S52 Brilliantrot 318is from Australia

[lukeADE335i]

received_801240360687010 by Josh Stacey, on Flickr

Well... looks like the fan isn't going to work out well. Temps weren't coming down in traffic and I had to find a place to park up and let it cool. That gauge is a bit so so, that is probably 110c/230f so I should be fine.

Currently sourcing a stock aux fan, I've got a couple spares here with bad bearings that I might attempt fixing up. I should be able to find a generic bearing and piece it all back together. On top of that I think a shroud would probably help the small puller fan I have.

The bearings are replaceable - I did one a few years back & just disassembled the fan & replaced the stock bearing with a sealed SKB bearing of the correct size. The sealed bearing should last a lifetime and the repair only cost about $3.

The stock BMW fans move a surprising amount of air - if you want an upgrade over the standard e30 aux fan, an e32/e34 one is a good upgrade with curved blades + 16 inch diameter.

[BUDNUNTA]

only setup ive found to work with ac is stacking the fans(slim condenser fan/condenser/slim rad fan/rad)

im currently setting up 2 cars with e36 radiator, m20 clutch fan, no expansion tank and radiator cap adapter in the top hose, modified m52 heater pipe, we will see if they work

[jsta1109]

Well... looks like the fan isn't going to work out well. Temps weren't coming down in traffic and I had to find a place to park up and let it cool. That gauge is a bit so so, that is probably 110c/230f so I should be fine.

Currently sourcing a stock aux fan, I've got a couple spares here with bad bearings that I might attempt fixing up. I should be able to find a generic bearing and piece it all back together. On top of that I think a shroud would probably help the small puller fan I have.

[jsta1109]

yes

[jsta1109]

Wow lots of changes since I last saw this thread. What kind of power is your current engine making? A 1500cfm fan, if it really flows 1500cfm, that covers nearly the entire condenser should be plenty for the AC to function well, I think the limiting factor that's causing the coolant temps to rise is the 1300cfm fan behind the radiator. I don't know which fan 24V swap guys run around here, but I thought it flowed more than that.

Currently, I want to say it'd be making around 190whp - 200whp. I haven't had it on a dyno but based on what I've logged with Romraider it puts me in that ballpark. Hopefully S52 bumps that to around 235whp.

It is a higher quality fan, retail here is about $170. It feels as if it moves air, but I'm measuring this with the palm of my hand. I don't often drive this car, but before changing the stock fan out I had great temps at idle. The only reason for moving the stock fan on was it had a really noisy bearing.

I have noticed the puller fan seems to do next to nothing once it kicks on now, it used to kick on high with the stock aux fan, but I'm guessing it was the aux fan doing most of the work.

I love this thread. Interesting findings regarding the ZHP rack. So according to rack doctor not all purple tag racks are created equal, with the main difference being the Torsion bar inside of the rack. The ZHP has a heavy torsion bar to add weight aka “steering feel”- sounds like that’s the one you ended up with. It’s likely too heavy for an E30.

Another thing I’ve noticed regarding steering returning to center that doesn’t get brought up much- offset control arm bushings have a pretty large effect on slowing this down. There is a centered bushing with solid rubber that I have been enjoying more than the offset CABs for this reason.

I actually think the one I got was fubar, or I did something wrong with install. I won't ever really know, I'm just glad I swapped it out, the E36 rack is great feel wise.

I haven't captured it but I did replace my control arm bushings recently, as the offset superpro ones I had were cracking. I figured this probably wasn't helping with high wheel torque during braking.

+1, really nice car and great thread!

Thanks! I've been following your thread now for a bit, always get excited when I see an update.

Also, I won't bother trying to quote everyone but thanks for the responses, didn't expect this many. I think reading back through this myself I really need to capture more of what I do. Also reminds me of how many things change in such a short time.

Trying to be sensible here and not get carried away with excessive spending on the car, I'm currently planning out a house build that I would like to share. Once that is finished that should give me some more space, time and money to work on the car. I have a khanacross (I want to say this is similar to auto-x, but we don't really have that here) day coming up in a few weeks, so I might have some updates prepping for that.

[Albie325]

Just found your thread, nice one 💪🙌

+1, really nice car and great thread!

[burkey001]

Just found your thread, nice one 💪🙌

[2mAn]

Your BMW looks awesome!

[AWDBOB]

I love this thread. Interesting findings regarding the ZHP rack. So according to rack doctor not all purple tag racks are created equal, with the main difference being the Torsion bar inside of the rack. The ZHP has a heavy torsion bar to add weight aka “steering feel”- sounds like that’s the one you ended up with. It’s likely too heavy for an E30.

Another thing I’ve noticed regarding steering returning to center that doesn’t get brought up much- offset control arm bushings have a pretty large effect on slowing this down. There is a centered bushing with solid rubber that I have been enjoying more than the offset CABs for this reason.

[varg]

Wow lots of changes since I last saw this thread. What kind of power is your current engine making? A 1500cfm fan, if it really flows 1500cfm, that covers nearly the entire condenser should be plenty for the AC to function well, I think the limiting factor that's causing the coolant temps to rise is the 1300cfm fan behind the radiator. I don't know which fan 24V swap guys run around here, but I thought it flowed more than that.

[mike.bmw]

I just read through this thread. Very enjoyable. Nice work! The red RS faces work really well on your red e30. I liked the Work Meisters as well.

[jsta1109]

Hi all.

Progress is always slow on this thing and not a lot has changed recently. S52 swap is technically doable in a short time, just needs gaskets really but I am lacking the motivation to get this done. I'm still sitting on the ZF and LSD, again motivation to modify this car is pretty low.

I had a track day not long ago now and did some maintenance in preparation for this.

I have replaced the front calipers and removed the old brass sliders that I had. All the issues I had at previous track days with brakes were caused by this, it appears as if only one pad was making contact, the 3 other pads have 80% more life than this pad.


I also purchase a new front auxiliary fan, 14" Davies Craig Hi Performance fan, rated to 1500cfm. As it turns out I don't think this fan is capable of running AC, since replacing the fan once the car warms up the AC starts blowing warm and temps rise above what they used to. Need to find a better replacement, anyone have ideas here?

I went to do a skid pan day and my fuel pump connector failed, I limped it home and took my daily. Lancer was replaced long ago with a HSV Clubsport (Pontiac G8 but better).





I fixed the fuel pump issue before my next track day and had a pretty fun day out with friends, car was great and ran some fast times.




Fastest lap on the sprint circuit here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtqM...l=JoshuaStacey

[jsta1109]

Looks great!!!...That s52 looks a lot better than the one I got a "good deal" on...haha

This is what I expected I would be doing! I am keen to throw a starter and flywheel on it and do a compression test, I am hoping that will show all positive. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[dmanb2b]

Looks great!!!...That s52 looks a lot better than the one I got a "good deal" on...haha

[jsta1109]

Well as per usual, updates are slow and so is progress. The s52 has been stored at a friend's place for some time thanks to my lack of space. I did however just bring it home and have begun tearing into it. I didn't expect much from the eBay motor, the description was non existent as were the accessories, it looked like the motor had sat for some time. I was concerned someone had taken the cams out and I was left with a dud motor. Thankfully the cams are correct, the motor turns over freely and it looks very healthy underneath. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk