably need to drain the tank also but the new filter seems to help a bit. Hopefully will have better videos soon.

[2mAn]

That's a much harder situation than what I dealt with; I've learned one major thing while doing all this... Nothing ever goes as planned haha, it always costs more or takes more time. I've gotten to the point where I don't even look at what things cost anymore. I keep records but after talking to a few people and hearing what they have into their cars. Which sometimes makes me feel good cause I'm not nearly as deep, it just makes me step back and go "Holy shit!"

Heres a cut n paste of my "lessons learned" from my engine build thread...

I hear ya, and the lessons Ive learned so far is
#1 go OEM as far as possible.
why? the MM bearings were just a waste of money, I wont get to test if they are as good as they were claimed, but either way an unnecessary expense for what I was building. The pistons, I dont regret, because OEM BMW would've cost $300/ piston (more than 2x as much) and werent in the US. as it stands right now, the pistons are the only thing thats not OEM.

#2 let the experts do everything, or nothing.
why? a big fiasco has been the timeserts. I was nervous and never comfortable doing it so I should've kept myself out of that, but in order to save a few bucks I did what I thought I could and it ended up costing me a TON more down the road.

#3 no timelines should be expected with these types of builds
why? It just adds to the frustration when things go wrong and most of the time something will happen that will push back deadlines

#4 keep your eye on the prize
why? all the stress has taken the fun out of the build. this is supposed to be enjoyable and this has been far from it. I never get good news from the guys and when I do its immediately followed by something bad. I have been trying to stay focused on what this car will be when its done and that has helped me through the process. this E30 will be exactly the way I want it. light, powerful, balanced and a fruition of my vision.

[jeenyus]

Yea hopefully one with an exhaust sounding pretty

[Sh3rpak!ng]

That reinforced my faith in just doing shit myself, and the reason I don't take my cars to mechanics.

Absolutely 100%

sadly it's the only way to guarantee it's done right and to know what was done and why. You can usually still spend the "labor" money on tools, cover yourself on a few mistakes and re-dos and still be saving. Learned my lesson years ago when I payed out the rear end for a clutch job and realized I could've bought all the tools and done 3 clutches for the money.

Also scares me these days seeing what passes as "professional" work

[jeenyus]

Absolutely 100%



sadly it's the only way to guarantee it's done right and to know what was done and why. You can usually still spend the "labor" money on tools, cover yourself on a few mistakes and re-dos and still be saving. Learned my lesson years ago when I payed out the rear end for a clutch job and realized I could've bought all the tools and done 3 clutches for the money.



Also scares me these days seeing what passes as "professional" work

I couldn't agree more. Being able to do your own work is the best. You learn a trade, take some pride, feel confident in your ownership. It really is nice.

[DIIRTY-30]

Heres a cut n paste of my "lessons learned" from my engine build thread...

Those couldn't be anymore true; tbh Simon... When I heard "Well I've never done one of these swaps, I've always wanted to.." That should have been my red flag.

Yea hopefully one with an exhaust sounding pretty

Soon just waiting on word back when to drag this POS in lol.

Absolutely 100%

sadly it's the only way to guarantee it's done right and to know what was done and why. You can usually still spend the "labor" money on tools, cover yourself on a few mistakes and re-dos and still be saving. Learned my lesson years ago when I payed out the rear end for a clutch job and realized I could've bought all the tools and done 3 clutches for the money.

Also scares me these days seeing what passes as "professional" work

Couldn't agree anymore with this, I've accumulated a ton of tools just because of this fact or doing jobs on other peoples cars. I just was getting heavy pressure, and between personal stuff & family situations I to an extent was forced to kind of take it in. Which I was 100% against cause I wanted to do everything myself like I had been doing but.... yeah. Which reminds me I need to PM you..

I couldn't agree more. Being able to do your own work is the best. You learn a trade, take some pride, feel confident in your ownership. It really is nice.

100% its extremely gratifying seeing something you've done actually work. That's worth a million in itself no matter what you do.

[DIIRTY-30]

Finally got some new turn signals since mine cracked.





Made a panel for the backseat to clean some things up a little. Cut out of 1/4" ABS plastic, eventually cover it with a carpeting.








POR-15 coated the floorboards & replaced all the plugs. Picked up a grey carpet & some seats, then cleaned out the trunk seam sealer for the delete, welded it in place, coated it with POR-15 and waiting to seam seal it, and coat the trunk again. Also wired in the Alpina vent gauge none of the sensors are currently hooked up yet. Added a second light to my trunk.

























Added the M3 battery cover; had to trim it a little bit and changed the OCC lines to straights since the 90s hit the cover.







Removed the return line for the oil cooler and added my sensor block for the Alpina gauge, then made a little tab for it and mounted it along the frame rail. Wheel seems to clear the line no problem so hoping for no issues. Still haven't gotten around to grinding out the skid plate mounting plates, but will ASAP.









Made some seat belt guides for the harness bar out of a 4' piece of 1/8"; pretty happy with how they came out.

[efficient]

Dang sweet build

[MR E30 325is]

Awesome stuff!

Sorry to hear about other people letting you down. I got tired of it a long time ago, not even with my own cars but with friends cars. I have gone so far as to learn to paint myself, just so everything can remain in house.

Excited to see more!