Track ti build (M52) I've worked my way up the HPDE ladder and I'm at a point where I'd like to take the car into time trials or possibly racing. Either of those would require more power to be competitive. I'd seriously looked into an M44 ITB but costs were fairly prohibitive and there were no guarantees on the gains. Anyway, M52 swap is tried and true, I am looking for reliability and reliable power on track. Last month I picked up the motor (M52b28), wiring harness, DME, manifolds, PS pump, alternator, gauge cluster, airbox, battery cables, and FPR from a 328 part-out. I plan to refresh the motor with new gaskets and seals, clean it up, and simplify as much as I can before swapping it in. Plans for the motor: - Beisan vanos seals - IJ crank scraper - Valve cover gaskets - Oil filter housing gasket and freeze plug fix - New timing chain tensioner spring - Rear main seal - Achilles motorsport oil pump shaft upgrade - Achilles motorsport reinforced oil pick-up tube - Check/rebuild the oil pump - Gripforce stage 2 chromoly flywheel - A/C delete - Water pressure sender - Oil temp sender - Euro expansion tank - Z3 S54 radiator - Aluminum tstat housing - MMW Swap tune and probably more, the snowballing has taken effect. To get the car running I'm just planning on using the stock 328 midpipe and adapting it to a Z3 3.0i catback section. Eventually I am going to build a high flow, 2.5" single pipe out the back. I'll try to update the thread as I make progress. |
This is a great idea. I'd like to follow this thread. I am planning a M52 build too and your list there looks smart. Remember, imitation is the highest form of flattery! |
Thanks Bradestar, glad it might prove useful to someone (or at least be entertaining), lol. This thread needs more pictures...what I'm starting with: https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1636/...90155035_k.jpg https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1614/...31621b09_k.jpg https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1605/...7b34a5a8_k.jpg Car Specs: - M44: Midnight tune, COP conversion, Compact Cup airbox mod, highflow midpipe, remus catback - TC Kline SA Coilovers w/ vorshlag camber plates - 28mm Eibach front bar and stock 14mm rear bar - 3.73 LSD 40% lockup - 205/50-15 Maxxis RC1 - Kirk Racing Rollbar - Kirkey Roadrace seats w/ custom seat mounts and G Force harnesses - 286mm vented front rotors, stock rear rotors, stock calipers, PFC 08 brake pads - Weight: 2860lb with me in it and half tank of gas And the new (to me) motor: Day I picked it up https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1527/...1141ebaa_k.jpg Current(ish) state https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1466/...04d8c3ef_k.jpg |
What wheels are those? |
TRM C1 15x8 et20. E30 M3 spec, I had to roll the rear fenders to get them to fit. Fronts were no problem. Edit - side note, I've bolted them on my Z3 which has 300mm rotors and they clear those brakes as well. |
I'm somewhat terrible at taking pictures of progress but I've been working along trying to get the motor back together. The motor came out of a 1997 328i automatic convertible with 155k miles (my ti is about to hit 211k). I pulled the oil pan off to get access to the oil pump, oil pickup tube, and crankshaft. IJ crank scrapers needed me to take pictures of the crankshaft to ensure they sent me the correct scraper profile. (Still waiting on that to arrive) https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1594/...7f235615_k.jpg In the meantime, I pulled the valve cover and noticed the wonderful VCG job the previous person did. They just missed a spot tucking the gasket into the groove, no biggie. I'm happy that there appears to be some kind of maintenance done on this motor. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1594/...fa6a1031_k.jpg With the valve cover off it was the prime time to replace the VANOS seals and bearing ring (rattle kit). I rented the timing tools from bimmertoolrental.com and got everything pretty quickly. I had to reinstall the harmonic balancer without the AC pulley (use 6x M8x12 grade 8.8 bolts) to set the crank at TDC. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1635/...e68d1136_k.jpg The cam blocks dropped right in and it was ready to go. Of course it was at that point I realized I didn't have an E10 inverse torx so off to Advance Auto. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1531/...c4bac8fa_k.jpg With the E10 everything came apart easily. The rattle kit actually went in without needing any adjusting, which was amazing, and the seals were easy to reinstall. Put it back together and tried to slowly turn the exhaust sprocket without missing any teeth on the intake gear. We'll see if that worked out when I fire it up, lol. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1456/...93c2219d_k.jpg I have to take the oil pump shaft and thermostat housing to my friend's place, he's got a press and endmill. T-stat mating surface was hilariously not flat, no wonder people complain about them leaking. More updates soon. |
So not too much happened this week. I took my thermostat housing and oil pump inner rotor to my buddy's shop to have the housing machined flat and the achilles pump shaft pressed into the inner rotor. I'm not usually an advocate of Uro brand parts, and we'll see what happens with this one, but I'd read that as long as the aluminum housing is sanded flat it will seal well. Well, I sanded and sanded and sanded, that sucker wasn't getting flat. Endmill got it flat, it took .006" off and then it was looking good. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1613/...ecbff80e_h.jpg While the oil pump was apart I replaced the relief spring and Oring. Side note, this is the same spring that's used for the timing chain tensioner on the M52. Old spring was about 2mm shorter than the new one. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1558/...d1346613_k.jpg New achilles oil pump shaft pressed into the inner rotor. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1629/...b17bccf2_k.jpg Reassembled the internals. Checked the tolerances on the end float (.003"), outer rotor to housing (.004"), and inner to outer rotors (.003"). Never found what the specs should be but those don't seem unreasonable from other oil pump rebuilds. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1540/...285890f0_z.jpg And the oil pump reassembled. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1568/...f311719e_k.jpg |
Very stoked for this build, subscrizzled |
Hah thanks Cedric. While I've been waiting for the crank scraper to show up I prepped a few things on the car. Went back to stock headlights, my plastic ones weighed in at 3.2lb vs the glass DDM lights at 7.4lb. Not a huge difference but it's weight that is right on the nose and I gain a lot of space back. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1671/...b14cf8d4_k.jpg https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1535/...579183e8_k.jpg With the headlights out I was able to pull all of the AC system components. I didn't really need to remove everything at this point but I was interested in seeing how much space would be freed up. Only thing still in the car is the condenser. Once I have everything I'll weigh it to see what it comes in at. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1552/...fcdf904e_k.jpg It's also quite apparent that my M44 is leaking oil from the timing cover seals, had I kept the motor and added ITBs I would have gone in and replaced all the seals and timing chain guides. All that was left for now was to run the battery cable to the hatch. It was pretty straightforward with Jesse's writeup. I knocked out the firewall plug, pulled the carpet back and ran the cable to the hatch. I plan to run a miata battery in the small hatch compartment but for now I just ran the cable and reinstalled the engine bay box. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1476/...d546a789_k.jpg https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1619/...8ab3748e_k.jpg Then finally on Friday the crank scraper came! Yay, I can finish building up the motor. It looks like a quality piece and comes with a small spacer to to keep the oil pick up tube bracket level. I'll be checking clearances and installing it next week. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1561/...257f3109_z.jpg |
Typical Dave project, everything done right! In for updates! |
When you get this all figured out you can do my next. Thank you for the detailed information. |
Haha, thanks guys. I know M52 swaps aren't exactly a new thing but it's cool to actually be going through all the steps and trying to document it. No crazy updates unfortunately. I've been fitting the crank scraper, it's taken a lot more filing/griding than I expected. There needs to be 1mm clearance from all moving parts to the edges of the scraper. Obviously, production parts have variance so something like this with tight tolerances needs to be customized a bit for each installation. IJ does offer a Teflon version of the scraper which can be considered self clearancing, it was $100 more and I didn't opt for it...maybe that was a mistake, lol. |
Wow, it has been a while since I updated this thread. I always seem to run out of time to just sit down and crank out an update, still taking pictures though. So about a month ago, I was working on installing the crank scraper. It was a very tedious process. I removed the 7 bearing bolts to install the crank scraper and spacer for the pickup tube bracket. Using the old bolts I was able to snug the crank scraper into place and check clearances. At first I was really only looking at where the counterweights contacted the scraper (which was several spots) and I filed them down until I had 1mm clearance to all the counterweights. Silly me, I thought I was done and then noticed some tight gaps from the edges of the scraper that go to the bolt holes. After several more test-fits I was happy with the clearance to every moving part that gets near the crank scaper. I used 7 new bolts and torqued them to spec. (BMW TIS was very helpful through this process) https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1539/...8d2a71d3_k.jpg With the crank scraper installed, I was finally able to reinstall the stock oiling parts. Something to note, the stock windage tray was able to be installed but the clearance to the main bearing bolts on the scraper side was definitely reduced. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1569/...c118f435_k.jpg Before reinstalling the oil pump chain I primed the pump with oil and spun the gear by hand. Used a new gasket on the pickup tube-to-pump connection and bolted the tube to the bracket. The Achilles oil pump shaft uses a bolt instead of nut to hold the gear to the pump. It is left-hand thread like the stock nut/shaft. Friend of mine who does aircraft QA came over and safety wired the oil pump bolt. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1478/...16391777_k.jpg With the oil pump and parts reinstalled, I could finally put the pan back on. Used a fresh gasket and RTV at certain specific locations (timing cover and rear main seal seams). https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1661/...838803b2_k.jpg |
With both top and bottom back on the motor I turned my attention to bolting parts on the sides. First up was the headers, I chose to install all new studs. I went with the torx end studs used on the newer BMW motors, this made install a breeze compared to double-nut removing all of the old ones. While the headers were off I hit them with some high temp paint. Painting is not my forte, but they turned out okay in my makeshift “paint booth”. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1500/...96060264_k.jpg I am deleting the secondary air pump so I got a pair of header block-off plates from an ebay seller. The general shape of the plate was okay but they were far from a bolt-on product. I had to shave down the sides of the ovals to get them to sit flush in the header recess. It didn’t take much but still annoying. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1472/...6437f364_k.jpg On the intake side, the coolant hardline went back on with new o-rings. It’s a shame that no one offers a complete, easy retrofit kit to utilize the euro expansion tank. Several of the European specific parts are blocked from being sold in the USA so I didn’t even try to get the European hardline. From what I’ve read it really doesn’t fit anyway and requires heating and rebending, not something I want to deal with. I plan to use soft line and run it behind the head to get to the expansion tank. It was about this time that I had to prep my Z3 to make the trek to Charlotte, NC for the annual Schuh Syndikat meet. The coupe needed front wheel bearings and I had some different front springs and bumpstops to install. So the M52 was put on the back burner while I worked on the Z. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7441/...5480458c_k.jpg Schuh syndikat was a blast, there were 16 coupes that showed up for the group photo and several other roadsters. The real treat of the weekend was Ed McKernan (bimmerbum) driving his 318ti clubsport all the way from Florida to meet up at Schuh Syndikat. All BMWs are welcome to the event, it is Z3 coupe centric, but it’s a great group of enthusiasts who enjoy the “quirkier” BMW models. Ed’s clubsport has a bunch of Dinan parts and it was really cool to see him representing at the meet. I heard he was hounding the M coupes pretty good on the twisty prelude drive… |
With Schuh Syndikat over I was ready to get back into the M52 swap. The motor was as ready as it was going to get so I pulled the 318 in the garage and started disassembling the front end. Given the limited space I have, my plan was to disconnect everything engine/transmission related while the car was in the garage. Once it was ready, I rolled the ti outside and put it on jack stands in the driveway. This provided space in the garage to maneuver engines, swap the transmission, and scatter parts and tools everywhere. With the chassis outside I could clean the engine bay and give my neighbors a reason to slow down and shake their heads as they drove by. Win-win. https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7653/2...53ac0938_k.jpg https://c8.staticflickr.com/8/7172/2...bd1325ac_k.jpg One thing I have never found clear instructions for, or pictures of, is removing the vibration damper from the front driveshaft section. When re-using the 318 drive shaft the “torsional vibration absorber” (p/n 26111434254) will interfere with the 6 cyl shift linkage. With the front driveshaft section removed it is apparent that the damper on my car (Jan 1998 build) has studs sandwiching the damper to the driveshaft flange. So we have 3 bolts and 3 studs connecting the driveshaft to guibo to transmission. The 6 cylinder cars simply have 6 bolts connecting those pieces. Had I bothered to investigate this before I made my many parts orders I would have bought 3 more bolts. I didn’t and decided to reuse the studs. It was very easy to hammer the studs out of the driveshaft with a few sharp blows. [Pro-tip, put a nut on the stud so that you don’t damage the threads when hitting it with a hammer.] The damper fell right off, and weighs 3lbs. I put some washers in to simulate the thickness of the removed damper and hammered the studs back in. Good to go. https://c6.staticflickr.com/8/7529/2...c4ffce55_k.jpg As far as disconnecting everything else in the engine bay I didn’t come across anything that gave me much trouble. Definitely relieve the fuel pressure before disconnecting the fuel lines. Don’t forget the wiring harness connectors going to the transmission and FPR and the cooling hoses going to the heater valve. The only parts I removed from the M44 before hooking up the hoist were the airbox/boot up to the throttle body and the exhaust midpipe. The exhaust manifold and intake manifold were installed when I pulled the motor. With the front end removed the motor and transmission came out pretty quickly. I didn’t have to mess around under the car with the bitch clip, transmission bolts, or the starter. All of that was easy to disassemble with everything out of the car. https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7627/2...0e24adfb_k.jpg I need to get better at posting updates, lol. |
More updates = more fun! |
You know it Ced! Haha. So after pulling the M44 it was easy to remove all of the transmission bolts and disconnect the shift linkage. With everything going on I forgot to take detailed pictures of stuff. We finished up the day by getting the M52 in place and ready to bolt the new flywheel and clutch package on. Fun note, it started raining and I had the windows down on the ti because it had been in the garage. Of course the entire engine wiring harness was removed at this point but I was able to use the battery and put power to the fuse box and ground to the chassis and roll the windows up. https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7133/2...7b44755b_k.jpg Since the M52 had been on the engine stand I wasn't able to easily get to the rear main seal to replace it. That was the first thing to do the next morning. I got a Corteco seal and it came with the special installation tool. Before installing the seal I made sure the crank had no raised ridges that could have prevented the new seal from...sealing. lol The installation tool made changing the seal super easy, remember to use a new crush gasket and RTV where the oil pan and rear seal carrier meet. Also don't forget the big sheet metal plate that sandwiches between the engine and transmission, I almost did! https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7385/2...ef06bc1b_k.jpg I took a few minutes to clean all the grime off the transmission and out of the engine bay. It was amazing to see all the built up dirt and sand and how clean it got. https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7340/2...ef993aa0_k.jpg https://c6.staticflickr.com/8/7756/2...c28308f2_k.jpg At this point I forgot to take pictures of most of what was going on. Bolted the gripforce flywheel on using the supplied bolts. No issues there. The only confusion came with installing the clutch disc and it's orientation in the assembly. If you follow the gripforce instructions you will be probably be using some colorful language when you start the car. After much googling it was obvious that the clutch disc needs to be flipped from what the terrible instructions indicate. I also replaced all the parts inside the transmission bell housing, my throw out bearing literally fell apart when it was removed. (I did not use the throw out bearing that came with the gripforce kit.) 211k on the car and plenty of clutch material left, pretty surprising. Got everything together and hoisted it up and into the engine bay. With a little maneuvering the motor went right in and sat right on the motor mounts. I put the transmission brace on and it was bolted in! https://c6.staticflickr.com/8/7778/2...187b4905_k.jpg We put the M44 on the engine stand so that it can be parted out more easily. (I'll make a thread.) Cleaned up the garage and rolled the ti back inside to finish up the plumbing and wiring. |
With the motor and transmission in all that was left was too clutter up the engine bay with hoses and wires. I forgot to mention in the last update that while the engine bay was pretty open I mounted the rear euro expansion tank bracket to the firewall. This is the only one (of two) brackets currently available to us in the US. The strut tower bracket is euro blocked by BMW. The rear bracket was put on US M3 convertibles for some reason so it is available for purchase in the US. It's a good idea to position the expansion tank with the data link connector and battery terminal block mounted so that you can see what space is available for the expansion tank. I was able to mount the bracket with the battery shelf still installed and the hood can close with about 1/4" clearance to the top of the expansion tank cap. For the front of the tank I fabbed up a small piece of aluminum to hold the clip for the tank. It doesn't look all that substantial but I've taken the cap off over and over and the tank hasn't moved yet. [url=https://flic.kr/p/Gqzasa]https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7182/2...df3e0338_k.jpg The main DIY I used for the expansion tank was on bimmerforums by wanganstyle. He opts to run a soft hose around the back of the engine in place of the Euro hardpipe, which is not meant to be installed on the M/S52 engines but rather the S50B32. There are many options available to run a hose to the expansion tank but I wanted to delete the throttle body heater and retain the heater core. I chose to stick with the stock M52 hard pipe and use the connections I needed. https://c5.staticflickr.com/8/7655/2...14d1b2b8_k.jpg It doesn't look fantastic, I'll admit, but with everything (intake manifold, TB, intake boot, etc) installed I can easily inspect the hose connections and see if anything is leaking. I added a spacer block to the oil filter housing so I could run an oil temperature sender. I have to say I don't really recommend this cheapie spacer block. It was inexpensive and it does the job but I needed a T to get the sender installed the way I wanted. https://c8.staticflickr.com/8/7107/2...0022312b_k.jpg The water pressure sender was a bit easier to setup. Some pressure senders are easily killed by engine vibrations so I used a short piece of hose to remove the sender from being hard-mounted to the motor. I just ran the hose off the TB heater barb. https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7348/2...1fc067fb_k.jpg The rest of the wiring was daunting at first. The automatic harness has some extra connectors but I simply coiled them up and zip tied them out of the way for now. Eventually, I'd like to remove those wires from the harness but for now I just want to get the car running. This thread (http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...wiring-harness) was a huge help in identifying connectors. The only mods I definitely need to make to the harness are adding a pin to the X20 for the reverse light switch and rerouting the aux fan normal speed relay wiring. Haven't tackled that yet though. |
Nice swap! I'm getting ready to do a S52 into my 98 Ti and will use the car 95 percent of the time on the track. |
That's cool, what groups do you run with? |
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Cool, I haven't run with trackdaze yet but I'll try to get out to one of their events this year. I've never really worked on an M52 before so the intake manifold seemed to have lots of vacuum ports and features that I wasn't completely sure about. After reading several forum threads and looking at lots of realoem diagrams I had a pretty good idea of what I needed to hook up vacuum-wise. Under the manifold, I deleted the muffler flap canister and SAP vacuum hoses. The FPR then went directly to one of the small ports under the manifold. I installed a new PCV/hoses and replaced the ICV grommet. That left the brake booster hookup, the large vacuum port for the fuel purge valve, and one small port. I capped the small port and set the manifold in place to get a better understanding of how everything would be positioned. https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7391/2...7b81ec36_h.jpg After that, I replaced all of the low pressure side PS hoses and filled the system with ATF. I then decided to get under the car and tackle the driveshaft and shift linkage. I quickly discovered that I had purchased the shift carrier and selector rod from a pre-9/94 325is. Below is a picture of the shift lever in neutral...not good. https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7144/2...16e9a060_h.jpg I took this as a sign that I needed to finally order a fancy selector rod. AKG has options for almost every configuration of BMW and I've never had issues with their parts. https://c6.staticflickr.com/8/7454/2...e28fac41_h.jpg 9mm difference between the pre and post 9/94 selector rods. Makes a big difference. Of course, the AKG rod is designed to be a precise fit. It requires the plastic on the rod joint and shift lever to be sanded down until the selector rod just fits in place by hand. This process took some time and getting the holes lined up for the pins was...frustrating...to say the least. The final product is amazing though, shifts are much more precise, I was surprised that it made such a nice difference. I plan to order the AKG race shifter eventually as I've heard great things about it. |
The driveshaft. I stuck with the stock 318ti driveshaft and it does physically fit. I had to compress it as much as possible and drop the center support bearing to get the shaft to slip into place on the trans output flange. I wasn't super thrilled with how tight it felt but it does work. As for the rest of the drive train, I am already running a 3.73 Medium case diff and using the stock 318ti axles. I plan to rebuild the pair of E30 axles I have and swap them in. I'd like to eventually get a 3.46 diff since that will work better with the short tires I run. My current gearing/diff/tire setup should be good for the speeds I'll see at VIR. I'm not sure what to expect at the end of the back straight though. Got the core support back in place so I could mount the radiator. The S54 Z3 rad drops in place nicely, just make sure to swap the lower radiator mount and move the top clip over a few inches. https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7005/2...5cc3f9e4_h.jpg Around this point I discovered that the throttle body that came with the engine had been damaged upon removal. The clips that hold the cables in place were both damaged and the cruise control plastic was severely missing. Found a replacement on ebay for $30 shipped and it was delivered a few days later, clean and complete. Got the intake manifold, vacuum hoses, fuel rail, and throttle body installed. https://c8.staticflickr.com/8/7386/2...6ed3782e_h.jpg It's starting to look like a real car. At this point there wasn't much left. I remounted the bumper, headlights, and nose panel. Make sure to get all of the plastic ducting in place behind the bumper, it is very important to adequately force the air through the radiator. Hoses to the radiator were straightforward. I used 5/16" heater hose to run from the rad to the expansion tank. Then I used a small hose routed down behind the front wheel to vent the expansion tank. Next up was the exhaust. This proved to be more of a pain than I initially expected. I'm using the stock M52 headers, to the stock midpipe, to a Z3 3.0 catback. Dear lord, that midpipe is heavy. The hangers bolt right on under the heat shield brace near the ti fuel tank. Then the two rubber mounts hold the midpipe in place very nicely. The fun part is that the Z3 exhaust is two 50mm pipes and the 328 midpipe is two 48mm pipes. Otherwise known as 2" and 1 7/8". Here's a picture of the amount of Z3 exhaust that I got. I cut the midpipe back to be a couple inches from the rear hanger. This length was almost perfect, just hanging both the midpipe and muffler section, there was maybe a 2" gap. Easily able to close that up with some adjustments. https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7380/2...08c0298c_h.jpg I planned to use 50mm clamps that is a BMW part for the Z3s. However, the clamp tightens to just under 50mm. 48mm slips right out. Pic below. https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7400/2...709c2f99_h.jpg I ended up ordering two exhaust adapters that go from 1 7/8" ID to 2" ID. I will weld the adapter to the midpipe and will clamp the muffler side with torc tite clamps. One thing I discovered, I bought the cheap version of the exhaust hangers and not the OE BMW hangers. There is a huge difference. cheap hangers are cheap for a reason, the rubber is much less resilient and allows too much play so you get the exhaust swinging around. OE BMW hangers actually keep the muffler fairly rigidly mounted under the car. They do cost more but I found it worth it. |
The last thing on my checklist before I attempted to start the car was installing a SPAL fan. I chose the 16" medium profile puller fan. It fit nicely on the radiator with plenty of room to clear the water pump. https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7592/2...dc3e84d9_h.jpg Here's a shot of my mount idea. I wanted to keep it easy to remove in case I needed to work on something at the track. https://c5.staticflickr.com/8/7360/2...2642733c_h.jpg The primary support is the lower 1/8" aluminum. This strip easily supports the weight of the fan and fits in the tabs for the stock fan shroud. Then the brackets on top hook over the radiator but are there as more of a backup in case something happens and the lower mount were to fail. Two screws into the upper radiator lip keeps it in contact with the radiator core. To wire it, I cut the connector off the stock aux fan (my fan was all busted up so I didn't feel too bad) with a few inches of the stock 3-wires. The SPAL fan only has one speed so I twisted the high and low speed wires together on the factory connector and crimped them to the power wire on the SPAL wiring. Then just connected the ground wires together. This way the fan can be unplugged and easily removed. One of the discrepancies in the engine harnesses makes it so that the normal aux fan speed will not work with the M52 engine harness. This is because on the M52 cars the double temp switch goes to the relays and then to the DME. On the M44 cars the double temp switch goes to the DME before heading to the normal speed relay. Without updating the chassis-side wiring the normal fan speed will not come on automatically in a M/S52 swap. However, on both M44 and M52 configurations the double temp switch goes directly to the high speed relay. Stock M52 double temp switch is 91/99C and the M44 switch is 81/88C. So by using the M44 double temp switch and not touching the chassis-side wiring my SPAL will turn on at 88C, lower than the factory M52 setting. Since doing this I have run the car and let it idle long enough to kick the fan on. By only wiring up the SPAL through the stock AUX connector and using the M44 double temp switch my fan kicks on and lowers the radiator temperature just as the stock fan would. The only difference is that my SPAL only has one speed. So it comes on at the "high" temp of 88C on the exit side of the radiator. |
Hey Dave this is wicked cool and I'm following along the best that I can, as your skills exceed mine. I'm totally jealous about your engine work. Few questions though: Is that overflow in the battery box area coolant? if so, what is the difference between the normal overflow located on the radiator? ie. why did you do that? Also, I'm assuming that is the TI tranny, correct? Keep up the good work and thanks again for posting this build. It is coming along nicely, great pace dude! |
Yeah...I'm not great at posting up right after I work on it. The car is all back together and driving already, I'm just going through my pictures and updating the thread as I have time. The tank in the battery area is coolant, it is the "euro expansion tank" and came on M3's with the S50B32 motor and the same tank was used on E30s in the USA, so it is available to purchase through US dealers. Really though, you could put any expansion tank up there. I chose to use that style expansion tank because it then becomes the highest point in the cooling system which makes the system self-bleeding. I also didn't want to have to retain the stock fan shroud, to hold the rad mounted tank, with a spal fan installed. It also moves a small bit of weight behind the front axle instead of in front of the axle. Probably not noticeable but every little bit helps. Yes, that is the stock 318ti transmission. We'll see how it holds up on track, I've found threads saying the getrag 250s are made of glass and do not hold up and others who have run crazy power with no problems. |
Been driving it for the past few weeks. Quick video of how it sounds, few more odds and ends to complete but it runs great. |
Dave; Well done, looks and sounds great! A note on the Getrag 250 trans... I have been running the original trans for 6 years now on the swapped M50 with cams, and it has been very solid. I've worn out 2 diffs, but the trans is fine. Just my experience, yours may differ... |
i did the same conversion with my compact, the 328i is a lovely engine and was only slightly heavier than the steel m44. did you have to change the spigot bearing in the crank for the smaller one from the m44? i have been abusing the 318ti gearbox for ages and it still seems to be holding together. |
That's good to hear, I had to add the pilot bearing since the donor motor was attached to an automatic, pilot bearing is the same size for all e36 motors I believe. Awesome James, I'm sure you're making more power with those cams than I am. What happened to the diffs? Bearings went or something else? Sent from my Venue 8 3830 using Tapatalk |
Time to change your signature Dave to a 328ti. :) Nicely done. :cool: |
Kind of late to the thread, but good to see the wheels being put to good use! From canyon to track, where it belongs! Nice with the swap too! Good work! |
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I am now rebuilding a 3.46 LSD from an e28 to be (I hope) the last diff I install... I also just finished my 2nd swap project, a stock S50 into the twin ti, and kept the Getrag. I used the UUC 11.5 lb flywheel/e34 M5 clutch combo on this setup, and it is still attached to the small case 3.45 LSD that came on the car originally, which will need to be upgraded soon as well... |
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Nice, I really want to find a 3.46 clutch type to rebuild. Based on running the smaller 15" tire, 3.46 would put me where I want in terms of top end on some of the longer tracks. That being said, the 3.73 with the M52 is pretty fun to drive, we'll see where it tops out on the straights. Feeling the difference with just the M52, I can only imagine the S50/52 swaps are pretty awesome. I wouldn't mind doing S52 cams/M50 manifold at some point... |
Just catching up. Great stuff Dave. Did you eliminate the AC? Are you running a stock E36 6 cylinder pusher fan as well? If not, are you able to idle in traffic with just the unshrouded Spal? How does it compare to your Coupe? |
Yes, AC is currently eliminated and it has been a healthy 97-100F here all week... apparently the "feels like" temp today was 115F, with plenty of humidity. I drove the ti to work today, I do have a new appreciation for AC. I do not have a pusher fan, only the spal puller fan. I drove the car quite a bit in traffic and on the highway and the fan never had any issues keeping temps in check. I spent a few afternoons fabbing some radiator ducting that forces all air coming in the lower bumper opening through the radiator. This was in preparation for a track day this weekend, first one with the m52. So far, around 98F ambient according to the obc, the torque app shows coolant temps staying between 197-199F and going up to 204F in traffic. I don't think the fan has actually kicked on since I added the duct. I'll try to make it turn on tomorrow. I would say it accelerates better than the z3 but that's with the 3.73 in the ti vs the 3.07 in the z. The m54 is a very smooth motor with the dual Vanos and Disa. M52 definitely more raw. |
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Those are really good temp numbers. The bone stock E36 M3 I refreshed a few years ago would creep up to 212 in traffic. My Coupe stays around 199-204 (and gets as low as 173 on the highway) but it has no mechanical fan, a fluidyne radiator and the Stewart pump. The ducting you did is key, I suspect better ducting is a better upgrade than a better radiator. You're making me want to swap the Clubsport, something I should have done while it sat in pieces for 4 years. I even have an aluminum block M52 with S50 cams ready to go... http://www.angelfire.com/de3/bimmert...amsheaders.JPG Quote:
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Need to put together my video from Summit Shenandoah but the car felt fantastic. No issues with 2.5hrs on track. I didn't have any pre-swap data, so no comparison but the extra power really feels great, no issues with breaking traction on the 205/50-15 maxxis. Temps on track stayed around 205 until I'd head in after a session, then they would creep up to 210 and the fan would kick on. I'm guessing if I ran a 80c tstat the temps would be lower but so far I don't see any reason to swap it out. |
Stock E36 M3s will creep up to 214 in traffic. I also think you're just fine. Quote:
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