My e39 LSx swap

[Compactive]

Holy moly doughnut shop!

Loving the work Clay, can't wait to see this beats in action!

What's the rear looking like these days?

[Christo19]

What size tires are those??

[M5Hunter]

245/40/18 front, 275/35/18 rear

[M5Hunter]

Decided to spend Father's Day doing what I wanted to do.... Spend time with my family? Of coarse not, working on my car!





Started putting the dash back together. Also installed all the welded up charge pipes to make sure everything fit properly. Very happy with the final product. After I got them all in, I decided on a location for the blow off valve which ended up right between the turbo and the I/C.





Having an issue with some air leaking past the injectors. Pulled the rails and injectors out this afternoon and put on new o rings, hoping that they were messed up, but didn't fix it. I have at least 5 of them leaking at the manifold. No fuel leaking obviously, just vacuume leaks. I've been in touch with the company making the fuel rails, since that's just about the only thing it can be, of coarse they have never had this issue. It's a eBay company that a pile of guys recommended to me, and their rails are all working properly. The brackets are bolted to the rails, so I may try to make new brackets to see if it fixes the problem.


Good news is, I'm pretty sure the car will make it to Bimmerfest next month! I have no doubt it will go there on the trailer, but it should be pretty close to drivable at that time!

[fmzip]

for all the LSx'rs weight wise, how does this swap compare to the front end feel of a 540 or a 530? I felt the 540 was a little nose heavy when I test drove one before deciding on the 530.

[M5Hunter]

I'll be honest, I havent really put any miles in with a BMW that actually had a BMW engine, so I am not able to compare.

[nsogiba]

damnit, so close to being done! what's the plan for a cooling system?

i love the idea of a walkaround/update, it always gives a sense of realism and personality to a build. ,

shame i won't see you at Bimmerfest, I will be at Waterfest that weekend.

[M5Hunter]

The cooling system will be a bit of an experiment. I have been toying around with the idea of not using an "expansion/surge" tank. I have an aftermarket radiator which has a radiator cap that is the highest point of the cooling system. I am considering trying to just run a coolant over flow from the cap and have the system closed otherwise. My reasoning is less clutter in the engine bay and less plumbing/hoses running everywhere. I dont know how well its going to work, but all I can do is try it and see what happens. The space is very limited between the radiator and exhaust cross over pipe which makes fan selection very difficult. I will have to make or come up with a very thin fan shroud that I would like to mount 2x chevy malibu fans. Right now, I need to take my lazy buns up to the parts store and dig through there hoses and see what I can find. The exhaust crossover pipe also makes routing the top hose a little difficult.

[Lelan]

The cooling system will be a bit of an experiment. I have been toying around with the idea of not using an "expansion/surge" tank. I have an aftermarket radiator which has a radiator cap that is the highest point of the cooling system. I am considering trying to just run a coolant over flow from the cap and have the system closed otherwise. My reasoning is less clutter in the engine bay and less plumbing/hoses running everywhere. I dont know how well its going to work, but all I can do is try it and see what happens. The space is very limited between the radiator and exhaust cross over pipe which makes fan selection very difficult. I will have to make or come up with a very thin fan shroud that I would like to mount 2x chevy malibu fans. Right now, I need to take my lazy buns up to the parts store and dig through there hoses and see what I can find. The exhaust crossover pipe also makes routing the top hose a little difficult.

The overflow tank will work. I ran an adapter for my upper hose with a fill neck on it using the stock radiator with overflow tank. I am running 2 spal fans that push 1300 cfm each and have had no problems with cooling for the past 1400 miles or so.

[snipez4664]

awsome project

[Avus276]

Amazing

[kiss]

lol, what rock have you been living under?

It seems that they used to be somewhat “special” and “rare”, and oddity among swaps. Now everyone and their mother in law is swapping them due to the staggering depreciation of relatively newer chassis (E39, E38, E46). These cars are reaching the end of the life of many factory components, and non-enthusiast owners don’t want to drop thousands to rebuild a transmission or engine to keep a 10-15 year old car running. Combine that with the low cost of mass produced LS series drivetrain, and it’s a match made in heaven. It’s really kind of fascinating when you think about the economics of how it all comes together.

I would love to do this one day, but with my knowledge of engines and parts, and electrical i would need LOTS of help. I have a few friends who know what they are doing but this would be quite the project some day. My e39 only has 94k miles on it so itll be some years down the line. My e36 M3 has lots of mods to it so I cant imagine swapping that engine out either. I love reading all these posts but it makes me feel nearly illiterate haha

[hefftone]

Have you seen Evans Cooling? Its waterless engine coolant, so you avoid a bunch of corrosion issues, does not expand as much as conventional coolant so the system pressure is lower, and it is supposed to be a lifetime coolant. Sounds cheesy but its worth a look.

[Jesus Freak]

Have you seen Evans Cooling? Its waterless engine coolant, so you avoid a bunch of corrosion issues, does not expand as much as conventional coolant so the system pressure is lower, and it is supposed to be a lifetime coolant. Sounds cheesy but its worth a look.

I talked to my local speed shop guy, brilliant guy, built his own supercharger, custom grinds his own cams... Really smart guy.

He said its a neat idea but would never run it in his car, for a list of reasons I don't remember now.

[M5Hunter]

Its getting closer.... Black kidneys on the way!



Thanks to Brandon(RVAE34) for the headlight donation!

[M5Hunter]

Took the car around the block this evening with the baby spring(7psi). I didn't really get on it as there is still some things that need to be taken care of, but I couldn't pass up a cruise after I got the cooling system bled. I was concerned about having an open wastegate, but I no longer have concerns... it sounds nuts when it opens up. I love it. The cooling system should work well. I don't even have fans and had no problem keeping the car cool in todays 90* weather. stayed around 210* at idle and around 180* while moving, after the fans get added, temps should be easy to control. The car feels good easing it around, feels so refined as compared to my e36. I'm sure using rubber mounts this time plays a big part in that. The car will now stay parked until Bimmerfest in hopes of not breaking it before then. Now I have to get to polishing this turd(as much as I can)

[BRAAP]

Took the car around the block this evening with the baby spring(7psi). I didn't really get on it as there is still some things that need to be taken care of, but I couldn't pass up a cruise after I got the cooling system bled. I was concerned about having an open wastegate, but I no longer have concerns... it sounds nuts when it opens up. I love it. The cooling system should work well. I don't even have fans and had no problem keeping the car cool in todays 90* weather. stayed around 210* at idle and around 180* while moving, after the fans get added, temps should be easy to control. The car feels good easing it around, feels so refined as compared to my e36. I'm sure using rubber mounts this time plays a big part in that. The car will now stay parked until Bimmerfest in hopes of not breaking it before then. Now I have to get to polishing this turd(as much as I can)

Great news...
Give it a good nuts-and-bolts session verifying no leaks, all is tight and well and keep driving it...

[RVAE34]

If you take it for another drive, Surprise me with a pop-in

I won't yell at you and lock the door lol

[M5Hunter]

[RVAE34]

Awesome!!!!!! Cannot wait for a ride.

[douglee25]

That's it?

You're gonna leave us with just that? lol

Doug

[87shark]

We need tires up in smoke.

[M5Hunter]

Well, my goals of holding single digit boost are gone. I was real excited as its been holding 7-8 psi no problem in my spurts, but I ran it out pretty good today and it creeped up to about 11psi in 2nd gear. AFRs on my base tune stayed around 11.4ish and man, this thing is a monster, at least for the 4k pound turd it is. I'm in love with the power delivery. It feels better than the e36 ever felt.

[fmzip]

awesome!

[douglee25]

Very nice man!

Congrats!

Doug