E30 daily driver LS swap

[jon volk]

Sold the nitrous after going through a bottle in like half an hour. Too much hassle with refills.

Picked up an Eaton M122 off a GT500. It already has a 2.4" pulley on it, so combined with the 7.5" crank pulley, it'll be turning around 20k rpm at redline. I suspect it'll run around 17lbs on this little motor. I have a cathedral port lower intake from Magnuson on the way. Going to make an adapter plate for this blower and have an idler pulley mounted to the plate. I'm hoping to get 75% belt wrap on the pulley with the stock fbody accessory drive. Due to no intercooler, I'm going to spray a shitload of water/meth through the rotors.

Not much of a start, but hope to have everything mocked up on a friends motor within a month so everything is an afternoon bolt on. Total investment thus far between the blower, rails and lower intake is $780. Should be complete, even with injectors and pump for under $1500.

[doktor b]

how are you going to package this? there can't be that much room under the hood on an e30, is there?

[jon volk]

There's a surprising amount of room. I know of one car with an LSA blower sticking about 2" through the hood and this should be substantially shorter with no intercooler.

[doktor b]

There's a surprising amount of room. I know of one car with an LSA blower sticking about 2" through the hood and this should be substantially shorter with no intercooler.

dang. if only there were space like that under the hood of an e36.

[garretvs]

I always thought a blower on an LSx-E30 (or E36) would be really cool -- especially
if the hood need a nice, form-fitting hole so an inch or two of the blower
would project out of the hole .........

[jon volk]

Lower intake came today and ordered some aluminum for the adapter plate. Real nice piece. Way easier than fabbing something from scratch.





Also got some fresh canvas installed. Should have done that 4 years ago.

[Azar]

This build is rad! Is the M122 a common swap on LS motors now-a-days? (Been outta the game for quite sometime) Will it line up with the pulleys okay or will you do a custom crank pulley? Assuming you're doing a setup similar to that of my old GTP where accessories run on one set of ribs on the crank pulley, then just the supercharger and tensioner/idler run on a different set?

Sorry, just really curious is all.

[jon volk]

Im only aware of one other DIY M122 on an LS and it's on a truck accessory drive. Im going to line it up with the stock 6 rib setup and there will be extra blower pulley ribs hanging out the front. If belt slip becomes an issue, Ill be able to just buy an 8 rib f-body drive setup. I dont think itll be an issue though with what I have planned for the idler pulley location.

If this all works out, I may draw up the adapter flanges to sell. Magnusion made an MP122 kit for vettes and maybe trucks, but they have all been replaced with TVS blowers.

[jon volk]

I mean, I'm basically done, right? Need to use some stubby injectors. I may need to space the blower up 1/2". We'll see after the intake bolt holes are drilled and I actually get some injectors mounted.

[unnatrl]

I'm not sure which car of yours I like better! This is great. Can't wait to see the finished product.

[squashman702]

I mean, I'm basically done, right? Need to use some stubby injectors. I may need to space the blower up 1/2". We'll see after the intake bolt holes are drilled and I actually get some injectors mounted.

Looks done to me, I'd throw it on.

[jon volk]

So the car was down for a few days due to a jammed up steering lock so I took the opportunity to mock up stuff. it almost clears the hood but I'm going to need some subframe spacer like used in an M60 swap. That'll get me the clearance I need.

The Magnuson lower intake is so deep the valley cover needed countersunk flat heads












Should have the blower "kit" ready to bolt on by next weekend.

[jon volk]

Last pics mocked up on the motor. Just need to do some fueling stuff and it should be a 1-2 hour bolt on ordeal when I'm ready for final install. I'd rather run a Ford Racing cable throttle body mounted on the blower to clean things up, but fuck if I'm gonna spend $600-700 on a throttle body. The elephant trunk will suffice. I'll probably like it better with some black wrinkle powdercoat. Need to call Gates in the morning and see if they have a green stripe 6 rib 94" belt.

[garretvs]

Most automotive serpentine belts are Gates "Micro-V", series K.

see this list for available sizes:

http://www.gates.com/oreilly/PDFs/SizeListings.pdf

[jon volk]

Well, fuck photobucket.

[cameron.crum@gm]

I know this has been a while, but do you happen to have measurements and specs on those motor mounts? Length of tube and angles would be awesome.

Much happier with this fitment....

Motor is 1.25" further back than it was before. Just waiting on some 1/4" laser cut mount plates to finish them off. Did t have enough scrap material to make my own today.