LS1 swap 318IS

[tyeler18]

Since covid canceled our track event for this weekend it was time to work on the car again. Had to order the long reach bilstein nuts for my vorshlag camber plates, vorshlag was awesome to deal with for getting these and getting them to me quickly since I was planning to install before our race. Spent the morning get them installed and adjusted to cycle properly. No clue what actual camber is currently, eyeballing looks like roughly 4 degrees, will find out down the road. This is good enough for now.

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Wheel was turned slightly so not the best picture, but this is full bump with no spring. I hit coil bind shortly before this at the current ride height. I very well may lift it back up some, although it drives fine how it is and the suspension isn't cycling negative just yet. I will be corner balancing the car and doing a proper alignment on it, i'm just trying not to get to carried away since I've been tearing it apart multiple times lately getting everything where it needs to be.

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Here's current ride height. The front was raked higher with the stock top hats, but I knew the camber plates would drop it enough to rake forward. Again corner balancing will change this some as well, so I'm not changing it.

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

I will say these vorshlag plates are wonderful. I have cusco, JIC and D2 camber plates on my other cars and have had K-sports, BC, tein etc on prior cars and these vorshlag plates are so much nicer and smoother. The bearing is huge, they rotate very smoothly and just all around are such a nice quality plate. I'm probably going to replace the JIC's on my evo with a set of these now. Well worth the money, front end grip has definitely improved with the camber gain. I'll probably dial some back out because it does have a very noticeable amount and I don't think ill need it with the nice wide contact patch of the 245s. On to the next upgrades!

[2mAn]

Corner balancing will make a huge difference. Make sure to take pics of the chart. I’m really curious what the final weight wil” be. I’m guessing it will be under 2800#

[tyeler18]

Corner balancing will make a huge difference. Make sure to take pics of the chart. I’m really curious what the final weight wil” be. I’m guessing it will be under 2800#

I’m hoping for 2800 or so. She’s pretty heavy with AC and all the luxuries. The wheels are by no stretch light weight for what they are either. We’ll find out soon enough though!

[tyeler18]

Forgot to upload my race render 66.XX lap from the last event. If you watch the accelerometer you can see how wild the car is to drive with stock suspension. Braking zones were way too early since I hadn't fully tested the hydroboost. Definitely had another 2-3 seconds of time in it with some more seat time. Fully expecting this to change next event. You can hear me get mad coming down the back straight as I caught my buddy in his accord. That would've been a 65.2/3 according to track addicts if i hadn't had to stand on the brakes 300' before the finish to avoid him. The track is currently under construction for it's 2 mile addition. I can't wait!

https://youtu.be/DCLugSiE3ys

[tyeler18]

Small Christmas update- Ordered an Hvac bezel since mine crumbled taking the radio out for the bluetooth module. It was driving me nuts because the panel rattled going down the road. Picked this guy up for $40 on ebay and was pleasantly surprised just how nice it was when it showed up. Now the radio slide out on acceleration anymore either. The interior is coming together nicely, just needs a thorough cleaning and it's satisfactory for a 30 year old car. Everyone's always surprised it's not a gutted racecar when they hear it has an LS swap.

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

This thing has been flawless for a daily, I put over 1000 miles on it christmas week alone driving all over AZ. Our dog with the eye issues finally had to have his eyes removed which we were dreading having done, luckily he seems to be doing much better without them than he was with them. He's had quite the adventure driving him from the eye specialist and back, I'm glad we don't have to make that trek every week anymore.

[tyeler18]

Long time no update. Haven't driven the car in almost 2 months. I decided to pursue wider wheels a few months back and in the process wanted to go to 17's or 18's to improve the 245 tire options and cost since 16's are the oddball for 245's. Had a buddy buy my XXR's and I stuck my basket weaves back on to find one of my 2008 Date code tires had completely separated. Not wanting to spend money on new 195 tires (which are scary to drive with on this) I parked the car and started looking for wheels. 17x9 4x100 e30 offset wheels are quite the pain to find. I wanted to avoid spacers, and I didn't want to spend $2500+ on custom wheels. I finally decided to spend more going 5 lug and ordering custom 5 lug wheels instead

To stay with e30 geometry IRP front 5 lug sleeves were ordered. DriftHQ sent e38 brembo adapters at first so I had to wait for e46 adapters to ship from lithuania.

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

These look better

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Ran to the yard and grabbed 330I front calipers, 328I rears, and in a very lazy fashion added some color to them. I didn't spend much time since caliper paint doesn't last much longer than a 20 minute HPDE session anyways, but I felt good about how they turned out for now.

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Rears are SRS concept adapters with Z4 hubs and condor let me order 4x e30 front brake hoses to do all 4 caliper hoses since the e46 caliper in the rear needs a longer hose. These worked perfect. Motorsports hardware 78mm stud kit to finish it all off.

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Swap went smooth other than one rear bearing fighting to come out. Had to weld the hub to the bearing and slide hammer it off after destroying the bearing cage trying to remove it. The rest came apart fine.

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Z26 stoptech pads for now. Anything is better than the pads that were on the car so we'll see if these perform on the e30 as good as they do on my DSM's. I'll do a track day or 2 on them if they last and then switch out to PFC08's or similar for track pads. Wheels should be here end of may hopefully, I'm impatiently waiting for them to be built and I'd really like to drive the car again. I have an electronic booster at the house that I'm going to try and swap out with the hydroboost to hopefully eliminate the complexity of the hydroboost while I'm waiting for wheels. Wish I had dropped the car off for paint before immobilizing it but I didn't want to be 5 lug swapping next month when its 120F outside. More updates to come!

[paynemw]

To stay with e30 geometry IRP front 5 lug sleeves were ordered. DriftHQ sent e38 brembo adapters at first so I had to wait for e46 adapters to ship from lithuania.

Ran to the yard and grabbed 330I front calipers, 328I rears, and in a very lazy fashion added some color to them. I didn't spend much time since caliper paint doesn't last much longer than a 20 minute HPDE session anyways, but I felt good about how they turned out for now.

Rears are SRS concept adapters with Z4 hubs and condor let me order 4x e30 front brake hoses to do all 4 caliper hoses since the e46 caliper in the rear needs a longer hose. These worked perfect. Motorsports hardware 78mm stud kit to finish it all off.

If I'm digesting this correctly, You are using a sleeve to obtain a larger axle diameter on the stock e30 spindle, but what brand are you using and what hub are you using?

And you are using BMW e46 330i front calipers, but what rotors?

I asking for details, because I've always been interested in this and want to grow the knowledge base as much as possible. Thanks for the help in advance.

[tyeler18]

If I'm digesting this correctly, You are using a sleeve to obtain a larger axle diameter on the stock e30 spindle, but what brand are you using and what hub are you using?

And you are using BMW e46 330i front calipers, but what rotors?

I asking for details, because I've always been interested in this and want to grow the knowledge base as much as possible. Thanks for the help in advance.

The front are IRP brand sleeves that utilize e36/e46 factory hubs with e36/e46 (non M) caliper adapters. Fronts are 330I calipers and 330I rotors. The 330I rear rotors dont allow easy use of the parking brake as the drum is quite a bit bigger, so the rears are just SRS concept caliper adapters with E46 328/325I calipers and 328/325I rotors. Rear flanges are Z4 flanges. Actually a super easy conversion. The rear brake lines were a little goofy to figure out what I needed, but after searching it seemed most people use front e30 hoses on the rear to get the proper fitment. Condor was kind enough to send me 4x front e30 braided hoses so I have front hoses on both ends of the car and worked out great.

Fedex notified me my wheels are at my doorstep today, 5 weeks earlier than I was quoted for build time so I should have pictures this weekend!

[paynemw]

Can you take a close up picture of the hub nut & the threads... Just being anal.

[tyeler18]

Can you take a close up picture of the hub nut & the threads... Just being anal.

It’s all assembled and I don’t have plans to take it apart anytime soon. They have a few pictures on their ad though

https://www.irp.lt/individual-racing-parts-product/5-lug-kit-to-use-e36-e46-wheel-bearings-and-brakes/

[CubbyChowder]

Really enjoyed reading through this thread while drinking my coffee this morning, love all the work you've put into it. That track looks so fun!

[tyeler18]

Really enjoyed reading through this thread while drinking my coffee this morning, love all the work you've put into it. That track looks so fun!

Thank you! The track is an awesome test track, more so a full size autox course. It looks like they're finishing the expansion into a near 3 mile road course though, I'm excited to try it out.

[tyeler18]

Tires are in! Wheels are on! A couple pictures of the test fit went well. After lots of measuring, research and going back and forth on what I wanted to do I finally pulled the trigger on a set of custom forgestar F14's. I've seen one e30 with these and theyre on Vincent wong's, the owner of iForged wheels dakar yellow E30 M3. I use this same wheel on my C5, theyre light, nice looking, and most important- built to fit. I ordered them in 17x9 +26 square and the fitment is spot on with the offset changes due to the 5 lug swap. Shout out to modbargains too for these, the only dealer to actually get the ball rolling on my order and the quoted 8-10
week build time turned into 4 weeks on the dot!

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

A +30 square would've probably put me as dangerously close to suspension components front/rear as I'd feel comfortable with, but this gave me a little wiggle room without the need for spacers at all. These make my 330I brakes look small now too.

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

For tires I went with hankook RS4's this time. The amount of miles I put on this car heat cycles the A052's out quickly, so the RS4's will sacrifice a little grip for longevity.

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Untitled by Tyeler Andersen, on Flickr

Have a few more mods along the way here and I should be set to just work on dialing in the suspension and driver mod full time.

[CubbyChowder]

Hell yeah!

[DEV0 E30]

Hello fellow Phoenician!