OMG's Personal S54 Build :)

[dude8383]

Short back story...

There's a shop that we work with that does wheel alignments and inspections for us. I came in with my E30 and they got all excited because its like a regular brake/oil change/timing belts kinda shop. Simple stuff but in any case they liked the car and I mentioned it had an M3 motor in it.

The owner was like oh we have an M3 motor that we just pulled out... That got me interested haha. He mentioned that it was making a "knocking" noise and I was already running through the possibilites... S52 vanos rattle... S54 rod bearings... or something stupid. So I ask him to take a look at the motor.

We walk over to the back and he opens the storage unit up and the first thing that I see is the S54 valve cover vanity... cover. Bam. We negotiate a bit here and there and I score the motor for a pretty good deal.

Fast forward a year and I'm ready to start building this thing. This is the 3rd motor for my E30 so its been a super fun journey to see this thing go from an M52... to an S52 and now an S54.

I'm doing a completely stock rebuild on this. These motors are already at their limit and damn expensive to build. So reliability is key to say the least!

Only managed to take one pic of the tear down:



Head sent off to the machine shop:






My car under the knife:



Valve Cover Prepped for powdercoat:





Being silly, but got the valve cover powdercoated wrinkle red:























Got SUPER lucky with this... Arc Asylum as you know makes custom subframes and oil pans for these swaps. I have done this with my next door neigbhor that fabs up stuff all the time but he's not the most reliable. This was my biggest worry with this build because running a shop and doing personal projects just don't go hand in hand. I posted a few days ago about Tyler not responding to me and seeking contact info. Luckily enough a fellow r3v member reached out and told me he had a complete setup that he wasn't going to end using. SCORE.










VANOS Rebuild:













Currently waiting on new chains to arrive so that I can start buttoning up the bottom end!

[iwantspeed]

awesome to see the engine getting rebuilt and going into your car

[Mike36]

:popcorn:

[moatilliatta]

Cool!

Which brake booster do you have planned?

Did they deck the block?

[jeenyus]

The dream engine for me. I would love it and they look so freakin' good in the engine bay.

[dude8383]

awesome to see the engine getting rebuilt and going into your car

:)

Cool!

Which brake booster do you have planned?

Did they deck the block?

well i've been eyeballing the E90 stuff. i'm not there yet in the build process (as you can see) so i'm going to wait for any new developments to arise. i will purchase one if push comes to shove for fitment. i just know it'll be a month or two before i'll be ready to drop it in.

Yup, deck was blocked super super lightly.

[moatilliatta]

Looks like a little indentation still between cylinders. Seems like most need at least .005 removed.

Want to do S50 with ITBS, so eyeing the E90 booster setup.

[nando]

Nice build! Those new Vanos tabs are really nice looking, glad somebody got that solved.
Someday soon, I will start working on mine again. :)

[Staszek]

Watching this! I hope I can give you more info on the E90 booster soon.

[Motheye99]

Looks like a little indentation still between cylinders. Seems like most need at least .005 removed.

Want to do S50 with ITBS, so eyeing the E90 booster setup.

Is it really economical to do a itb s50 swap, when compared to a s54 which already has em? Itbs cost 2-2.5k if you buy em for the m5x. I've been researching this pretty heavily recently. Because I really want velocity stacks.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[moatilliatta]

Is it really economical to do a itb s50 swap, when compared to a s54 which already has em? Itbs cost 2-2.5k if you buy em for the m5x. I've been researching this pretty heavily recently. Because I really want velocity stacks.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

NOPE.

2.5K for ITB setup really doesn't matter once you're so deep.
I have the S54 airbox and throttles from my collection of bits on the shelf, Tune and management debateable...

I dont give a shit about velocity stacks looks. That extra HP TQ and throttle response, Mainly induction noise with that factory air box will be nice.

But after it blows, S54 will be next.

Stock S54 290WHP Modded S50/2 275 WHP

Rod bearings, Vanos, Oil pump woodruff key, maybe a new balancer on a 100K motor and you should be good quite a bit more reliable.

I just really want to know the clearance of the E32 735 booster vs E90

[dude8383]

Looks like a little indentation still between cylinders. Seems like most need at least .005 removed.

Want to do S50 with ITBS, so eyeing the E90 booster setup.

ITB's on the S50 doesn't seem worth it to me. I wanted to go that route but the cost of doing so makes an S54 that much more attractive.

Nice build! Those new Vanos tabs are really nice looking, glad somebody got that solved.
Someday soon, I will start working on mine again. :)

Yeh when I saw VAC release that I was like... done and done. The cryo treated stuff was just looney bin money. This is a nice solution thats affordable and won't cause me any greif later on.

Watching this! I hope I can give you more info on the E90 booster soon.

:D Sounds good man. We can keep tabs on each other haha.

[cwlo]

Isn't the 735 booster the same as the ix? I have an ix and e90 booster I can compare if that helps?

[spiDmang]

Isn't the 735 booster the same as the ix? I have an ix and e90 booster I can compare if that helps?

You are correct. I am curious to see how the E90 booster works with the E30. First time hearing about this...

[dude8383]

I believe the E90 booster is narrower and slightly taller which makes it appealing for those of us going with the S54... That plenum is huge!