318is Slicktop M52 Swap -- Pic Heavy

[mitchlevy7]

im pretty impressed. im pretty much doing the same swap in my vert right now. obd1 m52 with s52 cams. what are you planning on running for your tune?
i see your head has 2 ports for coolant sensors. mine only had one so i had to run the turner coolant adapter thing and just use the obd2 sensor.
those AKG mounts are sweet. i had them when my car was just an m50.
great attention to detail.

[motocaddy]

very proper built car! just spend a lot of time cleaning that chassis before putting all these new parts on.

[11E30]

Sick build! What kind of headlight bulbs are you running? I really like them.

[99sil-teg]

Pretty impressive build so far!

[MrGL2]

Nice to see people from Quebec on here ! Props man, keep up the good work your doing real good job bringing back this e30 to life.

On another note, what are you planning for suspension i might have missed that.

[mtlbloodshot]

Nice to see people from Quebec on here ! Props man, keep up the good work your doing real good job bringing back this e30 to life.

On another note, what are you planning for suspension i might have missed that.

Thanks for the support. For the suspension, Im going with all poly ure AKG bushing every where possible and coil overs, I haven't decided yet. I've heard really good things about BC RACING and MEGAN which are affordable compared to GROUND CONTROL or KW.

Pretty impressive build so far!

Thank you sir!

Sick build! What kind of headlight bulbs are you running? I really like them.

Those are US spec ellipsoids with I believe 6000K HIDs. You can find them on r3vlimited.com or e30tech.com for a great price *used*. Or you can get the euro smilies which look great.

very proper built car! just spend a lot of time cleaning that chassis before putting all these new parts on.

Thank you, yes the chassis will be getting fully redone during the winter.

im pretty impressed. im pretty much doing the same swap in my vert right now. obd1 m52 with s52 cams. what are you planning on running for your tune?
i see your head has 2 ports for coolant sensors. mine only had one so i had to run the turner coolant adapter thing and just use the obd2 sensor.
those AKG mounts are sweet. i had them when my car was just an m50.
great attention to detail.

Thanks bud, Turner makes great parts and I wouldn't ever hesitate to purchase anything from them. As for the tune, I am going with TRM as they have a great rep and can tune your tune according to your setup without any complications. Everything is done step by step on their website.

thats pretty impressive mate! well done , i posted a reply above but doubt u can find it with all the pics haha, my question was, why didnt you paint the cyl head? in one of the pics the motor is all together and looks clean but the cyl head is all greasy and dirty. made me sad

Honestly, I hear you brother. When I sent out the head to resurface and change the valve seals, I thought the gentlemen was gonna clean it up, but didnt. Was bothered by it but im over it now.

[mtlbloodshot]

Friday, August 17, 2012 -
For progress today, not much. Just took apart my AUDI A4 brake booster and gave it a quick little respray. Put the MC back on but will wait for the Reservoir because I've read that the brake booster works but the RES sort of kisses the Throttle Control Valve. Time will tell once I drop the motor in.

[mtlbloodshot]

Friday, August 17, 2012 -
For progress today, not much. Just took apart my AUDI A4 brake booster and gave it a quick little respray. Put the MC back on but will wait for the Reservoir because I've read that the brake booster works but the RES sort of kisses the Throttle Control Valve. Time will tell once I drop the motor in.





Thursday, September 13, 2012 -

Haven't been doing much on the car it self as I'm waiting for my friend to finish his car so we can head down to H20.
I got my diff cover sandblasted and powdercoated. Isn't the best job but for 20$ HEY I can't complain.





BONUS


Friday, September 14, 2012 -

UUC DSSR FINALLY!


As she sits and waits.



Tuesday, September 18, 2012 -

A rainy day here in Montreal, so having the day off work, I went to the shop and got to work on painting my M42 Rad. Nothing else to do. The reservoir was removed and a new one was ordered. Should have it tomorrow. The other day, I found a mint IS trunk lip for 50$. Contacted the seller and met him the same night.












I pressed in the AKG Diff Bushing into the cover that I had sandblasted and powder coated. I coated around the bushing with grease. I used the 1 TON press that we have at the shop. Fit like a glove.

[mtlbloodshot]

Thursday, September 20, 2012 -

This might be the last update I post before leaving for H20. New wishbone brackets. Turns out that worldpac sent me two of the same (passenger side).
It was sent back and will receive the correct one latest Monday. Dropped some grease on the AKG CAB and again used the press. Went in nice and easy.
Red and black make a great combo. I hope to be dropping my engine soon.









Thursday, October 4, 2012 --

Well today was the day that I've been waiting for. I finally got the M42 out. It went smooth. I started by removing the ECU by passing it through the firewall, then unplugged the power wires. Drained both the oil and power steering fluid. Completely dropped down the driveshaft. Next thing to do is remove all the brake fluid including the lines and ABS pump. After that, degrease and high pressure wash the engine bay.









Friday, October 5, 2012 --

Today I got to the shop with the intention to degrease and power wash my bay, but as always, nothing goes as planned. I started removing everything that was left in the bay, including that damn brake booster. Reading most build threads on here, a lot of people complained about the brake booster, and I finally realized that they are right. I still got the thing out after an hour of messing around under neath the dash. The heater core is out for good as I will not roll the car in cold weather. The fire wall insulation or whatever it is, gone and is not going back. ABS pump is gone and so are the brake lines.
Next step is taking out the fuse box. Im not looking forward to that. Here are the pics.







Tuesday, October 9, 2012 --

So, after doing some research, I found that removing the fuse box is a big pain. I just pulled the wires as much as I could from under the dash and pulled the fuse box to the side. The throttle cable was removed and so was the clutch master. Since it was a beautiful fall afternoon in Montreal, I rolled the car out of the garage and pressure washed the bay with some intense degreaser. I scrubbed as much I could with a metal brush and had to use scotch bright for the tight spots. The bay looks very clean now, except for the rust spots on the rad support but for a car that was driven in the winter, its fairly clean. My body shop guy said everything will be good. The shock towers are in great condition. Plan... shave all the holes in the bay and possibly do a wire tuck.

[mtlbloodshot]

Saturday, October 20, 2012 --

Woke up early to get some work done on the car.
Got to the garage to see beautiful boxes on the floor waiting for me. Front and back rebuilt GIRLING Calipers. They come with new pistons, seals and guides. All I have to do it clean up the carrier bracket and paint. Assemble.







Took about hour and a lot of cursing to get the back windows out. Glad that they're out.



Another hour to remove the floor carpet. I cut around heater core as I don't want to remove the dash. The carpet is going to be washed. Maybe dyed black. Have to have the floors redone because of the rust.



Finally finished removing the seam sealer, shaving brackets and cutting out the ugly tray on the passenger side. once it's out, the bay look even bigger than it already is.




More goodies and updates coming!!

[rsingh3g]

Man sounds like a great build good luck to you

[MaxBell]

It's funny seeing it all happen in 3 posts. Hahahaha

[mtlbloodshot]

Monday, October 22, 2012 --

My body guy made templates for the engine bay. This is going to be a real engine bay shave. No holes, no brackets. Maybe a wire tuck.




Painted one of the rear calipers. It's now drying. Probably going to assemble it tomorrow with the pads just to see how it looks all together.

[mtlbloodshot]

Wednesday, October 24, 2012 --

The first rear caliper is dry and reassembled. I'm using EBC "GREEN STUFF" pads. I was told that they do a good job. They'll be matched up with Brembo discs. Here are the photos.





Saturday, October 27, 2012 --

Yesterday afternoon I got the rad support I ordered from BMW. It took 2 weeks to arrive because it was brought it from Germany. The car was hit in the front a while back and the rad support was crooked and rusted. Opted to change for a brand new to not have problems. Mad expensive. 330$.




Test fitted my wheels in the back just to see if the fender needed to be pulled, rolled or cut the inner lip.
Since the car is going on air ride, I removed the spring and compressed the shock as much I could before the tire touched the fender. With a roll, it should be perfect according to my measurements.




Sunday, October 28, 2012 --

Before going for breakfast this morning, I passed by the shop to see what was done on my bay. Good news. The plates are tacked and the rad support is clamped in place ready to get tacked.

What a difference a new rad support makes. Better than looking at rust.





Monday, October 29, 2012 --

It's a while I've been hoping that when this day would come, everything would go nice and smoothly. Thankfully it did. My rear subframe dropped without any problems. I took it down as a whole. I placed a transmission lifter to hold it up as I backed the big bolts that come down from under the rear seats. As I started to remove the nuts, I felt that the subframe was coming down on her own. Dropped the car down and placed two jack stands on each side and a car jack under the diff. Maybe pouring Rost Off down into the holes for a week helped.




Moved on to removing the front crossmember and steering rack etc;




Block off plate for the blower motor in the engine bay was cleaned, sanded and painted with a wrinkle high heat. It's the same paint I used to paint my Valve Cover. Came out great.

[mtlbloodshot]

Wednesday, October 31, 2012 --

Yesterday I cut off the rivets on the steering joints. Dumped them in degreaser, scotch bright and degrease again. Left those to sit over night.
Arrived at the shop, gave them a quick rinse and a dry. Got started on assembly of the AKG E30 - E36 Steering Rack Conversion Kit with the Poly Urethane Flex Shaft Coupling. Everything went well and looks good too.





Having the right tools to do something is the greatest thing someone can ask for. I removed all the bushings that were stuck in the subframe and the trailing arms in roughly an hour. Since I'll be using a Z3M diff, I had to remove the output flanges from my stock diff. Very easy.



Good news, My rear bags were ordered today that I way modify the trailing arms before I sent them to sandblast/powder coat.

Friday, November 2, 2012 --

More welding was done in the bay.. Plates were cut and fitted.