E36 M3 Sedan + LS1/T56 + Samberg Kit

[mateo m3]

very good progress, don't you worry about the driver side header so close to the abs brake lines? wrapping the headers maybe?

[Tongboy]

Great looking kit/project!

I don't understand why everyone is running an aftermarket steering shaft. I'm running my stock steering shaft with the Vorshlag kit. They included one from Flaming River but after having problems with it I tried the stocker and it works/fits perfectly.

I would bet it would probably fit alright... the clearance issue is at the top of the shaft not the bottom where it gets giant. I would worry about that giant rubber slug and all the heat - seeing how it's literally basically wrapped in header at that point. steering isn't something I want to mess with, I hate getting the shafts lined up correctly and well, I don't want my steering dying either... I installed my steering shaft with NO issues and zero interference - it's tight on the top but it was surprisingly easy for me to install it with everything in the car. red loctite all around and it should be good for a nice long time.



I have heat shielding tape to wrap the brake lines in - if that still proves to not be enough i'll wrap the headers or have them ceramic coated. I want to have the problem before I address it (limit the scope of the project and then fix smaller issues after the car is for the most part one piece again, vastly easier in the long run.)


I got the new power steering pulley today and pulled the old pulled off the pump - I took the pump off the motor to use the vise to help the removal/install - I get the new pulley on, i'm all proud and then go to install it and go... shit - I needed to install the bolts into the pump first so yeah, now i'm going to go camping and can't touch the car until sunday and need to pull the pulley off the power steering pump after BRAAP was able to help me get the car so it runs now, agh!

anyways - BRAAP has a video of the engine running he's going to send me so i'll post that So excited to have it running

[bimerok]

... now you can use a BMW tool to read any of the non-engine related systems at the data link connector in the engine bay and any OBD2 emissions testers can plug into the port in the footwell or an hptuners or similar will work there as well.

...

So you kept your BMW round diagnostics connector under the hood?
How did you manage to hook it up?

[Pzary3233]

Great looking kit/project!

I don't understand why everyone is running an aftermarket steering shaft. I'm running my stock steering shaft with the Vorshlag kit. They included one from Flaming River but after having problems with it I tried the stocker and it works/fits perfectly.

Do you have the vorshlag headers in yet?

I have heat shielding tape to wrap the brake lines in - if that still proves to not be enough i'll wrap the headers or have them ceramic coated. I want to have the problem before I address it (limit the scope of the project and then fix smaller issues after the car is for the most part one piece again, vastly easier in the long run.)

anyways - BRAAP has a video of the engine running he's going to send me so i'll post that So excited to have it running

Have a link to what you used? I am probably going to be going crazy with heat shielding stuff...

So you kept your BMW round diagnostics connector under the hood?
How did you manage to hook it up?

Yeah you can keep it, just don't cut it out... The only connections I didn't keep were the ones that were connected to the DME. I assume that I could have connected the DME/PCM stuff to it, but I didn't.

[Tongboy]

Have a link to what you used? I am probably going to be going crazy with heat shielding stuff...

http://www.heatshieldproducts.com/heat_shield_tape.php is what I believe I have. it's some leftover from a heat problem I was having on a heater hose in my VW.

the wiring/hose jackets are better if you want to dissasemble...


on keeping the DLC in the engine bay - that thing has a lot of wires that go to a lot of different engine components. the wiring diagram from the bentley in that things case is very accurate - I've so far only pulled like 3 wires back to the connector (and left them dangling) they were the serial date comm to the DME, the same to the trans computer and a wire that went to the generator/alternator. there are a few other components that I think can be removed but for the most part it doesn't hurt to be able to do diagnostics against that port - you can still set the service lights and related, check the ABS computer, check any other computers that are BMW related except for the DME.

the serial data port that most car component systems talk diagnostic over (the wht/yellow/purple wire in the e36) is semi-universal across platforms - thus all obd2 scanners can talk to various components without issues. it's non-blocking electronically so you can add and remove major components as long as you don't have overlaps - I bet two DME's/PCM's on the same bus would complain unless it was expected (like the bmw twelve cylinder master/slave setup but otherwise the GM PCM can coexist with the 5 or so other BMW specific components on the serial bus and non of them are blocking the others communications. The reason I say leave the DLC is so that the BMW scan tool can still interface with the bmw specific operations at the DLC and the GM specific scanner can interface with the PCM at the OBD2 port (as thats the plug they have for them) Both connectors have the same serial wire (the why/yell/purpl one) but they are in there respective places for their manufacturers (mostly just the OBD2 port change)

clear as mud?


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuHZcRn6tfc[/ame]

[Pzary3233]

That is put much better then how I was trying to say it...

Thanks for the link too!

[bimerok]

Do you think you could write the pin numbers and whether you kept them or where you connected them?

[BRAAP]

BRAAP to the rescue! he was able to delete vats from my car and now it runs!
...
it was scary at first - when the headers warmed up a pinch while the car was idling for 30 seconds or so they started smoking and I thought wires were sitting on them or something and it was just the oil from the pipe manufacturing/bending smoking off.

Glad I was able to help out, also very cool to see/hear one start up and run for the first time.

I have a useful little anecdote that might save some time/frustration for the other obd2 swappers.

the 95+ cars have the obd2 port in the footwell by the drivers foot - they have .....

....this has been confirmed working with an hp tuners.

can't beat a one wire obd2 port hookup.

Worked awesome. My Hp-Tuners connected right up, read the PCM, made the mods, dumped the changes back to the PCM, verified the changes took, car fired right up, worked like a charm.

I realize you are camping this weekend, (more like sitting by the fire crying cause you're not home working on the car, all the while everyone else is just laughing at you during your pity party), but hoping you get it on the road soon, bring it over so we can verify everything with the HPT scanner, and of course go for a ride.

[Tongboy]

Took it for its maiden voyage tonight.

making some noises to look into based on throttle.

sounds MUCH better - the pinging is functionally gone with water in it.

Power steering fluid is, shall we say, being expelled at an expeditious rate. I need a new power steering fluid tank..

tach reads correctly, mph still reads of course. cars charging, lots of little wins and it got its first drive which is awesome!

clutch pedal is SO LIGHT, I swear it doesn't feel like it works but it totally does

[joon]

Do you have an undercarriage pic of how your exhaust looks?

haha this is so inspiring
glad things are coming together for you

[bimerok]

...
clutch pedal is SO LIGHT, I swear it doesn't feel like it works but it totally does

My clutch pedal is also very light with my LS1 swap. I was actually expecting it to be a little harder, especially with LS7 clutch, but regardless of it being light, you can still "feel" the clutch pretty good.

[mateo m3]

nice and congrats on starting it

[M5Hunter]

yea, I'm still getting used to mine... Its like it isnt even there.

[Pzary3233]

Congrats on the drive!

Look forward to hearing more!

[Tongboy]

My clutch pedal is also very light with my LS1 swap. I was actually expecting it to be a little harder, especially with LS7 clutch, but regardless of it being light, you can still "feel" the clutch pretty good.

I want it to actually feel like SOMETHING is there - without the spring I don't know if it would return. it's CRAZY light. I never had a clutch pedal to compare to with the stock setup but I moved my M5 out of the way before driving the ls1 to work today and it's not light but not heavy, you know when it's engaging. with the t56 it is like feather light.

Do you have an undercarriage pic of how your exhaust looks?

haha this is so inspiring
glad things are coming together for you

I'll take some today, the car has only been on the ground since last night and the weather is terrible today.

thanks for the comments everyone, it's been motivational to have it driving again

[Pzary3233]

I want it to actually feel like SOMETHING is there - without the spring I don't know if it would return. it's CRAZY light. I never had a clutch pedal to compare to with the stock setup but I moved my M5 out of the way before driving the ls1 to work today and it's not light but not heavy, you know when it's engaging. with the t56 it is like feather light.




I'll take some today, the car has only been on the ground since last night and the weather is terrible today.

thanks for the comments everyone, it's been motivational to have it driving again

Maybe it's a function of the size of the master Cyl and or the pedal ratio? the stock Fbody I drove for a few minutes had a good pedal feel... maybe it was in the spring? I don't honestly know...

humm.......

[Tongboy]

Maybe it's a function of the size of the master Cyl and or the pedal ratio? the stock Fbody I drove for a few minutes had a good pedal feel... maybe it was in the spring? I don't honestly know...

humm.......

I understand what causes it - size of the BMW master cylinder bore vs the f-bodies and pedal angle to the master cylinder will also have an impact but i'm surprised nobody has really mentioned it because it's SO much lighter than any other clutch i've ever used.

[bimerok]

yep, feels like VW clutch... they usually have very light pedals. But in my case, even though its light, I can still feel the enguagement/disenguagement points... I tried my cousin's Goat/LS2 clutch pedal and did not like it at all....

[Tongboy]

took a bunch of epoxy to my power steering fluid reservoir because the only place I can get another one is ~85 bucks from a GM parts dealer...

also had a little bit of tunnel -> driveshaft interference and took a hammer to it and solved that, I think.

took it out for a 10+ mile drive tonight after I got both of those back into place - couple of stints out to 80+ and it's running pretty well, 6th gear is 1500rpms at 70, yeah, I need a higher final drive... I have some exhaust leaks in my terrible welds I need to touch up. good thing the exhaust is super simple to drop.

I got the ABS light off, the ASC light is still on though and after my drive THE POWER STEERING RES IS STILL LEAKING, grr, fml.

[Tongboy]

I have driven the car ~80 miles now - I filled up for the first time at ~70 miles driven.

got it aligned yesterday - they could only get it so close because the two front tires are different diameter... I'm going to get that addressed with new star specs all around shortly. doesn't pull nearly as bad as it did driving back from AZ though.

I put the interior back together. had to trim out the clutch pedal whole on the drivers kick panel and trimmed the auto bottom plate to allow the shifter to stick through and made a little bracket to move the shifter more center.





angled it a bit towards the driver so its closer - I did not cut the shaft down so it's pretty tall but it's a good length for hte shifter now and it looks quite a bit better than having it apart and certainly a lot better than the auto ever did



I'm going to spend some time working on the jetta the next few days because its the big national TDI fest get together in town this years so I can't miss that.

[douglee25]

Damn son! You work fast!

What was that about 25 days for install? Not too shabby!

What was that slight knock at idle?

Doug

[Tongboy]

14th to the 29th from begin of tear-down to driving around with the new motor in - 16 days, but who's counting :o

pics from right before the first drive of the engine actually in the car buttoned up enough to drive it - note the terrible wiring still to clean and the cooling to clean up



this is how the shifter area looked before I put it back together



another angle for the engine bay with yours truly in it looking to see if it was leaking anything

[BRAAP]

The battery in the lap top is fully charged, your next HP-tune awaits...


cann I goe fer a ryde?... puhleese?... huh huh?... kan I?..

[Pzary3233]

cann i goe fer a test driiiiive?... Puhleese?... Huh huh?... Kan i?..

fixed!

[Tongboy]

fixed!

no better way to motivate someone to finish their own swap then drive someone else's

I gotta give Paul a call to figure out what time Monday