cameras ready prepare to flash

[s14brent]

so my m54b25 didn't have the spacer that goes between the motor and trans, ended up ordering one off ebay for a good price (really helped save time trying to pull one from the junkyard). It came in today, had a bit of surface rust on it - hit it with a wire wheel and threw it on.



Flywheel was thrown on, blue loctite used and torqued to spec.




I picked up all new pressure plate bolts (PO used 3 different length bolts - wtf) Both the clutch/flywheel (sachs/luk) are being reused. They were probably replaced when the PO did the 5spd swap. Clutch disk has a ton of life and didn't have the usual uneven wear. I had the clutch alignment tool from my s52. The M54 uses a self adjusting clutch (SAC) that needs to be "reset" if reused, and there's a special tool for that job. After flywheel was torqued, I used the flywheel stopper and torqued the crank down to 250 ft/lb's (as much as my torque wrench is able to go, I've read 250-300 is where you want it).

new selector rod shaft seal and rod joint. Should be nice with the e60 545i shifter....also ordered another pair of delrin shifter bushings.



I had a guy who makes 5lug caliper adapters for e30's (ig: @e30adapters) machine me a DSSR



one of the many hoses replaced (this one goes from brake booster to under the intake manifold.



replaced rear main seal, and pilot bearing (not fully seated)



replaced the output shaft seal and cleaned up the flange



and waiting for the input shaft seal here



removed the pioneer head unit that was held together with tape and soldered in a new stereo harness for my nakamichi cd400 from my e36 m3. also got a new dash kit for the headunit that has a small pocket vs the other one it came with. The dash kit is a POS and i had to modify it with a dremel to fit the faceplate trim



So besides waiting on a few parts, I'm not sure if i mentioned the exhaust was welded directly to the header flanges, started to cut them all off and grind it down today.

check out those PO booger welds!



and after some cutting and grinding it looks like this before throwing onto a belt sander (turns out i will just cut these off and reweld on new flanges - wasted entirely too much time on this already!)



input shaft seal came in, also installed the OEM steel pivot and a new sachs TOB (not shown).



My oval shifter bushings from garagistic arrived. They are a different design than the ones previously ordered from them. I had to put the inner bushings on a belt sander to fit in the given space correctly. The outer ones are thicker, i'll have to mock this up on the trans to make sure I won't have to deal with fitment issues under the car.



I bought the self-adjusting clutch tool kit from 8milelake. seemed like the best bang for the buck, but none of the alignment tool fit so I had to take the smallest one and throw it on the belt sander until it could fit into the pilot bearing.



and the tool in use:



will mate the engine and trans on my next day off - right now i'm waiting on the headers - ended up cutting off the flanges, but waiting for new 2" flanges to arrive and I need to probably refill argon.

Hoping to be able to throw the motor and trans back in the car next week!

[s14brent]

Found another zf trans (from a 98 328) at the local yard. My current transmission has some damage behind the front input shaft and was leaking like crazy. I've been wanting a yellow sticker (mtf) trans. I'm going to do the detent pins on this after the wagon is running.



took it to get pressure washed. - much better!



-------------------------------------

e39 wagon

started to unhook everything on the stock motor. swapped over the ac compressor and alternator. All the tensioners/idler pulleys were replaced.



I removed the exhaust and driveshaft earlier. Ended up chopping up the exhaust into pieces.



going to delete the resonator here for some 2.5" stainless I had laying around from my e36 m3



I get to practice stainless welding now that I have my tig welder setup for back purge.



Not sure what I want to do with the muffler yet...not a huge fan of the tip on there

---fast foward to today---

started this morning pulling the m54b25 out with a friend.



After the motor & trans was out I decided now would be a good time to swap out these ABS brake lines



Took the trans to get pressure washed (twice in a week!) - sprayed it down with purple power degreaser first. Looks like I'll be changing out the input and output shaft seals and shift selector seal on this trans. No detents, I noticed the detent kits are double the price now! When I did my first zf in the e30 it was about $40-50, not it's @ $80+. I'll also be doing a new rear main seal and pilot bearing.





I got lucky and the clutch looks to be recently replaced. (LUK)



refreshing the shifter assembly



turns out i need to order another set of teflon shifter bushings...oops!!



hopefully swapping in the 3.0 next week! sort of just waiting on parts now!

[s14brent]

here's a pic of the first few aluminum welds i put down with the new machine!!



i need a lot of work, but i'm beyond stoked since I expected a lot more issues. The AHP alphatig is fucking phenomenal!
-----------------------------------
pic of my beat up oem booster vs new 944 booster


sitting in place, actually clearanced the firewall hole a little larger since it was a little too close for comfort last time!



I kept it .5" over with the modified clevis since it was already done and I could use the extra space regardless.



bench bleeding e28 bmc



reman e28 bmc (23.81) and wilwood brake bias valve (from ireland engineering), made some custom brake lines moving the bias valve up and connecting the non abs lines to a "T" since this BMC only had 2 outlets (photo was taken prior to bench bleeding)



sort of a pain in the ass to bench bleed then install in place, but i got it done finally!

------------------------------------------
update

I put the intake manifold back on earlier. I shaved the fins for the oem booster to clear the first time around....I probably have 0.75-1" clearance now with the smaller booster.



I bolted the fuel rail and coil plug harness back in place....the motor is looking semi-complete again!

[s14brent]

I haven't updated this in a bit.....no real update really, I removed injectors/fuel rail, intake manifold, BMC and booster off the E30. I need to bleed the e28 bmc (23.81) and then learn to flare at least 2 brake lines for non-abs setup and moving wilwood bias valve up higher.

e39 is sitting in the same spot. I really need to swap that car asap.

But meanwhile....I decided it was long overdue for me to pick up a tig welder. I wanted to get comfortable with my mig first, and I think I'm finally ready to move on especially since I find myself wanting to weld stainless/aluminum more and more often! I picked up a bottle of 100% argon (that i had) stored at a friends place. After just getting done with 2 full straight days at the convention center, I found my new AHP 200x tig welder waiting for me when I got home! I got a few other things in the mail like tungsten, and a few different filler rods to learn with, new gloves and a torch holder.



sitting on a $30 hf cart for now.....



no time to set it up fully tonight, still have a lot work to do here, but I'm super excited and wanted to post this!!

[s14brent]

Good thing you got it all figured out, the project is coming along nicely.

Thanks man! I'm not entirely sold on the washers at the moment, but it will work for now and not set me back $650.

I ordered the hardware from mcmastercarr late on the 29th and it was at my doorstep the next day. UNREAL. The bolt is a grade 8.8 and the washers are 10.9 so it shouldn't be an issue. I can't wait to dial in wheel fitment/ride height, and I'll make sure axle clearance isn't a problem and try to get a picture of the clearance then!



also.....the subframe isn't fully installed all the way up. I had to pick up some new bracket-covers (acquired at junkyard this AM) since mine were in piss poor shape.
Also, small issue: everytime I jack the rear subframe up into place, it wants to push the bottom half of the poly subframe bushing out almost 1/2", but when I lower it back down, the bushing gets seated properly. I'm not having any luck compressing the bushing back in when it's all the way up... not sure if i have to do both sides at the same time some how - I'll look more into this soon.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
e39 touring update.

A friend told me an 02 530i got put out at the local pick a part so I went first thing in the morning and got me a few things. I could have easily transferred the parts off the current motor in the car right now, but all this stuff is cheap and is nice to knock out prior to pulling out the original motor and doing it all beforehand. Also felt this was a solid progress to end out 2016.

My 525i valve cover has a small chip and the damn 330i cam cover fell and cracked so I decided to pull the valve cover and cam cover off of it. Felt nice to seal it up vs putting a garbage bag over it. All new gaskets/grommets were used, and toyota fipg around the halfmoons front and back.




and I took off the PS pump & brackets since it looked like it was in great shape. Finally got to mount the ECS aluminum PS pulley



I also grabbed another set of injectors because I sent the ones from the 330i out to MEPEH/BMWSTONE, but I'm not sure he got them, or if they got stolen from his mail, etc. but from his last PM he did not get them yet and they were supposedly delivered on the 22nd. :ugh:

and the 525i (junkyard car that I got the oilpan from) was still there but the block was sitting in front of the car this time around. Probably the last time it will be there! So I grabbed the ac mount which has the same style tensioner that I purchased and so much easier to remove vs when it's sitting in the car. Also grabbed the 5 series motor mount arms since the 330i ones would be useless in this application.





All parts & hardware were immediately degreased, pressure washed, and then cleaned up on a bench grinder with a wire wheel before installation.

I also forgot to mention I picked up an AFE intake for a 528i (e39) off craigslist for cheap!



It did not come this clean, I promise you. (filter pic was post cleaning and pre-oil)



and I think I found a solution to fitting the larger 530i maf



Oh and Happy New Year everybody!!

[z28]

Good thing you got it all figured out, the project is coming along nicely.

[s14brent]

so I found out from fortune auto the e30 coils are 60mm shorter and there is a 10mm spacer that goes between the mount and shock included with the e30 kit.



I used 9mm of random spacers, and its paper thin clearance (uncompressed) so some grade 10.9 washers were ordered and longer m12 x 75mm bolts were ordered. Thank god! crisis avoided! The FA e30 replacement shocks are $325 ea. and I'd really hate to have mismatching suspension after all this work! I should have taken a picture from underneath where you can actually see the clearance. Oh well.

[ngampleh]

Thanks for following up.

So, still thinking to buy rear caliper bracket?

[thedivision]

Thanks for following up.

[ngampleh]

Looks some nice progress ;)

[s14brent]

I had a bit of time today to work on the e30. It's always one step forward, two steps back with this car I swear!! :ugh:

I was dumb and figured out I had the parking brake shoes mounted upside down. (which is why I couldn't get the rotor over the shoes)



close up of the front brake lines used with e46 rear calipers



I ended up putting the rear subframe back up (too dark for pics) but found out the e36 m3 fortune auto rear shocks rub against the axle boot (even when preloaded)



CRAP.....any suggestions on shocks that will clear? I'm going to try to mess around with it later and make sure I'm not over-looking something silly.

[s14brent]

Awesome thread. Wondering if you tested those front brake hoses on the rear? Do they work without binding/interfering?

not yet unfortunately I haven't had time to even look at the e30 lately, I have been overwhelmed with family, work and the holidays. there are a bunch of people on ngampleh (e30adapters) thread who have done this with no issue. Maybe he can chime in. I thought it was a lot easier than making a new brake line section and i'll probably use the old line to relocate the wilwood brake proportioning valve up higher when I get to installing that.

[thedivision]

Awesome thread. Wondering if you tested those front brake hoses on the rear? Do they work without binding/interfering?

[s14brent]

more e39 content.

Put in a new waterpump/thermostat. Used new grade 8.8 bolts/nuts. ECS aluminum pulley.



I located a m54b30 disa valve (long story short, i had a 2.5L disa somehow instead) and replaced the flapper with German Auto Solutions aluminum upgrade kit.



The front main seal was seeping so I tried to get the crank pulley off with my IR 1/2" impact. I soaked it in penetrating lubricant and had no luck. I ended up ordering a 1" impact from HF with a 25%off coupon. Ended up paying retail price ($129) after I got a 1" 22mm socket. This thing is so amazing. Heavy as shit, but it took off the bolt in maybe 2.5 seconds!! unreal.



e30 diff cover is back on. will eventually get back to that i promise!

==================update=============

pic as promised



and after way too long of cleaning the rtv off the disa valve, it's finally ready to go back into m54b30 intake.

[Bggdnssnguy]

This is not possible because of the c-clip

I gotcha. I wasn't sure. I havent done this yet. So figured I would ask.
Thanks!