Blackknight530i’s 530i6 6-speed swap build thread

[blackknight530i]

So, I got the pedals installed this evening. I bought a pedal cluster from Adam (Clemster) that included the clutch pedal and brake pedal along with the clutch master cylinder, but as many of us know, the M5 uses the old style accelerator pedal that has a huge pin sticking out on the right side of the cluster to hold the pedal. Rather than swap the whole cluster over and have to remove that pin, so as to not interfere with the new style accelerator pedal in my 530i, I just swapped the brake pedal and the clutch pedal with associated components to my current cluster. This worked perfectly and ensured that I had the correct brake light switch without having to swap that over to the other cluster. I also needed to modify the underdash panel to allow the clutch pedal to slide in the slot. While there isn't a specific template to cut out on the auto panel, the foam behind the plastic panel is somewhat of a guide and with that along with the general shape of the plastic, you can figure it out easy enough. Once you have it cut close, just put it in place and test the full range of motion of the clutch pedal and make sure it clears the plastic. If it doesn't clear, just take a bit more plastic off where it rubs. Easy enough to do.

Some notes on the process are that there is a zip tie way up at the top of the brake switch bracket holding the wire harness for the switch that needs to be cut to allow the whole pedal cluster to come out. There are only 3 13mm nuts holding the cluster to the car, two of which are obvious as they are the two that hold the brake booster to the firewall, but the third is way up high and is easiest to get to by using a long extension and going right above the brake switch bracket. Once the 3 are out, you need to disconnect the clip on the pin going through the brake booster and brake pedal, then remove the pin. After that, I find it's easiest to turn it with the pedals going towards the left side of the car almost 90* to clear the brake booster piston. At this point, you might be able to just pull it straight down and out, but before I knew about the zip tie on the wiring harness, I had to remove the lower dash. It probably made it a bit easier to get to the nuts anyways, so you might want to do this from the start. Also, it's highly recommended that you slide the driver seat back as far as it will go to give you as much room as you can get in the floorboard.

[mbonder]

Just came upon this thread and didn't realize you guys use Morristown BMW for OEM parts. They are a couple miles from my house and my best friend's father used to work as a tech there. Huge dealership and there are some good people (techs and parts guys) working there.

Good work so far, I read through much of Stuck's thread on his build, will follow this one as well, I too have a 530i but with a 5 speed and have been thinking about the m5 rear end swap so I'll be interested when you get to that point how it goes for you.

[auaq]

Notes taken down/saved/bookmarked/copynpasted/printed/and emailed to myself. ; >)

[blackknight530i]

notes taken down/saved/bookmarked/copynpasted/printed/and emailed to myself. ; >)

lol

[auaq]

I wonder ..... now that the pedal cluster has been installed and being a little cheeky ... if you actually do any heel-n-toe when coming to a stop .... while it's still an automatic!

[blackknight530i]

I wonder ..... now that the pedal cluster has been installed and being a little cheeky ... if you actually do any heel-n-toe when coming to a stop .... while it's still an automatic!

Well, considering how much ice is still on the roads, no. Thing is, the brake pedal is in the same place it was before and I never did heal/toe with an auto before. If I tried to do it with the steptronic, I don't think it would work well since the car blips the throttle when you shift anyways.

[blackknight530i]

Got the last major part in today, the 6MT bellhousing.



Ready to get started on it tomorrow!

[JimLev]

Those roller bearing look beefy.
Are you doing your axles too?
Should be easier than the one on B's sled.

[philly98540]

Looking good Paul.

[auaq]

Any interesting thing to know in that pic? Any part that was machined/modified or was it only the bellhousing that received some work?

[blackknight530i]

Any interesting thing to know in that pic? Any part that was machined/modified or was it only the bellhousing that received some work?

Not really. This is an actual 6MT bellhousing pulled from a non-SMG transmission, so everything is as it would be. It'll be getting a new input shaft seal and a good cleaning (It's what Brian and I do, LOL), then installed onto the SMG transmission, turning it into a 6MT transmission. The only other thing that would normally need to be modified is tapping the hole for the gear recognition switch, but since I'm using a M54 and not a S54, this is not needed right now. The original plan was to get a SMG bellhousing that was already modified and sending my SMG BH as a core, but I found someone selling the 6MT BH for a bit less and didn't require my core. I'm likely still going to send my SMG BH to the guy that modifies them since I don't have a use for it otherwise. Effectively though, either the modified BH or the actual 6MT BH would be basically the same.

Also, I love how clean the internals are on transmission parts. It's amazing how in a closed sealed system, dirt really doesn't play that much of a factor. The few specks you see of dirt are from the rag the guy put in there when he shipped it to keep the fluid from leaking out of the box. I was a bit worried when I opened the box to see how it was shipped, but surprisingly, it didn't appear to be damaged at all. The mating surface looks nearly perfect, other than some old RTV or whatever kind of sealant was there before.

I will be posting a picture of the SMG bellhousing when I get it taken off to show the comparison between the shift linkages, though I'm sure there are plenty of pics all over the net already. I like to have them in the same thread just so they are easy to reference.

[dk500]

oh ma gawd getting close

[blackknight530i]

oh ma gawd getting close

Inorite! I'm so excited! I'm debating leaving work early to get a quicker start tomorrow.

[dk500]

Inorite! I'm so excited! I'm debating leaving work early to get a quicker start tomorrow.

I wished I lived in Charlotte so I could see it once it was done haha. And also go and watch the NFC championship....

[blackknight530i]

So, got to Brian's this afternoon and before we got started on my car, we went for a ride in his beastwagon (2003 M5T Supercharged, in case you didn't already know) since it was the first time I had a chance to since helping him with the S62 swap and supercharger install. The car is insanely fast and sounds amazing.

After we got back and had dinner, we headed to the shop to at least get the bellhousing swapped out. Since we were going to have to let the RTV set for around 24 hours, I wanted to get that taken care of first so we wouldn't have to wait on it before installing the transmission in the car. That part went very smoothly after I cleaned the new bellhousing as best I could and installed the new input shaft seal.



Here is Brian laying the bead of RTV on the trans before we slid the bellhousing on. We made sure when we removed the bellhousing that no bearings or pins or anything else fell out and installation was surprisingly smooth, once we discovered that the bolts that hold the bellhousing to the case are actually 1/2" rather than 13mm. Most DIYs I found say they are 13mm, but when the wrench slipped on the 2nd bolt, we decided to see of the 1/2" fit better and it was nearly perfect. Considering how tight they are, you want the correct wrench.

We'll swap the output flanges tomorrow morning since the 540i transmission is in the basement below the shop and he doesn't have an air hose down there for the impact gun.

More updates tomorrow.

[auaq]

Have set my alarm for 4:30am.

[Redshift]

Let's stream it live on BoroscopeCam

[blackknight530i]

Have set my alarm for 4:30am.

Can't imagine why you'd do that you gonna get started before we're awake?

[blackknight530i]

Let's stream it live on BoroscopeCam

Ooh, good idea

[auaq]

Any updates?

[blackknight530i]

Ok, so today was a very busy day.

It started off with a new friend with an e60 M5 (Mike) coming by to hang out a bit and we got started swapping over the output flange from the 540i transmission to the M3 transmission. We used a 6-point 36mm socket to remove the output flange nut with an impact gun and then used a custom puller we had made previously, but a 3-jaw puller would have worked just fine, to remove the flange from the end of the transmission. This part went pretty quickly and we don't really have pictures since it's a pretty straightforward process. When we put the new flange on the M3 transmission, we used Loctite 518 (red gel) sealant on the face of the nut and Loctite 243 threadlocker (blue liquid) on the threads as specified in ISTA and torqued it to 200 Nm (148 lb-ft). Torquing that nut with the transmission out of the car is quite difficult, but it helps if you have a long 3/8" drive extension you can put through the flange bolt hole and brace it against the transmission case.

After we finished with the transmission, we started disassembling the car. We started out dropping the exhaust (mine had been removed before, so the bolts weren't really seized and had been replaced the last time) and then the driveshaft. It was amazing how much smaller the driveshaft, diff, axles, etc. are compared to the V8 parts that were going in. Yes, I realize that I'm actually adding a bunch of weight to the car and making it a bit slower by doing this swap, but it will be more fun, especially when I do some power addition later. After the diff was removed, We did the rear diff mount bushings. Having the right tool for this job made it go way easy. We had them swapped out in about 15 minutes or so.



I had already done the front bushing in the past and it still looked great, so we skipped it this time.

The axles came next. We installed M5 axles from Clemster, which said they had 103k miles, but might have well been brand new with the condition they were in. We pulled the old ones out with a large puller that mounts to the hub and presses the axle out from the center, which worked very well and we had them swapped out very quickly. To pull them in, it's so much easier to do with the diff out of the car.



We lined up the outer splines with the hub, used a block of wood and a dead-blow hammer on the inside CV end and got them started, then used a custom made puller that has an axle nut that's been ground down to the bottom edge welded to a bracket with 2 bolts threaded in. Once the axle nut got started on the threads, it's just a matter of turning the bolts at the same time or alternating to pull the axle into the hub. Then the new axle nuts were ready to be installed.

Next came our obligatory detailing of drivetrain components before installation Here I am scrubbing away with some Purple Power and a scrub brush and rinsing with hot water.



We then got the diff installed and decided it was time to start on the transmission. My buddy Stephen from Charlotte came up in the morning to help out for the day, and we were so glad he did. Stephen hadn't worked on a car on a lift before, and I think he's a bit spoiled now, though we did come to a bit of a snag when removing the bolts for the auto transmission. It was only the second bolt we were removing from the bellhousing, but it seemed to be getting tighter as we were trying to loosen it, after only about 1/4 turn or so. We came to the conclusion that it had been cross-threaded the last time the transmission was removed to replace the torque converter at about 100k miles or so. I'm a little upset with my mechanic from that time who did the work, but it's not like I can say anything now, plus he's a good friend of mine. Anyways, we couldn't let this stop us from accomplishing our goals, since we couldn't exactly tighten it either, so we tried to get it as loose as we could, until I noticed that it wasn't turning the bolt when the ratchet turned. We figured that the bolt was about to break, so we figured we would go ahead and cut the bolt head off and deal with the bolt after the transmission was out of the way.

Here's Brian cutting away on the bolt head:



After we got the bolt head cut off, the transmission came out pretty much as easily as any other we've removed. We had to disconnect the transmission cooling lines and drain the fluid, as well as disconnect the bolts for the torque converter, but it just slid right off that bolt that was still stuck in there.





With the transmission out of the way, we came up with several ideas to try to get the bolt out. The first involved grinding the smooth part flat on the top and bottom so we could get a wrench on it, which didn't work at all. The wrench went on it, but it proceeded to slip on the shaft right away. The next idea was to cut off the smooth part down to the threads and do the old stud removal trick of putting two nuts together and tightening them as much as possible together and unscrewing it, but all that accomplished was removing the nuts again. The bolt was just not going to move. The next idea was to cut it off as close as we could to the dowel and start drilling it out. This took a very long time as the bolt is quite hard and even though it started out centered, it ended up pushing a bit up and kind of wallowing out the hole a bit. Of course, I wasn't happy with this outcome, but what choice did I have? We got it drilled all the way through and tried to get the rest of the bolt out, but it still wouldn't budge, so we made sure we could get a grade 8 M10x1.5x100mm bolt through the hole with a lock nut on the opposite side. We think this will work well enough, as it's really the only option we have.



Next we decided to knock out the clutch hydraulic line since we had the transmission removed. I had already installed the pedals, so it was a matter of removing the accelerator pedal and it's bracket as well as the under dash panel and kick panel to be able to fold the carpet down to get the line installed from under the car. Once we fed the line into the master cylinder, we pulled the grommet in from the inside of the car, which wasn't really easy. We normally would have done the master cylinder supply hose when installing the pedal cluster, but since I had already installed it, we had a bit of an issue there. The hose was just too difficult to get on the barb fitting with the master cylinder installed, so we had to remove the 2 bolts and the clip and remove the master cylinder from the pedal cluster to apply some silicone spray and slide the hose on, then reinstall. That took a long time because my left shoulder didn't want me to be tightening those little 10mm bolts at that angle.

I eventually got that done though and since I was tired of working in the interior for a bit, we moved on to the flywheel and clutch install. The pilot bearing went in pretty easily with a bit of ATF coated on it and hammering it in with a dead-blow hammer and a 22mm socket until it was fully seated. Next came the M3 flywheel. This matched up to the dowel on the crank and we oiled the threads on the bolts and started all 8 before tightening them all to 105 Nm. After that, we put the clutch disk in with the centering tool and mounted the pressure plate with brand new bolts. Tech note: remove the screw in the centering tool that comes with the clutch kit almost all the way before putting the pressure plate on as mine was very tight on it and it was turning the clutch disk when trying to remove it so we could remove the locking plate. Once the locking plate is removed, you can thread the screw back into the centering tool and remove it.



Finally, we were ready to remove the auto steptronic shifter mechanism. Unlike my e38 6-speed swap, the shifter can be removed without completely removing the center console. We did need to remove the auto shift knob, boot, indicator plate, armrest, and console trim, but fortunately, that was it. We also had to disconnect the shift interlock cable from the shifter that goes to the ignition switch. On a manual car, it has a different steering column without the shift interlock cable attached, but if you completely remove the cable from an auto steering column, it will keep your key in all the time, like the car is in Neutral, but if you leave the cable on the steering column and just leave it unattached on the shifter end, it works just like a manual car.



Tomorrow, we get started with installing the UUC Evo3/DSSR onto the brand new shifter arm and get the transmission mounted. We'll need to put some grease on the input shaft splines after wire-brushing them to clean the rust off. Then we'll apply grease to the new guide tube, new clutch release fork, and new OE throwout bearing. We'll also be putting the brand new M5 CSB and Giubo on the 540i6 driveshaft and getting that installed. We'll install the M3 slave cylinder and bleed the system, disconnect the EGS computer and reset adaptations, and code the DSC, IKE, and whatever other modules that require showing it's a manual. It sounds like a lot to do, but I think we're in the home stretch. I'm hoping to be rowing my own gears back to Charlotte tomorrow evening

[jdjg]

nice work bro, like all your clusters... one question, do I need to do the 540 output flange if I have a manual transmission (and not the sMg like you) from the m3 e46?

[JimLev]

Nice work guys, must take you almost as long to do these posts as it does the actual work on the car.
Wish I was still there to give you guys a hand........and get a ride in that beastwagon.

[blackknight530i]

nice work bro, like all your clusters... one question, do I need to do the 540 output flange if I have a manual transmission (and not the sMg like you) from the m3 e46?

The only reason for the v8 flange is if you plan to swap the diff, axles, and driveshaft to the v8 ones, which are a direct swap.

[blackknight530i]

Nice work guys, must take you almost as long to do these posts as it does the actual work on the car.
Wish I was still there to give you guys a hand........and get a ride in that beastwagon.

Haha, yeah, not quite. It took me about an hour or so to write that one, including uploading and linking pics and such.

Wish you were here too Jim, I'm betting you would have come up with another option for that bolt Also, thanks so much for providing the axle installation tool, it made that part quite easy.