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Thread: Another Crazy E36 M3 S54 Swap AKA My Realistic Dream Swap

  1. #126
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Tampa, FL
    Posts
    3,377
    My Cars
    97 E36M3 S54
    Smelly Exhaust
    So I got tired of the non-catalyst exhaust smell pretty quickly. Any time at a stop the smell hits you, eventually when you get out of the car you wear "exhaust smell" on your clothes which isn't super cool either. So I purchased a euro section 1 E46 M3 midpipe which has OE factory 200 cell cats in it.


    It fit right up without issue. The difference is night and day, there is absolutely zero exhaust smell anymore. You can literally be right at the muffler and smell nothing. Another thing it did is kill all the rasp and lower the exhaust note down a bit. It's much less "racecar look at me" and more refined for DD'ing. Another thing I like is now the intake is louder than the exhaust, and with the velocity stack setup it really screams!


    ATF Surprise
    During the ride home last week I suddenly lost power steering Turns out one of the low pressure hoses tore open at the factory crimp.


    This got ATF oil EVERYWHERE. Somehow, where the hose tore open, just happened to squirt perfectly at the drivers front wheel and brake. This coated the wheel, flung oil onto the drivers outside of the car, brakes and underside pretty well. I literally spent 2 hours cleaning it all up. I even disassembled the brakes to clean and make sure there wasn't ATF contamination!




    I fixed this by removing the terrible factory crimps, installing a new rubber hose and using regular hose clamps. This is a common improvement on the E36 that I had been meaning to do eventually!

  2. #127
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    3,241
    My Cars
    96 328is 6.0L
    Look at the raptured ps line as a rust proofing
    - 96 328is 6.0L. (LS1 to LS2 build thread: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...ad.php?2098938)
    - 96 328is 5.7L. (LS1 build thread: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1289987)
    - 95 ///M3 6.0L. (LS2 build thread: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1619249)

    - 97 ///M3. (e46 Fender Flares/track car build thread: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1727098)
    - 96 328is (Dual Fuel Pump to Surge Tank thread: http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...ad.php?1964025)

  3. #128
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Tampa, FL
    Posts
    3,377
    My Cars
    97 E36M3 S54
    Hey guys! So the past 2 months I've just been DD'ing the car and besides the power steering line issue it's been great!

    I was at the local cars & coffee show the other weekend and a youtube channel reviewed my car! Check it out:

  4. #129
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Oakhurst, CA
    Posts
    6,668
    My Cars
    96 M3 97 M3 98 M3 99 M3
    That all came together very nicely. Great work.

    Order some 3M VHB 5952 tape for the gurney flap. It should resolve the issue with the ends lifting. I also placed an order for an OEM size production run. The thinner material is much easier to hold into shape if the upgraded tape doesn't work.

  5. #130
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    UT
    Posts
    4,375
    My Cars
    98 M3/4/5
    What thickness and width of that 3M VHB 5952
    98 Estoril ///M3 4/6
    S54 swap CSL

  6. #131
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Tampa, FL
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    97 E36M3 S54
    I was losing massive power from the open v-stacks since basically they had a constant supply of 140F+ radiator air. The S54 is very sensitive to intake air temps so this had to go. I removed the open velocity stacks and built a custom 4" intake to get actual "cold" air. This was composed of:



    Assembled intake


    Installed:


    Next I added some heat sheilding insulation to further reduce temps. th3 shifty coined it as the "burrito intake"


    And temporarily re-purposed the drivers fog light as an intake!


    All of this made a noticeable difference on the butt dyno, but also completely neutered any cool sounds the open V-stacks made!
    Last edited by M52 POWER!; 05-30-2018 at 01:01 PM.

  7. #132
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    UT
    Posts
    4,375
    My Cars
    98 M3/4/5
    love this... and the burrito
    98 Estoril ///M3 4/6
    S54 swap CSL

  8. #133
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Holmdel NJ
    Posts
    34
    My Cars
    1997 M3 S54, 2006 M3,
    Did you ever wind up getting the e46 cluster to work? I’m about to start the same swap, however in a compact, but I would like the CEL and A/C to work

  9. #134
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    UT
    Posts
    4,375
    My Cars
    98 M3/4/5
    we are all waiting for Gpeterson to finish this for us, hes the only one that has one successfully working the way we want it
    98 Estoril ///M3 4/6
    S54 swap CSL

  10. #135
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Holmdel NJ
    Posts
    34
    My Cars
    1997 M3 S54, 2006 M3,
    Quote Originally Posted by TH3 Shifty View Post
    we are all waiting for Gpeterson to finish this for us, hes the only one that has one successfully working the way we want it
    Gotcha, thanks a lot for the info

  11. #136
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    429
    My Cars
    E36 M3's
    Dude, awesome work! Really impressive. I had to read this whole thread after you mentioned Stone. I went to UTI with him. He's the one that got me into E36's. I just moved to back to the Tampa area. Would love to see this in person some time!

  12. #137
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
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    Tampa, FL
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    97 E36M3 S54
    Quote Originally Posted by Greenlantern181 View Post
    Dude, awesome work! Really impressive. I had to read this whole thread after you mentioned Stone. I went to UTI with him. He's the one that got me into E36's. I just moved to back to the Tampa area. Would love to see this in person some time!
    That's awesome! How did you find this thread? Should be at Dupont cars and coffee next month.

  13. #138
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Houston TX
    Posts
    1,129
    My Cars
    2002 530I 1999 M3
    What an Awesome write up!!!! You have done a truly professional build here and your attention to detail is amazing! I am doing a similar build and am about 1/3 of the way through. I am swapping an M54 that has been beefed up and supercharged into my 1999 M3. Your thread has already answered a bunch of questions that i have run into during this swap. Time to order parts! One question, how did you merge the S54 cooling/heating hoses into the E36 chassis? I have twos hard plastic hoses coming from the head/block on the M54 where the S52 had 3 (one from the back of the head and two from the line from the block. Also, the M54 has three hoses to the radiator where the S52 has two. I am looking at your pics and it looks like you have two hoses on the drivers side going to the heater core and water valve. I only have one of the hard plastic lines from the head to go to the water valve which leaves one of the 3 heater core nipples with no connecting hose. I have another hard plastic line from the block (below the other one from the head) which looks like it goes the the expansion tank. My M54 expansion tank has two hoses entering. Not sure how to merge this system so that the flow is correct to both the heater core and the radiator....
    2002 530IS 5 speed, Sapphire Black/Sand, M-Tech sport package, premium package, ESS Twin Screw supercharger, Southbend high performance clutch, Performance Gearing 3.15 LSD.....1999 M3 Cosmos Black/Black, Active Autowerks intercooled supercharger, H&R suspension and a bunch of other stuff....

  14. #139
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
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    Tampa, FL
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    97 E36M3 S54
    Quote Originally Posted by thetinpusher View Post
    What an Awesome write up!!!! You have done a truly professional build here and your attention to detail is amazing! I am doing a similar build and am about 1/3 of the way through. I am swapping an M54 that has been beefed up and supercharged into my 1999 M3. Your thread has already answered a bunch of questions that i have run into during this swap. Time to order parts! One question, how did you merge the S54 cooling/heating hoses into the E36 chassis? I have twos hard plastic hoses coming from the head/block on the M54 where the S52 had 3 (one from the back of the head and two from the line from the block. Also, the M54 has three hoses to the radiator where the S52 has two. I am looking at your pics and it looks like you have two hoses on the drivers side going to the heater core and water valve. I only have one of the hard plastic lines from the head to go to the water valve which leaves one of the 3 heater core nipples with no connecting hose. I have another hard plastic line from the block (below the other one from the head) which looks like it goes the the expansion tank. My M54 expansion tank has two hoses entering. Not sure how to merge this system so that the flow is correct to both the heater core and the radiator....
    Sorry for late reply. Honestly I'm not sure how you will merge those, maybe a T-splitter? On the S54 I studied flow direction diagrams to make sure I understood everything and then thankfully both sides had the same number of matching hoses!

  15. #140
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Tampa, FL
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    97 E36M3 S54
    Also a quick update.

    The car has been running like a champ, zero break downs and over 8,000 miles. My wife and I even took a trip up to NY and back to Tampa, FL. We stopped by TTFS tuning in Maryland where it put down 320WHP, then Blue Ridge parkway and the Tail of The Dragon on the way back, it was an absolute blast! Total trip was over 3,000 miles.

    Here's a quick little zing and brap video:


  16. #141
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Chicago, IL
    Posts
    297
    My Cars
    99 Dakar M3
    That is so amazing man. Well done.
    I wish I had the mechanic skills to do this myself.

  17. #142
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    louisville ky
    Posts
    941
    My Cars
    87 325
    Were you able to communicate to the factory ABS Still?

    I’m trying to figure this out thru the OBDII plug...

  18. #143
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    Oahu / Los Angeles
    Posts
    1,011
    My Cars
    S54 E36


    I love this! I'll have to borrow this idea for something similar. I'll probably just screw the plastic into the sheet metal above.

    Any idea what it normally looks like in here? Bro, I google but you might already have a source image of how crazy it looks with the OEM stuff in there.

  19. #144
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
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    NYC
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    180
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    a bunch of broken ones
    That is a pretty healthy number! Congrats.

  20. #145
    Join Date
    Aug 2022
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    Canada
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    7
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    '00 Z3M
    Quote Originally Posted by M52 POWER! View Post
    At this point I was pretty much super excited and finished up the rest of the car!

    Converted USA headlights wiring to euro style for ZKW circular connector!


    What is the tool PN and manufacturer for this crimper you have? I need to get one

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