E36 M3 Sedan + LS1/T56 + Samberg Kit

[M5Hunter]

I cant vouch for him, but I did check the pattern, and as long as the pattern is the same then everything else should be identical

Looks good.

Questions -

1. Did you verify tooth contact pattern?
2. How do you know the preload will be identical to the original open diff when you installed the guts of yours in the other? I think it would vary, no?

Doug

[BRAAP]

Today's update is brought to you by better gearing.

put it back in the car and took it for a spin - the gearing is SO MUCH more correct for the engine/tranny - 2nd gear @ 6k is 63mph instead of some oddly spaced ~75
...

Good news.

...
Worth noting - the 3.91 front nose was slightly longer than the 3.38 diff - it protruded farther forward once installed - as such this made my driveshaft as tight as it can possibly be - seriously - to remove my driveshaft I now need to loosen my diff bolts to slide the diff back a bit. This has gotta create an interesting situation for people making "pre-made" e36 driveshafts - an ideal length would be somewhere in the middle of the shorter & longer diff nose...

A few questions if you don't mind.
1) What car/year did your 3.91 diff come from?

2) What makes the 3.91 diff different from your E36 M3 diff? Are all open 188mm diffs that longer style?

3) Is there comprehensive list of BMW Diffs, ratios, dimensions, etc?

Looks good.

Questions -

1. Did you verify tooth contact pattern?
2. How do you know the preload will be identical to the original open diff when you installed the guts of yours in the other? I think it would vary, no?

Doug

Lets say the contact pattern didn't come out correct. Does anyone know if the BMW diffs are adjustable with shims, or? Are parts readily available if adjustment does need to be made?

Thanks in advance.

[Pzary3233]

From what I understand it's a bolt in and pray thing....

Heck even an 8.8 Ford center section has shims...

If you can move anything I bet it's the pinion and associated shims.

[Tongboy]

Looks good.

Questions -

1. Did you verify tooth contact pattern?
2. How do you know the preload will be identical to the original open diff when you installed the guts of yours in the other? I think it would vary, no?

Doug

good questions. these were my fears as well.

I addressed the issues I had the gear to check and left the others mostly to chance...

carrier bearing preload: a function of shims on both sides of the diff - the sides that pop out and that the axles go into - I took a caliper to the shims and all 4 of them were functionally dead on the same size - I don't know if the factory just installed a single size shim and didn't change anything or what but that tells me that at least without having a place rebuild it that if i'm swapping from one diff to the other with the same size shim it should have the same preload as it did in the other housing (assuming housings are unmolested)

if the shims were different from one diff to the other I would have used the shims from the LSD unit - or hell, even the whole outboard side with the races and the seals - move that over and your carrier bearing assembly should remain spot on.

ring and pinion lash/mesh: as I didn't move the carrier bearing one way or the other with shims I assumed this was going to remain exactly in line between the differentials - I greased and looked at the mesh - it fell right in line with the previously lightly worn wear lines so I assume it is unchanged.

pinion crush depth/torque/etc: I didn't touch the pinion so all of the various settings remain un-altered - this is the main reason you move to a known good open diff case - so you don't have to mess with any of the pinion angle stuff.

as a sanity check I spun the whole assembly around by hand feeling for any oddities - I did this on the assembled 3.91 open & 3.38lsd to get a feel for what everything should feel like and then spun the reassembled unit around and everything felt the same as the 3.38lsd (as I had spun that about 30min prior it was the freshest in memory)

[Pzary3233]

Wrong I am! Shims... I must have not had any in the one I did..... herm...

[Tongboy]

I knew you'd eat up this info Paul

Good news.

A few questions if you don't mind.
1) What car/year did your 3.91 diff come from?

this came from a 93 325 - the one down at pick-n-pull in nopo'

2) What makes the 3.91 diff different from your E36 M3 diff? Are all open 188mm diffs that longer style?

I don't know the answer to that - I would guess it would be an m/non-m part difference - the m3 snout is a full circle while the earlier one doesn't have the exterior metal. I'll have to look more closely at both of them to determine if it's the metal snout or the pinion shaft that makes the difference.

3) Is there comprehensive list of BMW Diffs, ratios, dimensions, etc?

ratios is easy to find, open vs LSD - that's easily google searchable but I have never heard talk of different snout lengths - the cases are small (170mm?) medium - 188mm and the large case (210mm?) my understanding is the R&P's from each size can be transferred around without issue as long as the case size remains in the same family.

Lets say the contact pattern didn't come out correct. Does anyone know if the BMW diffs are adjustable with shims, or? Are parts readily available if adjustment does need to be made?

Thanks in advance.

realoem lists parts - rather expensive shims of course - the rest of the stuff in the diff isn't that expensive but the shims seem to come in two packs and are fairly expensively priced.

carrier beaing/output parts
http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?...73&hg=33&fg=10

input/drive flange parts
http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?...72&hg=33&fg=10

[douglee25]

Good info. Thanks.

Like you said a little "left to chance" per say, but what else can you do? Drive it like you stole it!

Doug

[Tongboy]

little maint items around the car over the last few evenings.

trying to deal with fuel smell in the car sometimes - word has it it's common on e36's and it's the fuel lines going into the tank.
started by pulling the back seat and looking at both sides around the fuel lines. the fuel lines have seen better days and might actually be breathing a little fuel but nothing obvious, the hose clamps also looked okay. I figured i'd replace the out hose clamp just to see if it helped.


the outlet is on the passenger side and the return is on the drivers side, it's weird that they both go to different places

neither looked particularly troublesome though there was obvious fuel smell around the passenger side by the fuel pump more than by the return, I might try replacing the big rubber seal around the tank to see if it improves...

I'm trying to track a decel card-in-bicyle-spoke sound from the engine bay, read it could potentially be valvetrain related, pulled the valve covers to see if i had a rocker problem or a bent pushrod



rockers are all good


overhead valve engine heads are SO SIMPLE, my god


more aluminum corrosion on the top of the valve covers as seen on the valley pan and insides of the rails - it was the worst on the top of hte passenger side valve cover


top part of the passenger side - cleaned it up and painted it to match the car color


my spark plug heat cover is still having heat seep through and cooking my new plug wire, sad face.


heat wrapped all the brake lines finally


valve cover back on and painted, it's subtle but I think it matches nicely, better than a corroded cover


nothing looked out of place in the valvetrain, pushrods were straight, everything looked stock, nothing interesting...


next up was starting on some of the common ls1 free/cheap mods.
first up was MAF porting. I still need to tackle finishing up my intake to get the intake all lined up properly in the corner of the engine bay but that will be for another day.

the intake assembly off the car


inlet side of maf


outlet side of maf


midway chopping the center section out


more grinding


took the drill with a sander wheel to it to finish it off - wow, that sander wheel ROCKS


reassembled


next up is the throttle body

[douglee25]

Concerning your fuel smell... pull off the passenger side rear wheel. Then pull out the wheel well liner. You should see a little fuel canister there. My bet is the plastic nipple where the vapor line hooks up is cracked off.

For the fix, cut off the plastic nipple totally flush. Then go to the hardware section of Home Depot/Lowes and purchase some plastic bushings that have relatively same OD and ID of the nipple. Get some two part epoxy and epoxy that piece into place. Now you have a repaired nipple to which you can reattach that hose to.

Doug

[M5Hunter]

I'm diggin' the skeleton hand =)

Nice work, I need to hit up the free mods as well

[BRAAP]

Ahem....



BTW, Nice work on the MAF.

[hefftone]

I wonder if your sound might be a leak from the header flange. I experienced something similar once and that was the source....good luck.

[Tongboy]

Concerning your fuel smell... pull off the passenger side rear wheel. Then pull out the wheel well liner. You should see a little fuel canister there. My bet is the plastic nipple where the vapor line hooks up is cracked off.

For the fix, cut off the plastic nipple totally flush. Then go to the hardware section of Home Depot/Lowes and purchase some plastic bushings that have relatively same OD and ID of the nipple. Get some two part epoxy and epoxy that piece into place. Now you have a repaired nipple to which you can reattach that hose to.

Doug

good info, I pulled the panel off to check for this and do as braap has shown - install the GM evap sensor in the place of the BMW one. No fuel smell in the area and everything looked good.

I think I realized what the issue was and just forgot about it... I currently have my evap hose that runs back into the engine bay dangling down under the car becuase I never extended it and ran it into the ls1 location...

Ahem....



BTW, Nice work on the MAF.

I know I know, I keep putting off tying up the wiring, I'm going to do it this week for sure. Or you can come over and help I'm betting i'll clean up my spark by not having the wiring soldered instead of electrical taped togther

I wonder if your sound might be a leak from the header flange. I experienced something similar once and that was the source....good luck.

i'm starting to wonder if that might be part of my problem. If it is it's easily my passenger side. i'm going to check that tonight and make sure its getting a good seal on the v-band.

Also ported my throttle body lip off on sunday, no real noticeable gains but it makes it an actually 78mm instead of what must be somewhere around 72 with the lip.

[Bsaint]

Just sat at working reading through the whole thread, some great work and fast work

I'm begining my swap soon and will probably be picking some of your brains over the winter.

I will be running a OBDII set up as well but was informed by a friend that HP tuners can remove and of your emission setups. I know it was asked awhile back.

[bimerok]

Just sat at working reading through the whole thread, some great work and fast work

I'm begining my swap soon and will probably be picking some of your brains over the winter.

I will be running a OBDII set up as well but was informed by a friend that HP tuners can remove and of your emission setups. I know it was asked awhile back.

Your car would make it the 2nd LS1 e36 car in the immediate area after mine. Nice

[M5Hunter]

It seems the east coast has a few LSx e36s

[Bsaint]

Your car would make it the 2nd LS1 e36 car in the immediate area after mine. Nice

Never a bad thing. I'll probably seek your advice and guidance for a few things once I get started. I have a Victory Brewery hook up lol

It seems the east coast has a few LSx e36s

I have a few good friends that are LSX guru's, one of my friends who lives abotu 5 miles away has a 1,200whp street driven LSX 427ci supercharged C5 z06 on meth.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...lsx-build.html

[FAST98]

wow reading through this just makes me want to get my car out and finish the damn thing but customers cars come first..... i see Samborg also changed the design of their kit, the one i have from them doesn't have the two arms that extend back and connect at the lower control arm frame mounts.

I didnt read through the whole thing but have you had the car dyno'd? if so what did it make and what does the car weight?

Also i guess i need to start a thread on here of my build so everyone can see what im doing, I love to see all the people that are not afraid to drop a GM motor in their cars!

[Maynor]

Your car would make it the 2nd LS1 e36 car in the immediate area after mine. Nice

Er, 3rd.

[Bsaint]

Er, 3rd.

and you went dry sump too, that was my original plan, but we will see how that turns out.

[Maynor]

If you can avoid it, I would. Not running race slicks pretty much negates the need for it so keep that in mind.

I love that blue color on your car.

John

[Bsaint]

If you can avoid it, I would. Not running race slicks pretty much negates the need for it so keep that in mind.

I love that blue color on your car.

John

The plan for the car's future is to make it a dedicated track car bought it for that (no sunroof) once I get an E46 m3 for DD. So I was thinking more long term, one of those if I'm going to do it do it right from the start. I will keep researching though.

And thanks John!

I was flipping through some pics of your set up looks great, I've love to check it out sometime.

[Zander]

I wouldnt worry about the ticking sound you have tongboy. I have the same thing on my ls1 and normally its more pronounced if you have bigger cams and different heads. One of the Sgts in my unit has a highly modded ZO6 and is big into the lsx motors. Said its very very common for them to tick.

[Tony Soprano]

I wouldnt worry about the ticking sound you have tongboy. I have the same thing on my ls1 and normally its more pronounced if you have bigger cams and different heads. One of the Sgts in my unit has a highly modded ZO6 and is big into the lsx motors. Said its very very common for them to tick.

most cammed pushrod motors will tick. its normal. i dont know why, but it is.

[Tongboy]

some if it for sure can be the exhaust sounds against the tubes in the now tubular exhaust - they echo and ping the sound waves around a lot more than a stock thick pig iron manifold. I'm pretty sure mine is an exhaust leak though - at least exacerbating the sound.