Ryan's s54 e30 (Shopping List Included)

[rjmcdermott81]

I’ve been plugging away at this swap for about 12 months now. Now that it’s up and running I thought I would share what I learned.


Swap difficulty? The most technical repair I’ve ever done on my car was probably a new clutch install or A/C installation in my last s52 swapped e30 (I didn’t do that swap). I would say that it’s challenging to gather all the information, but mechanically it wasn’t that difficult because of great guys like Arc Asylum out there and electronically it wasn’t difficult either thanks to Andrew325is and gpeterson.


Cost? Well…you can see it for yourself in my parts spreadsheet. I went into this thinking that there was no way it could cost over $10k. Boy was I wrong. You can certainly do it cheaper and easily spend a lot more.



Lessons Learned:

• Take your time to find your engine. See it running or buy it from someone local that is super reputable. Pay more for it….the engine isn’t really that expensive in the grand scheme of the whole project. I bought my engine off the forum and it came from a “reputable” shop in NJ but it was a complete fiasco. Up until the day I fired it up I questioned the condition of the internals.
• Get as complete a setup from the donor car as possible. It’s all the onesy-twosy stuff that kills the budget and time

I plan to add pictures and so forth, but most importantly I just wanted to get this out there so everyone could see the shopping list:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tpRKYfsdZa-WFC6mIfjhNRXsTrbAhyahRs5c9x6vdTw/edit?usp=sharing

Getting that weak m42 out of there:


My engine is here!


Wait....this engine/transmission looks like they rolled it down a hill and punched holes in it!




I'm not even exaggerating....the transmission had a hole in the side of it. They shipped it to me like that and didn't mention it. I wouldn't know until later that pretty much everything bolted to the outside of the engine was damaged. I won't say them by name, but it came from a forum member and a shop in the NE. We sort of worked it out but I was pretty stuck after paying $700 to ship the engine to Texas.

Install day:


Going in:


Wiring day:


Now to get the car looking good. Hopefully it will look even better than the last car:

[Garageaholic]

Gotta love the s54 in the e30! You're gonna love the iconic sound. Need wiring help?!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[rjmcdermott81]

Gotta love the s54 in the e30! You're gonna love the iconic sound. Need wiring help?!

Thanks for the offer. It's up and running terrorizing the neighborhood already. I've put about 50 miles on it and it's really hard to keep from flooring it everywhere.

[FredK]

I'm glad I didn't add up my parts list!

The 191 hp over an M42 must be fairly noticeable. :p

[diesekte]

PM me who your engine came from. I bought my S54 off the forum from somewhere in NJ too and it also arrived fucked up. May be time for the ban hammer.

Edit: diff guy, same shitty state. Everyone avoid buying an S54 from Jersey lol

[DesertBMW]

PM me who your engine came from. I bought my S54 off the forum from somewhere in NJ too and it also arrived fucked up. May be time for the ban hammer.

Edit: diff guy, same shitty state. Everyone avoid buying an S54 from Jersey lol

You guys are funny. Obviously these engines are from wrecked totaled cars, both engine and transmission get banged up in the accident and little maybe when they are pulled out by migrant workers with forklift. No one is out there pulling mint engines out of perfectly running M3 cars.

[TobyB]

however, full disclosure is a good policy.

t

[diesekte]

You guys are funny. Obviously these engines are from wrecked totaled cars, both engine and transmission get banged up in the accident and little maybe when they are pulled out by migrant workers with forklift. No one is out there pulling mint engines out of perfectly running M3 cars.

Yeah dude, you caught me. Turns out the "fully running, driving, no problems...I'm driving it almost daily...pulling the engine for a 2jz swap" was not that at all. The ECU was unreadable on the bench or in another vehicle, and on opening the case, the main board was burned and had been soldered on (rather shittily I might add). The throttle body actuator didn't work at all, and the headgasket had blown, as noted by the milkshake pouring out of the oil pan. While you do have a bit of a point, being assured it is working perfectly then ending up with a total pile of shit (happened to both of us) is not kosher and you probably should idk...know anything about our particular situations bro :fishslap:

[DesertBMW]

Yeah dude, you caught me. Turns out the "fully running, driving, no problems...I'm driving it almost daily...pulling the engine for a 2jz swap" was not that at all. The ECU was unreadable on the bench or in another vehicle, and on opening the case, the main board was burned and had been soldered on (rather shittily I might add). The throttle body actuator didn't work at all, and the headgasket had blown, as noted by the milkshake pouring out of the oil pan. While you do have a bit of a point, being assured it is working perfectly then ending up with a total pile of shit (happened to both of us) is not kosher and you probably should idk...know anything about our particular situations bro

Trust me I know how you feel, I went trough few raw deals myself. Those cars do get abused then wrecked, then salvage yards gets it and is unable to test anything because the car is smashed, then they assume engine is perfect because engine had to be running to get the car wrecked.

however, full disclosure is a good policy.

True but the "boss" may just glance at it when they slap it on the pallet, then he goes back to his trailer office to his PC to continue watching porn. These hi volume salvage yards don't care and they lie all the time.

[rjmcdermott81]

I used to be pissed about it but I'm way over it. I was more disappointed that a BMW shop that does these swaps on a regular basis was a part of the misleading sale. The owner of the shop repeatedly told me over the phone that the engine/trans were in great shape. Only later was I able to find a photo from their shop with the transmission showing the hole in the side. I get some bumps and bruises here and there....but a 3-4 inch hole in the side of a transmission? Really?

[diesekte]

then he goes back to his trailer office to his PC to continue watching porn

Lol touche

Neither of ours came from salvage yards unfortunately. I mean my swap was completed in Dec 2016 so I'm not that mad anymore but definitely frustrating. I've had buddies in the jdm scene buy stuff online from "reputable" places too with pretty much the same result. I don't think I would ever buy a motor online again unless it was a crate motor from summit or something like that

[nando]

I hate to say it, but ebay - usually you get tons of pictures, a VIN #, purchase protection, etc. I look at S54s on there all the time and there's always a couple nice ones.

Unless they fuck up shipping it, you'll get what you see. You can get them at places like copart.com or "JDM scene hook ups" but you're getting it sight unseen with no real way to know the mileage or history at all.

For example, I recently bought a minty fresh head for my N52 project. Well, they apparently had a new guy package it because he stuck it in a flimsy cardboard box with some paper stuffed in there for padding. Naturally, after shipping via UPS ground across the country from Florida to Washington it arrived here pretty fucked up. I immediately left negative feedback and had a full refund the next day - he didn't bother asking me to ship the head back because it was now worth less than the cost of shipping it lol.

I'm going to fix the head (has a couple bent valves etc) and use it anyway, but if it was a whole motor I wouldn't expect anything different. Actually this is the first large part I've bought in almost 20 years of using ebay that came damaged and it was obviously because of improper packaging, and I've had things like diffs and transmissions sent from Germany..

[rjmcdermott81]

Nando - I'm totally with you on the Ebay route. I did use Paypal and was able to dispute the transaction but sellers don't have feedback ratings to worry about like on Ebay. In fact, I'm even wondering if BAT is as good a place to buy a car as Ebay. It is fun to bid on there but my friend just bought a car on BAT, shipped it across the country, and it was far worse than described. I don't know that you have the same recourse as you do on Ebay.

[cwlo]

s54

I didn't see any Vanos work, or new cam bolts on your list. A "must" in my opinion. I just acquired a 04 M3 with bent intake valves because the camshaft bolts sheared off. Car was well maintained. Anyway, new cam bolts, and a re-drilled vanos oil pump to prevent the tangs from breaking off will definitely provide peace of mind.

Chris

[e30s50dan]

I hate to say it, but ebay - usually you get tons of pictures, a VIN #, purchase protection, etc. I look at S54s on there all the time and there's always a couple nice ones.

Unless they fuck up shipping it, you'll get what you see. You can get them at places like copart.com or "JDM scene hook ups" but you're getting it sight unseen with no real way to know the mileage or history at all.

For example, I recently bought a minty fresh head for my N52 project. Well, they apparently had a new guy package it because he stuck it in a flimsy cardboard box with some paper stuffed in there for padding. Naturally, after shipping via UPS ground across the country from Florida to Washington it arrived here pretty fucked up. I immediately left negative feedback and had a full refund the next day - he didn't bother asking me to ship the head back because it was now worth less than the cost of shipping it lol.

I'm going to fix the head (has a couple bent valves etc) and use it anyway, but if it was a whole motor I wouldn't expect anything different. Actually this is the first large part I've bought in almost 20 years of using ebay that came damaged and it was obviously because of improper packaging, and I've had things like diffs and transmissions sent from Germany..

Subscribed on nandos N52 project.. Need to do a sticky when you get it ironed out