My trouble free S50 swap

[Giant_Sleeping_Walrus]

I wish I had started this when I actually did the build, but I guess afterwards will have to do!

So a little background:

I fell in love with e30's three years ago, right before starting engineering school. I searched and searched but could never find one in my price range. Well I eventually found another project to occupy my time, and had the amazing opportunity to build a couple of racecars for my school's formula SAE team.




The whole time I had always been poking my head around for a nice clean e30, but could never afford one working summer jobs.

Last november, I saw this photo on reddit and said to my friends "When I get an e30, this is what I want it to look like."



In December I decided to take a semester off to work an internship, and for the first time had the cashflow and savings to get my own e30.

One sunday in January I was trolling craigslist (as one does...) and there it was, the same photo from reddit, the same car. I picked up the phone and dialled as quickly as I could.

4 days later I owned the car! I paid way way too much, but it's solid and doesn't have any rust aside from the battery tray. I was supposed to buy an M50 from the previous owner, I bought it knowing I'd need to do the swap. The m20, along with most of the car, was in pretty rough shape mechanically. It didnt have 3rd gear (which I only solved during the swap :|....) it had a nasty valvetrain noise, and it had decent compression in only two cylinders....

After giving up hope of getting the M50 from the previous owner after he dropped off the face of the earth I decided to "go big or go home" and found an S50 not too far away in good enough condition with trans, ecu, headers, radiator, and it had been tuned.

I spent ~5 months driving the car occasionally and dailying it sometimes when the weather was good. I couldnt devote much time to the car since I was a little busy building a racecar, but it gave me some time to save up and stock up parts.

When the school year ended I immediately turned all focus towards the swap and memorial day a buddy and I yanked the M20 and put the S50 in. My original goal was to have the car driving by July 4th, and June 16th I took it for it's first drive.

And now: the story of the swap.

[Giant_Sleeping_Walrus]

the swap begins

This swap was anything but trouble free. Its a shame I didnt document it as I went or I would've remembered a lot more :/

Memorial Day 2017:


It was finally time for the M20 to go, and it couldnt happen fast enough! In 24h we had the m20 out and the S50 in.

Used revshift black motor mounts and garagistic poly trans mounts. Reinforced the subframe myself on the motor mount plates.




Here's the rundown on the whole swap:

Engine:
S50B30 US tuned by RK tuning
ZF trans
Z3 short shifter

Intake:
Cheapy cone filter with 3.5" AFM

Cooling:
m42 radiator with spal 16" ~1800cfm pusher fan

Exhaust:
ebay(? they came from previous owner) SS equal length headers
From there its fully custom (did it myself)
two 2.25" v-bands to a 2.25>2.5" y pipe, into a vibrant flex pipe and then a borla pro XS oval muffler. from there its a few bends and back into a vibrant ultra quiet muffler (not yet installed). Whole thing is tig welded stainless and I love the way it sounds.

Drivetrain:
E36 328 driveshaft to e30 3.75 LSD and I replaced the CV boots (F those)

Brakes:
325ix booster with the spacer removed, cut and welded shaft, slotted holes in firewall, reservoir currently interferes with throttle position sensor

Was such a blast to finally take it out on a great backroad!

[Giant_Sleeping_Walrus]

6 months in

So after 6 months, here's the the whole list of things I can remember doing:

From front to back:
Spal 16” Pusher Fan
M42 Radiator
New External temperature sensor
S50B30 with ZF trans
Reinforced the front subframe
Revshift motor mounts
AC Delete
Fully Custom Exhaust
Bilstein Sport Dampers (previous owner)
Ireland Engineering progressive springs (previous owner)
Z3 Rack PS delete (previous owner)
Cone Filter
Garagistic Poly bushings throughout the front suspension (previous owner)
Offset control arm bushings for increased caster (previous owner)
5 lug adapters with e38 style 5 wheels (previous owner)
Replaced blower motor
Replaced lights behind HVAC Panel, exterior light switch.
Replaced Check panel
Replaced clutch master and slave cylinder
Garagistic stainless clutch line
Rebuilt driver’s door lock
Replaced all shifter bushings
Z3 short shifter (previous owner)
New driveshaft with new CSB
3.75 LSD with fresh redline 75w140 LSD fluid
Rebuild the CV’s and installed new CV boots
Replaced all rear ARB bushings
Garagistic poly diff bushing
Replaced side indicator lights
New tail light seals

[AWDBOB]

Last november, I saw this photo on reddit and said to my friends "When I get an e30, this is what I want it to look like."

Couldn't agree more with that statement :D

I've got a Brilliantrot iS (M52b30 swap underway and a Zinno M3, both with e38 Style 5s. Something about red on these cars scratches an itch no other color can.

Kudos to you for getting the job done! How did you build your exhaust system?

[Giant_Sleeping_Walrus]

Couldn't agree more with that statement :D

I've got a Brilliantrot iS (M52b30 swap underway and a Zinno M3, both with e38 Style 5s. Something about red on these cars scratches an itch no other color can.

Kudos to you for getting the job done! How did you build your exhaust system?

Yeah, when I recently messed up the paint in a few areas I thought about doing a wrap and a color change with it, but I just cant imagine this car in any other color!

The exhaust was a pretty straightforward PITA, started by mocking the Magnaflow 10758 y pipe into place and building down from the header outlets to it, with the two summit racing v-bands in between. Then mocked the first muffler/resonator into place behind the trans and worked back to there. Currently it just dumps out right behind the exhaust hanger, which I bent out of .5" stainless rod (you can get it hot enough with a map gas torch). I still need to finish putting the second muffler in, but it sounds so good right now I'm thinking about putting another V-band in there so I can have one setup with one muffler back and another setup with the second muffler. I'll post some photos when I pull the whole system to add the second muffler.

[jaywood]

How is the m42 radiator working out for you? Thinking of going that route with my S52.

[2mAn]

How is the m42 radiator working out for you? Thinking of going that route with my S52.

I have one on mine and with no clutch fan, the Spal fan is on fairly often. That being said, I havent had any big issues with it, even after a few track days. Far from the best option, but it works pretty well. Late model cars should be using a MZ3 to avoid any kind of cooling issue.

[jaywood]

I have one on mine and with no clutch fan, the Spal fan is on fairly often. That being said, I havent had any big issues with it, even after a few track days. Far from the best option, but it works pretty well. Late model cars should be using a MZ3 to avoid any kind of cooling issue.

So, if you had to do it over would you do the m42 again?

Trying to decide what to do here. I have an early model as well with no expansion tank mounting on driver side. Plus I like having more room for a filter there anyways.

[Giant_Sleeping_Walrus]

So, if you had to do it over would you do the m42 again?

Trying to decide what to do here. I have an early model as well with no expansion tank mounting on driver side. Plus I like having more room for a filter there anyways.

I havent had the car out on track and dont expect to anytime soon, and my radiator hoses are kinked more than I'd like them to be which must restrict flow. 2mAn what hoses are you using? I think I'm using e36 hoses but I had to cut my upper hose and make an aluminum double barb to connect the two together.

Even with the kinked hoses it seems to stay cool, but the fan is on pretty much as soon as you stop. Not that that's really a bad thing but that fan is LOUD.