Bagged E30, S52 swap, never ending build - Shaved bay + more

[NickL]

Little update, still waiting on parts before I can really dig into the swap.



New thermostat, drilled a 1/16" hole for easier bleeding



Bent the bracket off for the E34 pan


Turner Motorsports OBD2-1 Coolant pipe adapter. Allows me to run the spider hose



Installed along with E34 pan



Some asshole hit my mk5 while I was eating, came outside to this. No note, no nothing.



Spent some time with the DA and got all the scratches out.

[doucy2]

holy low, great looking ride. those rims look sick on it. Way to rep the central Ohio crowd well.

[e30abe89]

Great job! Can't wait to see what's in store for this thing. Makes me want to swap mine.

[NickL]

Thanks guys, almost all the parts remaining will be here this week. Gonna start on making the new c101 for the E36 harness this week.

[bacain32]

Looking good Nick, like I said, need any help, let me know, those notes I gave you should get you through it all. I have the part numbers for all the belts and hoses you need so text me tomorrow lol

Oh BTW, you should have hit me up on the P/S delete, I would have hooked you up with one!

[NickL]

Swap is pretty much done. I have pics of most everything ill upload tomorrow morning. Doesn't currently run due to the lack of the 3 relays in the harness (I'm an idiot), but it cranks. It was nice to finally set the car back on the ground.

[richcon]

Beautiful!

if you dont mind, what are your wheel specs?

[derrty 30]

seen your car at street life tour last year. it really is beautiful man. i had the blue e30 there, for the drifting, but i broke an axle :/

[NickL]

Beautiful!

if you dont mind, what are your wheel specs?

Thanks! 16x8+10, 16x9 +3

seen your car at street life tour last year. it really is beautiful man. i had the blue e30 there, for the drifting, but i broke an axle :/

Thanks man I remember your car, I really like it a lot haha.

[NickL]

I didn't take pictures of a lot of things because my hands were nasty and its hard to stop and take them, but heres some of the progress.

Coming out




Block painted


Grinded down/rethreaded E30 temp sensor.


Harness from Levent


Cut the X20 off, crimped on new pins, inserted into C101


Valve cover gasket, also showing Condor mounts/Raceland Headers. Also fresh oil pan gasket/safety wired oil pump nut.


Resurfaced/shaved down M20 flywheel


OEM Sachs clutch. FCP EURO has hookup on the full kit w/throwout/pilot bearing. 200$ instead of 270-320$ from other places.


PP


Trans mounted, motor read to go in.


Motor finally in


And done. Intake mani/intake, 944 Booster, M3 harness covers, m42 rad, fan wired with temp switch.





Sorry for the shitty pics, my sister has my DSLR. Ill be taking pictures of everything once I get my camera back.

Things I learned:

Drop in motor with only headers/trans. Leave off intake manifold. 944 Brake booster is definitely the way to go. Direct fit and easy modification with an ATE version. My e34 throttle cable had to be adjusted all the way out to work. Condor mounts worked out flawlessly. Drop the trans a bit to get to the bitch clip, I used a flathead and a hammer to flip it up. If you need to bleed the slave, it has to be done off the car. I hit the clutch pedal on accident and it destroyed the slave. Replaced it and you can not bleed it on the car because the line goes up from the bottom now. Make sure to twist the selector rod or your shifter position is wacky, its easy to do. Use the outside mount holes in the subframe to mount the motor. Raceland headers were a perfect fit. No holes needed drilled out, no contact with the OEM CAB's, all I had to do was plug one of the O2 ports and plug the SAI ports with some bolts.

REPLACE EVERYTHING YOU CAN. I did the guibo/CSB, along with fresh gaskets throughout the motor. Don't half ass it, do it right and it will pay off in the end. 80*C thermo + appropriate temp switch is perfect for an S5x motor/M42 rad.

Thats about it. Ill be getting some much better detailed pics of everything here soon as well as some videos. The harness had no main relay, fuel pump relay, or 02 relay in it so once I scooped those from the junkyard the car started first crank.

Overall a fun experience and I can't wait to drive it. This build thread will continue as the car will get more parts here and there, I'm just excited to finally have the swap I dreamed of having completed.

[derrty 30]

looking good man. and yeah i dont have my e30 anymore :( i traded the shell for a e36 m3 shell and im building a s52 for it now

[NickL]

Eh that's not so bad haha. E36m3 build is on my list. I'd love to have one with an ls1.

Motor and trans are coming back out one of these weekends, I'm having clutch problems. I think the throwout bearing is 90 degrees off which really sucks but that's what you get for working on cars late and not being as awake as you should be.

I also picked up an e30 vert. I sold my mk5 so the vert will be my new daily. Pics here soon.

[NickL]

I have a thing for E30's clearly

[rob&e30]

grats!

[NickL]

A little update. Drove the car for the first time today which felt awesome.
Took a while to bleed the coolant system but finally got it once I figured out the proper way.

Throwout bearing was indeed backwards (I'm an idiot). So the motor came back out and I completely rebuilt the whole shifter assembly while it was out.

Got everything back in and it's all good. Trimmed the harness covers to make them fit better. Got the rad mounted up properly too.

Will have pictures up soon. Exhaust is next.

Also have a ton of stuff coming for the vert so ill update on that too. Coils, wheels, timing belt etc.