89 S52 Swap

[cdl723]

After 2 months of waiting for USPS to deliver the power steering it finally came. The power steering kit was really nice and does not appear to be leaking yet.. I also picked up a set of GC coilover adjusters, IE Spec E30 Camber Plate, Camaro and MR2 Struts to build my suspension. Currently these have 450f/750r springs and i am installing the garagistic treehouse FCAB too.

For the coilovers i created spacers to put the strut about 1" lower in the housing, then i ordered honda accord 2.5" coilovers and used only the spring perch. I drilled a 15mm hole then filed out the profile to fit the strut. Next i used some washers to space up the camber plate to allow for it the angle with the camber and caster curves.



I got about halfway through installing the coilovers when i ran into some issues this weekend. The first is my buddy stripped the top few threads on one of my CA and tie rod using a ball joint remover... The second was the treehouse bushing shifted the wheel very far forward in the wheel well. I used a jack to jack up the wheel to simulate it being loaded at full lock and under normal condition and found it rubs on the fender liner. I also checked for suspension travel and it looks as though it may only have ~2" of compression travel before it hits the bump stops. I may cut and reweld to get rid of the top spacer and give around another inch of compression travel.

[cdl723]

The power steering pump feed line is leaking from the crimp on the reservoir side. Chase Bay's has excellent customer service and is sending me another line free of cost.

I was also having an issue with the VDO cam sensor that I used to replace the stock one. I returned this and replaced it with the OE BMW VDO unit. From my understanding the aftermarket VDO branded ones come from a plant in Brazil and the BMW ones come from Slovenia. I have read that the Brazil plant has a lower QC standard over the Slovenian plant. This cured my intermittent P0340 code and revealed a P1519 code or stuck VANOS. I pulled the cams back apart and sure enough the exhaust cam was barely out of time.

My buddy helped me weld up a proper exhaust. For this we cut the manifolds and welded 2" V-Bands in place because I sheared one of the studs and needed more room. We needed them to be shorter to clear the sway bar and not have an aggressive bend right at the downpipes. These then went to a single 2.5" back to the cat back where it went back to a twin exhaust. I am using the cat back that came with the car. I think it is some sort of aftermarket system. I also pulled my struts and cut the assembly's around 1.5" to free up some compression travel. We started around 6pm and didn't finish it until around 4am... I feel bad for him as he still showed up for work on 2hrs of sleep the next day.



I got some IGGEE covers and new shocks for my sport seats and wow what a transformation. The old leather was cracking and some of the controls didn't work from dirt in the mechanisms. I think they look nice and for what I paid I am satisfied for the time being. I went with black as I did not think their blue would match the rest of the interior. My plan is to recover them in a few years when I get more time/money.



I also got some new TRM C1's wrapped in the Yokohama Advan Fleva V701. The wheels are 15x7 with an ET25 offset and the tires are 205/55R15.



Lastly, driving to my buddies place the driveshaft started to make a lot of noise when letting off to shift when i was over ~40mph. I think this is a sticking u-joint as I replaced the trans mounts, Guibo and CSB when I installed it. I need to pull it and double check the u-joints, but its a stock 220k mile driveshaft that has never been serviced. I ended up going with a new custom driveshaft from driveshaft specialist as nowhere would service the u-joints and they had a long turn around time to rebuild it.

[cdl723]

It has been a while since I have given an update. Life has gotten in the way with graduating college and getting a job. I was able to get a lot of stuff done. First I removed the tint from the windows, which really improved the look of the car in my opinion.



Then I pulled the oil pan to safety wire the oil pump nut, install the AAF oil baffle and fix some leaks. Hoping that this reduces the lifter tick when I am driving spiritedly on back roads. At the same time as this I rebuilt my power steering pump because the casing started to leak... No more signs of leaking from this.



I installed a Z3M radiator, 16" SPAL pusher fan and e39 thermostat housing to aid with cooling and bleeding the system. I didn't have any issues with the auto m20 radiator, but I wanted to take care of it before it failed.

[cdl723]

I did the brakes as well because the parking brake was... well... not working to say the least. I decided to get new rotors and pads as the rotors had some scoring in them and they were pretty cheap from Rockauto. I decided to go with the Powerstop Z26 street warrior pads. They stop the car, but not quite as well as I expected. I want to give them some more time, but they are not very bitey when cold and I haven't really gotten them hot yet.



One of my friends sent me a picture of my old E34 535i/5. I miss that car, but it was also a little worn out.



Lastly, I picked up some different springs 300lbf/550lbr-7inch/6inch to replace the insanely stiff 450lbf/750lbr-7inch/4inch. Im hoping to install those this weekend along with fixing a few more pesky oil leaks. Lastly, my odometer gears are working intermittently and am unsure as to why this is the case. I will try and open it up and check if the gears are misaligned.

[cdl723]

Now that I have gotten a full time job and finished a lot of the peskier work with the car I can start on the interesting stuff. I looked into adapting S54 ITB's, however I did not like the large bore diameter (50mm) and relatively short runner length from the throttle bodies. I decided to design my own and I am planning to use Triumph Daytona 675 throttle bodies. Here are some of the initial plans and I am 3D printing a mock up of the manifold to check for clearance to the booster and fitment in the engine bay.

I decided on the Daytona TB's because they are 44mm in diameter and using some simple online calculators that would put the peak power at 6500rpm with the S52. A little high, but I also saw elsewhere to overshoot the airflow target by 20% or so. After looking at lot of places, I concluded the ideal size anywhere from 43-46mm for the power and rpm target. Next was the runner length design. With the same rpm target I got that I need a target of roughly 272mm in runner length. With the current design that I will mock up it is 214.3mm from the back of the butterfly to the head. I need to measure but I know this will increase when I factor in the distance from the intake port to the back of the valve. I am also planning on running 50mm trumpets, so this should be in the ball park of 270-300mm after it is all assembled.



Im planning to do more research into ITB design. Also I am looking at making a speeduino following Pazi88, but not all of the parts are avaliable to assemble his PCB design for the speeduino. I might end up getting a MS3X for sequential injection/ignition, but I am unsure. As far as throttle cables, I was going to use a carburetor throttle cable style adapter to actuate the throttle, then do some calculations and drill a hole in the pedal linkage to reduce the pedal ratio. I am planning on using a carbon reinforced nylon and printing the manifolds in three pieces, then using a phenolic spacer.

[moatilliatta]

Rabid racing develpment has you covered.

The trick I think is getting the airbox to fit proper.

https://rabidracingdev.com/

[cdl723]

Rabid racing develpment has you covered.

The trick I think is getting the airbox to fit proper.

https://rabidracingdev.com/

I would like to do something custom/cheaper that is better tuned for peak hp to be a little bit lower than the S54.

I printed 1/3 of the ITB manifold, then test fitted it into the engine bay. With the TB held up, I have about 80mm to the brake booster (944 booster shifted 0.5") on the back TB. Im also debating printing it out of GF PA6 or buying a cheap aluminum manifold off of eBay and cutting it. I believe GM and other manufacturers use GF PA6 for intake manifolds and other engine components, but those are typically plastic injection instead of FDM printed. I need to do some more investigation on engine operating temps before I make this decision.



I also decided to put a lighter flywheel in because the engine is lazy and doesn't drop RPMs quick enough between shifts. I got the eBay special that resembles the F1 flywheel, then I am running the e34 M5 clutch disc backwards with the e36 m3 pressure plate (Like UUC). This flywheel is 14.5lbs and the m5 clutch is 2lbs heavier than the m3 clutch. This is lighter, but hopefully not too light to cause an obnoxious amount of gear rattle. I got it balanced and as you can see it needed a good bit of balancing with the PP.

[2mAn]

The S54 ITBs are pretty big and probably cost a lot more than some motorcycle TBs. Either wya, keep it up and have fun. Might want to start with a better exhaust than the intake first. Im sure that will yield better results

[cdl723]

It has been a while since I have updated this, but the ITB project has been put on the back burner while I get the rest of the car sorted. Recently got engaged, so I need to paint the car to make it look good as a get away car. Here are a few updates with it since then.

The chase bays PS kit started leaking again, so I pulled it out and deleted PS with the Condor speed shop delete. Its really not that bad, I have just been spoiled with my other vehicles with power steering. I like the steering feedback and could actually feel it start to understeer rather than just plowing through the turn like i was with PS.

I switched the shifter to the OEM style shifter arm carrier because of the notchy feel of the Garagistic shifter. It also popped out of 3rd if i was hard on throttle and hit any bumps. To center it I got an E46 330i 5 speed shifter arm, cut it to length then bolted it back together. This centered the shifter up, but the pattern isn't quite right due to the shift linkage. I still need to pull this out and bend it correctly, but it feels a lot better.



I think I found one of the major causes to my driveline vibrations/mismatch in diff input and trans output flange angles. The garagistic subframe riser bushings are being pulled through the frame pretty bad. They sent me a new set, but they did the exact same thing. I ordered an OEM set of bushings to replace them.



After DD it to work for sometime, I have missed the cup holders I have on my 4Runner. I printed a cupholder adapter for the rear ashtray and it works decently well. I sized it for my Yetti mug and it fits well for that, but not too well for smaller drinks.



The last thing I have done that is worth mentioning is getting 135i floor mats. They fit really well and clean up the interior a good bit. I think they look a lot better than the e46 vert floor mats that people have been using. Ignore the dirt on the floor. I desperately need to detail this car.

[cdl723]

I rebuilt the gauge cluster too to add an 8k tach and a shift light. I did not like my original hack job so i went in and did it right. The shift light is really cool and will change where the lights tun on with coolant temp. They use the old SI lights that aren't really useful anymore. I got them from Innovative Goods E30.



I have also been helping a few friends with their E30s. The guy who was swapping the LS in his e30 from the first few posts finally finished. He put in a 6.0 LQ4 from an escalade and it is ludicrous. He put the G260 and a 2.93 diff and it spins no matter what in first with 215 Falken rt615k tires. I think he said with the cam and all it makes close to 400whp/tq.



Also helped a friend swap an old M30 he had into his daily E30, but the head gasket ended up making chocolate milk with his oil. Rather than rebuilding it I helped him pick up an E32 735i for cheap to swap in another M30. This thing was a comfortable boat and was dead quiet on the inside. The car itself is pretty trashed with the PO doing a hackjob on wiring and the exterior was pretty beat up. Hopefully we get it good to go in the next few weeks.



Last pic was at Cars & Coffee Richmond with another friend's 318ti. They are very funny looking, but exactly like E30s with an e36 front end and interior.



I am looking to do some AutoX in the future and maybe a drift event. They seem fun, but worry about hitting someone else or someone hitting me.

[Northern]

That bushing issue is kind of shocking, I've never seen that happen before.

Re: Pazi Speeduino, I don't remember what his stuff looked like from the time you posted, but his stuff has come a long way since leaving the mainstream speeduino hardware. There are still issues with component availability with the whole silicon shortage and COVID excuses, but he's helped people substitute things before. Worth getting ahold of him for (or joining/asking him in the speeduino section of the BMW tuning discord - link is in the side banner of the MS4X wiki)


That flywheel balancing is shocking.
I have an FX stage 3 on one car since 2015 and had it balanced to the PP before installing. It had 0.5g removed, basically a small 1/4" drill spot on the radius.
For my 4door, last year I bought what looked like a no-name version of the FX stage 2 kit, and didn't bother balancing it, now I'm wondering if that was a mistake...

[cdl723]

I joined the speeduino discord and a few other pages. I built the ECU and cranked my car, but I solder joint caused one of the mosfets to overheat and burned the board a little. I fixed it, but have not gotten to spend a lot of time on it since. I think my software/firmware is incorrect.

I was able to substitute some of the components I couldn’t find by looking at the specs and comparing ratings vs real world values (IE over speced some of the components for rated max current/voltage).

For the clutch kit you might be fine. You can check it with a phone app that uses the accelerometer/microphone and check if there is an extreme harmonic frequency correlating with engine speed. It’s how I found an imbalance with my wheels on my 4Runner, and the driveshaft angle misalignment issue with my E30.

[Chinampa]

[cdl723]

It has been a while since I have updated this, but i am still chipping along at the little things. Here is a list of things I have done since my last update with some pictures.
- Fixed the windshield. I used fuyao glass
- OEM lolipops with new bushings. These feel a lot better for street use
- 13 button OBC swap I found for $100 for everything. Turn signal, computer, obc and wiring
- VA inspection/registration
- Sound deadening in trunk and back seat
- OEM rubber subframe bushings. These feel really good and are firm, but comfortable
- Installed a catalytic converter
- Vorshlag camber/caster plates
- New central locking unit
- Reinstalled the chase bays power steering




I also took it to an autocross where i smacked a cone and ran over the IS lip. This caused it to fall off later on on the street and i ran over it a 2nd time and it was not savable. In a later run the brake ducts fell out going over a bump in the parking lot and i ran it over. I ended up being first in the street modified class... It probably helped I was the only one in it. Im debating torn between the I lip and IS lip. I like the IS lip looks, but want more ground clearance in the front. I think the picture of the 325i lip in my color looks good, but also like how aggressive the IS lip made it look.

[cdl723]

One morning on my way to get the car inspected it didnt want to start. The battery ended up being dead again and i tracked it down a ~200-300mA draw to fuse 21 and 27 with an autozone meter. I dont know how accurate this was as the meter measured the voltage of the battery at 18 volts, but I ordered a new multimeter after this. The draw went away when i unplugged the interior light delay and central locking module. When i did this the central locking module popped. I opened it up and a transistor was broken in half. I got a new unit and shorted the light diming unit with some wire to just use the door switches and it the current draw dropped to ~17mA. I installed the 13 button at the same time I was in there. I am still waiting on a backlight, but I am happy I will be able to read my average mpg and range for the tank.




I also really liked the Ronal LS wheels from the 325i in the prior post, so i picked up a set with some RS4 225 tires. This thing handles a lot better. I wish I had this setup for the last autoX. The Advan V701 could barely hold on and felt like I was on ice. The only down side to the new wheels and tires is having to go down to 225/45r15 which lowered the car a little and made the wheel gap more apparent.