M50 to S50

[lga714]

ITS DONE!!

I've owned my car for over 2 years now and honestly, its been nothing but problems. I'm sick of throwing money at this tired motor that keeps acting up and so is Rob (peerless). I love the car and don't want to get rid of it so I decided to go out and buy a new engine. I found an S50 with 74k miles w/ wiring harness from a local junkyard for 1500, score! The project begins :D

The junkyard delivered the engine to the shop a few days ago and today we started to check everything out. The guys at the junkyard must have pressure washed the engine because there isn't any signs of leaks. Rob suggested ordering some new parts (water pump, thermostat, valve cover gasket, tensioner, etc.) that way he doesn't have to do it down the road and costing me even more money. Good news is I do have some new parts on my M50 that can easily be swapped over and also already having a 24v engine in my car will make things even easier.

I know its not that much info but that's about it for now, I think the M50 will be coming out tomorrow and I will keep you all updated with pictures.

My car as of now...



1988 325is
M50TU w/ M3 cams
e36 M3 ZF transmission
e36 M3 clutch and flywheel
e30 M3 driveshaft
3.46 LSD with M coupe cover (just bought a 3.25)
e36 M3 front suspension and brakes
M coupe rear trailing arms and brakes
TCKline S/A coilovers all around

I have a bunch of other stuff as well I'm forgetting to mention but you get the jist :)

[craz azn]

Is that the old eric lukas car?

[lga714]

Yessir it is. It's a great car but the M50 needs to be put to sleep.

[blunttech]

Yessir it is. It's a great car but the M50 needs to be put to sleep.

did that car come with a bathrobe when you bought it?

[325ix]

Should be a good project. I will stay tuned.

[lga714]

did that car come with a bathrobe when you bought it?

No a few months after I bought the car I saw a thread somewhere (might have been r3v) saying he would include one with the sale of the car. Right away I felt robbed. I'm kind of bummed because he was selling some other parts I could have totally used (ie 540 HFM)

Anyway, couldn't get much work done to the car today. Still waiting on parts, should be here tomorrow.

PS: E34 kidneys are gone.

[blunttech]

No a few months after I bought the car I saw a thread somewhere (might have been r3v) saying he would include one with the sale of the car. Right away I felt robbed. I'm kind of bummed because he was selling some other parts I could have totally used (ie 540 HFM)

Anyway, couldn't get much work done to the car today. Still waiting on parts, should be here tomorrow.

PS: E34 kidneys are gone.

haha I dont recall what the deal was on that. I just know lukas was a character. I wasnt sure youd get what I meant

[MR E30 325is]

Dude!

Love what you are doing to the car. S50 is the way to go!

It did sound a little rough on the day that i sold you the diff, and there is never anything wrong with a solid excuse for some more power!

[lga714]

haha I dont recall what the deal was on that. I just know lukas was a character. I wasnt sure youd get what I meant

hehe yeah I haven't spoken with him in awhile, last I heard he was driving an SL55 I really don't like MB... but whatever.

Dude!

Love what you are doing to the car. S50 is the way to go!

It did sound a little rough on the day that i sold you the diff, and there is never anything wrong with a solid excuse for some more power!

Right? I literally cannot wait for this project to be completed. I'm still waiting on the parts but I should have this all done sometime next week :firehop:

Oh and btw turns out the M50 just needed a new AFM, but I am on the hunt for a 540 HFM.

[lga714]

Hit a big bump in the road today, we did a leak down test on the engine and cylinder 2 has 30% leak down and cylinder 4 was 60%!! The air was coming out of the intake so it looks like I might have a bent valve or it could just be covered in gunk. I'm going back tomorrow to see if cleaning it will help. What's weird is that the air would only come out it wouldn't come back in. I'm trying to figure out what to do, I do have a 90 day warranty on the engine, but its been taken apart already I think that voids the warranty. On top of that we cleaned the oil filter housing completely and added the new water pump, took the A/C pulley off and cleaned all the surfaces. I'm pissed because I put in all this time on engine today and ordered a grand worth of parts. Why do I have to be obsessed with such an expensive hobby?

[MR E30 325is]

Damn man. You didnt notice anything suspicious when you took it apart?

[lga714]

Actually yeah, when I took off the oil filter housing and took the filter out, the filter looked pretty beat up. It wasn't much longer until we did the leak down test and found out the bad news...

[MR E30 325is]

Actually yeah, when I took off the oil filter housing and took the filter out, the filter looked pretty beat up. It wasn't much longer until we did the leak down test and found out the bad news...

So what are you gonna do??

[lga714]

Tomorrow I'm going to try and clean the affected valve, Rob said that could be the cause of all of this and he has some other ideas. After that we'll try the leak down test again, I'm praying that its better. If it doesn't I'm going to swing by the junkyard if they're open tomorrow and see if I can work out a deal, hopefully they have an S52 or give me a full refund. But then I have all these brand new parts sitting in front of me, maybe rmeuropean.com will let me return them even though they have already been mounted.

What's really weird is the cylinder right in front of that one had a 2% leak down! The whole engine literally turned itself over and I had to keep my foot on it from falling over!

I might just say fuck it and rebuild the head and add some Schrick cams, that should put me over 300bhp lol.

[MR E30 325is]

Tomorrow I'm going to try and clean the affected valve, Rob said that could be the cause of all of this and he has some other ideas. After that we'll try the leak down test again, I'm praying that its better. If it doesn't I'm going to swing by the junkyard if they're open tomorrow and see if I can work out a deal, hopefully they have an S52 or give me a full refund. But then I have all these brand new parts sitting in front of me, maybe rmeuropean.com will let me return them even though they have already been mounted.

What's really weird is the cylinder right in front of that one had a 2% leak down! The whole engine literally turned itself over and I had to keep my foot on it from falling over!

I might just say fuck it and rebuild the head and add some Schrick cams, that should put me over 300bhp lol.

That doesnt sound like a bad plan at all. Or you could buy my whole setup, if only I could find an S54 for sale.........