S52 Brilliantrot 318is from Australia

[jsta1109]

Threw some coolant in it and had it running up to temp. Recorded some sound from the exhaust, a bit raspier/louder than I expected but also noted after this that two of the four vbands were leaking slightly (since tightening them, exhaust is a bit quieter and no ticking).

Low revs/exhaust sound https://youtu.be/8JIYJ3KV1Lc

Idle after tightening exhaust https://youtu.be/Agvolh9mqrM

Finished exhaust photos, don't look too closely... I'm pretty happy overall, but next time I should just go single 2.5/3", would have saved me a bunch of time.





Got the engine up to temp and I have a very small leak from the coolant hard line coming from the back of the thermostat housing. Currently waiting on o-rings to ship from the states.

[2mAn]

Exhaust looks great

[e30davie]

Nicely done! sounds alright to me.

I mean sure yer a single pipe would be way easier, but wheres the fun in that! you would have learnt alot making that exhaust.

[jsta1109]

Exhaust looks great

Thanks!

Nicely done! sounds alright to me.

I mean sure yer a single pipe would be way easier, but wheres the fun in that! you would have learnt alot making that exhaust.

Thanks, might be a bit loud for me but I'll find out when I get to drive it. And yes certainly learnt a lot, gained quite a bit of confidence TIG welding and keen to work on something other than an exhaust for a bit.

[BillyRad17]

That car is siiiiiick! Unique too, I like what you did with your BBS's

[jsta1109]

I'll hopefully have a more detailed update but I've had a successful first drive. (Sorry no videos yet)



I pulled my front ground controls out as the shocks are leaking. I had some spare BCs for the front but as pictured they were way too low. Front lip is about 60mm off the ground and I ripped it off on the driveway getting out. I also bottomed out on the first drive and took a chunk off of my steering rack. If I had an E34 pan, it would have been obliterated...



It seemed to drive okay, hard to say if it felt any quicker or better than the M52 at this point as I was paying more attention to noises etc, I'll do some data logging soon and see if there is any notable increase in MAF readings. Exhaust is much louder on the outside now, surprisingly it's quieter than my old exhaust on the inside with no drone. Hopefully I'll update the thread shortly with a video.

Few issues I did note, getting a bank 2 o2 code (bank 1 seems fine, two brand new NTK sensors), looks to be lean so I could potentially have a vacuum leak. Going to give the MAF a clean as well.

I also dropped my good working radiator fan switch when moving the radiator, I replaced it with a spare but I don't think it is working. I also put an 88c thermostat in, E30 gauge is reading 3/4 at operating temp so that does get me nervous.

One more thing, always hated the intake. I have had a eBay / KAMotors style one for some time and I really dislike it. I've purchased a generic K&N filter and I plan on building a box.

[bmwfan52]

Congrats on the car mate.
Dont be afraid to red line that puppy.
You might not want to swap the engine when you figure out the driving style that car likes.
What month and year do you have on your door?
May be too nice for a first swap in this day and age.

oops just realized that it was a long thread and your done with the swap.
how do you like it compared to the m42.

[jsta1109]

Congrats on the car mate.
Dont be afraid to red line that puppy.
You might not want to swap the engine when you figure out the driving style that car likes.
What month and year do you have on your door?
May be too nice for a first swap in this day and age.

oops just realized that it was a long thread and your done with the swap.
how do you like it compared to the m42.

Both the M52 and S52 are better than the M42 in an E30. I couldn't really tell much difference as far as weight/feel on the M52 and I haven't really given the S52 much of a drive yet so it is hard to comment. That being said, the huge increase in power and torque is worth it every time.

[bmwfan52]

power wise its night and day when you compare the two. I meant to ask about the overall fun factor.

How long did you drive the m42 before starting on the project?

[jsta1109]

power wise its night and day when you compare the two. I meant to ask about the overall fun factor.

How long did you drive the m42 before starting on the project?

Had the M42 in for about 2 - 3 years, was a daily for most of that time and drove great.

[jsta1109]

First proper drive went well, spent half a day cruising with friends around some of the mountain roads here.



Made it home without a tow truck.



I forgot to mention it above but I spent a bit of time chasing the o-rings for the coolant overflow pipe, couldn't work out why even with new o-rings it still leaked. Pulled the pipe out and compared to a spare I had, clearly ovalised. Not sure how this happened, but I threw the spare in and I was leak free.

A few negatives from the first proper drive. I had a moment where it popped out of gear going uphill. I can't really recall what came first but it felt like the car cut out momentarily and popped out of gear. Not sure if the cutting out was because it popped out or the engine actually cut out. Either way, only happened once. Speaking of, the shifter is garbage. I'm running the same Z3 1.9 shifter I had with the G240 and the shift throw feels twice as long. I need to pull the linkage apart and take a look. I would prefer to stay away from a tunnel mount setup but I'd be keen on sourcing something different if I get improved shifter feel.

Headers are also touching the steering linkage on left hand turns. I've had this before but my previous headers were 'notched'. I switched to RevShift 95a engine mounts and while they fit great, I didn't want the added vibration. I think what I might do here is make some equal length headers that fit better than the OBD2 style ones.

Exhaust seems to expand and touch the rear subframe on bumps. It is also a bit raspy down low, I may fix this later by adjusting the pipe work and adding some resonators.

Coolant temp is a weird one. I used to run an 80c thermostat, I decided to run an 88c this time around and I'm not too sure if it is a concern. I seem to be running at around 95c - 100c. I swapped out to a 91c/99c fan switch and the low speed seems to kick on at 99c-102c. I did test it with a heat gun and both low and high do kick on in the correct order, so maybe it reads a bit lower on the cooler side of the rad? I also got the wrong VDO sender for my second coolant temp gauge, it is the oil temp sender. It ended up being about 20c off. To get the factory temp gauge reading correctly I had to add a 10ohm resistor inline.

Brake lights were also stuck on most of the trip, my pedal decided to drop after swapping the pedal box back in. I fixed it up at home but was a bit concerning having lights stuck on.



Positives, it pulls hard. The graph above is the load reading on my M52 vs S52. Even with the S52 intake I'm 100 - 150mg/s higher in most of the rev range. I'm looking forward to throwing the M50 intake on and building some headers and comparing again.

[ba114]

nice work mate. be thankful you werent dragging the brakes the whole cruise though!

[bmwfan52]

most of the issues you mentioned are normal are you using you m42 radiator?

My second gear grinds still, I likely have to keep bleeding clutch if I ever manage to get a helper.
At one point it was poping out of gear but that was just my leather boot pulling it out lo.

my header pipes are a 1/4 in away from trans I think a muffler shop can bend and make grooves past certain spots. gl finding a muffler shop thats down to help you out.

pedals wise I had to bend the stops until I got them right, play with the throttle cable while your in the process of tuning your build quickest way to see change imo.

You did it my boy congrats.
You will reep the benefits soon enough.

[jsta1109]

Well I've been busy behind the scenes on non car related things but I've fit a few small jobs in where I can. After almost 2 years of waiting we've finally moved into our new house so that has taken most of my time.

I had a fun time trying to diagnose an intermittent no start issue. I sent my starter motor back for warranty which in the end was a mistake as the starter motor tested fine. I kept putting it off but since owning this car there has always been a trick with starting it and I've always had to push the key up slightly when turning it over. It turns out the lobe that engages the ignition switch had worn so much it was no longer able to move the ignition switch to the start position. Pulling the ignition switch off and using a screwdriver worked great.

The problem


Fitting a new steering lock housing



I've also switched to an E90 booster but I've yet to road test it. The pedal feels a lot nicer than the Clio did stationary so fingers crossed this improves the braking. Overall this was a pretty simple job for a RHD car. I made a new line for the rear brakes to the proportioning valve and I made a small line to an m10x1 T junction that retained the factory front lines. The reservoir is from an E60 and fits perfect (Thanks ba114). In my opinion it looks much nicer than the common 2002 solution. Also pictured is an M50 manifold. I decided to finally fit this and it is worth mentioning; the m50manifold.com kit is great!



As part of this change I also decided to fit the braided lines for the rear brake lines above the subframe. This actually wasn't overly difficult. Crows feet spanners and a long 11mm spanner go a long way here.

I don't have any great pictures but I've been modifying a set of euro S50 headers to fit. Turns out for a RHD car these are a nightmare and I wouldn't recommend chopping a factory set up to fit. Cyl 1-3 foul the steering rack and cyl 6 fouls on the steering joint at the rack and the firewall. I'm persisting with making these fit as I purchased them cheap having already been cut up.






Once the headers are complete I plan on going back to a single 2.5" exhaust, I've purchased enough material to complete this but I want to wait for the headers to be complete. The dual 2" is just too loud for me and I struggle to find any larger mufflers. I doubt the dual 2" offers much performance over a single 2.5"/3". I did think of moving to a single 3" but again it probably offers a few HP up top while being too loud for me.

One final bit. My Koni shocks started leaking from the adjuster. I priced up new Koni front shocks from Ground Control but I couldn't justify the expense and shipping to Aus. A friend put me onto running a common AE86 setup using MR2 rear shocks. I went with KYB AGX 765016. I had to remove a very small amount of material in a lathe but all fits up okay. I haven't run them yet as I'm planning to weld some sway bar end link tabs on the strut. I decided to also add a 1kg helper spring to help keep the main spring captive. I'm not a suspension guru but I'm hoping this rides nicely.

[ba114]

...The reservoir is from an E60 and fits perfect (Thanks ba114). In my opinion it looks much nicer than the common 2002 solution.... ]

Yay, i'm glad people still check my thread and get benefit from it :)