Yet Another S54 Swap Build Thread

[Foda420]

Hello Bimmerforums, been a while! Fair warning, I can be long winded so this will serve more as my own build journal than anything for the forum at large.

I was pretty active on these forums from when I bought my car in 2012 up until blowing two holes in the block in August 2017. At that point the S52 had a ported and polished head, VAC IP dominator cams, all the bolt ons and made about 285whp. She let go deep into 5th gear on the way to a Cars and Coffee event in Mexico and as I limped it to the side of the road I knew I had better enjoy those last moments. I was unemployed at the time and the prospect of rebuilding an M car was so implausible that I nearly ended up selling the car. Thankfully my (now) wife encouraged me to keep the car while we figured out how to fix it. Unbeknownst to me, this would be the beginning of the longest project of my life.

A few months later Andrew Lang of Lang Racing put an S54 up for sale on the old M3Forum (RIP). A customer of his had decided to go with a stroker, so the fresh motor with a stage 3 Lang head, WPC bearings, ARP bolts, and all the Beisan VANOS fixes was put up for sale to fund the stroker build. I managed to convince myself and my wife that it was a good idea, even though it was a bare long block and even though I could only afford to pay for about 1/3 of it. Graciously she agreed to pay for the rest under the condition that I couldn't buy anything else for the car until I paid her back. This was January 2018, and it was here that the long waiting period began.

As time went on my anxiousness to have my car back ASAP slowly faded. By the time I had paid her back I had made the decision that I was going to take my time and accumulate all the parts I really wanted for this build. My own (somewhat) reasonable money-is-no-object build. And so I started stockpiling parts:

Supersprint Stepped V1 headers with HFC
Turner Carbon Box
S54 Z3M OEM Harness
Kassell Tuning swap harness
Full MK60 swap kit and harness
ZF 6 speed transmission
6 Point bolt in roll bar from Ben Sipson
E46 CSL rotors with 135i performance calipers (and the parts to convert the pistons so they don't crack)
Hard Motorsport rear seat delete
AST one way coilovers

Along with all of that, every thing that the engine was missing was ordered new from BMW; air rail, fuel rail, every sensor, coolant pipes, even down to the nuts and bolts. Having never even done an oil change on an S54 I spent hours scouring RealOEM for part numbers and at this point I think I've gotten probably 95% of what I need to swap it in. In the meantime I had the car repainted the factory Boston Grun and I fully stripped the interior (minus dash), to clean and reduce weight wherever I could.

To be fair, I've had most of what I needed for a little while now. But the scope of this project has kinda scared me off of it. I'm not great with electrical and I've used that as an excuse to psyche myself out over getting this done. Well that and the fact that I bought my childhood dream car 3.5 years ago - an 07 S2000. Originally meant to be just a fun car while I finished the M3, the modding bug struck hard and I went deep. That car has been through several iterations and is currently awaiting me to finish and install a 2.5L stroker that should be in the neighborhood of 300whp. I ended up building a few of these motors in the time I've owned the car and it's for that specific reason I'm switching my attention back to the M3. The M3 only ate 1 motor, the S2k is going on number 5 now and my wallet is begging me to drop the Honda and go back to my M car.

The M3 is currently in storage and my S54 is sitting at the ice blaster down the road from my shop. Next week I'll be bringing the M3 to the shop and getting my S54 back and starting the long process of getting everything all put together. I have a daughter due in early November so I'm hoping to get the ball rolling enough to maybe be able to work on it at home when she's born. First order of business will be to clean it up and start prepping for the MK60 retrofit. I have a harness for it so I'm not concerned about the wiring but I have to get back in research mode and figure out where and how I'm going to mount the ABS unit. If anybody wants to provide any suggestions and/or point me in the right direction I'm all eyes/ears.

Pics and updates to come soon!

[Braymond141]

I hope you plan to go through that engine. Lang has been proving to be absolute shit with their work. The SMG to MT bell housings I get after they "convert" them are atrocious. They also severely damaged another members S54 after doing a full build on it.

[Foda420]

I hope you plan to go through that engine. Lang has been proving to be absolute shit with their work. The SMG to MT bell housings I get after they "convert" them are atrocious. They also severely damaged another members S54 after doing a full build on it.

Ha! Just what I wanted to hear /s

In all seriousness, that's mega disappointing. I wasn't planning on going through it at all. At the time I bought it Lang had a pretty spotless reputation everywhere as far as I knew.

Is this more of a quality has gone down situation? Or one where as time has passed even his earlier work has proven to be not so great?

[Braymond141]

Ha! Just what I wanted to hear /s

In all seriousness, that's mega disappointing. I wasn't planning on going through it at all. At the time I bought it Lang had a pretty spotless reputation everywhere as far as I knew.

Is this more of a quality has gone down situation? Or one where as time has passed even his earlier work has proven to be not so great?

The SMG stuff has always been an issue.

Talk to Corey on IG about his engine: thegenius46m

[golgo13]

I rate it 2 / 5 stars

EDIT:

Supersprint Stepped V1 headers with HFC
Turner Carbon Box
S54 Z3M OEM Harness
Kassell Tuning swap harness
Full MK60 swap kit and harness
ZF 6 speed transmission
6 Point bolt in roll bar from Ben Sipson
E46 CSL rotors with 135i performance calipers (and the parts to convert the pistons so they don't crack)
Hard Motorsport rear seat delete
AST one way coilovers

Fun list, what are you plans for the car? Smog plans? You have cats but it's a swap that doesn't mention BAR, which has me confused.

I recommend ditching the Hard Motorsport stuff, while Adam is a super nice guy his parts are crap. Everything I've owned of theirs didn't last long.

You can save money and use an E46M engine harness, just rotate it 180* and save yourself some money. The DME will reach the passenger side cubby that way.

6 speed is heavier than the 5 speed if that matters to you.

135i calipers are street car bling if you care.

AST makes decent stuff, but are they still around? I thought Moton was going under? Maybe I'm mistaken.

EDIT 2.0:

I did the MK60 swap myself but I had help with the harness. LMK if you have any questions with hardware installation and set-up options, there are quite a few ways to do the swap, especially when talking about the booster, M/C and pressure sensors.

Bunch of old posts on my IG, too

https://www.instagram.com/nholmes74/

[blckstrm]

I have a vague recollection that getting AC working on an S54 swap was a problem, so I wrote it off a long time ago. Has a solution to that problem been found?

[golgo13]

I have a vague recollection that getting AC working on an S54 swap was a problem, so I wrote it off a long time ago. Has a solution to that problem been found?

So long as you have an appropriate cluster, it shouldn't be a problem.

I have a modified Z3 cluster and my A/C works great. I'm using the E36 compressor and lines that came with the car originally.

[jinendow]

I hope you plan to go through that engine. Lang has been proving to be absolute shit with their work. The SMG to MT bell housings I get after they "convert" them are atrocious. They also severely damaged another members S54 after doing a full build on it.

what's up with Lang's bell housing work? I had them convert mine and haven't had issues so far, but this worries me

[Braymond141]

I have a vague recollection that getting AC working on an S54 swap was a problem, so I wrote it off a long time ago. Has a solution to that problem been found?

There's no issue. I have been offering CAN Bus cluster conversions for years now. I can program a provided cluster or supply the entire replica Z3M S54 build. I also have two genuine Z3M S54 clusters.


https://www.msportparts.com/collecti...amming-service

https://www.msportparts.com/collecti...-bus-cluster-1

[Braymond141]

what's up with Lang's bell housing work? I had them convert mine and haven't had issues so far, but this worries me

I've had several of their bell housings come to me for rework. All from different conversion periods. No detent guide bushings, hand drilled detent holes, metal shavings everywhere, etc. They are a shit show for quality. Even the Wheeler Dealer's episode where Mike used them shows some of their stupid processes at work.

[aeronaut]

Wow, Lang.

Agree with golgo on the quality of HM stuff, I mostly avoid HM (and VAC).
I looked at the bias the 135 calipers creates, and IIRC it's not good. I could look again if wanted. But Yea, bling. (They do have a bad track rep that's not deserved.) The CSL rotors are 4x the cost of regular E46M3 rotors, and if you're going to pay that price, go all in with a real BBK kit (AP, Wilwood, avoid StopTech).
I've also done the S54 and MK60 swap, but full on track car (both run bare bones and independant of other systems on the car), but happy to answer any questions.
Good luck with the build!

[sfcarguy]

Not to derail OPs thread here but I thought this deserved mentioning

if you're going to pay that price, go all in with a real BBK kit (AP, Wilwood, avoid StopTech)

The situation with StopTech is somewhat sad. The new management moved distribution, laid off a lot of good people, created massive delays in fulfillment, and discontinued a lot of products in an effort to cut costs. Their BBKs used to be very good, but it's unclear where they stand now since ST was bought out. I would be wary of buying a new ST kit given the unknown future support and parts availability.

Also, Brembo aftermarket BBKs a great option with lots of pad support (looking at you AP) and offer matching rears calipers (because bling). Race Technologies is the big distributor of these products in NA so they would be the best place to buy them.

Read this thread over on NAM3Forum for more info on StopTech:
https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...mpany-problems

[Braymond141]

Not to derail OPs thread here but I thought this deserved mentioning



The situation with StopTech is somewhat sad. The new management moved distribution, laid off a lot of good people, created massive delays in fulfillment, and discontinued a lot of products in an effort to cut costs. Their BBKs used to be very good, but it's unclear where they stand now since ST was bought out. I would be wary of buying a new ST kit given the unknown future support and parts availability.

Also, Brembo aftermarket BBKs a great option with lots of pad support (looking at you AP) and offer matching rears calipers (because bling). Race Technologies is the big distributor of these products in NA so they would be the best place to buy them.

Read this thread over on NAM3Forum for more info on StopTech:
https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...mpany-problems

Great. I have a new Stoptech Trophy kit.

[aeronaut]

Not to derail OPs thread here but I thought this deserved mentioning



The situation with StopTech is somewhat sad. The new management moved distribution, laid off a lot of good people, created massive delays in fulfillment, and discontinued a lot of products in an effort to cut costs. Their BBKs used to be very good, but it's unclear where they stand now since ST was bought out. I would be wary of buying a new ST kit given the unknown future support and parts availability.

Also, Brembo aftermarket BBKs a great option with lots of pad support (looking at you AP) and offer matching rears calipers (because bling). Race Technologies is the big distributor of these products in NA so they would be the best place to buy them.

Read this thread over on NAM3Forum for more info on StopTech:
https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...mpany-problems

2 friends just installed different ST kits, and both had rotors destroyed in just a few events, and pads eaten away too. Replaced the ST rotors with girodisk rotors, and all is much better. The distributor of the the kits admitted problems with recent ST kits.