S54 in euro M3 E36

[ulmi]

Hello!

Last year I had some issues with my S50B30 track car, so I decided to go with another engine, the S50 is getting an old engine, and all of the complete engines and parts we can find are almost 20 years old and with high mileage.
Since I love american cars, and after looking at some of your swap topic on this forum, I wanted to put in an LSX, because I had one in a manual Camaro Z28 and really appreciated this engine, with the T56 gearbox. But, my budget was not extensible, and it was a little difficult to find this engine here in France, at a decent price. So, I looked some other threads on bimmerforums, and the decision was to put an S54, wich figured to be a pretty easy and affordable swap, half of the LSX swap.

The swap itself took 70 hours, and 20 more for some tune up and minor mods. I'll post all of the work done, please feel free to ask questions, comments, or correct some mistakes, my english should not be very good.
A buddy made the major work on my car, I helped a little when possible.

So this is the beginning:



A good tune up was started before throwing it into the E36...

Some minor surprise, the cooling fan was glued...





The secondary air pump, wich will be deleted.





Engine dismantling continues with cylinder head cover, spark plug and coils...




Oil pan:




Now the interesting thing:




Oil pump and cylinder 1 rod bearing:






M11 bolts, so the BMW recall for the rod has not been done, but the bearings were not old, so it has already been changed. .

Previously, I had issues with the oil pump in the S50, so we opened it:










Some little marks, but nothing significant, all is in working order.

Reassembling:




The shaft seal started to leak, will be changed:



Waiting for some parts for the engine:



Some thongs to repair or upgrade in order to put the S54, beginning with this:



Admire the crack...




Got rid of the canister:




The DME and vanos chip:




Their original location, with the original dust :p :




S50 harness:




ABS:




The free space, brake lines will have to be reorganised:




Blocking the tanks holes:



Secondary air pump delete:




Rear brake proportioning valve:





A cool thing, the original cover was cracked:



New rotors:



Brake lines mounted:







The complete system was bled 2 times, just to be sur .

New rod bearing, with ARP bolts.



New shaft seal:






Oil pump reassembling:





Oil pan:



Oil filter housing cleaning:



Replaced the oil thermostat with a diverter (commom issue on this engine, and especially good upgrade for track car).








Oil pressure sender.




Alternator:




Pulleys:




Valve clearance, only 1 of 24 was not in tolerance. Pretty easier to do besides to the E36:




But the adjusting plates are tiny, beware not to let them fall into the block.



Reassembling...





I kept the entire E36 transmission, including the flywheel, clutch and 5 speed gearbox.


Flywheel:




Clutch:




Good boy!




Gearbox:




First problem, the E46 starter has not the same bolts, we had to drill the gearbox.
Second, the E46 fuel filter with regulator were not in good position, we had to put it in a better way.

After, that, it's in! (using of course Z3m engine mounts).




All went good, not too different from an S50.




Driveshaft and shifting rod, plug and play. Fuel lines plugged.
E36 power steering pump bolts on directly.



Some work on the coolant pipes, but nothing hard (no quick coupling system on E36). I kept my OEM E36 radiator and expansion tank.

Brake vacuum line:






Coolant hoses connection:




Driver side is ok:




Passenger side is a little more difficult due to the different position of the expansion tank.







After that I saw that it was ugly and would not work so I did it again :p



Now, it's always ugly but it works. Lol

Oil level sensor was broken, we put a new one, but I don't really know if this is usefull, since I keep the E36 instrument cluster?



Power steering tank:



Clutch output cylinder:



Air collector in place to check fitment:






The clearance is very tight at some places but it's ok.
The heating valve and round engine connector will have to be moved.




E36 late model water temp double sensor:



The engine was a SMG2, so we had to cut some wires on the harness.



Done:






I didn't wanted to buy an expensive induction kit, so I made with things I had from old cars: I took an E39 540i MAF sensor housing, with the S54 MAF, and it's done, for almost free.




Gearbox mounts and driveshaft bolts fastened.



As I read here and somewhere else, I bought a cheap ebay supersprint knockoff header, but the fitting was calamitous, there were too much work to be done, for maybe no gain.



So here we are with the OEM S54 headers, and the mid-pipe: (read somewhere that the E36 exhaust bolts on the E46 header, this is NOT true :p )



Preparing to fly by wire:




The new one:



On all the threads I read, I did not remember of issues with that, but we founded that it was not really a pleasant and easy job...






















Moving of the round engine connector and heater valve:






Air collector, MAF and filter placed too check fitment and see where we could put the DME and wires:



Lol:



The strut tower brace will not fit:





Supersprint x-pipe:














Exhaust temp sensor mount:



That's ok!:



Header bolt on:



I bought a plug and play harness from andrew325is on R3Vlimited, great job!

Lambda's and temp sensor wires:





Fuse box wiring:



Harness wires:



Inside the car for the sport mode button and the fly by wire acceleration pedal:




OBD2 connector instead of A/C lines:








OBD plug ground:








Sport mode button, no need to put on the dash, the DME has been coded to always stay in sport mode:




Pedal plugged:





One more ground:



Header's heat shield:



Complete exhaust ok:



All wires at their definitive location:



Here is finished too:



Some brake work:







A nice silicon base for the DME emplacement.



Reassembling...







I bought a manual air collector, instead of the SMG one, we will see why further.



DME fixing and protecting:





















The hood is closing, tight clearance...
The harness, were the SMG tank was. We won at least 1 inch of free wire, no more tension on them.





New wheel studs on the 4 wheels.





Cooling fan:



Not enough space to put back the fan cover.



End of the brake job:


















Strut tower brace modification:



























Carbon fiber cover, just to say :




Brace finished:








And more important, the hood is still closing



After that, some miles of road testing, and a good wash Everything is ok. No leaks, great sound, that strange feeling when you rev after the red zone end!



And the last thing of this year: a "Real Cold Air intake"



First trackday in 2 weeks. Can't wait anymore!

[DatTugrut]

Great build. Love the attention to detail.

[m3bs]

Nice work. I'm enjoying mine. Are you sure the DME was programmed to stay in Sport mode? Mine is locked in normal, and I still need to be very careful with throttle application on track.

[ulmi]

Thanks!

i didn't wanted that, but yes, the DME I bought is coded to be always in sport mode. I saw the pedal travel is shorter than with my old pedal too, I'll see if it's a problem very soon.

[ulmi]

First on road test, very very successful! this engine is amazing.
Tomorrow the car goes for a good alignment, and next week first trackday

[ulmi]

Some news, not good.
After first trackday, I realize that the power was not as expected. I checked compressions, And only cylinder 1 was ok

Took off the cylinder head, nothing special about it.





Some oil on top of pistons, will be easily cleaned.




Headgasket, broken between cylinders 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6!:










We will replace the vanos o-rings too.

[TerraPhantm]

M11 bolts, so the BMW recall for the rod has not been done, but the bearings were not old, so it has already been changed. .

Doesn't actually mean the recall wasn't done. The M11 rods were only replaced with the M10 rods if the rods were damaged

[ulmi]

Are you sure about this? Haven't found the M11 rod bolts on RealOEM, so I ordered ARP instead ( $$$ )

- - - Updated - - -

Vanos splined shafts:










After, time for the piston rings, unfortunately I broke the last one...








I'll see if I can order only this one...

[TerraPhantm]

Are you sure about this? Haven't found the M11 rod bolts on RealOEM, so I ordered ARP instead ( $$$ )

Positive. They never sold the M11 bolts separately; they were meant to be reused.

[auaq]

Nice work.

[ulmi]

Thanks

[ulmi]

It follows here, with the head back from surfacing:






We will replace the valve seal rings.
Just fabricated a tool with a 12mm socket:






Some surprise, some valve collet are broken:




And each time the collet was broken, the upper spring plate was in bad shape like this:




Don't know the cause, never seen that.

Exhaust valve need some cleaning:




With friends:




Pretty clean:






After some time and work:






Exhaust manifold stud bolts replaced:







Intake valve ok:




One exhaust valve cleaned just before lapping:



All valve cleaned:




Lapping starts:




Then spring pockets and valve seal rings:




Then valve leaking test:

[ulmi]

New valve seal rings:






Valve springs:






Head finished:




And I got the vanos ring so this is good too.

[ulmi]

Gold plated cylinder head gasket :p :






Head tightened:




Cams:






Vanos timing:








Waiting for some parts to continue.

[auaq]

Almost there.

[ulmi]

Header and other engine peripherals on:









I'm trying a SPAL instead of the OEM clutch fan:



Wiring:



Wired in order to force the fan on by pushing on the front fog lights switch:



The car finished:




Done a little test drive, all seems fine. Now checking for leaks, and taking compressions again, just to be sure

[B10 BITURBO]

Excellent work !!!!!!!

[auaq]

Nice.

[=BA=]

What made you ditch ABS? The ABS system in the euro 3.0 car operates completely standalone. It can co exist with the S54 engine. The only lines that run to the engine harness are the Rx and Tx lines for the diagnostics connector.

Also, the S50B30 steering pump physically fits, but I had issues with fluid cooking because of the 8000 RPM redline on track. I have put a S54 pump on it, but the connections didnt match up so used hoses from the Z3M S54. The only issue now is that the steering is a little on the light side.

[ulmi]

Ok thanks, for the steering pump I did not track enough yet to see any issue, but you could be right. I thought I could re-use the S54 pulley in order to underdrive it, but they are the same diameter. I'll see if I can find any pulley wich could be smaller than the S50 one, I think that's the way to go.

For the ABS, I was no very hot to ditch it, bit my buddy who's making mechanic for me convinced me it was better, for the moment I regret a little bit, I've to learn to drive the car, I was a little bit "hard" on the brakes before, with the ABS working.

[ulmi]

1 good and 1 bad news.


Black = calculated engine power
Light blue = power at the wheels
Red = Torque
Violet = Lambda (high is too lean, low is too rich)

The good one: horse power is there.

The bad one: between 3500 and 5500rpm, the combustion is too lean, causing a power and torque fall, and all is good again at 6000rpm ( runs like a Honda engine )

We've got 3 ideas:

* 1 injector ?

* vanos (fresh rebuilt?)

* the DME

If ever you see something else, don't hesitate!

[TerraPhantm]

My guess would be VANOS.

[ulmi]

It could cause the engine runnig too lean?

[=BA=]

With the programming we had done to get rid of the EWS and such, somehow the fuel map was all over the place as well. So I had complete new software written. Also It didnt help that I use a catless exhaust system.

About underdriving the steering pump by the way. I wanted to do just that, but I ordered the TMS race pulley kit and when I came to install it then I realized that they had reused the S50 pump when installing the engine. So that why I went with the E46 pump together with the TMS pulley instead.

[ulmi]

With the programming we had done to get rid of the EWS and such, somehow the fuel map was all over the place as well. So I had complete new software written. Also It didnt help that I use a catless exhaust system.

This night I maybe found the problem, I kept the original E36 fuel pump, wich is only rated at 3,5 bar, and the S54 need 5, so this is maybe why the engine runs too lean.

This is the first thing I'll try, and the fuel pump on the car has about 21 years and more than 120k miles on it, so it's the time, I'm thinking about putting a Walbro.

And the other thing, I get a Fault code about the fuel pump relay, I thought it was caused by the swap itself and the "mixed" harness, but now when I read here some topic about S54 swap, some says that they put the e46 fuel pump relay (EKP), and I didn't do that.