LSX powered BMW M3, E36 chassis...

[MONGO510]

Won't be long now!!

looking good Paul!

 

John

[BRAAP]

Slacking on the updates, family situation requires most of my free time along with getting this back on the road as daily driver, so several updates from the past few months all at once, culminating in the car is driving.

 

My apologies for crappy phone pics. Took some real pics, hope to get those posted early next week.

 

Any how, got the JTR headers back from Finishline Coatings here in Portland, coated in their "Turbo Black". This is the Best thermal coating they offer, claim it is a 60% reduction of heat vs uncoated. They applied 2 coats externally, 1 coat internally. Personally, I really like matte black finish, should contrast nice with the wrinkle black valve covers that will go on after the engine is installed for the last time.

 

 

 

 

[BRAAP]

Few more shots of the JTR headers and the JTR LSx E36 engine mounts.

 

 

 

 

[BRAAP]

Heater hoses are now done, brake booster vacuum line is done, brakes are 100% and bled.

 

Relocated the heater valve to just under and in front of the brake M/C. I used the BMW mount that was attached to the wall and attached it to the driver fenderwell as high as possible next to the strut tower. Heater supply hose (5/8"hose off the water water pump) routed down and then under the engine above the rack and pinion up to the bottom/middle port of the valve with a 5/8"-3/4" reducer 180 bend. The other 2 lines from the valve are routed to the firewall under the brake M/C. Heater return line is the only hose routed behind intake manifold. I don't know how you other guys are able to get 3 hoses behind there when 1 hose barely fits.

 

Fired up my DIY brake pressure bleeder with a converted Mercedes reservoir cap, (BMW & Merc caps are the same size and threads), hooked up shop air, regulated down to 7 PSI and pumped just over 2 qts of DOT4 through the system and ABS module purging all the old dark fluid from the car. Hooked up the electric vacuum pump to the brake booster simulating a running engine, pedal feels good.

The only other item to address while waiting the trans X-member is the PCV plumbing.

Once the trans X-member arrives, tie the headers to the exhaust, detail the shifter and boot, radiator and hoses, and God willing be driving it, soon.

[BRAAP]

Trans X-member in hand, progress is steadily being made down the home stretch.

 

These pics are of the JTR preproduction X-member, production bits may vary slightly when released. A very stout design that utilizes the OE LS1 rubber isolator and maintains lots of room for a tidy tight exhaust system.

 

 

 

Finished the shifter as well, will work on the body rubber boot tomorrow. Planning to run the Camaro/Firebird ball shift knob for know, will probably modify the Hurst shift arm to accept the smaller ID Vette knob with 6 speed pattern in the future. RTz gave me the 6 speed plaque, hoping to mount/inset it in this location.

 

RTz also finished up my ugly rear shock tower mounts as well, something he offered to help with early on, (thank you Ron). I knew my shock tower mounts were needing replacement when I bought the car so bought the new sheetmetal from BMW then. When I dug deeper recently to get started, opened a can of worms. My shock tower mounts had been replaced in the past, hack install, and were now blown out again, due to the hack fix in the past the typical method of drill the spotwelds and replace the Sheetmetal was not an option, not able to use the bits I bought from BMW now needing the fenderwell Sheetmetal as well. Finally an E36 showed up at one of the local Upullit yards, took cordless sawzall and cut out both rear fenderwells.

Pics are before and after of drivers side, passenger side was similar.

 

[BRAAP]

Reliable source noted my solid shifter linkage would transmit engine buzz/tingle, will be looking to rubber isolate the shifter in the near future to help retain as much of the original BMW smoothness as possible.

 

Between family activities today, was able to button up the interior 99% today. Just need to adjust the clutch and brake pedal switches engagement/disengagement for the GM cruise control.

 

Tags on steering wheel are power-train fluids notes/reminders.

[BRAAP]

Ancillaries and serpentine installed, Intake is on, clutch hydraulics connected, throttle connected, all EFI connections made. Waiting on the Stage-8 locking header bolts to arrive, hopefully this week.

If all goes well, could pull it out of the shop under it's own power this coming weekend, following week to be shake down for bugs, leaks, etc.

 

Here's a shot with EFI wiring connected, ancillaries on, throttle connected etc.

 

[BRAAP]

The mother of all updates for this build.....

It's alive!

Tuesday night after some fiddling with the PCM, feeling brave I put the wheels on and set it on the ground. First movement under it's own power was the obligatory burnout in the shop, RTz dared me. Drove it 100 yards down the road and back, WOO HOO! Thursday night, fiddled a little more with HP-Tuners, feeling brave again, drove the car around the lake, 3 mile jaunt. It ran, but not well, flat spots, surging, etc. Within minutes of pulling back in, the shop. Tongboy pulls up with his LS1 M3 sedan for some fine tweaking of a couple parameters in his PCM, he graciously allowed me to use his tune for the "write entire" to delete the DBW programming in my PCM so I didn't have spend two more credits using another tune.

thank you Jeremiah.

 

Friday morning, performed write entire. TPS now registers in VCM scanner. Engine fired up, another trip around the lake with open headers, stretched it's legs from 1st through 3rd gear, Definitely quicker than it was with the S52, then Drove it 10 miles through down town to the muffler shop with open headers to tie in the M3 exhaust to the headers. 

 

 

HUGE thank you to Mike of JTR for his patience with all my crying over the past 2 years and for what I feel is a very well engineered, robust LSx E36 kit.

 

The 260-Z in the background is RTz's with the S52 from my M3, it has been on the road for the past few months and is amazingly fun to drive.

 

 

 

[BRAAP]

Talked to Ryan, owner and fabricator at Mulligans custom exhaust and custom hot rods in Sandy today, he said the exhaust is done and it's a sleeper. I took that to mean it's quiet, exactly what I wanted. I gave him him free reign with the exhaust, wanting to retain as much of the stock exhaust as possible, in particular the stock M3 muffler, neck down from the 3" collectors to 2 1/2". 

Stopped in and took a peek under the car, WOW! very nice work, Ryan is a craftsman, too bad his work under the car where isn't seen very often. All bends are mandrel, welds are beautiful, came out much nicer than I hoped. Ryan transitioned from the 3" collector immediately to 2 1/2", tidy quality 2 1/2" flex joints just aft of the V-band, 2 pair of O2 bungs per pipe pre cat, (one each for narrow band O2, other two for wide band tuning). The stock cats with their angled inlet was not worth working with so he installed a pair of tight tidy aftermarket 2 1/2" cats then added 2 post cat O2 bungs. I wanted this to be quiet as a daily driver so adding another muffler in line with the stock M3 muffler was on the list. As luck has it, the BMW tunnel is just wide enough and deep enough to fit a dual 2 1/2" In-Out  muffler, Ryan and I both like the crisp snap and snarl of a V8 exhaust note through Spintechs. From there he continued in 2 1/2" to the stock M3 tail pipe where it necks up to just under 2 1/2" from the 2" or so. 

He used the BMW carrier bearing mount holes for rubber isolated hangers. 

Fabrication and installation is 1st rate, anyone in the greater Portland OR area needing custom exhaust or any custom performance fabrication work, I strongly recommend Ryan at Mulligans in Sandy. Humble, down to earth, great guy.

 

http://www.mulligansmuffler.com/

 

How does it sound? Uh.... well, it is soooo quiet there's nothing really to judge, not much of an exhaust note. Standing behind the car about 20 feet back, someone in the car revving up the engine, you can hear the intake under the closed hood, (sans filter), over the exhaust. Total sleeper. Ryan says it's too quiet. Before he tied in the stock muffler he said with just the Spintech it sounded AWESOME! 

 

Drive home was AWESOME! car is as quiet as a stock M3 if not quieter inside. 

HUGE thank you to Mike of JTR for his use of OE GM engine/trans isolators, even with these moderately firm Vette isolators that don't allow any movement by hand, it is smooth, no buzzy-ness. RTz drove it tonight and commented on it being so quiet and smooth, the car is deceptively quick. No aural indicator or buzz to indicate the car is working hard other than the rapidly climbing speedo needle. 

 

4 day weekend for me starting Friday, will take apart the front end to properly reassemble and working out any bugs, hope to be driving it daily starting Tuesday. 

 

Video to come soon. 

 

Here are some pics of the exhaust work, my apologies for the poor cel phone photo quality. 

 

Standing under oil pan looking back;

 

From behind looking up;

 

The Spintech and hangers;

 

Profile;

[aplyedmind]

Talked to Ryan, owner and fabricator at Mulligans custom exhaust and custom hot rods in Sandy today, he said the exhaust is done and it's a sleeper. I took that to mean it's quiet, exactly what I wanted. I gave him him free reign with the exhaust, wanting to retain as much of the stock exhaust as possible, in particular the stock M3 muffler, neck down from the 3" collectors to 2 1/2". 

Stopped in and took a peek under the car, WOW! very nice work, Ryan is a craftsman, too bad his work under the car where isn't seen very often. All bends are mandrel, welds are beautiful, came out much nicer than I hoped. Ryan transitioned from the 3" collector immediately to 2 1/2", tidy quality 2 1/2" flex joints just aft of the V-band, 2 pair of O2 bungs per pipe pre cat, (one each for narrow band O2, other two for wide band tuning). The stock cats with their angled inlet was not worth working with so he installed a pair of tight tidy aftermarket 2 1/2" cats then added 2 post cat O2 bungs. I wanted this to be quiet as a daily driver so adding another muffler in line with the stock M3 muffler was on the list. As luck has it, the BMW tunnel is just wide enough and deep enough to fit a dual 2 1/2" In-Out  muffler, Ryan and I both like the crisp snap and snarl of a V8 exhaust note through Spintechs. From there he continued in 2 1/2" to the stock M3 tail pipe where it necks up to just under 2 1/2" from the 2" or so. 

He used the BMW carrier bearing mount holes for rubber isolated hangers. 

Fabrication and installation is 1st rate, anyone in the greater Portland OR area needing custom exhaust or any custom performance fabrication work, I strongly recommend Ryan at Mulligans in Sandy. Humble, down to earth, great guy.

 

http://www.mulligansmuffler.com/

 

How does it sound? Uh.... well, it is soooo quiet there's nothing really to judge, not much of an exhaust note. Standing behind the car about 20 feet back, someone in the car revving up the engine, you can hear the intake under the closed hood, (sans filter), over the exhaust. Total sleeper. Ryan says it's too quiet. Before he tied in the stock muffler he said with just the Spintech it sounded AWESOME! 

 

Drive home was AWESOME! car is as quiet as a stock M3 if not quieter inside. 

HUGE thank you to Mike of JTR for his use of OE GM engine/trans isolators, even with these moderately firm Vette isolators that don't allow any movement by hand, it is smooth, no buzzy-ness. RTz drove it tonight and commented on it being so quiet and smooth, the car is deceptively quick. No aural indicator or buzz to indicate the car is working hard other than the rapidly climbing speedo needle. 

 

4 day weekend for me starting Friday, will take apart the front end to properly reassemble and working out any bugs, hope to be driving it daily starting Tuesday. 

 

Video to come soon. 

 

Here are some pics of the exhaust work, my apologies for the poor cel phone photo quality. 

 

Standing under oil pan looking back;

 

From behind looking up;

 

The Spintech and hangers;

 

Profile;

 

 

That is Pure **** My friend Great job.

[Drax240z]

Woohoo! It lives! Great stuff, can't wait to see a little bit of video.

 

You'll have to try some 0-60 runs for comparison against stock. Should be an awesome "sleeper". (If an M car is ever actually a sleeper)

[BRAAP]

Maiden voyage update.

 

Mongo510 stopped by with his radical V8-Z, helped solve my Alt light dilemma, I then buttoned up the front end, drove into town, filled the tank and put 30 miles on it, mix of highway and tight twisty backroads. Drove excellent, LOVE the additional torque, no added noise or buzziness, the rubber mounts keep the smooth BMW refinement, no sacrifice in performance.

 

Brought it back home, obligatory burnout video. You can sort of tell how quiet it truly is in the video, note how loud the hood closing is and induction noise vs exhaust noise. WOT bouncing off the rev limiter set at 6000 RPM.

 

Filmed by RTz;

 

Yee HAAA

 

Pics of Mongos incredible SBC 260Z with DIS and his custom lever action rear suspension. 

 

 

 

[MONGO510]

Damb! If I'da known you were gonna go for a ride, I might have stuck around a little longer, got my hands a littler dirtier, and begged a ride!!. That is going to be one of the sweetest rides I've seen. The headers and mounts are beautiful to look at! Fit and finish is excellent! Once done, any one who is not familiar with BMW's will think this is a factory install.

 

I wish I had kept a build manual like you have, I would still be deciphering my wiring!! LOL

 

 

If any one out there is considering this swap, you really should look into the kit when it comes to market.

 

Very nice work Paul!!

 

Mongo

PS.... Thanks for compliments, I am trying to keep up with your build quality, but you keep jumping to the next level!! LOL!!

Edited May 30, 2011 by MONGO510

[BRAAP]

Ride? You can drive it. Might take it to the Canby Datsun event.

[BRAAP]

New starter is in, did a Bubba fix to get the center of the fuel tank above the tunnel roof so it wouldn't rub on the drive shaft, gave the car a quick rinse, my oldest daughter asked to drive it around the lake, and off we went. Every time she pushed on the throttle she giggled, when she tried WOT in 2nd and 3rd, giggles stopped, BIG eyes, then lots of giggling. 

 

Lots of little stuff to finish such as PCV, air filter, mounting the GM cruise module, etc. Till the next update, a few shots after the rinse. 

 

 

 

[garvice]

Ha, that is a great storey about the daughter. Well done, car is looking great, and you have obviously done something right with your daughter, she sounds like she is a rev head too.

[BRAAP]

Put 150 more miles on it over the weekend, LOVING it. Runs and drives just like the stock M3, similar power band and same drivability but with a butt-load more torque everywhere, even with the tiny 5.3.

Hooked up the GM cruise control and it works perfect. Also hooked up the cooling fan, still have a few more loose ends to tie up such as intake plumbing, PCV, etc. taking it to work this week, 153 mile per day round trip

Love the GM cruise control, doesn't lag over hills and responds crisply to accel/decel inputs. Another attribute of GM cruise strategy that I really like is each click of accel or decel raises or lowers your speed by exactly 1 MPH per click, 5 quick clicks adds or subtracts 5 MPH even if coming down a hill and it takes several seconds to coast down, it gives you what you asked for, not just a momentary switch you hold till you reach the desired speed.

[Phlebmaster]

Good to see that beast done! Can't wait to drive it.

[BRAAP]

Lots to update. 

Short version is having put over 7200 miles on in just under 3 months, ZOMG I LOVE this car! It's pert ne'er perfect right now, better than I had hoped. 

 

Swapped in an fresh rebuilt LQ4 6.0L 1100 miles ago, (the 5.3 had very low oil pressure from get go including a few cold seizures early on but still managed to last for 5200 miles before dying), the additional torque of the 6.0L vs the 5.3 is VERY welcome. Trip to Boise a couple weekends ago yielded 27.1MPG with the cruise set at 72 and fighting a head rind in the Columbia rvr gorge. The engine is silky smooth, exhaust is mouse fart quiet. At WOT there is a subtle hint if V8ness. Gearing is perfect for the stock 6.0L and T56, 3.23 final gears, weight with 3/4 tank of gas no driver, 3550, 1st gear looses traction at any rpm just rolling throttle to WOT, 2nd spins if any irregularities in the pavement. Have not tuned it yet. 1st gear 6000 rpm is 48 mph, 2nd gives 73 mph at 6000, 3rd 101mph at 5800. Need to go to the strip to see how quick it is, best guess is mid 13 @ 110ish. Logged 0-100 in 11.8-12.0 seconds on HP-Tuners.

 

Here are some shots since last update. 

 

Oh yeah...

 

"Sucka badge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BRAAP...BRAAAAAAP......BRAAAaaaaaa.......

[EvilC]

SWEET!