butters 318i project, S54door...

[butters]

Here's a photo of the heater core flow path for reference. Back of the cylinder head out to bottom pipe, out from heater core top pipe to spider hose which in the S54 case is the black metal tube.



I couldn't get the top hose on the pipe without kinking it, so I needed to use another brass connector here and extend the line with an agle. I picked up a right angle hose and cleaned it all up, but the intake manifold wouldn't go all the way on. It's possible to reach under and feel that there's just a little interference to the top hose as well as the battery cable where it connects to the starter, so some bending of that and the core pipes is in order. I wound up pointing the lower hose towards the right side of the car a little, while I was at it, and looping the upper hose under the lower for better clearance. I got the intake manifold on for the first time, just need some hose clamps and the heater plumbing is done.





The M42 harness cover fit with the cuts I had made for the S50, but the bracket underneath had to be clearanced a bit.

The brake fluid reservoir clearly has to be relocated to make room for the intake elbow, but I think I can still use that mounting plate and just put the res closer to the strut tower.



As for the big tall E23 power steering fluid reservoir, that thing won't fit really anywhere around the intake, so I tried and was able to snake it behind the strut tower next to the booster.



I'm hoping I can use the bracket I have on the frame rail that held the S50 atf canister to mount the E23 accumulator, or maybe the motor mount arm. I have to figure this out and then measure for the hoses to be made to new lengths.

[butters]

That tragedy is behind me now. I didn't buy another E30 because for something worthy of daily-driving they're just too expensive and then I'd feel bad dailying it. For a couple grand more I got a lot more car, in the form of a 2006 330i 6MT sport/premium/cold/nav with a little over 110k miles and a great service history. Kind of an end-of-era BMW, the last top-spec (non-M) 3-series with an NA motor. I can dig that. I'm loving the way it drives compared to the F30, and the N52 is a gem if not the most powerful thing. Plus I feel more comfortable being out of warranty in something that's been well documented in its common repairs. I can take my time refreshing it, and in the mean time it needs nothing.

Back to the E30.

The brake pedal assembly is done. I must have been doing it wrong before, because when I unbolted the booster and double checked the fork position, I had room to thread it further onto the booster rod. I was able to get it to a position where the pin fit and everything seems to be in a good spot, so I put it all back together hopefully for good.

I swapped out the M42 left side radiator mount (left) for the M20 version (right):



Half the clip on the bottom of the new mount already broke, but it'll do for now and I'll get a replacement asap.

Here's how the radiator looks in the bay:



Moving on to the throttle pedal, I'm having a slight fitment issue:



The above photo shows the E46 pedal base bolted down at the factory throttle stop. In most swap write-ups this installation is described as bolt-on using that attachment point and then epoxy adhere the lower female end adjacent to the factory male chassis clip. It seems that I need to use a longer bolt and just not tighten it down flush.

Here's how the base looks when put in the position where I think it should be adhered:



Better, but again it seems I'll also have to angle the E46 base and have a bit of a gap between its female clip and the E30 male chassis clip. That should make sense if you've ever removed an E30 pedal. I've posted this quandary to the S54 swap forum and maybe I'm missing something, but I really don't want to have to fabricate anything for this.


I'm feeling more comfortable with the wiring harness and adapter now, and I've fed it all into the cabin:



When I removed the rubber sheathing from the O2 sensor harness, oddly enough I found 2 cut wires. Not sure if that was intentional or what, but I repaired them with solder and heat shrink and it should be good to go now.

The DME is a different shape than those of E30/E36, so it doesn't exactly fit into the M42 DME bracket with ease. If I have a chance at bolting it up there somehow, I think it'll have to be with the connectors facing the engine bay. I may still want to install the R134a expansion valve before the glovebox is all buttoned up, and I have yet to route the pedal and sport mode buttons. But the only thing to do before hooking up the battery for a turnkey test is attaching the constant 12v sources and ground wires where they need to be.

Oh and I did get the oil cooler fitted briefly, to see how I want to run the lines. I flushed some 5w-30 through it first, and then went to prime it with TWS 10w-60, only to discover that one of my M22/AN10 adapters is leaking. Hopefully Orme Bros. can ship a replacement quickly.

[butters]

Tragedy has struck, luckily not E30-related. My daily is likely totaled, I was rear-ended pretty hard and pushed into a Suburban in my F30. This will be a very unfortunate distraction, I now have to search all over again for a 4-door rear-drive late-model manual BMW.... Maybe I'll just get a beater E30 in the mean time.

[spiDmang]

great work so far man. keep at it!

[butters]

I love those moments when you access memories deep in your brain. Good work.

Thanks! Yea it was nice to have this thread too, for quick reference to previous configurations.

It might be nice some day to get the proper airbag knuckle, but I don't think that'll be anytime soon. At least with the Arc Asylum subframe and pan, it's super easy to pull the rack.

[butters]

The brakes are moving along, slowly.

I have the 2002 reservoir hooked up and it will work in the location I had it... but I am contemplating moving it to the other side of the strut tower and putting the big E23 steering fluid reservoir in that location (which is where it was for the stock E30 too). I might see if I can be slick with it and put the 2002 reservoir in the now-empty opening where the diagnostic connector used to be, right next to the C101.



It turns out I was a little premature in my thinking that the E30 fork on the E23 booster would work out easily. I came across an E46fanatics thread on an E30/S54 from almost 10 years ago, sadly there are no photos working but there is mention of the E23 booster being 3/8" too long at its shortest setting with the E30 fork, and that's what I'm experiencing on my car (excuse the blurry photo):



The fork is just drooping a little there, but there's no way to get the pin in without severely pulling on the brake pedal, so that's not going to work.

I can't see what the E46fanatics author came up with, but I see a couple options here.

1. Remove the jam nut on the booster rod, so that I can thread the fork on further. Is this risky in terms of movement of the fork's position? Will it rattle? I don't really know

2. Remove material from the back of the fork, so that I can thread it on further against the jam nut. Will this compromise the strength of the threaded connection? Seems a little risky..

3. Space the booster further into the firewall to make up for this gap. Will the hardlines allow it without much work? Is there a firewall gasket that I'm missing? I suppose a gasket would be needed if I create an opening around the booster.

Thinking in terms of safety, I'm leaning towards #3. I picked up a pack of washers and will probably install 2 on each bolt between the booster and the firewall inside the engine bay. But maybe removing the jam nut on the booster rod would be a better solution?


The other item on my mind now is mounting the FPR somewhere. Keeping the E30 rubber lines seems wrong, since they are very long and would create a big loop. The S54 fuel supply line is a hard pipe that terminates at the corner of the block, oil pan and bellhousing. I've been inspired by Sh3rpak!ng's incredible Bronzit build, and might look at bending the body-side fuel pipes towards the block, and keeping the rubber hoses very short and under the steering knuckle.

You can see the engine supply pipe pointing down in the left side of this photo:

[butters]

I picked up a brass hose barb union to adapt the coolant output hose from the S54 to a hose with a right angle on it for installation onto the bottom heater core pipe. It looks possible to just loop the S54 hose around and onto the pipe, but I cut mine too short for that and I think this is cleaner anyway. I'll get some BMW clamps for the final installation.



Here's what my "battery" tray looks like now, my fab guy welded these posts for mounting the S14 tank on an angle and elevated so that the inlet hose clears the lip on the tray. The one on the left has a nut-sert, and the one on the right (with a touch of his style) is a pass-through to a nut-sert on the tank.



You can see I still have to feed much of the harness into the glove box area, but I'm not yet totally comfortable with the wiring. I need a step-by-step, unless I'm overthinking it and those blue connectors don't need to be touched.

Here's how it looks with the tank in, I haven't yet checked but my 318 cover should leave enough room that it still fits fine over the firewall opening and terminal block.

[jeenyus]

I love those moments when you access memories deep in your brain. Good work.

[butters]

I got in new crush washers to begin final assembly of the Z3 steering rack, and transferred the cooling loop over from my 328 rack along with the tie rods. I'm tempted to get new tie rods, but these feel very firm and tight, and waiting until they actually fail won't make the job much more difficult. I do need boot clamps though.



I needed to install the rack to be able to push the car into my garage, but it was really a pain to get the knuckle fully onto the rack splines. This is as far as I could get it:



The knuckle was also pushing right up against the firewall grommet, so I felt that there had to be a way to make this easier and fit better. I looked back at the rack swap thread, as well as my old photos, and had somewhat of a moment of enlightenment... the reason I struggled so hard with it initially is that I got the rack from someone who had it in their E30, and they included the "modded" knuckle. Being a relative noob, I figured that it must all work out so why bother trying to use my factory knuckle? Wrong.

In airbag cars like mine, the rack swap is done by cutting some extra material from the firewall opening and then using the adjustable steering column length to mate the factory knuckle to the swapped rack. It's much shorter than this early style knuckle. Maybe I was afraid the splines wouldn't match, even though my research these days tells me that they should. In any case, the rack I got came with a non-airbag modded knuckle, which is pretty darn long, but I made it work anyway. These past years I ran it like so, without the shortening spacers:



So to make life a little easier, I reassembled the knuckle with a few washers in order to shrink it a bit:



I cleaned up the splines and then was able to fully install the rack. Only thing left is to torque the tie rod ends to the strut housing, which I'll get to later.

[sam_]

youre living the dream!

[butters]

So after a nice 2-month hibernation, work will now pick back up again. The exhaust fabrication is complete, along with the VC oil drainback pipe adjustment and a mounting solution for the S14 expansion tank. I'll get some photos of the exhaust once I get the car home and get into installing the O2 and EGT sensors.

In the mean time I assembled my oil cooler with AN fittings and lines, and cleaned up and painted the E23 hydraulic fluid reservoir.

Here's the oil cooler:



And the reservoir before:



After:



The new fluid filter is on the left, old is on the right. The paint is rustoleum "hammered" black, though in this lighting it does look a bit on the gray side. Depending on how it looks in the bay I might go over it with some regular black.

I got pretty lucky with the timing of an E23 partout on bimmerforums, which saved me from breaking down and paying for brand new E23 hydraulic hoses. So now I only need to get the high pressure supply hose lengthened and I'll be ready to plumb the steering and brakes.


I still have several ancillary items that need to be installed/plumbed/connected, but even with my busy schedule I think I'm in good position to have it ready for springtime.

[butters]

:(Work and daylight-losing time have slowed me down, but I did get the front axle rigged up in order to finally have the car towed over to my fabricator. I actually wound up loosely fitting the E36 rack in place just to keep the wheels pointed in the same direction, without connecting to the steering shaft, since the coupler isn't installed on the Z3 rack yet.

Here's how it looks under the engine now:



I already have touching up to do on the subframe paint :(

En route via flatbed:



Indoors at last:

[butters]

crimps are preferred by most auto wiring professionals over solder.

are you sure those two eyelets aren't grounds?

I have heard that, but I also have heard that wiring pros may refer to the process of crimping then soldering the crimp as crimping. Personally I am not equipped to do a robust crimp, I feel safer with solder.

I'm pretty sure - I looked it up and it appears they are the power wires for the fuse box.

Buy the correct fittings and hose and have a shop with a hose crimping tool do it.
You should be able to get 90 degree fittings that already have the crimp end on them. Same style as power steering hoses.

I'll look at how to identify the correct fittings, I don't know what to call them or search for. I've reached out to Bavarian Recycling to get my hands on whatever hoses they might have from an E23, which I may then be able to cut up and splice to my E46 pump and E36 rack.

[pandaboo911]

Buy the correct fittings and hose and have a shop with a hose crimping tool do it.
You should be able to get 90 degree fittings that already have the crimp end on them. Same style as power steering hoses.

[bobaflesh]

Great project, awesome job on the S54.