89' 325is LS3 swap

[jeds]

In late 2017, I purchased a 1989 BMW 325is 5-speed from a member here. The car was in fairly decent shape when I brought it home...











After a couple of short drives, there were some nagging issues that needed to be addressed. Namely, a bunch of suspension maintenance, including a howling rear wheel bearing, and a host of vacuum leaks to seal up. I ended up doing a first round of work which consisted of...

• Garagistic powder coated rear reinforced subframe with camber/caster adjustment
• Garagistic powder coated reinforced rear control arms
• Garagistic 95A rear subframe, diff, and control arm bushings
• Turner rear diff w/3:73 gears
• Z3 diff cover w/magnetic plugs
• Revshift Diff stud kit
• New speedo sensor and wiring housing
• New GKN rear axles
• New rear hubs
• New FAG rear wheel bearings w/new locking plates and nuts
• Bimmerworld braided brake lines
• Bimmerworld Premium Race Bullet Nose Wheel Stud kit (rear)
• New OEM rear sway bar end links
• Wrinkle powder coated valve cover
• New valve cover gasket
• New exhaust gaskets
• New intake manifold gasket
• New OEM throttle body and intake boot. I simplified this to one vacuum line and put a simple 90 degree check valve in-line.
• Replace odometer gears
• Oil change
• New Bosch O2 sensor
• Valve adjustment

[jeds]

After a few hundred miles, the car was running well, but I was distracted by another project that pushed me to put the car up for sale. It was a 69' nova with LS3, t56 magnum, holley efi, etc...



Long story short, I had a bad experience with a shop and I ended up having to abandon the Nova project completely. With that out of my way, I had a bunch expensive parts sitting on my garage floor collecting dust. So...I figured what the hell, let's move everything I can over to the BMW and see if we can't have some fun.

Out came the M20 and 5 speed...

[jeds]

While the motor was out, I decided to install a reinforced sub-frame, Z3 rack, lemforder control arms, offset cabs, ST sway bar, etc..

[jeds]

Making room for a larger dual pass radiator.

[jeds]

While the valance was off, I went ahead and replaced damaged connectors and wiring leads, making sure to color code them to match the original wire colors as I went.

[jeds]

Motor and transmission from the Nova...


Motor with the sikky swap bits installed, manifold change, etc...


Gave the engine bay a quick wipe down for now.


aaand the motor and transmission went in...with much cussing.

[jeds]

Reusing yet another part from the Nova. Integrated the racepak dash into the cluster.

[jeds]

Preparing the Tilton pedals and masters for install. I'm using the Garagistic pedal box mount. The Tilton pedals are a bit different than the Wilwoods, so I ended up drilling and taping for the brake light switch.





Dash came out and pedals went in...what a nightmare getting these in.

[kickinindian]

that is an awesome install on the racepak i might have someone interested in the original cluster feel free to PM me.

[Pootis]

Damn this is super impressive

[jeds]

Sorry, the cluster was already sold.

I was struggling to find a place to install a remote brake bias adjuster. I want to keep the inside of the car clean-ish and not have it end up looking like a slapped together race car, so I ended up installing it in the center console. The cable will route out the side of the forward console piece and hopefully go mostly unnoticed. Here is where it ended up.







I had purchased a Sikky LS intake, but the fitment around my front accessories wasn't great, and I wasn't super stoked on where it placed the air filter in the engine bay.


I went ahead and purchased an Airraid builders kit to make the air intake. It comes like this...


Used an air saw to chop it up and got it all mocked up...


Started clamping everything together with hose clamps but wasn't stoked on the bright clamps. I went ahead and started putting heat shrink over the clamps to help everything blend in a little more.

[amcp]

Running sans brake booster?

[rzerob]

Subscribed. That sucks about the Nova. What happened?

[jeenyus]

This is awesome.

[jeds]

Running sans brake booster?

Yup. Booster and ABS was removed. In order to package everything and have a quality intake setup, some things had to go. I had planned to run the Nova with manual brakes, so it made sense to just move everything over.

Subscribed. That sucks about the Nova. What happened?

The Nova was getting a large amount of fabrication work done (roll cage, motor moved back 13", boxed frame and fabricated floor, etc ...) The car was at the shop for 2 years with almost no forward progress. When I finally decided to go grab the car, they rushed to get some of the stuff done. The entire floor and firewall we're removed, the cage was half completed (only tacked) and looked like a rush job, the boxed frame was partially welded and not square. The list goes on. But...the worst thing was that all the VIN information was chopped off the car and discarded. I went back and forth with the DMV trying to find a way to register the car, but they told me I was SOL. Short of me doing something sketchy and finding a body to chop a VIN tag off of, it was a lost cause. I decided I needed to move on as I had grown to resent the project.

Live and learn.