Aussie 318is - now S54B32 swap

[moatilliatta]

350 WHP Dynojet with 3.5 exhaust and bigger headers. Carbon airbox +10~

My guess 325 - 335

[AusScare]

Thank you for updating this awesome project! that's turned out great, clean, neat and indeed oem+.

Happy to post updates here and provide detail. A much better system vs the occasional FB/IG post.

Looks great.
How much power?
Are going to up grade brakes?

I'm not sure on power, would like to get it on a dyno. But these are the things that would affect power I think:

• Karbonius airbox
• 3" single exhaust with 100 cell cat
• Turner motorsport pulley kit with aircon delete
• CSL based tune

The shop quoted 375hp at one point, which lines up with some of the numbers I've seen online.

Brakes are currently:

• Stock size
• Brembo ceramic pads
• DBA 4000 rotors
• Audi Q3 MC (need to double check this)
• Tesla Model S Bosch iBooster
• Stainless lines

They work well at road legal speeds and feel like a brand new car does, but will need upgrading for anything more, also to make the swap legal where I live.

Looking at a 300mm front disc kit of some kind that will fit under 16" wheels. Maybe a 5 lug conversion and use E36/E46 parts.

[e30m3s54turbo]

Looks great.
How much power?
Are going to up grade brakes?

[sydmonster]

Thank you for updating this awesome project! that's turned out great, clean, neat and indeed oem+.

[AusScare]

The swap is done and the car is home!

Everything was completed in terms of:

• Plumbing coolant lines
• Replacing fuel hoses, finishing surge tank, cutting carpet to suit, low pressure pump in-tank
• Custom power steering hoses
• Exhaust is a 3" mild steel single, 100 cell cat, resonator, tri-flow muffler - sounds great and no rasp that I can tell yet
• Clutch is a GreshM kit using RHD flywheel - revs are very snappy but the clutch is light enough that I haven't come close to stalling yet
• Motor mounts are 80A Revshift M5x swap mounts
• Condor LCA lollipops to allow room for exhaust
• CSL tune modified to suit

The engine bay looks great, exactly what I wanted with an OEM+ feel.

First drive was in less than ideal conditions: peak hour traffic and it had just rained so the roads were greasy, but it was pretty mental none the less. The car is a real animal, sounds incredible and feels great. I was only able to give it a short hit of WOT on the highway, but plenty of smiles were had.

Looking forward to putting some K's on it over the next few weeks, then will take it back to GreshM Performance to have any teething issues sorted.

[AusScare]

Bit more progress on the swap.

• Radiator plumbed to motor
• Oil cooler plumbed to motor
• Fuel surge tank mounted in boot
• Brake booster moved over 25mm on firewall to clear the intake
• Brake lines matched to Bosch iBooster

Next steps:

• Finish plumbing coolant res to rad
• ⁠Wire in S54 ecu to e30 body loom
• ⁠Build exhaust
• ⁠Fit shifter and driveshaft
• ⁠Tidy up boot carpet, engine bay plastics, etc.

[AusScare]

Some good progress over at GreshM performance:

- Harper Fab sump was fitted to the S54 (photo below showing it sits higher than the steering rack bolts)
- RHD lightweight flywheel fitted to an OEM style 550i clutch for good street behaviour with the GS6-37BZ 6 speed gearbox
- Motor fitted to the E30 using Revshift black (street grade) poly mounts
- Karbonius airbox fitted to the motor
- PWR radiator was also put in place
- New OEM washer bottle put in place - going for an OEM+ look

[AusScare]

Harper fab front sump arrived - next step is mock it up on the motor:



Rod bearings/bolts have been replaced with ACL bearings and ARP bolts. Stock bearings looked ok:



And hopefully the last time for a while the e30 will be on a tow truck. On its way to GreshM Performance to have the S54 fitted:

[e30m3s54turbo]

That sucks about the motor. A s54 b32 motor should be fun to drive in a e30.

[AusScare]

A few more pics of the finished product.

[AusScare]

Ok so bit of a change in the project direction.

I picked up the SR20 that was being built and took it to another shop for a second opinion and for them to finish it off. They inspected and measured everything and came back with some pretty bad news. The work that had been done was pretty average to say the least. Bores out of round, scoring in the bores, porting of the head runners was bad, etc. they listed off about 10 things and said it would be cheaper to just start again with a new block and head. Pretty disappointing since I'd waited so long and paid so much already for this long block to be built. The quote to build a new SR22VET long block was too high, especially with the cost of P11 heads these days, which is $3-5k if you can even find one.

So, I asked my e30 mechanic GreshM Performance to source a new motor for the car and he was able to find a S54B32 in a running track car. The cost of a S54 is actually less than just the SR22VET long block.



I then started to sell all of the SR20 swap gear. Most is new and it's a common motor here, so it's selling pretty easily.

The S54 swap goal is reliability for light track duties and weekend driving. Only modifications will be a Karbonius airbox, tune and obviously an exhaust to suit.

Over the Christmas holidays I painted the engine bay in Alpine White II and 2k clear. It turned out great. The stock paint was in pretty poor condition so anything was going to be better.

Original condition, cleaned, with a few brackets cut off and spot primed.


Sanded with 400, then 800 grit as well as some scuff pads for the hard to reach spots. Everything taped, covered in al-foil or paper. All bolts removed and cables cable-tied out of the way.



Primed, then given a light sanding. A few spots missed, but still better than what the factory did - you can still see the dark factory primer in the corners.


With rattle cans, 3 coats of Alpine White II base, 3 coats of 2k clear, 4th coat of clear on the towers. All pretty light coats since this was my first time painting a car and I was mostly concerned about runs in the paint.



Next steps, a few maintenance items to be sorted on the S54 and parts ordered for the swap. A lot more straight forward than an SR20 swap anyway...

[AusScare]

It's been a few months since the last update. Most of that time was spent enjoying the car and driving it most weekends.

In February I randomly came across a twin of my car, so had to stop for some photos. Friendly owner and his dad came out for a chat.





A few months later at the start of April, I was driving home from cars and coffee and the car started making pretty bad noises - a loud knock when revving and the idle was bad, seemed like a misfire. Diagnosed as no compression in 2 cylinders and a bottom end knock. The motor was dead!



So out it came, and I had some other work done at the same time:

- Brake booster/mc replaced with a Bosch iBooster from a Tesla Model S (rhd)
- Aircon related items removed
- Diff breather adapted to a larger line (still cautious of this leaking)
- Steering linkage replaced with an LPSR linkage as the Astra/Vectra linkage I had was dead
- Excess brackets removed and primed

Thanks to GreshM Performance for their work on the car.





Plenty of room for the SR20 exhaust manifold now hopefully.

I also picked up a few other parts for the new motor:

- Haltech R3 ecu and loom
- Koyo SR20 S14 radiator
- Maradyne 12" 1565cfm fans
- Nissan R35 coilpack conversion kit for SR20 P11 head
- Turbosmart 45mm wastegate (I'm going to sell the EX50 that I had as it's too big)

The SR20 should be done in the next few weeks, and the car is going to the fabricator in 3 days, with work starting mid/late June. No idea how long this will take, maybe 2-3 months? Let's see!

I also bought a 15 ft roll of M Hurricane fabric from ASC Fabrics - interior will be done once the motor is sorted.

[AusScare]

I've got similarly sized BBS RS (15x7.5 +6 front and 15x8.5 +18 rear) and those CRS look great, I dare say I'd have a better time squeezing the 225/45 in the rear.

I've had a square 205/50 Yokohama AD08 on for close to 5 years now and they have fallen off quite considerably with age and it always bugged me having a slight stretch in the rear.

Agree that wheel spec is perfect for 205/50 front and 225/45 rear.

Went to the local cars and coffee on the weekend, car drove great and it looks like my diff is no longer leaking... not sure how, maybe the fluid level has dropped a bit where it's no longer an issue. I'll listen out for a badly worn LSD now :')

[jsta1109]

I've got similarly sized BBS RS (15x7.5 +6 front and 15x8.5 +18 rear) and those CRS look great, I dare say I'd have a better time squeezing the 225/45 in the rear.

I've had a square 205/50 Yokohama AD08 on for close to 5 years now and they have fallen off quite considerably with age and it always bugged me having a slight stretch in the rear.

[AusScare]

Got the height sorted and an alignment at the same time. I'm happy with it, as it's not super low. If I ever get the car painted, I'll get them to clearance the guards to allow for a more aggressive height in the rear.

This wheel/tyre combo would actually be better if the BBS was its original 15x8 +18 in the rear, as it would have the guard clearance on the outside. So another option if I want to go lower is to have the rear wheels returned to their original spec with a half inch smaller lip.

In saying that, the roads are always going to be the weak link - you never want to be so low that you can't drive the bloody car, or get it in/out of driveways and over speed bumps!