E46 Drift Build turbo 5.3 lots of goodies

[sidewaysfab]

Hey guys I'm new to this forum but wanted to post my build here in case I have any questions. It's a 99 325i 4 door that I'm doing a full build on to do drift competitions. Plans are a 5.3 ls with a mid frame turbo, z33 six speed with a Brett Collin performance adapter plate, bc racing coilovers, formula drift legal roll cage, custom building rear suspension arms and front lca's and steering mods, rear mounted radiator, big wing and more goodies. So far I've made solid engine mounts, relocated the steering rack an inch towards the rear, stripped everything, and cut some stuff. ill post a few pics after work when I get on a computer

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When I first bought the car with what i was told was a blown head gasket ended up being a broken coolant hose.

Got the car to my shop at 5 am and started stripping it.




Got it fully stripped down a few hours later then got some sleep


A couple of days later I got the engine test fitted in the car. Fit nicely with no major interference besides it was close to the brake booster. Then threw the front end to see some sexiness and picked up a professional products intake manifold



Made the motor mounts solid bolting to the chassis out of 1/4" plate steel. These should be plenty beefy enough for 600-700 WHP. The trunk floor and license plate area were cut out to provide air flow to the rear mounted radiator.



I used some e36 arms I had to test clearance at high steering angles. These are 36 arms that are extended by 5.5" which translates to 4" extended 46 arms. Ill most likely go with 3.5" along with custom top hats to reduce the front camber to around 3*

[DriftProf]

Very cool. I had thought about some form of LS based V8 for more power in the future so its always fun to see someone going right to it. What have you done for your past drift cars?

[sidewaysfab]

Ive never even driven an ls car but i bought this engine a while ago because i was gonna put it in my 240 but decided to buy this instead. The only other drift car ive built for myself is an s13 with a built ka24det. Its been really fun to learn on but its a missile and i wanted a nice drift car.

So far the parts ive bought but dont have pics of are
ARC 8000R chassis harness
Megasquirt MS3/MS3x from linfert performance
NRG quick release
Aluminum deep dish steering wheel
Treadstone TRST9 Intercooler
hood pins
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 for the gauges
Collins Performance LS to z33 adapter plate
and probably some little stuff im forgetting

[Rustyfriend]

Def in for this build as I'll be also picking up an e46 with thoughts of a turbo truck motor

[TheM3nsah]

Seems pretty cool, what turbo and level of power are you aiming for?

[MDRracing13]

Subscribed. This looks awesome, good luck on the build. I plan to one day (hopefully next year) throw an ls in my e46. How do you plan on wiring this thing up?

[sidewaysfab]

Haven't picked the specific turbo yet but something along the lines of a garrett GT42. Power will hopefully be around 600 to the wheels. Chassis wiring will be an ARC 8000R and the engine will have a custom harness built for megasquirt

[sidewaysfab]

Finally got back to my shop and started getting some stuff on it.
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[r0taryh3ad]

Can you give some details about the planned rear mount radiator setup?

tube diameter, tube routing, expansion tank placement, stock waterpump+inline electric pump or just electric pump etc?

[ShakotanRon]

This is awesome, I am planing to put a 5.3 in my e46, and down the line turbo It. im also going with a nissan transmission, but will most likely opt for the z32 trans mated with the loj innovations adapter kit. Your car will probably be operational be for I even get to installing the motor. Im sub'd watching your build will be alot of help! I believe a guy I know named hector had you start his tube front. And I believe you bought this car from arcadio?

[sidewaysfab]

I don't have exact plans for the rear radiator but the coolant lines will be routed in the cab down the passenger side. Pump will be electric only.
@shakotanron can't wait to see that build! You should check out collins adapters because I think they have a z32 adapter too. Yes I started a tube front for him at my last shop before my lease ended and I welded amother tube front for him that he made. And yeah I think that was his name!

[r0taryh3ad]

what water pump will u use?
From personal experience on other cars, I only can tell you... please stay away from the stewart units!
A friend of mine lost an engine 3 years ago because of a faulty controller on his street car… it was controller number 3! After killing his engine because of overheating the dealer told him that they currently have several customers with faulty controller units.

[sidewaysfab]

I was looking at the jegs remote water pump.

[ShakotanRon]

What are you planing to do about the weak subframe mounting points?

[1FRacing]

no need to run electric.. stock water pump plenty strong and works great if you bleed the system right.. I've never had a problem nor several others i know that run rear mount... unless your doing it for another reason stock works great.

[1FRacing]

any updates? you make your own manifolds or using stock flipped and swapped sides?

[sidewaysfab]

I will be running braces from the cage to the subframe mounts. Not many updates but I started mounting the diff, made the knuckles, and started on the tube front.

[ShakotanRon]

I will be running braces from the cage to the subframe mounts. Not many updates but I started mounting the diff, made the knuckles, and started on the tube front.

Looks roll center corrected?

Looks like you switched to e46 arms?

I am going to be moding my knuckles, this, or next week, probably going to do some rc correction, in the case of these knucks, it actually seems easier to just do that.

I'm stuggling with sorting out a safe method to extending the lca's.

[sidewaysfab]

They have 1.5" of roll center correction. I'll be making custom tubular lca's for this too. Im not sure of a safe way to mod stock arms but Im using an e36 arm with welded extensions to mock up length and caster angle. Those might work with some thick shit welded in. If you want more pics of the knuckles I can send you some.

[sidewaysfab]

Haven't posted an update in a while so here you go. I'm pushing to get this car done within the next few months so hopefully Ill be posting a lot more progress pics.

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Haven't posted an update in a while so here you go. I'm pushing to get this car done within the next few months so hopefully Ill be posting a lot more progress pics.

[sidewaysfab]

Got the upper door bars done tonight. Not much left to finish the cage before final welding.

[sidewaysfab]

Got the passenger side wheel intrusion bars tacked in place. Drivers side ones are cut but need a littletter shaping to fit tight. Gutted the rest of the door and hood as well.

[sidewaysfab]

Cage is finished aside from the upper door bars, a few misc reinforcements and the subframe reinforcement tying into the cage. I decided to get the headlights fitted in tack the Treads tone intercooler in place and mount the turbo. I used 18 gauge steel radiused lengthwise for strength. The turbo is a garrett gt3872va from a ford 6.0.
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[sidewaysfab]

Welded on the brackets for the dual rear calipers. Started building the Trans tunnel out of aluminum sheet. Nobody cares but I'll still post updates for my self to read later

[protomor]

I care. plz post more.

What caliper setup you going for?