I bought somebody's blown S52 (not knowing it was blown) so I'm playing around with ideas on what to do with this.
Having dissembled nearly the whole motor, I found a spun rod bearing, and metal debris had been carried through the oil and scored most moving surfaces; the crank, piston skirts and cylinder walls, the cams and cam trays, and I think the lifters. I'm getting the impression that this whole thing is toast, and it would be cheaper to buy an engine in better condition, rather than repair anything here.
But out of cynicism and stubbornness, I went to the junkyard to pull a crank and rods from an M54B30. This made me feel better about no longer needing to repair the damaged crank I had.
But after hearing a mechanic's opinion about the pistons I intend to reuse, his fingernail-test suggests the pistons need replacement and the cylinder walls need more than a simple honing. Essentially, the block (and almost everything else) I have is toast.
~~~~~
I've heard people complain about the extra weight of 24v motors upsetting the balance in the E30, however the aluminum block from Z3 alleviates this issue.
So if I want to build the ideal motor, I should:
To your knowledge, would these parts work well together?
I think that takes care of all the major mechanical bits, aside from the regular 24v parts list. I'm not sure which ECU to use; suggestions?
I'm using this guy as a build reference, he declares parts of this should work, but he doesn't mention the dual-to-single VANOS conversion, or the aluminum block as a part of the equation.
Having dissembled nearly the whole motor, I found a spun rod bearing, and metal debris had been carried through the oil and scored most moving surfaces; the crank, piston skirts and cylinder walls, the cams and cam trays, and I think the lifters. I'm getting the impression that this whole thing is toast, and it would be cheaper to buy an engine in better condition, rather than repair anything here.
But out of cynicism and stubbornness, I went to the junkyard to pull a crank and rods from an M54B30. This made me feel better about no longer needing to repair the damaged crank I had.
But after hearing a mechanic's opinion about the pistons I intend to reuse, his fingernail-test suggests the pistons need replacement and the cylinder walls need more than a simple honing. Essentially, the block (and almost everything else) I have is toast.
~~~~~
I've heard people complain about the extra weight of 24v motors upsetting the balance in the E30, however the aluminum block from Z3 alleviates this issue.
So if I want to build the ideal motor, I should:
- Find a 1999-2000 Z3 M52TU block, because of the stronger cylinder walls (earlier blocks reported premature cylinder wear from high-sulfer gasoline(source 1)(source 2))
- Use my M54 crank, because I hear it's a common swap to increase displacement and torque in regular M52's
- Use M54 rods and pistons, thus producing a 3.0L engine with 10.3:1 compression ratio
- Use the S52 head I have, for its stronger springs and single VANOS (versus the dual VANOS of the M52TU, because that's more wiring that I don't want to deal with in the S52 harness I have)
- Buy good-condition S52 cams and trays and lifters
To your knowledge, would these parts work well together?
I think that takes care of all the major mechanical bits, aside from the regular 24v parts list. I'm not sure which ECU to use; suggestions?
I'm using this guy as a build reference, he declares parts of this should work, but he doesn't mention the dual-to-single VANOS conversion, or the aluminum block as a part of the equation.
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