Blackknight530i E39 Wagon Project 2003 530iT 6-speed (Evolution)

[blackknight530i]

Hey guys,

A lot of you have probably been following my 2003 525it 5-speed build thread, but now that the car has been converted to a 530it 6-speed, I figured I would start a new thread on it. You can read about the previous version here: http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...-525iT-5-speed.

If you've been following any of my build threads, you know that I like to swap my engines and transmissions around between the cars I have, LOL. I first took a S62/420g with low miles on it and installed it into a 2001 740i and kept it in there for a few years, but the car kept needing more work to even make it comfortable to drive, so I pulled the drivetrain and decided to turn my 2003 530i sedan, that I had done a 6-speed and 540it 3.15 diff swap in, into a M5. On that car, I did a full conversion, including engine, transmission, diff, axles, suspension, traction bars, extended leather interior, seats, Alcantara headliner, etc. Well, the thing is that car was fully sorted out when I did the swap, so I was left with the engine, transmission, entire refreshed front suspension/steering, subframe, 540it 3.15 diff, etc. I figured that would go perfectly well into my 2003 525it 5-speed that needed all the help it could get, as the front suspension was totally shot, engine was weak for the 3800 or so pounds it was lugging around, and the 5-speed was keeping the revs over 3000 RPM when cruising. Last weekend I finally got a chance to do the swap at Redshift's place in Raleigh, where we do most of our swaps. I had left my 530i subframe with engine, transmission, suspension, etc. all still attached off to the side of his shop for months after we did the M5 conversion, so he was getting really antsy about getting it out of there. The nice thing is that it made the swap go so much easier having everything prepped and the fact that both the M54b25 and M54b30 are externally identical. I already had the 540i manual transmission crossmember, shifter arm and selector rod, as well as the 540it diff and driveshaft, so all of that bolted right up as it was in the sedan. I had to swap the rear axles for 540it or M5 axles due to the larger flanges on the diff, but that wasn't too terrible to do (once we figured out that we needed to release the air in the air bags, LOL).

So, now I have a 2003 530it/6 and it's perfect for a DD/beater, while still being mechanically sound for about 60-80k miles or so. The paint isn't perfect, but for right now it doesn't need to be. On the interior, the sand beige wasn't really in bad shape, but I am not a fan of sand beige and there were a few panels that weren't that great, so I decided to use the 530i sedan black interior pieces I took out when doing the M5 conversion, and found the rear seats, carpets, seat belts and trim from someone parting out a black interior wagon to convert my entire interior to black. I realize it may look a bit weird on a Steel Blue Metallic exterior, but I like the black interior much better, and I'm really a fan of the Steel Blue as well, so it works for me.

Here's the update I posted after doing the swap on Sunday/Monday:

Saturday was the day the majority of the progress was made, but we still got a ton of stuff done today, including doing a cluster swap on an e53 X5, DSC module swap and coding on Auaq's M5, Evo3 and DSSR installation on my buddy Stephen's 2002 e46 330i, as if doing an engine, transmission and drivetrain swap, rear suspension overhaul, and wheel bearing replacement wasn't enough for a planned 2 day weekend, LOL. We also got the shop all cleaned up and ready for Brian to do his work this week, which is basically how it was when we got there Friday night. The difference is now we were able to disassemble the 525it engine and transmission and remove all the suspension arms and such so that it takes up a lot less shop space now. He now has 2 M54b25 engines in the shop (1 sold and 1 available), but at least they're kind of hiding in a corner.


The now, "530it/6" has the M54b30, S6S-420g, 3.15 540it differential and axles, refreshed front and rear suspension, Koni Struts, new diff mount bushings, and a new driver side rear wheel bearing. Everything bolted up properly and we actually had all the hardware we needed this time . The diff mount bushings gave us the most issues, mainly because we didn't have the proper BMW tool and weren't able to rent it by this weekend (next weekend would have been the earliest, but that wasn't going to work). We followed theshafro's idea and used a bottle jack and a few pieces from a standard press tool kit to press out and reinstall the new rear diff bushings. We plan to buy the proper tool and rent it out for future diff mount bushing jobs, because it makes the job a 30 minute job instead of a 3 hour job.


I'm going to start a new build thread for the car, likely when I have more pictures of the swap, so look forward to that . All in all, we spent a total of 19 working hours on just the 525it/5->530it/6 conversion this weekend, which I believe is the shortest full drivetrain swap we've ever done. I guess you could add about another 2-3 hours if you include taking the M54b30 out of the 530i a few months ago, but still, not too bad.


To all the guys who helped, I can't thank you enough for all of it. We wouldn't have completed nearly as much as we did if it wasn't for you guys. Brian and I have gotten pretty quick at this stuff, but there's no way the two of us alone could have accomplished this in just a couple days. Shoutouts go to Redshift, Auaq, Reefin' Dude, BimmrMeUpSnotty (so nice to meet you dude!), and my Charlotte buddies (Stephen and Jeff). You guys are awesome! I also want to thank Brian's family for putting up with having a bunch of car guys hanging out all weekend, once again.

Here are some pictures that were taken on Saturday during the wrenchfest. Unfortunately, nobody thought to take pics on Sunday, but most of the work was already done anyways, so oh well.



Yes, it took 4 people using a bottle jack and some press pieces to get the rear diff mount bushings out. Having the correct tool for the job would have definitely made this a 10 minute affair, but nobody had it to rent for this weekend, so we made lemonade, or whatever.








It's amazing how stable the whole thing is when still attached to the subframe, especially with the transmission and suspension still attached. The engine that came out was just sitting on a wheel/tire, but the new one going in was sitting on a rolling furniture platform dolly (first time we've done that and it worked perfectly for lining up the subframe to the car.





Stance Nation Brah!!!



Out with the old, in with the new




Jeff looks tired, LOL



Tonight I finally got around to replacing my completely blown out liftgate struts (including the glass struts as well). I bought them from FCP so I never have to buy them again. I am actually happier than I ever though I would be about the liftgate finally working properly without having to prop it up with a broomstick on the tow hook. Some DIY videos and sites made it seem like a really difficult job, but I have to say it was pretty simple with a long pry bar and a flash light. I would say it took me about 1 hour or so to do all 4 and have it all put back together. It took longer, but only because I kept getting bf.c notifications, LOL.

I'll post some more exterior/interior shots of the car once I get it all washed up and it stops looking like rain/snow outside.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Cool man! I gotta do the liftgate struts on my wagon too. Never done those yet, always thouight it was a pain in the butt to do, no thanks to all those threads that say they are.

[blackknight530i]

Cool man! I gotta do the liftgate struts on my wagon too. Never done those yet, always thouight it was a pain in the butt to do, no thanks to all those threads that say they are.

I pretty much followed this method: http://www.frankies-bmw.com/5series/...ate_struts.php. There are several methods that tell you to lower the headliner, and while that might make it a bit easier to attach the ball joints to the struts, I think it's way more work than is needed. I just got really good with using the pry bar to move the other end of the strut around until it felt like I couldn't easily pull or push the struts forward/back, then lined up the pry bar on top of it and bumped it to hear the loud pop of it clicking on. Do the little circlip thing on the other ends and done. People complain about the plastic wire holders being a pain as well, but I found them to be fairly easy to deal with. I can tell you with confidence that this job was way easier doing it in a heated garage with a wall mounted shop vac to get all the crap out. If I was doing it outside in the freezing cold, it would be a horrible experience. Now that I'm familiar with it, I could probably do the job in about 30 minutes or so. I've got at least 2-3 people that want it done as well, so maybe I'll offer my garage space and time, LOL. Of course, Brian is one of those people, so it'll just be my time .

[TerraPhantm]

A friend of mine did it similarly. He said it was much easier than the internet implied.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

I pretty much followed this method: http://www.frankies-bmw.com/5series/...ate_struts.php. There are several methods that tell you to lower the headliner, and while that might make it a bit easier to attach the ball joints to the struts, I think it's way more work than is needed. I just got really good with using the pry bar to move the other end of the strut around until it felt like I couldn't easily pull or push the struts forward/back, then lined up the pry bar on top of it and bumped it to hear the loud pop of it clicking on. Do the little circlip thing on the other ends and done. People complain about the plastic wire holders being a pain as well, but I found them to be fairly easy to deal with. I can tell you with confidence that this job was way easier doing it in a heated garage with a wall mounted shop vac to get all the crap out. If I was doing it outside in the freezing cold, it would be a horrible experience. Now that I'm familiar with it, I could probably do the job in about 30 minutes or so. I've got at least 2-3 people that want it done as well, so maybe I'll offer my garage space and time, LOL. Of course, Brian is one of those people, so it'll just be my time .

Cool man, I'm gonna order the struts and tackle it. The tailgate tried to knock me out the other day. Tonight, coming home from work, I stopped and got some gas, when I started the car and started to move, the engine cut out.... That was new, I'm thinking wtf, started it back up, all good, headed home, when I slowed down for my street, it cut out again, I already had an idea, when I pulled into the shop, hooked the scanner up, sure enough, cam sensor. Gotta love these cars....

[blackknight530i]

Well, tonight I took on the rear ball joints, integral links, and rear sway bar endlinks, to complete the rear suspension refresh. Thank you Asim (Auaq) for letting me borrow the ball joint tool, which made this job way easier than it could have been without it. Those ball joints were pretty well rusted in there, but once they started moving, they came out ok. I was amazed the integral links came off very easily, but the sway bar endlinks were very tough and rusted. There was a lot of PB Blaster involved and a lot of brute strength, of which is going to cause me a good bit of soreness I'm sure, but I'm happy to say that the car drives pretty much like brand new now. The only issue I have, which will be resolved when I get an alignment done, is the steering wheel being way to the right when traveling straight. I'm not totally sure why, but I have a feeling the previous owner had the steering wheel off at one point and didn't put it back on the right splines. Considering the entire front steering was perfect when it was on the 530i sedan, it really shouldn't be off by much, but it could also be the same issue I had with my M5 conversion, when we had to take the steering column off the back of the steering wheel and didn't get that lined up right when reassembling. No matter if the steering wheel itself was properly installed, the column doesn't have any keyed splines to tell you it's installed correctly. I might just take the lower dash off and pull the steering column and align it better with the wheel, if the wheel is in fact in the right place. This will save a lot of effort when getting the alignment done. The car tracks very straight though and seems to handle well, but I think now that the rear is tightened up, I'm starting to feel it get a bit skittish due to parts not being aligned properly. I'll get it all checked hopefully sometime this week. I'll also have them do the AC recharge, even though I won't be needing AC for several months.

[NordmanMg]

You're nuts Paul............in a good way )))))

[blackknight530i]

You're nuts Paul............in a good way )))))

LOL. Thanks, I guess

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At least this car should mechanically be sound for a very long time now. It's funny, I was driving it today and while at a red light, I honestly couldn't even feel the engine running it was so smooth. At 212k miles, this just blows my mind. The M54b30 is truly a wonderful engine and the 6-speed shifts like a warm knife through butter. Worth every penny and minute.

[auaq]

Does it feel any different to the 2.5 engine aside from obvious hp/tq difference?

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Glad the ball joint tool worked out for you. By the way, I have sent a link to where you can purchase the diff bushing tool over at M5board. The same one that Igor has.

Was it easy for you to remove that long ball joint/integral link bolt? If I remember correctly, the torque spec for it was somewhere in the neighbourhood of +100 ft-lbs. It was not easy for me to break loose that nut/bolt. After replacing the suspension bits, I only managed to get it as tight as I possibly could before I drove the M5 to Brian's place and had the car up in the air, and finally torqued it down to the right specs.

[blackknight530i]

Does it feel any different to the 2.5 engine aside from obvious hp/tq difference?

Night and day. The 2.5 was actually not nearly as smooth, but I'm sure it mainly needed VANOS repair (never done as far as I know), coolant leak repair, alternator replacement (squealing on the current one), and probably spark plugs. I think it also had an evap issue due to running horrible after every fuel fillup with multiple misfires. Either way, all of that will be dealt with before going into Jeff's E30 this Jan/Feb timeframe. In that small lightweight car, it will feel awesome, especially with that 5-speed.

- - - Updated - - -

Glad the ball joint tool worked out for you. By the way, I have sent a link to where you can purchase the diff bushing tool over at M5board. The same one that Igor has.

Was it easy for you to remove that long ball joint/integral link bolt? If I remember correctly, the torque spec for it was somewhere in the neighbourhood of +100 ft-lbs. It was not easy for me to break loose that nut/bolt. After replacing the suspension bits, I only managed to get it as tight as I possibly could before I drove the M5 to Brian's place and had the car up in the air, and finally torqued it down to the right specs.

So, interestingly, with the touring, it is much easier to do this job than the sedan. I pulled the air lines to the air springs again and then there was basically nothing fighting me, except the weight of the wheel carrier with the brakes attached. I put a block of wood between the axle and the lower swing arm to prop it up and it made it quite easy. Getting the bolt broken loose required a large breaker bar with a 24mm socket and an 18mm wrench, but that wasn't terrible. I have a torque wrench that goes up to 350 Nm, and that bolt only calls for 256 Nm (189 ft-lbs), so it was more than capable.

[auaq]

I think an oversquared engine usually runs a lot smoother than an undersquared engine, yet when I drove a buddy's low miles 525i at work it didn't feel any more smoother than my high mileage and with original vanos seals 530i.

[TerraPhantm]

At a certain point, I imagine the less stressed engine feels smoother.

[blackknight530i]

At a certain point, I imagine the less stressed engine feels smoother.

That could be, though I'm not 100% on the history of the M54b25 in this car. I know the VANOS wasn't done, it definitely misfired like crazy with every fuel fillup, and struggled to make much power below about 3500 RPMs, but I don't know what a normal, healthy M54b25 should feel like. All I know is that my M54b30 has been running super smooth the entire 160k miles that I've had it, just like it did when it only had 56k miles.

[TerraPhantm]

Yeah there was probably something wrong with the 2.5 for sure, I was just saying I wouldn't necessarily expect a 3.0 to be less smooth than a 2.5 even with all else equal

[geargrinder]

Sub'd to another cool Paul Build Thread!

I pretty much followed this method: http://www.frankies-bmw.com/5series/...ate_struts.php. There are several methods that tell you to lower the headliner, and while that might make it a bit easier to attach the ball joints to the struts, I think it's way more work than is needed.

Ha!

Good god, I wish the internet gods would strike every reference to that idiotic morons "Drop the Headliner" goddammmm post from the universe. As far as I can tell it all goes back to one complete moron deciding he had to drop the headliner to do the job. There are decent 90 BTDT / DIY threads about this job, tons that will explain its really not that bad and yo don't even need the official tools (making one out of copper or PVC pipe is super easy however using various prybars can work fine too...) but for some reason that one idiots thread comes up and then too many other well intentioned people reference it and here we are talking about it again like its legit.

It isn't. Its like if some guy removed his seats by winching them out of the sunroof then told everybody that was the proper way it was supposed to be done. Its moronic.

/rant.

Night and day. The 2.5 was actually not nearly as smooth,

Haha lets just say with the provenance of that motor indeed who knows what might have been going on with it. I'd be not surprised about anything (except perhaps that it even ran so decently for you for so long...)

Glad to see that wagon all done up and in such great shape Paul. Rock on wagoneers.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Haha! Gotta love the knowitallinterweebles!

[jacash7]

Paul....in my defense ....I believe that photo was after a 12 hour Saturday fighting axles and subframe bushings and after Steve and I gave one of the front struts a go and it would not cooperate.

It was food and beer time anyway, boss. Shop owner's orders.

[auaq]

Paul....in my defense ....I believe that photo was after a 12 hour Saturday fighting axles and subframe bushings and after Steve and I gave one of the front struts a go and it would not cooperate.

It was food and beer time anyway, boss. Shop owner's orders.

Still waiting for my pay check ....

[blackknight530i]

Paul....in my defense ....I believe that photo was after a 12 hour Saturday fighting axles and subframe bushings and after Steve and I gave one of the front struts a go and it would not cooperate.

It was food and beer time anyway, boss. Shop owner's orders.

Haha, glad you finally made it into one of my build threads, Jeff .

No need to defend yourself, we were all exhausted Saturday night and I'm so glad we called it a night early and had a nice dinner. It was well deserved.

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[blackknight530i]

Still waiting for my pay check ....

LOL, paycheck.

I'll send your cluster and ball joint tool back as "payment", LOL.

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[jacash7]

I've been a part of enough of 'em ...about time I throw a comment around.

You know me...reader and worker, not really a typist.

Now....about my M54B25....

[blackknight530i]

I've been a part of enough of 'em ...about time I throw a comment around.

You know me...reader and worker, not really a typist.

Now....about my M54B25....

You know we plan to make you do most of the work on your e30 swap .

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[auaq]

LOL, paycheck.

I'll send your cluster and ball joint tool back as "payment", LOL.

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Merci.

[jacash7]

You know we plan to make you do most of the work on your e30 swap .

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That'd be a frightening sight...

[jp5Touring]

Your build threads are ridiculously good. Enjoy the effort and information in them,even if it makes me feel guilty for not doing more on my touring.