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Thread: 1997 E36 M3 Sedan LS1/T56 Swap

  1. #1
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    1997 E36 M3 Sedan LS1/T56 Swap

    Well guys, I've been working on this project for a while and I think it's time to start a thread. Thank you all for sharing your builds so that others can learn from them. I would not have been able to do it without you. I'm sorry but it's going to be light on pictures. Time was always tight and I didn't stop very often to take photos. I'll try to make up for it with technical details. Here it goes:

    The Car

    It started as a 1997 M3 sedan with an automatic and around 200k miles. It would have been nice and probably cheaper in the end if I would have started with something cleaner but it was all I could afford at the time and it was the color I wanted. I bought it with the LS swap in mind and daily drove it for a few years until I was in a position to start the swap.

    The Engine and Transmission

    An LS1 and T56 from a 2002 Camaro SS with 90k miles purchased off eBay for $4000. I chose this combo because it makes plenty of power and has the accessory drive and oil pan that seems to work best. The only modifications at this time are a Lingenfelter GT2-3, LS7 clutch, and Hurst shifter. More on the cam later. For the cold air intake I put a cone filter in the DS behind the headlight and used some flexible black hose but got enough crap from my coworkers about the flexible hose that I bought one of the Airaid DIY kits and made a plastic intake for it. It looks good and matches the texture of the intake manifold. I had BRAAP modify a GM clutch line to work with the BMW master cylinder which worked great.

    Mounting

    I intended to use the entire JTR kit but the only thing available when I started my swap was the headers, which I bought. I also wound up buying a used set of JTR headers and put the new ones on the shelf for now. I was not a fan of how all the other kits used polyurethane bushings for motor mounts. It was important to me to retain an OEM level of NVH so poly mounts were not an option. I decided to make my own brackets out of steel that use the OEM BMW mounts. On the chassis side, t was as simple as welding two short pieces of steel angle iron on the front of the subframe and drilling holes to match the BMW isolators. There is a German kit to mount the BMW V8 that does something similar. On the engine side I used laser cut plates off eBay that bolt to the block and made the rest out of steel. Like others have said before, you don't have many options for how to position the engine. There is about a 1/4" of clearance between the headers and the frame on each side. I used the headers as a guide for left-right alignment and the oil pan and firewall for front-rear. For height, I just used my best judgment for oil pan clearance above and below the subframe. I'm really happy with how they turned out and there is absolutely no increase in NVH. For the trans crossmember, I used the CXRacing unit. Yes, it's an overpriced POS but I was trying to avoid as much fabrication as possible because i'm not really set up for it and the CXR piece works. For the trans mount I used a rubber GM mount for an 80's Monte Carlo. The F-body mount that came with the tranny has a bracket that overhangs the CXR crossmember and interferes a bit. I could have just cut it off but the rubber was in bad shape and I had a different mount in mind already. Also, I did not have to change or move the brake booster. There is 1/4" of clearance between the booster and VC , no rubbing, and i'm able to take the valve cover off with no problem

    Wiring

    I used a Wiring Specialties harness that I bought BNIB from a member here. I had planned on making my own harness and will eventually but for now I just needed the thing to run. I noticed that the +12V feed to the relay/fuse box was too small for the total current of the circuits supplied by the box. I emailed Wiring Specialties about it and they said it was an early version and they would update it for free. They were great to deal with and turned it around quickly. I had them flash the ECM with a start-up tune and it started right up. I bought the BMW coolant sensor that is recommended by Wiring Specialties and an adapter plate to mount the BMW oil pressure switch above the oil filter.

    A/C and P/S

    I used the 318i compressor and lines with the NA Hot Rods mounting bracket. Actually, I just used the line that goes from the compressor to the condenser, which is aluminum. For the other line, which is steel, I cut it about half an inch from the flange, turned it 180 degrees and welded it back together. I had a local A/C shop weld the GM pressure sensor fitting onto the BMW line closest to the BMW pressure sensor. I haven't charged and operated the system yet but it mounts up nicely with a little tweaking of the lines. For power steering, I used the adapters and lines listed in the FAQ sticky here. No problems so far.

    Fuel System

    I used the Corvette FPR/filter and bought the adapter fittings to go to hose barb on the reg side and used compression fittings to hose barb on the hard lines. Really simple. I kept it looking OEM with plastic fuel line going forward. No leaks so far. I plan on changing the in tank fuel pump with a drop-in Walbro at some point.

    Cooling System

    I had planned on using the stock electric fan and radiator but after doing a little more research and hearing from some members here it didn't seem like that would be adequate, especially not here in TX. I went with the Volvo fan and a Mishimoto X-line radiator. There may be better options for a fan out there as far as price, availability, and fitment but it doesn't take much to make it fit and it seems to cool very well. I have the fan triggered by the GM ECM and mounted a Volvo fan relay next to the radiator. I used the E30 coolant expansion tank and bought the E36 Euro mounting brackets that mount the tank in front of the ECM. I think it makes for a really clean and OEM layout. I will warn that it's a PITA to get all the air out of the LS1. I have the steam line from the heads T'ed into the small line going from the radiator to the expansion tank which I may change. More on that later. I also decided to add the Euro oil cooler which i'm in the process of doing now.

    Driveshaft and Differential

    I had a custom one piece driveshaft made locally using the JTR flange but never wound up using it. I jacked up the back of the car from the rear subframe and noticed that all the sudden the driveshaft was touching the tunnel when there was plenty of clearance before. So yeah, the subframe bushing were shot and the subframe itself was badly rusted so I decided to change it. While I was at it, I figured I would upgrade to the 210mm diff which I bought complete from Diffsonline, who was awesome. I was always concerned about driveshaft critical speed and possible NVH from losing the GUIBO but in trying to keep it simple I went with the one piece shaft at first. Now that I was changing to the 210mm diff which comes with a 6 bolt CV input flange, I decided to go with a two piece shaft and retain the GUIBO. The 2004 Pontiac GTO uses a GUIBO with the same dimensions as the BMW, but only the 2004 models. The GTO guys even swap to the BMW disk because it's stronger than the GM one. I sourced a GTO slip yoke from a junkyard which fits the F-body T56 perfectly. The only problem is that the centering pin is on the driveshaft side on the GTO and on the trans side on the BMW. The T56 has a hole with M12 threads in the output shaft so I had a 14mm pin machined to thread into the output shaft and center the driveshaft and used a locknut and loctite to hold it in. I sourced an E36 driveshaft that had a 6 bolt CV joint at the differential end and had Driveshaft Service of Atlanta shorten the driveshaft according to my measurements and it came out perfect. All good so far. Also, while I was in there, I replaced every suspension and brake component in the rear of the car. Yes, it was expensive and a PITA but I'm really glad I did it.

    Exhaust

    The new set of headers I bought from JTR was already ceramic coated silver which I'm not a fan of. I've used the higher temp ceramic coatings in the past and have been really impressed with how much heat they prevent from being transmitted to the engine and passenger compartment. Not so much with the lower temp silver. So when a used set of JTR headers came up I bought them and sent them to Jet Hot for the 2000 degree coating. My only complaint with the coating is that the flat colors also have a rough texture which is more likely to stain. I would have gotten gloss if I knew that was the case. From the headers back I installed 2.5" collector reducers into two 2.5" Magnaflow cats. I adapted a Supersprint E36 Euro center section that has an X-pipe and resonators to work with the headers and cats. The idea was to be able to bolt up any E36 cat back but it the end it was a waste because I'm going to wind up with a custom cat back anyway. From the Supersprint center section I have it going into the stock M3 cat back. The way to make the euro center section work with the USA M3 cat back was to cut the flanges off of the cat back and center section, weld in a small section of 60mm pipe, and use sleeve type exhaust clamps to hold them together. The USA cat back is 60mm like the euro right up to the flanges then it necks down so by cutting off the flanges everything is kept the same size. The only problem is that the OEM cat back is way too quiet. So much so that it just doesn't sound right. I think I'm going to have a custom cat back made with a Borla muffler once I get a few more of the loose ends tied up.

    Current Status

    The car has been running and driving as of about a month ago. There is literally zero increase in interior noise or vibration. I haven't pushed it too hard but it feels like there's plenty of power. Here are the problems I'm chasing down:

    Lifter noise - It was really noisy on first start which is fine and mostly went away but there's a persistent valvetrain noise. I checked all the rockers and everything looks tight but I've read that Lingenfelter cams are ground on a smaller base circle than stock which can cause lifter ticking with stock length pushrods. I checked pushrod length and it seems that I need 7.425" pushrods so I ordered a set of Trick Flow 5/16" chromoly pushrods from Summit this afternoon. Hopefully that's the end of it.

    High Coolant Temp on the BMW gauge - At idle, the BMW gauge points straight up and stays there, but during "spirited" driving the needle goes up to the next line. It's almost as if the buffer circuit isn't working. I installed a VDO temp gauge that reads exactly 160 like the thermostat is set for. The BMW sensor is in the DS cylinder head and the VDO sensor is mounted in the water pump near the outlet. I have the cylinder head steam line T'd into the small vent line going from the radiator to the expansion tank. I'm wondering if that might not be best for water circulation in the heads. I've ordered a VDO sensor that fits in the cylinder head so I'm going to have the VDO gauge reading from the cylinder head and see what it tells me. In the end, I just want to look at the dash and see the F'ing needle pointing up.

    What's left to be done? I need to swap springs from the H&R Sport to the OE Sport because the roads in Houston are awful, and that's coming from a NY'er. I've dragged the headers already just driving on normal streets. Just waiting on the necessary '95 upper spring mounts to work with the H&R springs. I don't remember noticing that the spring plates were different when I installed the Sports but whatever. I am also replacing the front struts with Bilstens and replacing all the front brake components. Once that's done I can get it aligned and the first trip afterward is to the shop that modified the A/C line for me to have the system charged. After that it's going to a shop that does custom exhausts to have a catback made with a Borla XS Pro muffler. Hopefully I'll be able to put some shakedown miles on it with no problems. When i'm confident that all is well mechanically it's going for paint and interior. Then on to the next project.....

    P.S. I know I left out some details so if you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

    IMG_1482[1].jpgIMG_1483[1].jpgIMG_0979[1].jpgIMG_1535[1].jpg

  2. #2
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    Great job! Wish you had more pics. I'm intrigued by your driveshaft setup.

    I just ordered the E30/Euro expansion tank yesterday but the brackets are NLA. I'll have to come up with a solution.

    Tipsy

  3. #3
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    If you google the part numbers for the expansion tank brackets you will find places selling them. I think I found them new on eBay. If you strike out LMK and I'll figure out where I got them from.


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  4. #4
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    Here are the details on the DS:

    I measured 1194mm from the differential flange to the DS seal on the transmission, the "critical measurement" used by most driveshaft shops when making a custom one-piece driveshaft. The driveshaft itself, measured from the GUIBO mounting flange to the differential mounting flange is 1118mm. The DS I started with was reported to be an E36 euro shaft for the 6-speed swap that measured 1318mm from the GUIBO mounting flange to the differential mounting flange, so I had the driveshaft shop remove 200mm from the front half of the shaft and it worked out perfectly. Also keep in mind that you lose about an inch when swapping to the 210mm diff and 6-bolt flange or at least I did. I measured 48" with the 188mm diff and 1194mm which is about 47" with the 210mm diff from the diff flange to the output seal of the trans.

    The GTO driveshaft yoke slides right on the F-body T56 but you have to drill out the bushing for the driveshaft centering pin that is pressed into the center of the yoke in order to have the centering pin mounted in the output shaft of the transmission fit through and to not interfere with the centering bushing on the driveshaft. Even still the yoke needs to be ground down a bit to not touch the centering bushing on the driveshaft. It was a PITA but I was working with basic hand tools and an angle grinder. A competent machine shop should have it done in minutes. The centering pin is 100mm in length, 14mm diameter with 30mm worth of M12 threads cut in one end of it. I used a locknut to secure it. If I would have done it over again I would cut 20mm length of M12 threads and machined a bevel at the end of the threads to bottom out against the output shaft of the tranny. I think that would ensure that the pin is perfectly straight. I didn't check runout once I installed the pin which I probably should have but there is no vibration at highway speeds so I guess it's straight enough.

    Here are some pics. Please excuse my booger welds:

    IMG_1536[1].jpgIMG_1541[1].jpgIMG_1596[1].jpg
    Last edited by BigL350; 07-16-2017 at 04:31 PM.

  5. #5
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    BigL350: Excellent! Thought this was my thread due to the title...but yours is nearly done...mine not so.

    Some great tidbits in your post. You didn't mention the ABS...appears you kept/relocated...did you bend your own lines?

    Nice work!
    Last edited by Tim Mc; 04-03-2018 at 07:49 PM.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by BigL350 View Post
    If you google the part numbers for the expansion tank brackets you will find places selling them. I think I found them new on eBay. If you strike out LMK and I'll figure out where I got them from.
    I've Googled. I think I've got the rear bracket sourced, that gets welded to the firewall (4112225649). I should know tomorrow.

    The front bracket seems only to be available from an eBay seller in Latvia. But I ordered the small plastic clip that secures to the front of the tank (17111719190) and I'm sure I can whip-up a small bracket to attach to the strut tower.

    Thanks for the info on the GTO drive shaft. I actually have a T56 from a 2006 GTO, so it might be more straight forward to adapt, should I choose to explore this option.

    Tipsy

  7. #7
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    All I got was the rear bracket and plastic clip, maybe from Latvia, and I didn't wind up using the clip. I mounted the rear bracket with sheet metal screws and made a "side bracket" that mounts with clip nuts to the reservoir and sheet metal screws to the body. It also mounts the Wiring Specialties relay box.

    For the DS another option is just handing over the GTO and E36 driveshafts to a shop and let them graft the two together in the forward half as per your measurements.

    Another thing I forgot to add is that I would like to have tried to adapt the BMW shifter to one of the T56's that shifts with a linkage but the Hurst shifter feels great so I doubt I'll ever change it.


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  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by BigL350 View Post
    All I got was the rear bracket and plastic clip, maybe from Latvia, and I didn't wind up using the clip. I mounted the rear bracket with sheet metal screws and made a "side bracket" that mounts with clip nuts to the reservoir and sheet metal screws to the body. It also mounts the Wiring Specialties relay box.

    For the DS another option is just handing over the GTO and E36 driveshafts to a shop and let them graft the two together in the forward half as per your measurements.

    Another thing I forgot to add is that I would like to have tried to adapt the BMW shifter to one of the T56's that shifts with a linkage but the Hurst shifter feels great so I doubt I'll ever change it.
    I don't have either driveshaft. I gave the BMW driveshaft to the guys who bought the BMW engine, long ago. Didn't think I'd have a need for it. I'll have a look on CL and eBay and see what GTO drive shafts go for.

    Tipsy

  9. #9
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    Trying to get educated on the two piece driveshaft situation. I looked at the GTO forum and it appears it's not uncommon for those guys to swap to a one piece driveshaft.

    I saw an ad for an '04 M6 driveshaft but it needs a carrier bearing. I then searched GTO carrier bearings and it appears they are not replaceable (or very difficult to replace), hence a lot of those guys switching to a one piece.

    Tipsy
    Last edited by TipsyMcStagger; 07-17-2017 at 11:09 AM.

  10. #10
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    Driveshaft Service of Atlanta seems to know their stuff so it may be worth talking to them about what DS to start with.


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  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tim Mc View Post
    BigL350: Excellent! Thought this was my thread due to the tittle...but yours is nearly done...mine not so.

    Some great tidbits in your post. You didn't mention the ABS...appears you kept/relocated...did you bend your own lines?

    Nice work!
    Missed this one! Yes, I bent my own lines and used a VS relocation bracket. One mistake was using a tubing bender that looks like a set of crimpers. They always seemed to crease the tubing which my cause a crack later. I also had the typical tubing bender with three different sized slots and wound up using that for everything. The other screw up on my part was putting the couplings right along the frame rail which is close to the header tubes. The way Tipsy wound up running them is how I'd do it if I ever have the engine out again.


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  12. #12
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    So, some progress has been made.

    The front brakes are all new, got new front bilstein struts and H&R OE Sport springs in also so the car is driving again.

    The lifter tap I was chasing is still there, even with 7.425" pushrods but now it's intermittent. I'm pretty sure I have a bad or at least sticking lifter. So today I made a deal with the devil and put in some Seafoam. I'm going to put some miles on it and see what happens.

    I borrowed a friend's OBD2 scanner and checked what the GM sensor was reading for cylinder head coolant temp and compare that to the BMW gauge position. The hottest reading I got from the GM sensor was 195* and that was where temp steadied out. Ambient temp was 95* and this was idling in my garage. At that temp the BMW gauge was all the way in the red and the warning light was on. I'm going to swap the BMW two pin sensor for the four pin type that the car originally came with. I will also do a resistance scaling check of the old sensor to be sure. Hopefully that's the end of it.

    Tomorrow the rear OE Sport springs are going in and later this week the car will get an alignment and the A/C will get charged. I can't wait to start driving it more.

    I'm thinking about getting a set of ESM 004 wheels. They're a pretty perfect BBS LM knock off. I can't justify buying the real ones only to have them go up in smoke in some crackhead's pipe the first time I park the car in a public lot. Any opinions?

    Also, I'm pretty much set on installing a Borla Pro XS muffler in place of the OEM M3 cat-back. Any of you guys have any experience with Borla mufflers?


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  13. #13
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    I understand the Bilsteins are quite firm...Koni may be more comfortable on the streets.

    Thanks for the note on hydraulic ABS lines...not looking forward to that part.

    Wheels: I prefer the DS2's...OEM is most durable and quality...also heavy and expensive.

    Nice job on the work...hoping mine will run half as well.

  14. #14
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    Well, my first impression of the Bilstein front struts is that they don't seem overly stiff with the H&R OE Sport springs, at least not in comparison to Sachs with H&R Sport.

    I have DS2's now, and they've always been my favorite OEM wheels. It's a difficult choice to go with anything else. Maybe if I stare at the car long enough it will become clear lol

    I appreciate the kind words. I'm pretty happy with the results so far.


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  15. #15
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    Alignment is done and the A/C is charged and working. Now it's time to put some miles on it so the Seafoam can work it's magic and hopefully loosen up that lifter.


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  16. #16
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    Small update: As I mentioned in Tim's thread, I had the Volvo fan control wired incorrectly. If you're using a thermostatic fan switch like the OEM BMW or Volvo to turn on the fans, when the low speed side of the switch is closed, the high speed side is open and vice versa. I was using the LS ECM to trigger the Volvo relay instead of a fan switch and this keeps fan 1 trigger on when when fan 2 is triggered. I'm 99% sure this is why I was overheating with the A/C on in traffic.

    In order to used the GM fan triggers with the Volvo two-speed fan you need to wire up two relays like this:
    taurusfanlayout.jpg
    The only difference is that I have 87 and 30 swapped on the low speed relay which makes no difference in how it functions.

    I also decided to move the BMW temp sender from the PS cylinder head to the water pump outlet where the VDO temp sender for the VDO gauge was previously. In order to do this I had to drill and tap the top of the water pump for M12x1.5 threads and use a 90 degree countersink to make a sealing surface for the sender sealing ring. I also used the same pn sender that is supposed to be in the car. I bought a new VDO temp sender with M12x1.5 threads to go in the PS cylinder head but made the mistake of cleaning and organizing my garage two weeks ago and now I can't find it. Another sender is on it's way from Summit. Hopefully this the last time I have to mess with the cooling system.

    As of last driving, the lifter tap is still there. Now I need to get through inspection so I can register the car and start driving it regularly and hopefully the offending lifter will free up.

  17. #17
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    So, after getting the fan wiring sorted out, the engine would still overheat at idle. Did some searching and found out that some flow through the heater core is necessary for the thermostat to "see" engine coolant temperature. So when guys plug the heater ports on the water pump AND use a thermostat with no bypass holes, they overheat. Before I read this I thought that my thermostat was sticking so I ordered a more expensive one of a better brand. Turns out that the more expensive thermostat from Hypertech has bypass holes and the one from Motorad doesn't. New thermostat goes in and all of the sudden there's no overheating. Another thing I noticed with the first thermostat was that the air being blown by the cooling fan wasn't hot. If you increase rpm it would start getting really hot. With the new thermostat it would be hot once the engine got up to temp. Anyway, all good now.

    I got the ABS light to turn off by jumping the ASC actuator plug with a 10 ohm 1W resistor which I read about on the forum somewhere. The ASC and Transmission trouble lights got the bulbs removed so now my dash is light free. The only problem with that this s the Check Engine light doesn't work because it was never wired into the Wiring Specialties harness. I guess I'm going to have to add it at some point.

    I changed the oil from 5w-30 Mobil 1 with Seafoam to 15w-50 Mobil 1 with a fresh AC Delco filter and the lifter noise went almost completely away. It's totally acceptable now.

    Here are some pics of the old girl.....




    And here's the difference in thermostats:


    Almost forgot to mention that I was getting code P1637 Generator L Terminal for the alternator. The battery also wasn't holding a charge more than a few days. Voltage with the engine running was 12.5V one day and 13.8V the next. Current draw with the engine off was 0.015mA, which I think is insignificant. Today I decided to change the alternator because that was the solution on 90% of the threads on the topic. Some even said that their old alternator tested OK but changing it fixed the problem. In my case the alternator tested OK and the code went away after changing the alternator. We'll see about the battery in the next few days.


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  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by BigL350 View Post
    The battery also wasn't holding a charge more than a few days. Voltage with the engine running was 12.5V one day and 13.8V the next. Current draw with the engine off was 0.015mA, which I think is insignificant. Today I decided to change the alternator because that was the solution on 90% of the threads on the topic. Some even said that their old alternator tested OK but changing it fixed the problem. In my case the alternator tested OK and the code went away after changing the alternator. We'll see about the battery in the next few days.
    The E36 is notorious for parasitic battery drain from a number of different causes. If the alternator doesn't solve your issue, next thing to do would be to check parasitic draw.

    My car has/had it as well. I think the problem is/was the ignition switch, which I've replaced, but the car hasn't been back together yet to determine whether the ignition switch was the culprit.

    Tipsy

  19. #19
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    Gave back my leased VW last week and have been daily driving the M since. Besides a rubber fuel line that I thought was rated for FI splitting, it was great. It went through inspection yesterday and will finally get permanent registration this week.

    Still left to figure out:

    Valvetrain noise - going to check lifter preload again because I wasn't doing it right last time. I think I may wind up needing +0.050" pushrods.

    Engine oil leak - I can't tell if it's the oil pan seal or the crank position sensor but that's the general area and it's enough to be annoying. Either I screwed something up when I replaced the pan gasket or it's the never-been-changed crank sensor.

    Gear noise from the T-56 - I think the fluid may need topping off because it lost a little when the DS seal leaked. First order of business today.

    Restoration work - The headliner is flapping in the breeze and it's really annoying. I followed Tim's lead and bought beige a-pillars for a quarter of the price of the anthracite ones and will have those wrapped along with the headliner, hopefully next week. It will be going for pain in December or January.

    Exhaust/muffler - It's a little too quiet so I'm swapping the OEM muffler for a Borla some time this week. I got quoted $1500+ from a local exhaust shop for a mandrel bent axle-back exhaust! I need to do some more shopping around.

    FYI, the reverse light switch for a 1983-2000 Mustang interchanges with the GM switch is much lower profile. I asked O'Reilly's for a switch for a 1999 Mustang and got the correct pigtail on eBay by searching "Ford T-56 reverse light switch". It was a bit of a PITA to get the connector on but there's no room to maneuver between the trans tunnel and transmission.




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  20. #20
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    Two things I forgot to mention:

    I swapped the clutch pedal bushings with brass ones from garagistic which took some play out of it. I think it's just flex it the plastic pedal that I'm feeling. I did manage to beak the clutch pedal switch in the process.

    Battery drain - No progress yet but I it's getting driven every day so it hasn't been an issue. I'll see what happens next time I go out of town for work.


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  21. #21
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    Apr 2012
    Location
    Stuttgart, Germany
    Posts
    577
    My Cars
    1997 M3 / 5.3
    Daily driving it...sounds like true success!

    Appreciate the info about the reverse switch-put that in my notes.

    I can't believe the cost for a single exhaust system! I hope I can get something more reasonable. I'm planning on a single 3 inch pipe with two mufflers. I don't want it silent, but reasonably the spouse will not be embarrassed to drive.

    Thanks for posting.

    How is the cooling?

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Houston, TX
    Posts
    206
    My Cars
    1997 M3 Sedan
    Cooling has been perfect since swapping thermostats to the one with bypass holes. The VDO gauge that's reading from the cylinder head never goes above 190 and the BMW gauge that reads from the water pump outlet points to 12 o'clock and stays there. A/C is working great too. So good that a coworker thought I had a leak because of all the condensate underneath the car. The only problem there is that it drips on the drivers side exhaust so you hear a sizzling noise when it's idling. I have to figure out some kind of shield.

    I checked rocker arm preload this morning and I'm only getting 3/4 of a turn after zero lash. I'm going to order 7.450" pushrods a little later and hopefully that will cure the noise. Just in case someone else is chasing the same noise, it's intermittent tapping at idle from one or two lifters, but when accelerating or decelerating you hear all of them tapping. I believe this is the "angry typewriter" sound that LS owners complain of.


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  23. #23
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Houston, TX
    Posts
    206
    My Cars
    1997 M3 Sedan
    So, I installed the +0.050 pushrods and the valvetrain in general got quieter but the one noisy lifter seems louder. It's about time to just bite the bullet, pull the heads and replace the lifters.

    Otherwise it's been running great. I had an axle-back exhaust made at a local shop using a Borla dual 2.5" inlet/dual 2.5" outlet muffler and I'm really happy with the sound. Not too loud at idle and a nice smooth growl when you're on it.

    Also finally replaced the faded, yellow headlights and installed "euro" taillights.

    Totally on impulse, I bought an Audi UrS4 to share the daily driving duties with the BMW. No big plans other than small restoration work and to keep it maintained.
    IMG_1834.JPG


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  24. #24
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Stuttgart, Germany
    Posts
    577
    My Cars
    1997 M3 / 5.3
    Got any images of the exhaust? Sound bites? What did it run you?

    My headers arrived next week...planning to take to a 'good' exhaust shop to talk about how to do the system and costs. I've looked at a Magnaflow cat back race system, but $900 before modifications...I will run two mufflers (2 into 1 at trans and normal one in rear position) so figure ones that are more race slanted will be just about right.

    Certainly one negative with the LS architecture...GEN I's...just pull the intake manifold for lifter access (about the only good thing!).

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Houston, TX
    Posts
    206
    My Cars
    1997 M3 Sedan
    No images or sound at the moment but I will try to make it happen tomorrow. It ran me $475 and I supplied the muffler. All stainless and fabricated with mandrel bent j-bends that were sectioned and TIG welded.

    Glad to see you and Tipsy moving things along, BTW.


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