6/83 grey market 323i.. mtech I S50 5-lug

[Bimmerman325i]

your cooler is totally cold because there's no oil going through it below that temp, yes.

this one doesn't have a thermostat. If I see the oil not really getting up to temp, I can plumb in one of these

Right-- I'd plan on plumbing one in from the get-go.

My oil barely gets warm enough to open the tstat by the time I get to work, driving ~15min from San Mateo to Menlo. Lots of E46 guys who remove the stock tstat for track use (restricts flow) say the car takes forever to warm up on the road.

[kronus]

you might have a point. did a bit of reading. apparently if the oil doesn't reach operating temp it doesn't vaporize out water contamination and gets sludgy pretty fast.

looking at this t-stat because it's full flow - thoughts?

[Bimmerman325i]

you might have a point. did a bit of reading. apparently if the oil doesn't reach operating temp it doesn't vaporize out water contamination and gets sludgy pretty fast.

looking at this t-stat because it's full flow - thoughts?

something like that should work nicely! VAC has something similar as well.

If available, go for a higher temp thermostat. The S50/2 don't really benefit from an oil cooler until they're being heavily tracked, so for DD use I don't see an OC as being all that helpful. I'd go for a high temp threshold thermostat so that commuting use won't over cool it but in sustained spirited use the cooler circuit will open.

[2mAn]

This all sounds a lot more complicated than buying the S54 unit, amirite?

Obviously your situation is different, but seeing as how I need to buy something from the beginning I am leaning at getting one of those.

[Bimmerman325i]

This all sounds a lot more complicated than buying the S54 unit, amirite?

Obviously your situation is different, but seeing as how I need to buy something from the beginning I am leaning at getting one of those.

S54 one also needs modifying, since it doesn't have the vanos banjo fitting that the US motors need.

Starting from zero, I'd go with the housing Turner or bimmerworld sells. New part, already modified for use with US engine.

[2mAn]

S54 one also needs modifying, since it doesn't have the vanos banjo fitting that the US motors need.

Starting from zero, I'd go with the housing Turner or bimmerworld sells. New part, already modified for use with US engine.

are you talking about this?

https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-3...ousing/?pdk=Ag

Not cheap at $500, plus the headache of everything else needed. Easily can be a $1000 mod... essentially what bimmerworld sells it for, but not even sure if this can be used on an E30 without modifying

http://www.bimmerworld.com/E36-6-Cyl...ooler-Kit.html

Is there anything wrong with starting with this? then you deal with adding and plumbing the oil cooler on your own.

http://www.bimmerworld.com/Euro-Oil-...7-839-858.html

$380 plus

http://www.bimmerworld.com/E36-6-Cyl...anjo-Bolt.html

$30

then you need the cooler and lines. Can the E30 Oil cooler be adapted or is it too small? Better than nothing and OEM is the way I see it. I have another one I can use, but its more of a rectangle than the long thin OEM looking ones

@kronus sorry for the thread derail!

[kronus]

lol, it's ok, good to have this discussion somewhere at least

I still like this sandwich block solution since it gives me full-flow NPT ports for temperature and pressure, as well as an aux (for a turbo feed?!?! no way) and an accusump dump port.

Another even more financially accessible option is the oil cap with cooler ports that some companies sell. Not sure of how well it performs, though.

[2mAn]

lol, it's ok, good to have this discussion somewhere at least

I still like this sandwich block solution since it gives me full-flow NPT ports for temperature and pressure, as well as an aux (for a turbo feed?!?! no way) and an accusump dump port.

Another even more financially accessible option is the oil cap with cooler ports that some companies sell. Not sure of how well it performs, though.

I've looked at those caps also and question how well they work.

I was 100% on board with the one you got, I had hearts in my eyes until the part about it not having a thermostat. Being in SoCal it might be an excessive concern, but I would rather plan this stuff now than try and fix a previous "solution"

[kronus]

the external thermostats are a pretty decently proven technology. looking around, most of them are around $120.

[Bimmerman325i]

Nothing wrong with an external thermostat!

The Turner/Bimmerworld solutions are more aimed at plug and play rather than DIY. I haven't looked at the oil cap idea much, could work fine (with a tstat)

I think you could do an accusump or a turbo feed by using the oil distribution block that the cool part stores sell on a stock housing, but that's just a hunch.

Another option is to go with the VAC oil filter block, a remote oil filter, and an oil thermostat.

Bunch of solutions. It's still a $600+ mod to add in a thermostat-controlled cooler unless you really luck out on parts.

On an E30 you would want a custom cooler/lines. I don't think OEM E36 below-radiator parts will fit or be well ducted, or that the lines will reach nicely. Could be wrong though.

[kronus]

My setup came with sleeved AN lines. Hard lines are lame. that's a lie but fuck 'em

Going to figure out cooler placement.. thinking to hang it directly in front of the mtech vents, but not convinced I have the space due to the very early metal valence. Otherwise, it might end up behind the kidneys but I'll need to figure out if it'll want to live in front of or behind the fan.

[kronus]

my bag o bolts came in, so I did some work.

secondary timing chain on



to fit the test of the vanos assembly on, you need three nuts. the ones listed by BMW are wrong if your vanos assembly uses a spring shim, turns out. I got new, wrong ones so I ended up reusing my old ones. you can sort of see the shoulder on the backside of the nuts in this photo. the correct ones are in the background. the correct nuts and the install procedure are documented by Beisan here



anyway, vanos went on pretty easily after I got the right nuts on there, and the freshly painted valve cover followed. done!





(not actually done, I still need to weld the Rogue baffle into the E34 pan and drill my oil pump nut)


next up, engine bay prep.

[2mAn]

no annoying orange valve cover??

[kronus]

I chickened out :(

[kronus]

It's me! glacial pace man!



... I washed it. And put in the rear window lockstrip.


Trying to get back into it, the finish line is in sight but there are a couple of nontrivial projects in the way. The major one is powerwashing the bay, grinding out the rust in the battery tray, cutting out a bunch of superfluous bracketry, priming and painting the bay.

One interesting blocker is the AC system is annoyingly full of R12 and I'm not sure how to get it out in a controlled fashion.