Rebuilt S52 and Shaved/Tucked Bay

[Cosmos Kramer]

my favorite part of the bay treatment is your homage to Edward Munch's "The Scream" on the drivers' inner wheel well. Nice touch, Bobby.

[purduinaM3]

Do you have any pictures of your wire routing?

Just saw this; sorry, no pictures of the wire routing really, I posted majority of the pictures that I took. When you get in that deep it's hard to remember to stop and take pictures of everything

my favorite part of the bay treatment is your homage to Edward Munch's "The Scream" on the drivers' inner wheel well. Nice touch, Bobby.

[Cosmos Kramer]

these pretzels are making me THIRSTY! or maybe I have no saliva left in my mouth. dat bay.

[rpm9100]

Any pics of your roll bar?

Great execution, attention to detail!

[tommyzito]

Great job! That's some good execution for accomplishing that in two months! Looks awesome!

[purduinaM3]

Any pics of your roll bar?

Great execution, attention to detail!

Unfortunately this is the only decent one that I have

Great job! That's some good execution for accomplishing that in two months! Looks awesome!

Thanks! Unfortunately I couldn't work on it every minute of every day or it probably would have been done sooner. And unfortunately it happened at the beginning of the summer, so it was 2 months of the best weather to be missing. But at least I didn't have to wrench in a cold garage!

[Butler]

Wonderful build! I really like your car. Its the perfect combination of clean, sporty, OEM and custom.

[BimmerJM325is]

Be my mechanic?

[purduinaM3]

Wonderful build! I really like your car. Its the perfect combination of clean, sporty, OEM and custom.

That's quite the compliment, thank you!

Be my mechanic?

If you were closer, then hell yeah!

[95s52]

Unfortunately this is the only decent one that I have





Thanks! Unfortunately I couldn't work on it every minute of every day or it probably would have been done sooner. And unfortunately it happened at the beginning of the summer, so it was 2 months of the best weather to be missing. But at least I didn't have to wrench in a cold garage!

YES YES 1000X YES!! Thats the money shot I'm going for. Info on cage and wheel please. Also props on the rebuild. Do you have a running total and what the new parts cost you and where did you buy? I pulled the motor out of my car on Monday currently in the midst of doing research on where to buy the goodies.

Thanks in advance,

Mark

[99MPower]

YES YES 1000X YES!! Thats the money shot I'm going for. Info on cage and wheel please. Also props on the rebuild. Do you have a running total and what the new parts cost you and where did you buy? I pulled the motor out of my car on Monday currently in the midst of doing research on where to buy the goodies.

Thanks in advance,

Mark

hahaha.. full run down... try 10s of thousands of dollars....

[95s52]

hahaha.. full run down... try 10s of thousands of dollars....

My budget is $1200. In your infinite wisdom, do you think I can make this happen? That's parts labor and assembly included!! Considering I pull and install the motor myself.

[99MPower]

My budget is $1200. In your infinite wisdom, do you think I can make this happen? That's parts labor and assembly included!! Considering I pull and install the motor myself.

you posted an interior shot, talked about wheels, and his engine bay/motor build..

care to elaborate what information you EXACTLY want?

Come on Mark, you are not new to this

[purduinaM3]

YES YES 1000X YES!! Thats the money shot I'm going for. Info on cage and wheel please. Also props on the rebuild. Do you have a running total and what the new parts cost you and where did you buy? I pulled the motor out of my car on Monday currently in the midst of doing research on where to buy the goodies.

Thanks in advance,

Mark

Cage is custom, wheel is the Sparco Lap 5. Running total? Yes, but would prefer not to share, or even be reminded of it

My budget is $1200. In your infinite wisdom, do you think I can make this happen? That's parts labor and assembly included!! Considering I pull and install the motor myself.

1200 for what? The motor build? Not if you go anywhere near as far as I did... I don't have the full spreadsheet on my new computer but the engine build was probably triple that when all said and done, and that's with me doing 100% of the labor myself. I did full assembly and everything except machining the crank and hot tanking the head, which barely cost anything at the machine shop. Adds up quick...

[95s52]

I don't see where you're dropping that type of coin when it comes to the rebuild. I'm not looking to replace anything but gaskets (all), seals, bearings, rings and bolts. Maybe the chain tensioner. That puts me at $400-700 depending on how fancy I want to get the with parts. I renewed my cooling sys <500mi ago so everything stays as is. Pistons/rods are being reused. The head is being shaved, checked and reassembled. The hp to $ ratio does not make sense to me to invest in the head. I have a local guy that goes great machine work for a very reasonable price. Only downside is his turn around time. Head work and bottom end assembly is going to run me ~$500.

What am I missing?

[purduinaM3]

I don't see where you're dropping that type of coin when it comes to the rebuild. I'm not looking to replace anything but gaskets (all), seals, bearings, rings and bolts. Maybe the chain tensioner. That puts me at $400-700 depending on how fancy I want to get the with parts. I renewed my cooling sys <500mi ago so everything stays as is. Pistons/rods are being reused. The head is being shaved, checked and reassembled. The hp to $ ratio does not make sense to me to invest in the head. I have a local guy that goes great machine work for a very reasonable price. Only downside is his turn around time. Head work and bottom end assembly is going to run me ~$500.

What am I missing?

Sorry, you were asking about what my build cost in a very broad question. Had no idea what your plans or intentions were.

Here are the main parts:

Lower Engine Gasket Set: $100
Head Gasket Set: $300
Front Crank Bolt: $11
Main Bearing Bolts: $77
Head Bolts: $32
Rod Bearing Bolts: $30
Rod Bearings: $75
Main Bearings: $175
Upper Timing Tensioner: $54
Hydraulic Tensioner: $120

Then there's the little stuff like exhaust studs and new nuts, pressure plate/flywheel bolts, etc etc. That's $1k right there, adds up quick. On top of that, I bought the S54 oil pan and pump, Euro Expansion Tank, Stewart Water Pump, S54 Rad, Spal Fan, new Alternator, all new pulleys/tensioners, headers, Catch Can, shaved and painted bay, etc etc.

Also, new piston rings are $700-800+ if you go OEM. I searched high and low and had some made for $100 from a supplier, but that adds to the cost. Add in machine shop cost and anything I've forgotten, and you're well past your budget. Not to mention any tools you might need that you don't have etc.

[BMWMPow3r]

nice build. didn't know you can use an s54 pump and pan. any modification to make it work with xbrace?

[purduinaM3]

No modification to the X brace or anything of that nature, but you do have to add some brackets to the main bearing caps and block off some sensors on the pan. Theres a thread on here that shows all the part #'s that you need, and its far better than a baffle setup.

[RouteZeroDesign]

Wow! That's some seriously impressive work. I don't think I've seen another shaved e36 bay so nicely executed, with a nice mix of OEM purposefulness and custom touches but without going too far into hot rod "smooth butter" type shaving.

Did you relocate your washer bottle or delete it entirely? I notice you said that you rarely use the wipers, so I think I know the answer to this...
Regarding the wire routing, on the passenger side does the wiring enter the cavity section before the fire wall and on the driver side does it enter just in front of the fuse box?
Does your catch can run direct to atmosphere or is there a vacuum line to pull the vapours out and into the can?
Finally, what are the three multi-pin connectors between your brake booster and fuse box for? I can see the diag. port on the passenger side, but having a right hand drive, 4-cylinder (M44) I don't recognise the others; possibly COP rail etc.? [EDIT]: These are the X20, X69, X6031 (f->r) connectors for anyone wondering.
My apologies for the amount and silliness of the questions at least they're somewhat on topic

[Butler]

Sorry, you were asking about what my build cost in a very broad question. Had no idea what your plans or intentions were.

Here are the main parts:

Lower Engine Gasket Set: $100
Head Gasket Set: $300
Front Crank Bolt: $11
Main Bearing Bolts: $77
Head Bolts: $32
Rod Bearing Bolts: $30
Rod Bearings: $75
Main Bearings: $175
Upper Timing Tensioner: $54
Hydraulic Tensioner: $120

Then there's the little stuff like exhaust studs and new nuts, pressure plate/flywheel bolts, etc etc. That's $1k right there, adds up quick. On top of that, I bought the S54 oil pan and pump, Euro Expansion Tank, Stewart Water Pump, S54 Rad, Spal Fan, new Alternator, all new pulleys/tensioners, headers, Catch Can, shaved and painted bay, etc etc.

Also, new piston rings are $700-800+ if you go OEM. I searched high and low and had some made for $100 from a supplier, but that adds to the cost. Add in machine shop cost and anything I've forgotten, and you're well past your budget. Not to mention any tools you might need that you don't have etc.

Hot damn.

[purduinaM3]

Wow! That's some seriously impressive work. I don't think I've seen another shaved e36 bay so nicely executed, with a nice mix of OEM purposefulness and custom touches but without going too far into hot rod "smooth butter" type shaving.

Did you relocate your washer bottle or delete it entirely? I notice you said that you rarely use the wipers, so I think I know the answer to this...
Regarding the wire routing, on the passenger side does the wiring enter the cavity section before the fire wall and on the driver side does it enter just in front of the fuse box?
Does your catch can run direct to atmosphere or is there a vacuum line to pull the vapours out and into the can?
Finally, what are the three multi-pin connectors between your brake booster and fuse box for? I can see the diag. port on the passenger side, but having a right hand drive, 4-cylinder (M44) I don't recognise the others; possibly COP rail etc.? [EDIT]: These are the X20, X69, X6031 (f->r) connectors for anyone wondering.
My apologies for the amount and silliness of the questions at least they're somewhat on topic

Thanks a lot!! I'll try to answer all your questions..

Washer bottle was deleted. Car doesn't see snow, winter months, and rarely rain (only if I'm caught out in it), so no need for it. I never even let the car get remotely dirty, its washed as often as I can.
The passenger side wiring was all either deleted or relocated. There's an OEM hose for the Euro expansion tank that I snaked up through the cavity but that's it. Drivers side goes from the front of the fuse box into the cavity and then comes out under the rad support.
Catch can vents to atmosphere with the filter on top. Might eventually pull vacuum but for now it functions just fine.
Three Multi-pin connectors on the drivers side are the X20, X69 and X6031 as you've already found.

Hope this helps!

Hot damn.

Yup, easily a 3-4k job doing ALL the labor myself. Well worth it in the end though.

[RouteZeroDesign]

Thanks for help Again, I'm quite envious of your bay, hopefully mine will end up even half as good when its finished

With my catch can I pulled vacuum from the EGR valve as it is effectively in-line between it and the cam cover. I found it wouldnt run smoothly without pulling vacuum but that's probably due to the lack of dampening in my temporary can.
Thanks again for your help

[Foda420]

First off I'd like to say that I, like everyone else here, I am a huge fan of your build. I think it looks super clean and you did a really great job making everything work. Eventually this is something I'd like to do myself, but many years down the road when my bank account gets quite a bit fatter.

Just a couple questions if you don't mind... Would it be possible to use the euro radiator cover without converting to the euro cooling system? I think it looks much much cleaner than the US one. I've already searched "euro radiator cover" and nothing of value comes back. My fan shroud is cracked where the bleeder screw is so I'll definitely need to replace that and wanted to make sure the euro cover works with the shroud since it looks like you're not running one. Thanks!

[NeilM]

Would it be possible to use the euro radiator cover without converting to the euro cooling system?

I like its appearance too, but I believe that the Euro cover doesn't provide the cold air duct to the alternator:


The Euro M3 routes its alternator cooling from below:


Of course there are plenty of people who do without that duct for one reason or another. It would depend on the sort of electrical loads your car sees.

Neil

[BimmerReaper]

Best build thread ever.