Just another boring LS swap into an E36 M3

[squashman702]

Touched some wires to some other wires, started to make a little progress on the relay box. Like I said before, wiring makes for boring pictures, so here's a boring picture.


Here's all the ends of the soldered wires, probably about halfway through hooking everything up.

[Inflame]

Driveshaft ordered, 44.5" x 3" aluminum from Coleman Racing with 1310 U joints on either end. $275 shipped.

Good choice! I've been running the Coleman for 2 years, but the steel unit. I didn't have enough room for the aluminum unit. $140 shipped!

[squashman702]

Good choice! I've been running the Coleman for 2 years, but the steel unit. I didn't have enough room for the aluminum unit. $140 shipped!

Good to know.

Got everything to the point where it should have cranked today, but couldn't get it to do so. The relay box is all hooked up, so it should only need to see a starter signal to crank, and a starter signal and a fuel pump to run. Could not get 12v at the starter relay, but had 12v at the relay box with key on. Ground near the front of the driver's side wheel well for the chassis harness was hooked up. Had the wires for the starter signal and for the 12v power on from the X20 plug wired up as well. What am I missing?

[OKsweetrides]

Squash,
Do you have a differential brace? I ended up having to install one and it did wonders for keeping the front of the diff in check. When I get back under, I'll check what bushing and if I put 12.9's on both bolts or just the horizontal bolt.

[squashman702]

Squash,
Do you have a differential brace? I ended up having to install one and it did wonders for keeping the front of the diff in check. When I get back under, I'll check what bushing and if I put 12.9's on both bolts or just the horizontal bolt.

No diff brace, but did the bolt upgrade on the front diff bolt with 10.9 hardware, and fresh poly bushings for the diff and subframe.

[squashman702]

Did some wire stuff. I had the starter trigger wire in pin 15 on the X20 instead of pin 18, thinking it will crank once the battery actually has a charge, unless I need to do something to bypass the EWS?

Also did some driveshaft stuff. Spicer yoke on the trans side, and Nash(?) adapter on the diff side. Shaft is super light.


Going to pull this back out and hammer up the floor a bit, not a lot of clearance. Can't get my chubby finger under there.

[doktor b]

Do work!

[fallguy]

What power can thoes aluminum drive shafts take?

Looks really nice.

[squashman702]

Do work!

Trying! Have to go to PA for work tomorrow into Saturday night, so I'll get a bit of time to work on it tonight and maybe some time on Sunday before the AFC game.

What power can thoes aluminum drive shafts take?

Looks really nice.

No idea what they're rated for. I know Jon Volk started to pretzel one, but he's probably making double the power I am. I think I'd be lucky to hit 400 crank HP.

[squashman702]

A little more progress tonight, fixed the fog on the DD M3 by stealing the plug from this car, and checked fluids since I've got to do ~600 miles in it the next couple days.

Made some clearance for the driveshaft. Grabbed one of my favorite metal stretchers:


Precision markings and specific instructions:


Clearance, Clarence.


Also redid my hood ground with some stuff I had laying around.


I did end up jumping the starter wires on the EWS, which resulted in my starter actually engaging. So that's good.

[sdobart]

What power can thoes aluminum drive shafts take?

Looks really nice.

The driveshaft shop that made mine indicated it wouldn't be much of a problem until you start hooking up/launching on a tire with actual traction. My friend is putting 600whp through his 3x.125 aluminum with no issues. I'm not sure what's going to break on mine first - the axles, the diff, or the driveshaft..or the trans. We'll see. When that happens it's 8.8 IRS time.

[squashman702]

The driveshaft shop that made mine indicated it wouldn't be much of a problem until you start hooking up/launching on a tire with actual traction. My friend is putting 600whp through his 3x.125 aluminum with no issues. I'm not sure what's going to break on mine first - the axles, the diff, or the driveshaft..or the trans. We'll see. When that happens it's 8.8 IRS time.

Did you ever run into clearance issues between the passenger side LCA or the front crossmember with the CX stuff? I posted some pictures of super tight clearances a while back, not sure if you saw them.

[OKsweetrides]

I just saw your post on the hot wire. Smart move on that ign planning.

[sdobart]

Did you ever run into clearance issues between the passenger side LCA or the front crossmember with the CX stuff? I posted some pictures of super tight clearances a while back, not sure if you saw them.

I am running the Vorshlag kit, so no experience with CX stuff. But when I was running their headers I did have issues with hitting the passenger side LCAB as well, so I just dented the primary of the header to clear it. Doesn't affect performance, but it sure sucks denting $1700 headers.

[squashman702]

I am running the Vorshlag kit, so no experience with CX stuff. But when I was running their headers I did have issues with hitting the passenger side LCAB as well, so I just dented the primary of the header to clear it. Doesn't affect performance, but it sure sucks denting $1700 headers.

Ahh, my bad. Thought you had CX stuff as well. I'll probably end up doing the same thing if needed. There was an "Engine Masters" from Hot Rod that showed you'd have to dent the shit out of the headers before it made a noticeable difference in power.

[sdobart]

Ahh, my bad. Thought you had CX stuff as well. I'll probably end up doing the same thing if needed. There was an "Engine Masters" from Hot Rod that showed you'd have to dent the shit out of the headers before it made a noticeable difference in power.

lol yeah i saw that, they had to pinch the primaries almost all the way shut before it started to affect performance.

[squashman702]

Got it to actually crank today, battery wasn't charged enough the other day.

Didn't get to work on it much other than that. Had to work on my Honda, which my GF daily drives. Resonator fell off yesterday while she was in running errands in Boston and I was in PA, and the rest of the exhaust was too rusted to bolt a new axle back on, so I had to improvise.

[doktor b]

Your improvised Honda exhaust looks like my e36 LS exhaust.

[squashman702]

Your improvised Honda exhaust looks like my e36 LS exhaust.

Is this a good or bad thing? Haha

[doktor b]

I'll try to remember to text you some pics later.
get ready to lol.

[squashman702]

I'll try to remember to text you some pics later.
get ready to lol.

Uh oh. I hope you spent more than the 20 minutes I spent on the Honda exhaust haha. And used something more precise than a sawzall to make it all.

[squashman702]

Ordered Prosport oil pressure and water temp gauges last night. Wanted something in place before I actually fire it, and I couldn't find much else that were full sweep that weren't ridiculously expensive. I like the Autometer stuff, but there were no offerings from them that fit what I was looking for.

[doktor b]

I ended up with the short sweep autometers because the full sweep were wicked expensive.
i may upgrade to SPA dual gauges at a later date.

[Jaxchrisfla]

Ordered Prosport oil pressure and water temp gauges last night. Wanted something in place before I actually fire it, and I couldn't find much else that were full sweep that weren't ridiculously expensive. I like the Autometer stuff, but there were no offerings from them that fit what I was looking for.

I bought digital prosport gauges for water and oil temp as well as oil pressure. Using the dual steering gauge pod from rally road to mount two, and will use the dash block off panel from hard motorsports to mount the other gauge and wideband.

[squashman702]

I ended up with the short sweep autometers because the full sweep were wicked expensive.
i may upgrade to SPA dual gauges at a later date.

These were $102 for the pair. I couldn't stomach $80 for the oil pressure gauge, especially the short sweep.

I bought digital prosport gauges for water and oil temp as well as oil pressure. Using the dual steering gauge pod from rally road to mount two, and will use the dash block off panel from hard motorsports to mount the other gauge and wideband.

Did you hook them up yet? Thoughts? I bought some $15 ebay panel that's two 52mm holes punched in some steel. Going to mount it over the cubby above the switches I think.

Did a little bit of work tonight. Driveshaft is back in and the bolts are blue loctited.

Throttle cable is basically 100% at this point, may need a little adjusting.


Started using some of the Techflex F6. Not going to go too crazy until it runs in case I have to go back and troubleshoot. I like it so far, going to be a lot easier than unpinning a ton of connectors.