Bronzit E30 - OBDII S52 shaved bay - weekend/autox toy - Journey

[Digitalwave]

How come your block is o-ringed? Planned FI down the road?

[wworm]

How come your block is o-ringed? Planned FI down the road?

took like 70 pages before this was asked lol. From what I remember from a convo we had a while back, there are thoughts about a supercharger...

[Javier h]

M52

So is the engine in the E30 some hybrid?

An M52 with S52 internals?

[2mAn]

So the engine in the E30 some hybrid?

An M52 with S52 internals?

Nope, the E30 motor is a S52. He also owns a E36 vert that has the M52 stock... and a supercharger :devil:

[Javier h]

What does the sentence mean:

"I'm also probably going to pull the head from it, have it checked and swap it onto the e30."

It sounds like something from the E36 is working itself into the E30.

[TheRob]

What does the sentence mean:

"I'm also probably going to pull the head from it, have it checked and swap it onto the e30."

It sounds like something from the E36 is working itself into the E30.

In order to reduce down time for the e30, it looks like he pulled the head from the m52 and had it gone through by a machine shop so when he pulled the head from the s52 in the e30 he already had a fresh from the machine shop head to go on. Now, I'm assuming the head from the e30 will go to the machine shop and if all goes well will be used for the e36, as the m52 and s52 share the same head...at least to my knowledge its the same

[wworm]

so many valves in that garage lol

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Wow! Didn't think you could get a head refreshed that cheap and quick. I gotta call my machine shop...

Neither did I. To be fair I got this price and service level because I told him it was for the shop (and I got a referral from another mechanic here) rather than calling as an anonymous citizen :D

How come your block is o-ringed? Planned FI down the road?

took like 70 pages before this was asked lol. From what I remember from a convo we had a while back, there are thoughts about a supercharger...

Bingo. Not just thoughts... the supercharger is on a shelf in the garage and I've been keeping the plans in mind in my head as I've been modifying stuff over the past year or so.

So is the engine in the E30 some hybrid?
An M52 with S52 internals?

Nope, the E30 motor is a S52. He also owns a E36 vert that has the M52 stock... and a supercharger :devil:

there are actually s52 cams and M50 IM on that car too ;D

What does the sentence mean:
"I'm also probably going to pull the head from it, have it checked and swap it onto the e30."
It sounds like something from the E36 is working itself into the E30.

In order to reduce down time for the e30, it looks like he pulled the head from the m52 and had it gone through by a machine shop so when he pulled the head from the s52 in the e30 he already had a fresh from the machine shop head to go on. Now, I'm assuming the head from the e30 will go to the machine shop and if all goes well will be used for the e36, as the m52 and s52 share the same head...at least to my knowledge its the same

That's correct. The M52 and S52 share the same head. Only difference are the cams.

so many valves in that garage lol

All three of my cars are 24Vs. My roommate also has an M54 X5. So there are 96 BMW valves in my driveway

[jeenyus]

Do M54 and S54 also share the same head?

Just how hard is it to come across a iron block M54?

Which would you recommend between the M52 and M54? Why?

[Rain30]

Do M54 and S54 also share the same head?

Just how hard is it to come across a iron block M54?

Which would you recommend between the M52 and M54? Why?

The M54 and S54 heads are not interchangeable, neither are the cams. The S54 has more in common with the S50 than the M54.

As far as I can remember BMW did not make any iron block M54's, at least not for the NA market.

The M52 has a bigger aftermarket and better buildability than the M54. The M54 won't make much power and would need forced induction to make anything really worth talking about.
Reliability wise I can speak for the M54 having owned quite a few E46. I've found that with regular maintenance, you can get well over 200k miles out of them. Parts are still readily available and relatively inexpensive, for a BMW;) Even my mildly built M54 has been very reliable. I've DD it since ownership and have around 175k miles on it without any major issues.

So for the small threadjack Sh3rpak!ng.

[jeenyus]

Thank you, I really appreciate the response.

[stonea]

The M54 and S54 heads are not interchangeable, neither are the cams. The S54 has more in common with the Euro S50 than the M54.

Fixed for future confusion

[Jaker]

Just how hard is it to come across a iron block M54?

Which would you recommend between the M52 and M54? Why?

What's your goal for an iron block M54? The single Vanos M50/S50/M52/S52 can be converted pretty easily to dual Vanos and they all (except for the single Vanos 97-98 Z3 2.8 Roadster) had iron blocks. Or you can just swap a single Vanos iron block motor into an E46 and run it with some of the Alpina B3 (I think?) software flashes for the E46 MS43 DME.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Fixed for future confusion

What's your goal for an iron block M54? The single Vanos M50/S50/M52/S52 can be converted pretty easily to dual Vanos and they all (except for the single Vanos 97-98 Z3 2.8 Roadster) had iron blocks. Or you can just swap a single Vanos iron block motor into an E46 and run it with some of the Alpina B3 (I think?) software flashes for the E46 MS43 DME.

Ha I was just about to say "paging jaker".... I've seen some interesting frankenstein motors that have used components across the e36 and e46 m52/m54 platforms... iirc I've seen the m54 exhaust cam used in some m/s52 applications.



Anyway back to the normal program...

Put the engine back together and sealed it up a while ago




Sand blasted and welded shut the SAP injection ports on the manifolds




Cut the body fuel lines in preparation for the AN conversion. Had to sand the surface coating off of them to get the AN tube adapters to fit snug




Here's the tube adapter. Probably could have used these on both the body lines and fuel rail. I only used them on the body side and used EFI adapter fittigns on the rail. Everything works perfectly anyway.




Here they are assembled under the car




Snaking up along the trans and up to the fuel rail




Coming up behind the manifold to the rail




I'm very happy with the products, the install was easy and nothing leaks. The lines are now more durable, more flexible, much easier to dis/assemble and much safer. This also makes things easy in the future if I want to do a billet rail/FPR


Finally killed my harbor freight 1/4 ratchet. It's served me for 8 years or so. Not bad at all. Replaced it with a husky ratchet. Highly recommend. I am going to replace all my other ratchets with husky too.




Finally swapped in the 25mm master cylinder. Only wish I had done it sooner! The brakes feel perfect now. Travel is just right. After driving like 5 mins I forgot I even did it. The stiffer pedal is hardly noticeable.




Went for a drive in the canyons. My buddy just bought a 993 c4. It's badass. Finally got some good competition at the track and autox :devil: We're going this weekend fingers crossed it doesn't rain




And since I haven't been doing much with the e30 (also I sold the carpet) here's what I've been up to... moved my e36 finally from the old garage to new garage. Stripped the motor. Had the head done, had the block tanked, honed the cylinders, cleaned the surface, painted it sexy deep candy metallic red and just got my order in for all the engine parts... bearings, rings, seals, gaskets, guides etc. this weekend will be a party!

[shootnjunky]

What wheels and specs are you running now?