LS3 E30 Daily Driver

[beggs]

The swap is close to being done so I might as well make a thread now.
The car is a 87' 325is and the motor is from a 2010 Camaro SS.

I ordered this LS3 and tranny off of Ebay. The transmission is a TR6060 so that makes shifter location and drive shaft a little more difficult. The quick fix is ordering some adaptors, custom 2 piece driveshaft, and welding the shifter to fit through the stock hole.
After inspecting the motor and tranny the only things that were broken were a few miscellaneous connectors and sensors, nothing I shouldn't be able to find in the local junkyard.
This is the motor when I got it.
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The first thing I did was upgrade the trunnions. Common problem with LS motors.
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Here is a comparison of stock and upgraded.
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I had to special order a Sikky Kit without the driveshaft because of the TR6060 instead of the T56. Here are the 1 ¾ headers on the motor with the new MSD wires.
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[beggs]

Starting disassembly.
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Pulling the motor, for my first engine pull only breaking the cruise control is pretty good by my standards.
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Pulled the headlight for a cold air intake, I think the chrome really matches the diving boards.
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The solution for the brake booster problem is the Garagistic Booster Delete Bracket and Wilwood pedals and cylinders. The only issue with this is its a nightmare working by the steering column with the rats nest of wires.
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Mishimoto Z3 Radiator and the HUGE K&N filter, I might have some space issues trying to fit that in.
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[beggs]

Mishimoto Universal 10 Row Oil Cooler, it may be a little small but space is an issue and I was initially going to not run an oil cooler in the first place. And also a FPR from a C5 vette, my brother used this in his LS1 Chevelle and it was very cheap compared to the aeromotive and other name brand FPR’s.
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Walbro 450 E85 Version. So in the future it can handle head + cam and even FI.
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Front subframe dropped. I am going to put the car on a lift and drop the car onto the engine to make things easier. This is so putting on the headers isn't such a pain.
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E46 Steering Rack with E36 Tie rods. Connected to the subframe and ready for the motor.
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Chassis Reinforcement Kit from Garagistic.
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[beggs]

ngine is now bolted up to the tranny and crossmember. Ready to go in!
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Trying to contain the rats nest of wires to make it easier to fab up a bracket for the hanging DBW pedal instead of the ground up pedal
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Fabbed up a bracket for the Oil cooler, it'll sit right behind the grille.
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Also fabbed up a quick bracket to fill the hole the brake booster left.
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Brake parts came in! UUC BBK with new Hawk pads and so stainless steel brake lines.
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[beggs]

Got some more parts in, 2 Mishimoto Transmission Coolers for the trans and power steering, various fittings for clutch, oil, and brakes, and also more aggressive rear pads. The 2 Mishimoto coolers might be a bit of a tight fit. They will also be put right next to the oil cooler in front of the A/C.
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Drive shaft pulled and gas drained.
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Heres the oil cooler on the bracket.
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Also welded on the Radiator brackets and test fitted the Z3 radiator. Looks good! I used the 88+ radiator mounts for the bottom and had to cut up and modify the brackets.
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[beggs]

Small update, Got the rotors in, they're awesome and way bigger than the stockers. So big in fact that they didn't fit. The caliper had to be lightly grinded down and I got spacers, I also had to remove the wheel weights. Here is the finished product in the wheel with no scraping.
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The 2 coolers for the trans and power steering were a bit of a pain to make brackets for, it took all day of test fitting and cutting up angle aluminum. The coolers are VERY delicate and they got a little dinged up.
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[LsE30.Andres]

I'm from Los Angeles and I have a 1985 325is that I had slapped a turbo kit on from kamotors and I got a little bored of it so I'm planning on doing an ls3 swap. So my question to you is how much did the ls3 cost you?

[mzracer]

Did the headers clear the steering shaft?

[mturacing]

Did you have any issues with header clearance relative to the transmission bellhousing? I have the same headers but for the E36 chassis and have had to shamelessly mutilate the collector for good fitment. Another customer has had to do the same to get proper fitment out of the Sikky headers.