Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

clavinZERO's 5-lug swap with *PICS* and details galore!

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    clavinZERO's 5-lug swap with *PICS* and details galore!

    EDIT Aug. 2011:
    This information is also being compiled in conjunction with user Aptyp (Art M.) and put into a new website for easier viewing. In addition to the "Extra Drei" site, mine is in progress and available here: http://www.clavinz.com/e30-5-lug/

    Thank you.


    I converted my car to 5-lug in June/July of 2007. I had access to a shop, which made things a lot easier. I also had some help from some R3V members. Cahomey (Aaron), JustinB (Justin) and my uncle were instrumental in completing this project. Oh and my girlfriend helped me bleed the brakes so I could actually drive, hehe. After much research and weighing my options, I took the plunge. About $4500 later, she is a rolling beauty! I went with E36 M3 front and Z3 1.9L rear setups.

    The following is a complete list of the parts I acquired for my swap. I am listing most of these items with their part numbers. If I have forgotten anything, I will add it later, and please don’t hesitate to ask anything if you feel I have left it out or if you just need more information. Items that were NOT NEW are listed as “USED” or are included in the “OTHER” section.

    WHEELS:
    -BMW wheels, Radial Spoke Style 32, 17x7.5 et41(36111091869)
    -BMW center caps (36131095361)
    -215/40/ZR17 BFGoodrich G-Force Sport tires

    SUSPENSION:
    -’97 E36 M3 complete strut/brake aseemblies, from brakes to wires to bearing caps (USED)
    -’97 Z3 1.9L complete trailing arm assemblies, from calipers to discs to brake lines (USED)
    -Ireland Engineering E30/Z3 rear camber/toe adjustments kits (02adjrt + e30adjsf)
    -I.E. E30/Z3 rear trailing arm bushings (black), soft (street) urethane (e30rearbush)
    -I.E. E30 rear sub-frame bushings (green), urethane (e30urethanerear)
    -’97 E36 M3 struts, Bilstein Sport (VE3-A585-H0 + VE3-A586-H0)
    -’97 E36 M3 control arms with ball joints (31122228461 + 31122228462)
    -’90 E30 Cabriolet rear shock mounts (33521128819)
    -’90 E30 rear axle nut lock plates (33411124945)

    BRAKES:
    -’97 E36 M3 front brake discs, Brembo (34112227171 + 34112227172)
    -’97 E36 M3 front brake pads, Hawk HPS
    -’97 E36 M3 front brake anti-rattle springs (34112227670)
    -‘97 E36 M3 right front brake backing plate
    -’97 Z3 1.9L rear brake discs (USED) (34211164399)
    -’97 Z3 1.9L rear brake pads, Pagid OEM pads (34216761239)
    -’90 E30 parking brake cables (34411158421)

    OTHER: items I already had on the car that are relevant to the swap
    -E30 offset control arm bushings, urethane
    -E30 strut bearing caps/mounts
    -E30 Eibach sway-bar kit, 22mm front + 19mm rear, stock links
    -E30 I.E. urethane sway-bar bushings
    -E30 I.E. rear sway-bar reinforcement kit, bolts through trunk floor
    -triangular-style rear sway-bar mount reinforcements, welded to trailing arms

    SPECIAL:
    -22mm Craftsman socket, ground down to hell to fit into front bearing cap to tighten top strut nut.
    Last edited by clavinZERO; 01-19-2022, 11:01 PM.

    "BMW Style 32 Poster-Child"
    HTTP://WWW.CLAVINZERO.COM/e30-5-lug
    **(My Guide to E36 M3/Z3 1.9L 5-lug Swap)
    **

    #2
    Clean-up and prep work:
    I started on the brakes and rear trailing arms. I took the discs off the Z3 rear assemblies and cleaned them up with some emery cloth and carburetor cleaner. The discs had a bit of rust on the non-braking surfaces, so I just went over them briefly. The discs (both the used rears and new fronts) were then painted with some high heat, low gloss black paint. I hate rusty discs or ones with failing plating that you can see behind the wheels. I then cleaned up all the calipers and mounting brackets (carriers) in the cleaning tank with a steel brush and some elbow grease. They came out pretty nice. I hit them with cleaner, followed by red caliper paint, and let them sit for a few days.
















    Sub-frame and trailing arms, etc.:
    Using some random pulling tools, hammers, and chisels I found in the shop, I managed to pull out the old trailing arm bushings from the Z3 arms. The new urethane ones from Ireland Engineering went almost all the way in with moderate tapping. I used a long nut and bolt and big washer setup to really pull them and the steel shafts into place. I then disassembled, cleaned, greased, and reassembled the parking brake hardware on the Z3 arms. While I was in there, I also put in new E30 parking brake cables. To remove the old cable you have to pull out the rear piece of the center console to get to the mounting hardware… it’s really easy/ self-explanatory. The new cables simply press into the tubes under the car; from there they go into the back of the rear brake assembly. The new cables were a bit tight going into the back of the brake assembly, so I had to sand them and make them press in all the way with a little hammer-and-punch action. When working with the parking brake hardware, I was careful not to lose the little pin that holds the cable onto the hinge piece that pushes the shoes outward. I also took the opportunity to beef up with rear sway-bar mounting tabs with my newb welding skills. I just cut some triangles out of some steel using some other tabs as a template.
    After all the cleaning and painting and such were done, we started pulling the rear of my car apart. Off came the wheels. I disconnected the parking brake from inside the car (on the handle itself) so the old arms could come off with the cables still attached. The sway-bars disconnected easily. The brake lines came apart… messy but easy; I plugged them with plastic bolts or fuel hose with a screw in the end to stop the leaking. The shocks unbolted and let things fully drop. The differential came off after removing the exhaust and axles (lots of allens and a brass drift to punch the axles out after taking the axle nuts off). The differential has four bolts connected to the drive shaft, four bolts on the top of it, and one fat bolt through the differential bushing/mount. The sub-frame and arms came off next after taking off the rocker panel allen bolts and the huge nuts located just behind them, underneath the car.
    Again, with random pullers and chisels and such, I was able to get the old sub-frame bushings out. The new Ireland Engineering hyper green urethane bushings just slide in firmly (a rubber mallet may be your friend). Since I am using their camber and toe weld-on kits, I had to chop part of the new green bushings’ lips off to make room for the hardware and wrenches.
    The real painful part of the sub-frame work was marking and slotting the holes for the bolts to slide in for the camber and toe adjustment. I used the top of the sub-frame bushing hole as my “level” spot and marked everything accordingly from there. The outer trailing arm mounts were slotted for toe adjustment and the inner ones were slotted for camber adjustment. I set my original outer holes (now for toe) to be in the center of my sliding area. I set my original inner holes (now for camber) lower but not at the bottom of the slotted area, so that I can add just a little more camber still, or remove a lot. In short, the toe can go equally either way and the camber can go in just a bit more or out a lot (having my alignment done will set these for certain). Grinding the slots into the sub-frame brackets was real torture and required many different tools from files to metal saws to a Dremel. Once the slots were done on the brackets, I cleaned it all up enough to weld on the slider hardware (which is what I used to stencil the slots). They came out decent for my first real welding project; they are nothing to be too proud of, but they should hold. I hit the fresh metal with some SEM paint.
    With some huge pliers and grease, we got the Z3 arms onto my sub-frame and got all the hardware on for the camber/toe adjusters. We slowly put everything back onto the car and things started to take shape. A tranny hoist can be your friend as well. I also replaced the rear shock mounts with another set of E30 cabriolet mounts since I had everything all apart; my old ones (which were already cabby mounts) had about 50,000 miles on them and you could see the wear/cracks.











    Special Diagnostic tool, available from dealer only:


    Special Rotator tool, available from dealer only: ;)




















    Last edited by clavinZERO; 01-19-2022, 11:12 PM.

    "BMW Style 32 Poster-Child"
    HTTP://WWW.CLAVINZERO.COM/e30-5-lug
    **(My Guide to E36 M3/Z3 1.9L 5-lug Swap)
    **

    Comment


      #3
      Rear miscellaneous:
      We lubed the brake hardware with anti-seize compound and special brake grease for the slider pins (that go into the rubber sleeves) on the calipers. All the bolts got torqued properly from the axles to the sub-frame to the wheel lugs. Ideally, you are supposed to tighten the sway-bar bolts and the shock bolts when the car is on the ground, so we did. We bled the rear brakes and took a test drive. I was stoked to say the least.











      Front suspension:
      Next up was the front. Late one night I started ripping into the front end. I got new Bilstein sport front struts and bolted the used steering knuckle and brake assemblies to the bottom of the struts. I had to get another (new) backing plate for the passenger side because the one that came on the assembly looked like a plastic frisbee that a dog had chewed on. To replace that, you have to pop off the wheel bearing assembly… impact gun and chisel are pretty much required for that huge lock nut.
      Using a spring compressor, I yanked apart the old strut assemblies and saved the H&R springs, the stock E30 bearing caps, the spring pads, etc. All of that was then mounted onto the new E36 struts. The shafts coming out of the E36 struts are the same diameter as the E30 ones, but the nut on top is now a 22mm, compared to the old 19mm. The only hitch I had here was that I had to grind out one washer per side to fit over the shafts’ threads. Also, my bearing caps must have been made at different times or locations because the hole at the top of the left side bearing cap was not the same size as the right side one. I had to grind the right hole wider and grind down a cheap socket to get the strut shaft’s nut fully tightened with the impact gun. Other than that, everything came together just like stock. The E30 and E36 M3 Bilstein sport shocks apparently have the same valving and they also have the same size spring perches; it all works beautifully.
      With the tie-rods already disconnected earlier, the control arms’ ball joints all unbolted easily (with the help of a fork and a hammer), accept the inner passenger side ball joint. It’s a pain to get it on and off; short wrenches, a pry bar, and patience are required! The new ’97 control arms have the same diameter rear shaft as the E30 ones; they fit right into the E30 control arm bushings. I had the offset polyurethane ones, and they just slid right in there. The same goes for the ball joint shafts, they all fit great.









      Front brakes and ABS:
      The front brakes got the same treatment as the rear: lubing, assembling, torquing. The new discs went on with the set screws and the calipers followed with pads.
      Later I sorted out the ABS sensor wiring for both front and rear. As of right now, the front E36 sensor is spliced into the E30 harness. The black E36 wire went to the black E30 wire. The yellow E36 wire went to the brown E30 wire. The brown E36 wire is left disconnected. I soldered it all and wrapped it up with heat shrink tubing, etc. The jackets on all the ABS sensors are pretty damn strong and slightly difficult to slit open, even with a sharp razor! The rear is still running off the original E30 sensors and wiring. The sensors are just spaced out, about the thickness of five copper crush gaskets. Before I did any of this finalizing on the wiring, my ABS was starting to engage at very odd times and the light would soon come on (which means the system is deactivated due to errors) and I could then brake as hard as I wanted to. Since finalizing the wiring as stated above, I have done one run with the car and the ABS light (Anti-Lock light) has not come on and the ABS unit has not engaged improperly. I will do more testing ASAP. If anything changes, I will add it here.

      EDIT: the ABS still has not engaged improperly since I wired up the E36 ABS sensors in the front. The only shitty thing is that the Anti-Lock light has started coming back on, so I still need to find the cause. My next search for info will have me comparing the pulse rings on the stock E30 rear axles to the rings on the front E36 hubs. I am willing to bet that the people who have done the M-roadster full swaps still have full ABS functionality because their rings (front and rear) are already paired to work together and my E36 M3 fronts and E30 rears are not. I have to check on this to be sure.

      If anyone has input on this, please share it!... This goes for everything on the ABS from the pulse ring tooth count to the wiring colors on the sensors. THANKS!!

      EDIT: (Dec.13.2009) ABS sensors are going to be re-spliced with BLACK to BLACK and BROWN to BROWN with the spare yellow E36-sensor wire left disconnected. More to come. See also: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=150668


      Other noteworthy stuff:
      While it was down, I shot the muffler with some fresh blackness. It turned out pretty good even though I didn’t paint the pipes all the way back to the cat.
      After I had the car rolling for a few days, I started to brake and turn more aggressively. The brakes are super sweet and all sorts of ridiculous in braking power and they look badassular. Yes, bad-ass-u-lar. Now that the ABS is sorted out (crossing fingers) I am a lot more confident in the whole setup.
      As I said, I started to drive harder. I noticed clunking coming from the right rear somewhere, but only when I was making hard right turns. I looked under the car for anything loose or anything binding and couldn’t find a damn thing. I got the car up on the hoist and gave the right rear spring a 180-degree rotation after comparing it to the left spring. It looking like it had been rubbing against itself. After that, the clunking was GONE! Something so simple was freaking me out. All is well.
      I got the car aligned and I am very pleased. I still have decent rear camber and the tires are running with more rubber on the ground than before. The front camber is acceptable for now until I decide to dive into more options later. Caster? Not a problem.






      Ooooooo look at me!





      If you are looking to do this swap, you can save money by getting parts from a cheaper wrecking yard and using more used parts on the swap. I also got some extra goodies along the way that really added up… like new BMW wheels from the dealer (about eleventy billion dollars with tires mounted and balanced separately too).
      Thanks for reading. Enjoy the pics! Please, ask questions and leave comments!
      Last edited by clavinZERO; 01-19-2022, 11:31 PM.

      "BMW Style 32 Poster-Child"
      HTTP://WWW.CLAVINZERO.COM/e30-5-lug
      **(My Guide to E36 M3/Z3 1.9L 5-lug Swap)
      **

      Comment


        #4
        Amazing job. Thanks for the full writeup. Excellent!
        Recent Rebranding!!
        Visit Garageaholic for all of your E30 Swap Needs!
        E30 SM62/S62
        E30 M60 V8
        E30 M30 Big 6!




        Check out this E36 N54 Swap Build
        Instagram.com/garageaholic
        Youtube.com/garageaholic

        Comment


          #5
          whew that writeup was long!

          Thanks for taking the time to document your swap!

          Originally posted by whysimon
          WTF is hello Kitty (I'm 28 with no kids and I don't have cable)

          Comment


            #6
            Great write-up!


            As always, the car looks amazing.
            sigpic

            Comment


              #7
              Loving the new look.
              Erick Mahle | FullOpp Drift | YouTube
              EurostopUSA | Dunlop Tires | Ireland Engineering | EnthusiastApparel | Ground Control

              ..::Support FullOpp::..
              FullOpp Stickers for sale!
              NEW | Enthusiast Apparel T-Shirts! | NEW
              Feedback Thread

              Originally posted by Mr. Anderson
              ...one of the most hardcore E30's around. :D

              Comment


                #8
                Spectacular E30!
                Claus Luthe is my hero.

                Comment


                  #9
                  excellent job

                  props to all the hard work that went into. hopefully you'll enjoy it for years to come. what's under the hood? any plans for that? and yes i do like the approach-ground up. if i were to ever do something big, i'd do suspension first then driveline, then motor and finally bling. but i'm just a dreamer for now.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    very nice

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Nice job in there. e36 fronts, meh, the rears good. Multi spoke wheels, lookin good. When is the motor comin out? :)
                      sigpic

                      Comment


                        #12
                        The motor is internally stock. It has a chip, swiss-cheezed airbox, and a SuperSprint exhaust. Ideally I will fix the M20 label problem with an S50 spelling correction, hehe. Thanx for the comments guys.

                        I am adding some stuff about the ABS into my first posts.

                        "BMW Style 32 Poster-Child"
                        HTTP://WWW.CLAVINZERO.COM/e30-5-lug
                        **(My Guide to E36 M3/Z3 1.9L 5-lug Swap)
                        **

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Man that looks like a ton of work, but the end result looks pretty nice. I wish I could drive it myself to see the difference. :)
                          89 325is track project / 05 x5 / 99 M3
                          E30 stuff for sale | Parts I'm looking for

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Driving it is VERY nice. The only thing that get's me down about the entire setup is the bushings... they feel GREAT, not too harsh at all, but they squeak a little bit. I mean, it really isn't bad at all; I only notice the sound when I am pulling into my driveway slowly or something similar. Now I can just say "Oh, that sound is just my high performance polyurathane handling enhancers underneath." ;) Road noise is up just a small amount.

                            All in all the car feels quite a bit tighter, due to less tire sidewall and all new bushings, ball joints, and rear shock mounts. The braking is stellar, too.

                            "BMW Style 32 Poster-Child"
                            HTTP://WWW.CLAVINZERO.COM/e30-5-lug
                            **(My Guide to E36 M3/Z3 1.9L 5-lug Swap)
                            **

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by clavinZERO View Post
                              Driving it is VERY nice. The only thing that get's me down about the entire setup is the bushings... they feel GREAT, not too harsh at all, but they squeak a little bit. I mean, it really isn't bad at all; I only notice the sound when I am pulling into my driveway slowly or something similar. Now I can just say "Oh, that sound is just my high performance polyurathane handling enhancers underneath." ;) Road noise is up just a small amount.

                              All in all the car feels quite a bit tighter, due to less tire sidewall and all new bushings, ball joints, and rear shock mounts. The braking is stellar, too.
                              Can you just switch to stock bushings? Or something softer?

                              I'd hate squeeking to.
                              89 325is track project / 05 x5 / 99 M3
                              E30 stuff for sale | Parts I'm looking for

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X