Out with the Old (S54 Swap Inside)

[Reprisal]

The Candidate:
My 1995 M3. I have owned it since 2005. Off/On daily between this and my E46 touring. Currently sitting with 255k.
WCS_1631.jpg

The Plan:
Major parts for the build:
- S54 with stock internals and plenum
- ebay headers and custom exhaust
- I waffled on this for a bit, but decided to go with a 6-spd and 3.73 gears
- Going to keep most of the S50/OBD-1 components (AC, PS, ABS, Cluster, etc.)
- Wiring assisted with Andrews and MZ3 Harnesses, and Garrys CAN Controller.

I'll be handling most of the wiring. My friend (who's a master tech at the local dealership) is going to assist with a majority of the mechanical work.

Current Status:
S54 is currently getting the regular dose of 'while it's out' service:
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- valve cover and oil pan gaskets
- WPC rod bearings
- valve adjustment
- VANOS seals/rattle
- thermostat
- water pump and oil filter housing gaskets
- other misc seals as we see fit.

Chassis is getting torn down.

20170404_202946.jpg

S50 should be coming out this weekend, so I went ahead and took compression #'s. Almost feel bad removing it when the 'worst' cylinder is still holding 190 PSI. Only thing it needs are lifters. May save it for an e30 chassis...

I'm going to have a solid week to throw at it starting this weekend. Hope to be able to get the S54 buttoned up and sitting in the chassis by Monday or Tuesday, and then it's on to the electrical stuff.

Should be a fun week.

[Cobra1956]

Interesting gearing. Should be pretty quick.

[GG///M3]

Ahhh


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Gregarious7]

Wonderful stuff! Be sure to post vids when it's finished please

[PITT M3 RR]

I recommend 3:91 with the 6 speed, it's a massive upgrade over the 3:62 the E46M came with. Have fun!

[kevinwilly]

I recommend 3:91 with the 6 speed, it's a massive upgrade over the 3:62 the E46M came with. Have fun!

I think the current plan is that I'm building him a 3.73. But I also have an extra 3.91 gear set on the bench next to it. Just saying....

I went with a 3.64 for mine, but the plan at the time was for it to be a daily driver and I personally think a 3.91 would spin too much on the highway (even though it'd be about the same as the stock 5 speed with a 3.23).

Either way, the 3.23 is DEFINITELY stupid to use. As long as you go higher you should be good to go.

[Reprisal]

Wonderful stuff! Be sure to post vids when it's finished please

I'll try to update this regularly next week. Exhaust will be the last thing on the list, so it may be a while.

I recommend 3:91 with the 6 speed, it's a massive upgrade over the 3:62 the E46M came with. Have fun!

Love to, but I'm going to want to put this thing on the road quite a bit. The 3.73 gives me a slight reduction (over the 3.23 and 5-speed) at highway revs in 6th. Everything is a compromise I guess.

Kevin, I'll send you a PM sometime tonight.

[Reprisal]

Saturday Update:

Most of the 'while it's out' maintenance has been done to the S54. Only thing left to tackle is the VANOS and valve cover gasket. Will be getting longer (M50) studs for the exhaust; one thing I overlooked.

WCS_1668.jpg

While my buddy worked on that, I spent most of the morning draining the fluids, and making room for the new motor. Wiring loom for the S50 came out pretty easy, and by early afternoon the motor and entire driveline was out.

WCS_1658.jpg

One of the things I wanted to look into with the engine out was the condition of the passenger side strut tower; I noticed a crack through the seam-sealer upon taking off the windshield washer tank. Using a wire wheel on the sealer to asses the damage (which you can see in the above photo), the top didn't look to bad. The underside however told a different story...

WCS_1672.jpg

It's certainly fixable with a little effort and patience, but this will definitely set our timeline back a day or so. On the upside, I'll take this opportunity to work on cleaning up the engine bay a lot more. I'll mask off as much as possible, shoot a fresh coat of Avus, and possibly do a wire tuck while the car is so thoroughly stripped down.

As it sits...

WCS_1674.jpg

[Reprisal]

Been a busy few days, even if there's not much to show for it.

Spent most of Sunday working in the engine bay, getting it ready for welding and starting to clean it up for paint.
Monday was pretty much nothing but driving to drop off the driveshaft and differential for rebuilding/modification.

Strut tower was patched up and re-applied some undercoat. I'll slick it down just a bit today and then sand/prime

New shifter is in place. We've opted to remove the insulation in the transmission tunnel since it's pretty well deteriorated. I'm picking up some heat shield the put at the firewall, and rubberized the entire tunnel.

Wire tuck has started. While it'll look good when it's done, I can already tell that this is going to be a major PITA.

Now that I'm starting to get into the wiring... I have some questions:
1) For those of you who have done S54 swaps... what did you guys do about your fan relays?
I plan on using Garrys CAN and a secondary relay to drive a puller on the radiator. Looking at the E36 electrical diagram, it seems the AUX fan coolant temp switch runs completely independent of the DME and can thus be left alone. Can anyone confirm?

2) I've started paring down the SMG/O2 sensor harness from my donor. Does anyone know the wire colors of the pigtail connectors that stay? I'm mainly trying to hunt the reverse switch and the gear select switch, and just want some validation that I'm not eliminating more than I should.

[kevinwilly]

The aux fan/coolant temp switch runs completely independent from the DME- that is correct. Unless you WANT the can signal to control the fan, you can just wire it up to a regular relay and the radiator fan switch and be good.

But if you want a CAN signal, you can't just hook it up to a relay. The MSS54 uses a PWM signal for the fan, so you'd need to make a speed controller or retrofit a fan that uses a PWM input. Not worth it in my opinion. I've got a regular SPAL fan hooked up to mine.


Oh- on the exhaust studs, get N54 ones. They are not QUITE as long as the M50 ones, but they have an Etorx head on them which makes install SO much easier. Plenty long enough for aftermarket headers.

As far as the SMG/O2 harness- Anything grey is the SMG stuff. That can go. And the big round connector is the other end is the SMG. And then I think there's one more that looks like the MAF connector on that end. See if you can find a pic of the manual harness on ebay- that's the easiest way to compare them.

[Bill837]

Been a busy few days, even if there's not much to show for it.


New shifter is in place. We've opted to remove the insulation in the transmission tunnel since it's pretty well deteriorated. I'm picking up some heat shield the put at the firewall, and rubberized the entire tunnel.

What did you use on the tunnel, and what prep steps did you take? Both Lockdots and myself are facing the downward dropping insulation issue.

[kevinwilly]

What did you use on the tunnel, and what prep steps did you take? Both Lockdots and myself are facing the downward dropping insulation issue.

I can't speak for OP, but for my falling insulation, I made a U-shaped pieces out of stainless steel and screwed it into the hollow of the tranny tunnel with stainless sheet metal screws. I think it was a 16ga strip about 2" wide. I cut it into three pieces and just welded it at the corners. Then four screws.Tunnel brace.jpg

Hopefully I remembered to tighten the tranny mount bolts after I took this picture.....

Anyways, it doesn't rub against anything any more and I didn't have to screw with removing anything.

[MPWRCPE]

Garry's CAN controller has the ability to control a fan (among other things), so there is that option. It's a really slick setup. He can also help if you want to run the E46 PWM fan setup.

My SPAL puller fan is wired to the original aux fan high speed relay, running high speed only. Works like a charm.

[Jab31169]

I've run without the trans tunnel insulation for a few years now, it really makes almost no difference without it. Other than the fact I can now do work around the tunnel without toxic sand falling in my eye.

[PITT M3 RR]

Here's the SMG harness thinning, just as said above, work from SMG specific connections back. https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...9#post29438509

iwent as far as removing the rear O2 wiring as well since they're deleted from the DME.


and I'd go 3:91 with the 6 speed, even over 3:73! I love it and I'm on 5mt.

[PITT M3 RR]

Also with the spal relay kit its pretty easy to tap into the aux fan ground signal. Black and green (low temp) wire from sensor at the top right of the rad-** Just another option.

[Bimmerman535i]

Now that I'm starting to get into the wiring... I have some questions:
1) For those of you who have done S54 swaps... what did you guys do about your fan relays?
I plan on using Garrys CAN and a secondary relay to drive a puller on the radiator. Looking at the E36 electrical diagram, it seems the AUX fan coolant temp switch runs completely independent of the DME and can thus be left alone. Can anyone confirm?

I kept my E36 AUX system intact, triggered by the radiator switch. Pre-S54 I had tapped into that circuit to run a Spal puller fan; post-s54 I welded a bung into the side of the radiator and run the Spal relay/temp switch harness separately. Both options work great, I like the redundancy of the separate system but can't exactly do that with a plastic side tank radiator.

The circuit operates independently from the DME. I didn't touch the relays for the Aux fan (or, really, any of its wiring), and the Spal fan is using Spal's relay+harness.

I didn't use Garry's system, but it's a great option!

[Bill837]

I've run without the trans tunnel insulation for a few years now, it really makes almost no difference without it. Other than the fact I can now do work around the tunnel without toxic sand falling in my eye.

Well, that explains that twitchy eyelid, I suppose....

[Reprisal]

Quick question about the starter... Andrews harness has a cable for 30h, to let the DME know that the starter is currently turning. However, I read that this was only for early production cars... does this starter have a 30h terminal?

20170412_194917.jpg

[Reprisal]

I've run without the trans tunnel insulation for a few years now, it really makes almost no difference without it. Other than the fact I can now do work around the tunnel without toxic sand falling in my eye.

Well the 5 speed was hard enough to get out with the insulation in the way; leaving it in place would've made installation of the 6-spd transmission a royal PITA. You're right about the thing crumbling though. I think half of it was on the ground by the time I finished wrenching out the bolts that mate the bell-housing to the block.

What did you use on the tunnel, and what prep steps did you take? Both Lockdots and myself are facing the downward dropping insulation issue.

I applied some simple spray-can rubber undercoating (along the tunnel) and stick-on heat barrier (along firewall where the headers come down) from the local auto parts store. Key thing is to scuff and prep the area (wire-brush to loosen the grime, sand with some emory, then brake-clean and wipe), particularly with the heat shield adhesive. I'll take some photos of it tomorrow.

Photo Update...

Ebay headers now on the engine; rear one looked like it was going to give trouble but went on fairly smooth. At this point, the engine is about ready to drop in. After talking with my buddy, we're going to hold off on rebuilding the VANOS until we get the car up and running.
WCS_1682.jpg

It's kinda funny how much work goes into this wire tuck considering I'm only adding about 10 inches of wire here. Just gotta do it right the first time; pulling the fender back off to chase a self-inflicted electrical issue is not not my idea of fun.
WCS_1676.jpg

Showing where I'm going to drop the SPAL fan relay to power the primary fan... sits right in my open spot in the fuse box (if only upside-down). I'll probably route the Fan signal/power wires out the side of the box next to the brake booster so that absolutely nothing shows from the front.
WCS_1677.jpg

[Reprisal]

Finished up the wire tuck and made the requisite modifications to the fuel lines to accommodate the fuel filter.

Buttoned up the long block and installed the new clutch. Went to set the engine in the car and hit a bit of an impasse.

We can get the engine down on the passenger side motor mount. but it seems the locations of the O2 and Exhaust Temp sensor are too close to the frame rail. The drivers side is sitting about forward of the motor mount bolt, and won't sit back into position without risking damage to the O2 or temp sensors.

Anyone using ebay headers that's had similar issues? What'd you do to rectify the problem? How malleable are these headers if I decide to heat and bang on them a bit?

[kevinwilly]

You shouldn't need to bend anything. I've done two with ebay headers. You can put the passenger side engine mounting arm in two spots. Are you sure you have it in the correct location? Post a picture of where your engine mounting arms are. They do NOT go in the same spot the e46 mounts came out of.

[Reprisal]

You shouldn't need to bend anything. I've done two with ebay headers. You can put the passenger side engine mounting arm in two spots. Are you sure you have it in the correct location? Post a picture of where your engine mounting arms are. They do NOT go in the same spot the e46 mounts came out of.

Kevin,

I'll take some better photos once I get back to the car. If you look closely at the header photo above, you can vaguely see the s50 mount on the passenger side is in the rear location (sitting farther back than the e46 arm).

[kevinwilly]

Kevin,

I'll take some better photos once I get back to the car. If you look closely at the header photo above, you can vaguely see the s50 mount on the passenger side is in the rear location (sitting farther back than the e46 arm).

That looks like the correct location for the passenger side arm. Those are a different brand of headers from what I used, so maybe they are an issue. I'm not sure.

Ugh, you are making me hate myself for dragging my project out so long. I'm literally like an afternoon away from finishing things up but just haven't had any time in 3-4 months. I think after your diff I'm not going to take on any projects for people for a bit. Need to finish things before it gets too hot out.

[Reprisal]

That looks like the correct location for the passenger side arm. Those are a different brand of headers from what I used, so maybe they are an issue. I'm not sure.

Ugh, you are making me hate myself for dragging my project out so long. I'm literally like an afternoon away from finishing things up but just haven't had any time in 3-4 months. I think after your diff I'm not going to take on any projects for people for a bit. Need to finish things before it gets too hot out.

Don't feel too bad. I'm going to be slogging one or two days max once school starts back up.

Here's some photos:

The passenger side motor mount, showing just how far off I am ATM...
20170414_125956.jpg

Here's the Bank 1 O2 and temp Sensor. Right into the f$*%ing frame rail.
20170414_125504.jpg

Even the Bank 2 O2 looks like it's going to be trouble...
20170414_125537.jpg


I hate to order another set headers, but I also want to avoid needless hours massaging them into place. Kevin, which headers specifically did you end up getting?

What did you use on the tunnel, and what prep steps did you take? Both Lockdots and myself are facing the downward dropping insulation issue.

Bill, here's what the transmission tunnel looks like after some undercoat and the shielding...

WCS_1687.jpg

Gonna go do the fuel pump and look at the throttle pedal this afternoon...