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Pivonic's E30 LS1 Project

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    Pivonic's E30 LS1 Project

    Been slowly building my fun little weekend toy so I figured I'd make a build thread!

    How she looked when I bought it from a fellow r3v member




    Started stripping it basically the next day I got it home



    Engine and trans removed; sold


    Cleaned everything down now it was time to work on the front end, removed the entire subframe with all its components



    Cleaned and painted




    Suspension goodies came in, H&R sport springs and bilstein struts, st swaybars, full poly bushing kit from Garagistic, full reinforcement kit, 90mm drop hats




    Everything mounted up, subframe reinforcements welded in along with an e36 steering rack



    Now time to work on the rear, car put up on the lift

    And everything all dropped out


    Everything dissembled


    Reinforced, painted, and put back together with new bushings and also a new (used) medium case 3.73 diff



    Put back on the car after undercoating area which it covers



    Cut rear spare tire hole out, installed Garagistic secondary diff mound



    New oem calipers, ceramic pads, drilled/slotted rotors, parking brake kit, parking brake cables



    Picked up this beaut, '98 z28, which I'll be ripping its ls1 heart out of shortly



    Plenty more done to the car so far, I'll post the rest later on today so the threads all caught up!


    -Instagram @vinnypennisi

    #2
    Subscribed... ;)
    BMWCCA #389756

    Comment


      #3
      Looks like a great start!
      1989 325i LS Swap (Money Pit):https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/sho...d.php?t=244933
      COTM Feb 2019: https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/sho...d.php?t=428404

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Pootis View Post
        Looks like a great start!

        Originally posted by oekundar View Post
        Subscribed... ;)

        Thanks guys!



        -Instagram @vinnypennisi

        Comment


          #5
          Let's get this all caught up to current time! :)

          Wilwood pedal setup along with Garagistic's kit to mount them so I test fitted everything, went this route manual brakes to give me room in the bay for the v8. Also had to pickup a non-airbag steering column for this to work!


          Engine Bay was an eye soar, not like this is going to be a show car or anything, so I cleaned it up, cut off most of the brackets, sanded and painted it flat black




          Looking mean, also notice the roll cage fitting going on in the inside of the beast


          Cage welded in



          One can of rustoleum professional later haha, interior painted. Undercarriage also mostly under coated at this point





          Floor and tunnel wrapped with some heat/sound deadening and light padding for the floor, then covered with some lightweight black ozite carpet. Didn't want to go full race car since this will mostly be street driven



          Rear seat back and parcel shelf made from a couple light pieces of 1/8 birch then covered with the same ozite as the flooring



          Slowly starting to look like a car again!


          Picked up this little guy on eBay used, it's a ob2 monitor/tuner mostly aimed towards the diesel truck community but I figured it would work great in my center dash area for monitoring gauges & engine diagnostics


          Back to the brake system, chase bays rear line kit installed, New hardlines and ss fender lines ran up front

          Fabricated an aluminum mount for the new brake and clutch reservoirs and fitted them to the car along with associated tubing


          And the inside, ran short with the clutch hose currently waiting on more to arrive


          Still wanted to retain heat in the car for purpose of windshield fogging so I modified the stock hvac unit to where the floor and windshields vents are constantly "stuck" open. Also cut all unneeded wires so I can simply have two toggle switches; fan on/off, water valve open/closed



          New dash since the old one was basically deteriorating


          Next up I fabricated a new steering column mount to lower the assembly about 2"

          Mount and column painted up!


          And that's where I am so far, I definitely missed some things but I'll stay on top of this thread and keep it updated regularly! I have a lot of parts in boxes waiting to go into the car, sikky ls1 mount kit, headers, etc.

          Any feedback is welcome!





          -Instagram @vinnypennisi

          Comment


            #6
            Looking good! I love it when the car comes all the way apart.

            What made you want to revise the brake system and lower the steering column?
            sigpic

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by 318aye View Post
              Looking good! I love it when the car comes all the way apart.

              What made you want to revise the brake system and lower the steering column?


              Thank you! We'll I had to either do a booster delete or relocation so that's why I went with the wilwood's, the lines were pretty bad looking so I decided to replace them, went with the premade rear kit by chasebays because the ease of installation and not having to bend lines above the rear diff area. The steering column's old bracket had two stripped threads. I also read somewhere that a couple people used spacers to lower the column for more comfort so I figured I'd just make a longer bracket, if I decide I don't like it lowered I can always cut and drill new holes.


              -Instagram @vinnypennisi

              Comment


                #8
                Nice and quick progress ! Welcome to the forum :)

                I didn't think you needed to go with boosterless pedals for LS swaps as they are more compact compared to BMW v8s ? Couldn't you keep the pedal box and just remove the stock booster or replace the master mounted directly to firewall or use hydroboost ?

                Wilwood pedal setup is okay but it's less than optimal in off the shelf configuration with the stock gas pedal ..make sure you set the masters rods correctly or you'll run into problems with not being able to bleed them .

                What rear end you plan on running with LS1?
                Mtech1 v8 build thread - https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/sho...d.php?t=413205



                OEM v8 manual chip or dme - https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/sho....php?p=4938827

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Jean View Post
                  Nice and quick progress ! Welcome to the forum :)



                  I didn't think you needed to go with boosterless pedals for LS swaps as they are more compact compared to BMW v8s ? Couldn't you keep the pedal box and just remove the stock booster or replace the master mounted directly to firewall or use hydroboost ?



                  Wilwood pedal setup is okay but it's less than optimal in off the shelf configuration with the stock gas pedal ..make sure you set the masters rods correctly or you'll run into problems with not being able to bleed them .



                  What rear end you plan on running with LS1?


                  Thank you! I'm not sure about the compactness, I've seen a lot of setups where they would have the remote booster but I decided I wanted to simplify the process. I plan on either running a new gas pedal or altering this one and I hope I set the masters up correctly lol will be bleeding the brakes soon so we'll see. For the rear I'll be using stock axles and a 188mm 3.73 lsd for now until something breaks then I'll upgrade everything.


                  -Instagram @vinnypennisi

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Nice build. In for more

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Subscribed.
                      How to remove, install or convert to pop out windows
                      http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=297611


                      Could be better, could be worse.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Is it possible in any configuration to use a booster with an LSJuan? That's what kills me on all of these V8 builds. I want to do it so bad, but feel like a booster is non-negotiable.
                        1990 Brilliantrot 325iS Build Thread
                        1989 Zinnoberrot M3 Build Thread

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Man this is some great content and an awesome build. Just curious, what's happening to the f-body?

                          Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by AWDBOB View Post
                            Is it possible in any configuration to use a booster with an LSJuan? That's what kills me on all of these V8 builds. I want to do it so bad, but feel like a booster is non-negotiable.


                            I seen a couple of instances where people did a remote booster setup and placed it behind the headlight but I wasn't interested in doing that. With the proper setup I don't think the manual brakes is going to be that intolerable, possibly if it was a daily drive which this isn't.


                            Originally posted by twiggletwaggle View Post
                            Man this is some great content and an awesome build. Just curious, what's happening to the f-body?

                            Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk


                            Thanks bud, I'm not really sure about the f-body yet, I know I could probably make some money parting it out but I don't have the time/space to do that. I'll probably end up trying to sell it cheap as a roller to someone and if that fails I'll bring it to a junkyard.


                            -Instagram @vinnypennisi

                            Comment


                              #15
                              The thing looks pretty clean so I'm sure someone would pick it up. I know I would if I could. For some reason I've been drawn to F-bodies very recently.

                              I remember back '99 I went to see The House on Haunted Hill and my buddy's big brother took us to the theater in a shiny new SS. I thought that it was the coolest car ever.

                              Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

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