E30ls1

[Reyhan335]

What's up everyone, This is going to be my first ever Thread or whatever you call it. I figured it would be cool to do one.

My names Reyhan, i've never done a swap before so figured i would learn on this since i already have another car. Here's my story.

A couple of months ago i bought a 1987 E30 325ES, Drove up to philly 7 hrs to get it. Paid the guy and 10 minutes later i got in it and drove it all the way back to NC. It had the stock engine in it, with an auto transmission. She drove perfectly fine all the way back. I noticed some things that the seller didnt tell me like for ex

1) hood doesnt open (he had it opened when i got there so i didnt need to open it again)
2) it Leaked A lot! (carpet was so wet and i was ill, of course the seller said it never leaked)

I drove it daily and saved miles on my e93. I looked at every swap i can possibly think of and since i already have an I6 twin turbo in my other car i figured that i might as well go up to an 8 cyl. Looking at prices and my budget i figured lets do an LS1.

And then i found garrett online (http://e30ls1.com/) bought his kit and his pdf file and now to save up more money for everything else. but heres pictures of my car and when i bought it. hopefully i can find out how to post pictures. I'm at work now so trying to be quick about it haha.

[Reyhan335]

Hopefully this way works, i'm trying to learn about how to use this fourm, This is the first picture i saw off craigslist



here's when i first got her

[Reyhan335]

Got some time at work to keep posting

Had to take a side by side with my 335



Heres the picture of the engine that came from michigan. Good ol' LS1
(The delivery guy didnt have a lift gate so i had to get a bunch of my friends and my dad to help get it out of the van and put it in the garage.



one of my friends is parting out his Scion xb and i bought his wheels off him



went out and bought a tool kit, i had friends who had the engine stand, and then my neighbor let me use his engine hoist. I told two of my really good friends what i was doing and they decided to help out as well.

also any questions just post or follow along, or if you have already done the swap let me know! i have to work now so gtg

[Reyhan335]

Took this picture the day i got her



Alright, now time to buy a lot of things. i made up a list when i first got the car it went like this

Engine
transmission
swapkit
pedal assembly
computer and harness
brake booster
driveshaft
radiator
headers
fans
brakes
wheels
springs
bumber
strut bar
cage
clutch
exhaust
oil pan

that sure did seem a lot back. but anyways it's time to find a place to store it and work on it, i couldn't put it in my garage so i had to find a storage unit that i could actually work in out in the middle of nowhere. I found one a week later and he said do whatever you want, i wont bother you just pay me on time and it's 24/7 access. So i said here you go, went and bought a generator, lights, tool kit, a heater (it gets cold) and later on i bought a bluetooth sound system.

oh yeah, and a lot of beer lol.

heres a picture of when i first put her in.



Remember when i told you about how it leaked on the inside. somebody told me to check out the boot and see if it was clogged... well look at it.



Time to collect the hoist, stand, tools, lights and all that other crap for my very own so called "shop"

:):)

Now it was time for us to start ripping it all apart.









My friend, Josh, Taking pictures (This is our first swap so we have a lot lol)





hooked it up and now time to pull it, but first let me take a picture


almost out


there she is




time to load it to the shop and take it to the barn until somebody buys it.

[Reyhan335]

Time to get the LS1 out of my garage and bring it over to the shop

This is in my garage


pulling it out the garage and ready for transport


It's in the storage unit!





I wish i had a picture of how dirty the engine bay was, i was going to wash it in here, but decided i had no water or anything, so i got three of my friends to help. we didnt have any good straps, only thing we had were harbor freight straps. Very cheap and all we hoped for was for no cops and for it to not bust. My friend towed me 5 miles all the way to a car wash with my other friend behind me, it's hard to explain. but we did it anyways passing a police station as well (the highly dislike me because of previous incidents with them and my other vehicles lol)



With about an hr in very cold temperatures i washed the engine bay with purple power and a pressure washer.
My friends have pictures in their phone of me washing it but this is all i have.


now time for us to go back and hoping the straps wont bust. (also the brakebooster was taken out so i had to use the handbrake to stop while getting towed... it wasnt safe but whatever) we get there and the strap broke right when we got to the storage unit, thank god.

getting in to clean the little i could with a sponge.


voila








finally found a transmission that was..well. it was expensive. T56 are very expensive just to let everybody know, if i could do it all over again i would buy a complete ls1 with tranny and harness with ecu.
the tranny didnt come with the bellhousing so i had to find one of those at a reasonable price.


So, i found somebody locally that wanted to buy my seats, hell yeah that means more money for the swap, ill deal with seats later.


Talked to josh and he asked about if we should take the carpet out since it was leaking so bad so we didnt have anything else to do while we wait for parts so we took out the carpet.







Us looking at the rust spots we have to fix, there was a hole the size of a softball which was the cause of my leaky carpet. my friend took pictures of thsoe so i dont have them.

also if you are doing the Garrett swap till tell you that the vette engine mounts might work, don't get them, they don't work and i already informed him as well

[90e30ls]

Hello, I'm new to the forum but I'm also in the process of gathering parts for an LS1 swap. Have you got parts on the way? What did you decided on the motor mounts?

[Reyhan335]

Hello, I'm new to the forum but I'm also in the process of gathering parts for an LS1 swap. Have you got parts on the way? What did you decided on the motor mounts?

E30ls1.com, his name is Garrett. Very helpful guy. Check him out!

2008 BMW E93 335i
1987 BMW E30 325es

[shiboujin]

second opinion: http://www.sikky.com/product/bmw-e30-lsx-mount-kit/

[Reyhan335]

second opinion: http://www.sikky.com/product/bmw-e30-lsx-mount-kit/

That one is the other one as well. I haven't used it or know anyone that has so i cant really give feedback on it like i can with garrets

[Reyhan335]

Headers are in

Hell yeah, the headers are in from sanderson. They helped out with all my questions on how/why i don't need a gasket for them haha.

We decided we wanted to wrap the headers, but we thought you had to spray it before the wrap...so we did



then we started wrapping them with whatever that wrap is from autozone



Then we figured out we have to spray over the wrap. but it's alright. Time to order a steering shaft because there is no way that this is going to fit in there with the og shaft.

[Reyhan335]

Cam is in!

So , i have always wanted a v8 and always wanted it to sound mean so i ordered a cam from texas speed.

Texas Speed Torquer V4 231/234 .629/.615 Camshaft

I call a couple of my friends to help me install the cam on it.
We take the motor apart, and guess what... When i bought the engine it was "running and had 64k miles" now look at these pictures and tell me what you think about this....








I was pissed.... The bearings were shot basically, and i pulled out two rods that were bent so bad that i thought it was my friends f***ing with me...:hitler: it was horrible, i have already put so much money into this car and now i have to deal with this as well.
we check the heads and of course the valves were bent and were leaking water when we checked them. So now my friends and i are just looking at what should've taken no time to put a cam in and put it back together to thinking well....since we have it all apart, lets take everything out and take the heads to a machine shop.



I called the guy that sold me the motor up in michigan, i showed him the pictures and i said look i know i bought it as an "As-is" motor but there is no way these came out of a perfectly running 64k miles ls1... he said that it was running and how does he know if the rods i sent him were a picture out of the engine he sold me and not an engine that i just bought somewhere else...oh yeah because i deff have a bunch of money to go out and buy a bunch of motors. but whatever, i guess it's time to rebuild...

now waiting on the machine shop , and waiting for the brake booster from garret.. im thinking of just taking the abs off and connecting it straight to the brakes.

if anyone has a big brake kit for sell or whatever you have let me know. hopefully i get some people talking up here so it doesnt seem like im wasting time writing it all out.

heres me looking at the car and thinking...this is gonna take a lot longer then expected hahah



And that's where i am peeps.

[shiboujin]

This is why you get comp check proof.

[Reyhan335]

This is why you get comp check proof.

It's my first ever swap, and I honestly didn't know. It sucks but I guess it'll be worth it at the end.

2008 BMW E93 335i
1987 BMW E30 325es

[Tjabo]

This is the benefit of going to an LS motor. The parts are super cheap. You can get bearings and whatnot on rockauto.com for ridiculously cheap. You can grab some more decent heads pretty much anywhere. Keep your chin up and reap the rewards of going LS!

EDIT: and NO, I'm not the guy from Michigan he got the motor from! Lol

[Reyhan335]

This is the benefit of going to an LS motor. The parts are super cheap. You can get bearings and whatnot on rockauto.com for ridiculously cheap. You can grab some more decent heads pretty much anywhere. Keep your chin up and reap the rewards of going LS!

EDIT: and NO, I'm not the guy from Michigan he got the motor from! Lol

You're absolutely right. I don't even wanna know how much it would be to rebuild my n54 haha. That's the perks of this , the parts are so much cheaper than what I'm used too.

And honestly I guess it'll be all better in the end when I can say that yeah I built it all from honestly scratch haha.

2008 BMW E93 335i
1987 BMW E30 325es