M52 Swapped E30 Build - SPANNER RASH

[Panici]

When it was N/A, I tuned my M52B28 first with the original intake, and then swapped an M50B25 intake on there.
Here is my calculated Volumetric Efficiency (VE) table difference after the first logging run. Note that I had to tweak it further after this, but it gives you an idea of the general airflow change.


On a typical run where you roll on the throttle, you would see the cells in use sweep from the bottom left to the top right (100kpa row).
Note the midrange losses of 3-5% around 3800rpm, but then the gains of ~8% after 6000rpm.

This data corresponds to the "seat of the pants" and dyno results we've seen over the years with the manifold swap.

I mitigated some of the midrange loss by adjusting the VANOS crossover point and playing with timing. I bet this is how the canned tunes do it as well.

I would have loved to swap in a set of S52 cams to repeat this experiment, but I couldn't justify the cost when I knew I would be boosting down the road. I suspect the difference between the two manifolds would be even larger.

[SPANNER RASH]

Here's an E30 build update I've been promising for quite a long while. I finally fitted the intake manifold to my M52 motor.

Not only that, but I went ahead and converted the M52B28 to run a M50B25 intake manifold!

I went ahead and made the video as a kind of explainer how-to guide for anyone else looking to do an M50 inlet conversion on their M52 motor, figured it could be very helpful for people doing their own swaps, whether on an E36 328i or an M52 swap E30.

It ended up being more involved than I anticipated, but luckily I managed to purchase an already modified M50 intake which made life a lot easier (although I explain how to get the same result without).

Even though I'm not supposed to be doing any tuning to get more horsepower from this car, as it's supposed to be simple NA fun, I just couldn't help myself after finding out the M50 intake swap plus a good tune can yield over 20bhp of peak power without much downside if done right.

Let's hope I'm not regretting it. If anyone has any personal experience with this intake manifold swap then please share your thoughts on it. I'd be very interested to know whether it's a pronounced and noticeable difference to the performance.

Now just to figure out why it won't start, and then we can hear it run for the first time. I'm feeling confident!

[SPANNER RASH]

Not an E30 project update, but something very similar you may appreciate!

I've twisted the old man's arm to pick up his very own BMW money pit, this time in the form of an E36 Compact 318ti. Surprisingly similar to an E30 actually.

I put a bit more into the shooting and editing on this one, check the vid out and let me know what you think.

Back onto regular programming with an E30 update coming very soon.

[SPANNER RASH]

In this latest E30 M52 Swap project update, I got lots of the fiddly jobs done ahead of fitting the intake manifold. The three main ones are as follows:

1. Power Steering Lines Take #2
2. Brown Temperature Sensor
3. E30 M5X Heater Matrix Hoses

Starting with the PAS lines, I ended up having an absolute mare, discovering that my re-bent E30 lines I'd planned to used were a no-go the connections don't match up to the M52 PAS pump, and further to that, the way I'd routed them was not going to fly.

Finding out that my sump plug on the customer E34 sump is positioned so that it cannot be removed, nor can I remove the power steering rack to take my wedged PAS line out from between the subframe tabs, was not a good day.

When all was said and done, I threw in the towel and got in touch with Dan at BMConversions-UK once again. He made me some custom E30 power steering lines and even kindly modified his routing to avoid my annoying sump plug. They're a perfect fit and I'd highly recommend them. They can be checked out here: https://bmconversions-uk.co.uk/product-category/e30/

Aside from the PAS line frustrations, I had an easier time with the brown temp sender. This is an interesting nuance when doing an E30 M50 swap, unfortunately, the normal E36 style 4-pin black temp sensor will not send a signal that an E30 cluster can interpret as a coolant temperature reading. To get around that, you need to fit a brown temperature sensor. The best place to fit one is on the head of the engine in one of the three ports on the head of an M5X engine. The only kicker is it's unusual for all 3 ports to be tapped and drilled appropriately. Mine was, likely thanks to the fact the M52B28 was used in an E30 swap before.

I cover off the options in more detail in the video if you aren't so fortunate.

Lastly, I got heater matrix hoses fitted up. These are not very well documented online, people seem to use a wide variety of different hoses and there's no optimal solution. I decided to get a bit creative and work with what I had for this one. One of the hoses is an original M52 one, and the other I harvested off the M40 engine's thermostat housing and modified slightly. It seems to have worked out very well. I share the part numbers in the vid too which might be helpful if you're doing your own BMW E30 engine conversion. Cheers!

[Panici]

Oh wow, that looks awesome! I like the way you can still have a leather boot on it.
Is it worth the cost and the effort though? What was the impact on shift-feel for you?

Thanks! I still have both the lower rubber boot and upper leather boot. No noticeable NVH increase like others have reported, but my engine and trans are still rubber mounted.

To me the shifter is a very important part of the car. Since this was an inexpensive and all-steel version, I could comfortably cut and modify it to suit me.

The pivot point is adjustable to get the length of throw you desire.
Then I lengthened and slightly twisted the DSSR to get the knob sitting where I want it for my seat position.

I was planning on shortening the shift knob height as well, but I have grown to like how quickly the shifter comes to hand from the steering wheel. I might paint the shaft black as it's raw steel and may get some surface rust with humidity.

[SPANNER RASH]

Here's the latest update on the E30 M52 project - I've now fitted a drive shaft (commonly referred to as "prop shaft" in the UK, we call the smaller ones between the diff and the wheel drive shafts).

I put together this video outlining the options I had available to me in fitting a driveshaft between the diff and the Getrag g240 transmission I opted to go with. Hopefully, it includes some useful info for other BMW builders.

From the off I'd planned to use the transmission that came mounted originally on my manual E30 316i facelift 1990 coupe. To do this I'd researched and found a couple of sources indicating that I should be able to use a manual 320i prop shaft, much like I'd used a manual 320i shifter linkage.
This makes sense because the 320i is 6-pot M20 equipped, but also Getrag g240 equipped.

The problem with that however is there are limited sources confirming it, and a manual 320i driveshaft is a hard thing to come by being such a specific model. Despite that, a driveshaft that was purportedly from a 320i manual did come up and I purchased it with uncertainty.

As time went on, I found many sources saying a 318is Getrag g240 transmission, which has a longer output shaft flange, would pair perfectly with an e30 325i manual driveshaft, which are much more available and could be purchased straight away. When a 318is gearbox became available to me locally at a great price, I snapped it up knowing it would be guaranteed to fit.

I then sent it off for UJ replacement as they felt a bit notchy. The good news is, I can now fully confirm that a 318is Getrag g240 transmission paired with a manual 325i driveshaft fits perfectly and I share the measurements in the video - explaining why the center support bearing is key to this in measuring.

The only thing I'm unsure about is the preloading of the center support bearing, so I fitted it up in line with the witness marks from the original CSB. If anyone on here has any expertise to share on preloading E30 CSBs, please do share it with us!

[SPANNER RASH]

Glad you got the shifter sorted.
Any reason you didn't just go with a chassis-mount and custom (steel) selector rod?

That's what I did on my car, so I could modify it to sit and work exactly how I wanted.

Pics:

https://flic.kr/p/2npJfNv

https://flic.kr/p/2oi65Qs

https://flic.kr/p/2ohXEub

https://flic.kr/p/2oi3Rrs

Oh wow, that looks awesome! I like the way you can still have a leather boot on it.

I guess I can always come back and add something fancy like that. But I'm going for a fun OEM+ road car spec so didn't feel the need to do something quite as focused as a chassis mounted shifter. A large part as well is the look, but if there are options like you've shown maybe I will revisit it at some point and make it look relatively OE.

Is it worth the cost and the effort though? What was the impact on shift-feel for you?

[Panici]

Glad you got the shifter sorted.
Any reason you didn't just go with a chassis-mount and custom (steel) selector rod?

That's what I did on my car, so I could modify it to sit and work exactly how I wanted.

Pics:

https://flic.kr/p/2npJfNv

https://flic.kr/p/2oi65Qs

https://flic.kr/p/2ohXEub

https://flic.kr/p/2oi3Rrs

[SPANNER RASH]

It's been a little while, but I'm back with another E30 M52 project update. This time I took on the shift linkage and gear lever.

Sadly the gear linkage and shift arm aren't as straightforward as you'd like when using an M52 engine paired with a Getrag G240 gearbox. This is thanks to the fact the gearbox is pushed backwards under the transmission tunnel to account for the long M52B28 engine.
Due to this, the original shift linkage that came as standard on my E30 316i was a no-go, it was simply too long to work and the shift lever would not have poked through the hole in the tunnel.

I'd read a few accounts of how to solve this, many people choose to work with what they have and set about chopping the shifter linkage and the gear selector arm. By my measurements, I'd have needed to chop 6cm out of it to get the shifter centralised. This didn't sound too daunting until I realised that the shift linkage is actually made of cast aluminium, so I wasn't gonna be able to weld it back up. The shift arm is steel so not such an issue with that one as long as you can jig it straight in a vice to tack it.

Some people have solved this by making a bracket to re-connect the cast aluminium shift linkage, drilling some holes through it and using rivets. However, I was very keen not to make a mess and build in slop into my gear shift. After all, this is set to be a driver's car - I want a positive shift feel!

After some research, I discovered that the E30 320i came with a shorter shift linkage from factory, due to it using a g240 paired with the 6-pot M20 motor. I imagine this is a super rare part, from only one model, a manual 320i. However, I got lucky and spotted one on eBay.

The only issue I had was the price, it was more than I was willing to pay, and I'm already vastly over budget on this project. Having spent some time looking at the listing and negotiating with myself, I noticed that the gear lever which was included didn't look like your basic E30 item. In fact, it looked just like the Z3 1.9 shifter I was planning to upgrade to as an OE+ mod down the line. A hard-to-find part in itself. I don't think the seller had any idea about it, as it wasn't mentioned whatsoever.

I guess this was one of the rare occasions that my detailed BMW E30 knowledge paid off, because with that shifter factored in, the price of the gear linkage became pretty reasonable and I pulled the trigger.

The best part is, it turned out my research was correct and the 320i shift linkage turned out to be a perfect fit with an M52 swapped E30 using Getrag g240 transmission. A very fiddly thing tot fit, but nowhere near as bad as when I changed the shifter on my E46. It helped an awful lot not to have the E30's drive shaft in the way too. Very happy with the result on this!

[zoona]

Sounds like I might run into some trouble when I've got the car back together then! Maybe a little roll of the arches might make all the difference. Most people run 205's for this set-up, but they just look too stretched to me.

FWIW the nice people at driftworks said I could reduce the 60mm thread overlap to 20mm and still be ok. I think this has sorted it, but will need to drive it properly to tell - and i have other things to sort out first...

[jsta1109]

No drone at all with my current setup. I've run smaller sized mufflers and it never quite worked for me, 18 year old me would have been chuffed with a straight pipe but I certainly appreciate a more mellow tone now. I recently did a 2000km (1200 mile) round trip which was an absolute breeze with cruise, AC and a drone free exhaust.

[SPANNER RASH]

Cheers Josh, really happy with how it came out in the end. If you've done a bit of painting with a compressor then you'll have no trouble applying the Cerakote, hardest part is the oven curing really. Considering I was right on the limit with the oven size, it worked nice. I wouldn't recommend using an oven you cook food in though.

That's interesting, I have a couple of rusty mounts like those from the original exhaust that I might be able to blast and refinish. Although now I've messed around with the stainless hangers and put slip joint clamps on all the joins, it seems to be sound, has some wiggle room and doesn't clash with anything which was my main problem.

Does your setup not drone with the straight through muffler? Some people have warned me that the Scorpion backbox might be a bit droney which I won't like. I guess we'll find out soon enough!

[jsta1109]

Looks like you've saved a heap of time with BMConversions kit and seems like quite a sensible choice with those modified headers given you are RHD. You may have gotten away with standard headers given you're on stiffer mounts but it would have been tight.

The cerakote was interesting, I wasn't keen on trying to DIY it myself and stuck with a spray can solution which turned out okay just very prone to scratches. I may look into that for anything else I need coating.

Re the muffler I would highly recommend 18211707807 and welding some tabs onto the muffler (or possibly working with the straps). I've tried all sorts of different exhaust setups with a 24v E30 and I've had the best results with running the largest straight through rear muffler I can find.

[SPANNER RASH]

Since doing the wiring recently, my focus is on working towards a first start for the M52B28. In theory, I'm only intake and exhaust away from being able to do that, so this week I tackled the most daunting of the two; the exhaust.

As previously mentioned, mine is a right-hand drive E30 as I'm in the UK, which leads to a real issue with the exhaust side of things. The normal M52 headers collide directly with the steering linkage and there's no way around that other than to chop and weld.

I picked up an E30 325i Scorpion exhaust system a while back with a view to connecting up the M52 headers to that somehow. However, when it came to it, I ended up concluding that the work required to make it fit and look half sensible is above my current skill level.

Instead, I reached out to BMConversions, also goes by the name of Danthe on the forums to talk about one of his custom manifold kits which are regularly recommended. After a chat with him, I decided to take the plunge and purchase his solution, and boy am I glad I did.

They're a perfect fit and very well finished, I can't imagine how many hours of frustration I've saved myself by going this route. I opted to Cerakote the exhaust to add some protection and also help keep engine bay temps down in the future. There's a segment in the video on how I did that too, it went pretty well considering I was using a small domestic oven!

Following making this video, I added stainless clamps to all the exhaust slip joints, and also modified the Scorpion backbox hanger to no longer contact the wheel well. As it stands, the exhaust appears to be a perfect fit, I couldn't have hoped for better!

To top it off, Dan is kindly offering 10% off custom headers to Spanner Rash subscribers on his website. Check out the video description for details, or head onto his site via this direct link to get the discount. Cheers!

[SPANNER RASH]

Drifworks have said I can reduce the thread overlap from 60mm to 20mm, so going to see how that goes.
I'll let you know what happens...

Aha, I guess that will give a lot more room to play, thanks for letting me know about that, I'd have been too nervous to try it with such short thread engagement. But if they've said that to you it must be safe enough, they're not daft!

Keep me posted on that, hope it sorts it out for you.