Bronzit E30 - OBDII S52 shaved bay - weekend/autox toy - Journey

[MR E30 325is]

Fantastic thread!

[AWDBOB]

Holy hell man, I just read this from start to finish, and am at a loss for words.

Your attention to detail is incredible, and your patience/work ethic is equally as impressive.

I have been on the fence about an S52 swap, and I must say, seeing how much it took to get this thing perfect was quite eye opening to what a proficient swap really takes in terms of $$ and time.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Fantastic thread!

Thanks! I just read most of yours... makes me want to drop the SC in my car RIGHT NOW haha

Holy hell man, I just read this from start to finish, and am at a loss for words.

Your attention to detail is incredible, and your patience/work ethic is equally as impressive.

I have been on the fence about an S52 swap, and I must say, seeing how much it took to get this thing perfect was quite eye opening to what a proficient swap really takes in terms of $$ and time.

Thanks man! :D I don't give up easily, and like to keep myself busy. It certainly was eye opening for me as well. Sure I learned a ton, and would easily save a lot of time/money if I did it all a second time, but still I feel that most swaps out there skip out on a lot of what I would consider to be minimum to result in a reliable, "comfortable", sturdy and safe swap.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

I just love ordering fresh fasteners





Not my best work, but whatever. It's sturdy and works. I relocated and made new lover valence brackets for two reasons. First, I wanted more clearance laterally to sit an intercooler as low as possible within the confines of the valence, and secondly because the original brackets and mounting points on the core support will eventually be in the way of intercooler tubing.





You can see where the original brackets used to be a few inches to either side of the new ones. I already drilled out the spot welds.





Here you can see where the new mounting points are on the core support at the base of the vertical frame a couple inches inside the original position. The extensions where the original mounting points were will be chopped off since they are in the way of eventual intercooler piping where the 90 degree elbows will turn to go under the car. This will also allow me to also continue using my brake ducts. In hindsight I should've just made a tubular core support. Might still do that some day.





This is the oil cooler for the power steering. It will be mounted directly behind the bumper in which I will cut holes as I did previously. Mocking stuff up last night, I confirmed that I will have the space to mount the PS cooler here, plus fit a 3" core intercooler behind it :devil:





Here is the PS filter mount to use a spin on type filter. I'll be mounting this under the frame rail on the passenger side.





Here is the filter. I found it by browsing and searching through the wix filters with their electronic catalog. I did a little guesstimating and tried to make an educated decision based on what info I could find about others doing something similar (not really much on bmws though). It has a 21 micron nominal rating and a 7-9 psi bypass valve. Bypass valve is necessary to prevent the filter from impeding flow. I have no idea what normal pressure is like in the PS return line so I erred on the side of safety with this. Worst case, some fluid gets bypassed, but if its still filtering a decent amount of fluid that's good since the oem in reservoir filter is pretty much useless.





Chopped more of the valence. I needed to make space for the 3" intercooler core to fit between the valence and core support. Plus needed to open the space behind the bumper to actually allow airflow through it all. I'll also be cutting a rectangular portion out of the bottom of the bumper to the same width of the cutout in the valence for intercooler clearance as well as "ram effect" hopefully allowing some more air to pass through intercooler/radiator.





If all goes well tonight, I hope to be laying primer. Hood is sanded, bumpers are sanded, passenger fender is sanded, just need to do a little filler on the driver fender, prep the valence (also make a quick bracket for the PS cooler, I'll have to weld it unless I determine a bracket can be bolted on in the future), wash everything and cover the whole garage with plastic. Hmmm suddenly seems like quite a lot...

[kts]

I'm *really* liking where this is heading. I'll probably be copying a few ideas for my car when I get further down the road with my build.

[ST1G]

It just gets better and better.

[328ijunkie]

Beautiful. Great to see someone taking care of PS heat issue for once.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

I'm *really* liking where this is heading. I'll probably be copying a few ideas for my car when I get further down the road with my build.

Thanks man, copy them all if you like!

It just gets better and better.

And will hopefully continue

Beautiful. Great to see someone taking care of PS heat issue for once.

I don't understand why it's not addressed more often, especially for swaps. E36 system has a "cooler" that's definitely not adequate for heavy duty usage and the swap into the e30 deletes it I bookmarked this in my mind when I was doing the swap and have been reminded every time I've autoxed and fluid blows out the cap, just didn't have a chance to get around to it until now.

Or maybe this is one of those mods that many people know about and address, but those people aren't ones who post

[328ijunkie]

Thanks man, copy them all if you like!

And will hopefully continue

I don't understand why it's not addressed more often, especially for swaps. E36 system has a "cooler" that's definitely not adequate for heavy duty usage and the swap into the e30 deletes it I bookmarked this in my mind when I was doing the swap and have been reminded every time I've autoxed and fluid blows out the cap, just didn't have a chance to get around to it until now.

Or maybe this is one of those mods that many people know about and address, but those people aren't ones who post

We've retrofitted the z3 "cooler" if you can call it that a few times. Most people put e36 rack in there then have to ditch factory trombone and thus have no cooling. My e30 will spit all the fluid out in 3-4 runs when drifting :(

[Sh3rpak!ng]

We've retrofitted the z3 "cooler" if you can call it that a few times. Most people put e36 rack in there then have to ditch factory trombone and thus have no cooling. My e30 will spit all the fluid out in 3-4 runs when drifting :(

lol the z3 "cooler" is no better than the e36 "cooler" there are loads of generic cooler kits available though, cheap and simple (cooler just gets plumbed between rack output and res return with hose clamps), why not use one of those? If I get a bit of fluid spitting out the the cap doing autox I can only imagine the abuse the system takes drifting.

I'm only going wild with the AN stuff because I will not tolerate any more leaking PS components (and lets be honest they look cool :P ) I've replaced all the lines, fittings, crush washers, clamps, reservoir at least once if not twice and it still leaks :hitler:

Oh and the OE PS reservoir will be in the way of the SC charge piping. So I'm killing like 4 birds with one stone :D (heat, leaks, in the way of SC, added coolness)

[kts]

You inspired me last night and I spent a lot of time research Derale's oil/PS coolers. Look like some well built (in the US too!) pieces for pretty reasonable prices. I had been looking at Setrab's stuff which is a heck of a lot more $$$.

I think I'll pick up a small Derale setup soon and hook it up like you mentioned between the rack output and the reservoir return. I just need to figure out if I want to mount it in center of the car or down lower, by the brake duct w/ some mesh for protection.

Then to do the same to replace my leaky stock oil cooler!

[Sh3rpak!ng]

You inspired me last night and I spent a lot of time research Derale's oil/PS coolers. Look like some well built (in the US too!) pieces for pretty reasonable prices. I had been looking at Setrab's stuff which is a heck of a lot more $$$.

I think I'll pick up a small Derale setup soon and hook it up like you mentioned between the rack output and the reservoir return. I just need to figure out if I want to mount it in center of the car or down lower, by the brake duct w/ some mesh for protection.

Then to do the same to replace my leaky stock oil cooler!

They are not expensive at all and pretty solid and well made from what I've seen of the two I've purchased. Setrab's stuff is definitely nice, and out of my price range for what I needed :P

I would've mounted my cooler down in the lower valence with some mesh for protection if that space wasn't going to be occupied later with an IC. Also would've placed it behind the kidneys/headlight grills if those spaces wouldn't be occupied by other stuff in the future as well.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Instagram: shadetree30

[jpod999]

Followed!

[Trev]

Followed as well (lil_smirk)