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Simple M3

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  • Damn that a great collection of parts. Glad to see how oem you are going to make it with the cluster and such. I wish I was closer to help.
    Insta Mintyhinrichs

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    • Originally posted by bwwaaaa View Post
      Thanks! This has definitely been the goal from the beginning, and had a false start once. I was starting to think maybe I'd never get around to making this happen, so I'm stoked to finally be diving into this project. I guess so much for "Simple M3" anymore though haha.
      I mean, it depends on your definition of "simple" lol

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      • Out with the old

        Right so, I am at best an idiot and decided that peak Summer in Arizona is the best time to start an engine swap. But this weekend I decided to rip off the band-aid and just get on with the project. So out came the S52. It took two days basically, as I spent most of the first day by myself working, and at a pretty leisurely pace. The second day I had a few friend's by to help and we got the engine out. I've pulled a lot of E36 engines before. I've never had it go this poorly to be honest. It got caught on everything on the way out, and my Garagistic brace really made it a nightmare to get the oil pan clear of the front subframe.












        There is a fair bit of "oh good god what did I do" setting in right about now, but no turning back now. A few things to call out, the S52 is pending sale as we speak. Someone is supposed to get it a couple days, so long as they don't flake I'll have cleared a significant amount of space in the garage almost immediately. So that'll be nice. Right now the plan is to spend a bunch of time getting the chassis side ready where I can (wiring, fuel pump, misc.) and I'll be taking it to the body shop to get the engine bay painted at the end of August. That was the soonest they could take it in. While that is going on hopefully the backordered parts I've been waiting on finally show up and I can get the S54 all prepped to drop in. After that I think things should go pretty quickly to be honest. This isn't that complicated a swap, just time consuming.


        Bonus photo, a very exhausted me sitting in my engine bay.

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        • While I'm in there

          So I've been waiting on parts to show up for a while now. Thanks to this last year, everything is back ordered, everything is hard to source. Mainly I couldn't get my rod bearings from VAC for the longest time. After not so patiently waiting for what was coming up on two months, they finally showed up, so I could get some progress done.








          (don't worry, I did put assembly lube on it)












          As you can see that was very much worth doing. The VIN from the chassis this engine was pulled from indicated that the rod bearings were done under warranty some time ago. So this is the second set of bearings this car has gone through at least. According to the Blackstone oil analysis the seller included with the engine, they indicate that there was acceptable levels of bearing material in the sample they got, and from talking to a few people the general consensus is these bearings could have been worse, but also could have been better. Of course I did ARP rod bolts as those came with the rod bearing kit as well. Everything was doused thoroughly in assembly lube as well.

          We started to do the Vanos and head gasket that day as well, but realized I was missing some pieces and had to quit early. I am going out of town soon, so that means the engine is on ice for at least a month until I return. I'm a little frustrated progress is going so slow, I feel like I could have had this swap done by now if it weren't for parts delays and some real life stuff getting in the way. I did take the vanos off to send back as my core charge to Dr. Vanos, but otherwise we didn't go any further.




          I also bought a part I was on the fence about doing, but figured it's now or never. I ordered a CAE Clubsport shifter, and frankly I may be more excited about this than the S54 at this point. It is *so* well made, it's insane. If you know me you know that I'm a bit of a stickler for original (or at least non-replica) parts. I got a lot of suggestions too run RTD, Coolerworx or other shifters that did roughly the same job, but a few people who had run both all said the CAE is better. Given everything else is a copy of the CAE, may as just go with the OG design. I opted for the clubsport, which is shorter and has a slightly longer throw than the normal one they sell, and I got it in anodized black. The logic being, it's a little less dramatic in the interior. There is no passing this for OEM, but this disguises it just a little bit more.

          With that I'm out of town for a few weeks, but when I come back it will be a scramble to scrub the engine bay aaaaand send it off to paint. I'm only doing the engine bay right now, which I wasn't even planning on doing in the first place. But it makes no sense not to when the engine is out of the car.

          So here's the real question: what color do you think it's coming back with?

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          • Dakar...

            Quality updates ! Love it.

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            • Keep it up! Sick engine, props man!
              slamburglars.com

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              • Needless to say we want more updates.

                Cheers

                Mike


                Audi RS4PRA | VW Golf MKV GT-Y | Audi A1 SportBack

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                • It’s been a minute…

                  An update from the grave! It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to check in here. To be honest, progress has been non-existent. The paint shop I’m using is great, but he’s a one man operation and things can move slowly. When I dropped off the car, there were a few other projects ahead of me in line that took some time to complete. He has started some work on the bay, he ground out the seam sealer and started shaving brackets. But that’s not what I want to focus on with this update.

                  A few of you made some guesses on what color the car is going to be. No one got it. But I got a spray out of the color when I dropped off some parts yesterday.










                  Here it is, Stanceworks forums saw it first. My M3 is going to be Millennium Jade, a Nissan R34 GTR color. Well actually since dropping off the car with the body shop, Nissan has announced it’ll be an R35 color too, but we can just ignore that. This has to be one of my favorite colors of all time, I remember seeing photos of the R34 GTR Nur Spec in MJ back in the day, and loving it. And I feel like it’ll suit the M3 very well too. It has a lot of depth in the color, it’s silver in some lights, bright green in others, and almost a gold in dim settings.

                  I also decided, you know what let’s just paint the whole damn car. So he’s working on that now. I’ve asked for update photos along the way, we’ll see if he delivers. But needless to say I’m extremely excited.

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                  • Oh. well, Bravo on the color choice.

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                    • Oh my I can not wait to see it in that color.
                      Insta Mintyhinrichs

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                      • Originally posted by saturnstance View Post
                        Oh. well, Bravo on the color choice.
                        Thanks! Sorry for the lack luster update haha. A long pause for not a lot of news, but that's how projects are sometimes I guess. I'm hoping I can get the car back by the end of the year to start reassembly though.

                        Originally posted by hinrichs View Post
                        Oh my I can not wait to see it in that color.
                        Thanks man! You and me both, I hope it looks as good in person as it does in my head.

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                        • I'm currently building a Aoshima Mines R34 1/24 model... which will be painted Millennium Jade! It is such an under rated color choice. Kudos for thinking outside the box a bit when it came to color choice.

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                          • Love the attention to detail, an excellent build bud

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                            • I know updates have been scarce, and this isn't really a substantial one. The car is still with the body shop. When I pulled the trigger to do the full respray, it kind of rearranged his schedules so it's on the back burner until a few other projects are finished. Fine by me, as my life has been hectic lately. He did send me this photo the other day though.



                              First bit of shaving coming together. Deleted the sprayer nozzles on the hood. The tank got deleted anyways in the engine bay, so no need to have those around.

                              In the meantime I've been messing around with this thing.





                              It's a 1991 Land Cruiser VX Limited, or HDJ81. An imported turbo diesel 80 series I bought through some Stanceworks homies. It's a bit of a basket case, but it's been a fun distraction. I won't be doing any sort of thread for it though, just thought I'd share.

                              I expect to have more updates maybe come March, but until then hold tight!

                              Thanks all.

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                              • Keep posting pics of that beauty. Glad to see minor updates on the M3 and that its getting a full respray is very exciting.
                                Insta Mintyhinrichs

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