S52 Brilliantrot 318is from Australia

[jsta1109]

Nice work on the swap!

Who did you get to modify your cross member so that you could run the rear sump? Looks a little like the arc asylum one, but did you get it done locally?

Your GF looks to have treated the car with a lot of respect (rather than hooning as your video title suggests!) I was expecting some skids, and her wringing the motor's neck out to redline :D Sounds nice in the video.

A bloke in Melbourne by the name of Footwork, best approach is via Facebook. The workmanship is quite good, I myself have no complaints with how it turned out, I just had a long turn around. As far as I know it is a copy of the Arc Asylum one, just means you aren't struck with astronomical shipping charges. No comment on how the two might differ or which one is better or worse as I've only seen and used one.

Also, can assure you skids happened, but recording those wasn't really a priority ;) This was her first drive too

[lukeADE335i]

Nice - if my M30 ever dies, I'll switch over to an M52/54 and look him up.

When my wife drives my car she drives it like she stole it! Has a fair bit more grunt that her Hyundai does, and she makes the most of it. I tend to drive like a grandpa unless I'm enjoying some "spirited" driving as per the BMW owners manual :D

So much for young males being the "Hoons" :D

[jsta1109]

Cars running well, ended up replacing cam sensor 4 times before one sensor worked. No more codes (beyond emissions stuff)

Exhaust video below, consists of modified E39 328i headers to clear steering shaft (barina linkage), full 2.5inch with one 12" hot dog and a magnaflow dual 3inch muffler. Pretty loud, thinking of toning it down a tad.

Zorsty by Josh Stacey, on Flickr

[2mAn]

Absolutely stoked with how it turned out, not as fast as I expected but it is only 180-190hp worth.

And girlfriend hooooooning it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9PEgVAWQIo&feature=em-upload_owner

Now what do I do?

First. Congrats. The aloomineum (thats how you guys say it, right?) M52 is probably the best motor for the E30, but Im obviously bias. Get the M3 cams in there, a tune and an OBD1 intake and you will have a different opinion about the power.

so, now what do you do? post a pic of said GF :popcorn:

[jsta1109]

First. Congrats. The aloomineum (thats how you guys say it, right?) M52 is probably the best motor for the E30, but Im obviously bias. Get the M3 cams in there, a tune and an OBD1 intake and you will have a different opinion about the power.

so, now what do you do? post a pic of said GF :popcorn:

Manifold is sorted already (the cam sensor issue at first glance seemed like a vacuum issue, decided to swap back to M52 manifold in an effort to curb any potential issues, wasn't it)


As requested, a picture of my girlfriend


I don't think it made a huge difference, and yes it has been tuned to suit, albeit a road tune at that (ignition timing, a bit of fuel here and there, monitor knock sensors and raise rev limiter). It definitely wakes the top end up a bit, but not an apparent difference.

I have a friend over here with the shitty (US) M3 motor, S52. Once he moves over to turbo setup was planning on running alternative cams, I've lined his up.

I am planning on sorting differential out, I currently have an LSD center that has no bearings, standard 2 clutch that is showing some wear and a medium case 3.64. In two minds about how I approach the install, do I just risk the diff as is and install new bearings and seals, or replace the 2 clutches, flip dog ears and or pay to have the center machined for 4 clutches.

[jsta1109]

Hi Hi,

Lil' update, ended up trading aforementioned diff for a ZF 320z, over here they sell for $1500-$2000 ($1000usd - $1500usd roughly). I also got a 3.15 open that'll be going in, but no rear cover as of yet... I will find one eventually.



Got a minty rolling shot

Still cleaning up certain aspects of the swap, still plenty to do, somewhat enjoying it yada yada.

[jsta1109]

Finally got around to getting myself a new starter motor. Refusing to heed the advice of others, and in an effort to save $100 I decided against buying a brand new one when I originally swapped the motor.

I will state it for those planning to do a swap, please... for the love of god put a reman or new starter in BEFORE you put the engine in place. I think I found every extension I had, ones I wasn't aware I had and every single uni-joint and adapter I could lay my hands on. I also had to get help to hold the nut on the other end. It was an absolute shit job, totally avoidable if I was smart.





Previous starter took many a hits, the case looked very beat up, good riddance.




Worth noting, also installed a medium case 3.73 temporarily while I source an LSD Center. Well worth the effort, makes highway driving much nicer. Also installed one o2 sensor, currently got the dme only using single back, one of my bungs had a stripped block off in it. Will have to drill it out or make a new one.

[2mAn]

I had to do the starter on mine also. I agree, theres a few things that really should get done when you are doing the swap. I skipped the VANOs rebuild on mine. Not sure I intentionally did it, it just slipped my mind. Well, sure enough it started getting noisy and eventually I had to deal with it.

have you gotten a tune yet?

[jsta1109]

No fuel pump turned out to be dead relay, i had everything pulled apart fearing the harness had a fault, turned out to be the easier thing. Lesson learnt I guess. Motivation to put everything back together was lacking, so it took me 3x longer than it normally does.

I had to do the starter on mine also. I agree, theres a few things that really should get done when you are doing the swap. I skipped the VANOs rebuild on mine. Not sure I intentionally did it, it just slipped my mind. Well, sure enough it started getting noisy and eventually I had to deal with it.

have you gotten a tune yet?

I guess we all learn, I am sure if I ever did the swap again there would be many things I'd do differently.

I haven't got a "tune" per say, but I've been doing my best to learn the ins-and-outs of MS41 from the RomRaider forums. Aside from some small changes to accommodate M50 manifold, RHD Flywheel and being in a different, there hasn't been much "tuning".

I have managed to get a happy medium with rev hang, did my own EWS delete, raised rev limiter etc. I have managed to score a set of S52 cams, so ill have some fun tuning for those when the time comes.

[jsta1109]

So headed out for the first track day (shakedown :S) since engine swapping, and the car overall performed quite well. The engine swap itself functioned well, had no issues bar a minor oil leak at the sump (I did know about this leak, and will fix it in the coming week. Got engine support beam and gasket, just gotta find the time).

Otherwise the only issue I had was the wrong master cylinder sizing. I am currently running an E30 ABS Master, 20.64mm, coming from a 22/17mm master that comes standard on my car. The issue I faced was rear brakes locking, making the car really hard to stop.

Straight line speed was there, keeping up with some of the quicker cars on that aspect now, but the weak point for sure was brakes. Made it really challenging pulling up on time and found myself braking earlier than most cars out there.

To further embed the problem with biasing, pulled into work the other day and noticed grinding from rear brakes. Down to maybe 1mm of pad surface, so ordered some pads quick smart before I kill anyone. I replaced fronts and rears at the same time, fronts still have about 70% life left.

Shamefully, I was 0.8 seconds faster than the 4-cylinder, probably worthwhile mentioning that power isn't everything sometimes.

Enjoy some photos that a friend took, I have some more shots in the works from others who were out there on the day.

[parkerbink]

Very nice, thanks for sharing!

[blinkx]

so good

Awesome build mate

going to be a weapon when you get it all tuned up!!

[jsta1109]

So, since I put the engine in, I've had a small oil leak from the sump, I had forgotten to RTV the 4 spots (whacked it on dry and said I'd come back to it and forgot).

SOOOOOOOOO....

I got everything I needed to do the job, engine support beam, new gaskets etc.





Nothing is ever easy... excuse the mess, many hours of frustration might have been the cause of that.

Reminder for people to stay OEM (or at least tried and tested custom), this rear sump was getting caught up on the oil pickup. I could remove the front portion of the oil pickup with the pan tilted, but even so I wasn't able to maneuver the pan past it. Luckily, and unluckily, with the three hours of wiggling, shaking and pulling the tack weld that held the baffle in place actually broke away, freeing the pan.

So before the weekend I'll have to drop the pan at a friend who can TIG it back up, I will cut a slightly larger hole for the oil pickup to fit, should mean I can just raise the pan parallel to the block without having to remove the gearbox to get the right angle.

All this effort for a rear sump, should of gone front...

[bmwandhonda]

So headed out for the first track day (shakedown :S) since engine swapping, and the car overall performed quite well. The engine swap itself functioned well, had no issues bar a minor oil leak at the sump (I did know about this leak, and will fix it in the coming week. Got engine support beam and gasket, just gotta find the time).

Otherwise the only issue I had was the wrong master cylinder sizing. I am currently running an E30 ABS Master, 20.64mm, coming from a 22/17mm master that comes standard on my car. The issue I faced was rear brakes locking, making the car really hard to stop.

Straight line speed was there, keeping up with some of the quicker cars on that aspect now, but the weak point for sure was brakes. Made it really challenging pulling up on time and found myself braking earlier than most cars out there.

To further embed the problem with biasing, pulled into work the other day and noticed grinding from rear brakes. Down to maybe 1mm of pad surface, so ordered some pads quick smart before I kill anyone. I replaced fronts and rears at the same time, fronts still have about 70% life left.

Shamefully, I was 0.8 seconds faster than the 4-cylinder, probably worthwhile mentioning that power isn't everything sometimes.

Enjoy some photos that a friend took, I have some more shots in the works from others who were out there on the day.

Thats awesome man. Sucks about the oil leak on track :/ hopefully didn't cause any troubles for other cars on the day.

More seat time and better brakes will get your times up to scratch for sure, make the most of the extra power.

Very cool car man.

[econti]

What's the hard bit about the starter when in an E30? Is there not much room?
I did one on a friend's M50 E36 and it was surprisingly easy. Few extensions in over the transmission and a flatblade to hold the nut on the engine bay side and it was out