Fastech Motorsports E39 525i Wagon S54 Swap Hellacious Grocery Gettin Power Wagon !!!

[blackknight530i]

I mean you're right in that it'll pull harder since the S54 has more torque everywhere... but you've also got 1500 more revs to play with, so you may as well install a shorter diff too to really wake up the car.



0.828:1

Fair point on the extra revs, but for cruising down the highway, I still like to keep the revs a bit lower in 6th. To each their own I guess.

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[Bluegrass]

https://www.facebook.com/ChattanoogaCarsnCoffee/

The S54 swapped E39 Touring is suppose to be at this event tomorrow...I will check it out!

[blackknight530i]

Can we get an update from the OP on this build?

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[auaq]

Can we get an update from the OP on this build?

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^

[Bluegrass]

Happy Friday!
its been slow going but Jason over at Fastech took her for a test drive today!! No muffler and lots of coding / wiring to sort out. The cooling system really looks factory nice.
M5 Shroud,rad and Expansion-tank ...fan blades needed massaging..hoses and connections are all BMW parts bin.
Air-box and intake are a modified E39/M3 blend (it just fit so nice) MAF back is M3..


Another week or two and we should be at cars N' Coffee on the 21st under her own S54 power....here are some progress pics.

IMG_7525.jpgIMG_7523.jpgIMG_7524.jpgIMG_7526.jpg

[computiNATEor]

I bet that stock air filter box kills a bit of power, even with the drop-in.

[blackknight530i]

I doubt that. The e46 M3 filter box is smaller than that. I am curious though, is that the e39 filter box, or s54 z3m?

I bet that stock air filter box kills a bit of power, even with the drop-in.

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[computiNATEor]

Looks like an M54 filter box to me.

[Jason5driver]

Looks like an M54 filter box to me.

+1.
Looks like they used an adapter at the MAF.

[Bluegrass]

Will see on the DYNO.....can always modify it, ditch it....yes it may be from the old M54 3.0 that was pulled out.

What about the right side of the two M5 air boxes ???
.Screen Shot 2018-07-06 at 6.01.07 PM.jpg

[TerraPhantm]

Will see on the DYNO.....can always modify it, ditch it....yes it may be from the old M54 3.0 that was pulled out.

What about the right side of the two M5 air boxes ???
.Screen Shot 2018-07-06 at 6.01.07 PM.jpg

Keep in mind that a single bank on an M5 makes less power than an M54.

I don't think it'll be a huge restriction. Maybe try to source a S54 Z3M airbox

[auaq]

Were the fan blades touching/rubbing against the M5 fan shroud?

[blackknight530i]

Were the fan blades touching/rubbing against the M5 fan shroud?

Don't see why they would. E46 M3 uses a mechanical fan just like the e39 m54 and should be located in the same place. Plenty of people have run the M5 radiator on m54 e39s, so should be fine.

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[TerraPhantm]

Don't see why they would. E46 M3 uses a mechanical fan just like the e39 m54 and should be located in the same place. Plenty of people have run the M5 radiator on m54 e39s, so should be fine.

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I think water pump sticks out a tad further on the S54

[computiNATEor]

I think water pump sticks out a tad further on the S54

If they rotate about the same axis, and the blades are equally sized, that would be fine. There's plenty of clearance between an E39 M5 radiator and M54 mechanical fan.

[Bluegrass]

Yes the blades were just touching. The S54 motor is slightly taller in height, tall enough that the hood has just enough room to close (minus insulation)....so yes the fan sits higher because of this. or from a different perspective the E39 (M5) radiator support sits a hair lower then the axis of the fan (it does stick out further too)....we are talking about 1/4 inch at most, but the blades had to be massaged to clear top of fan shroud...If it wasn't pointed out you would be hard pressed to notice the geometry...mostly because you would be staring at the the S54 bulging out the engine bay. Here is a pic from another angle....that shows a bit more of the height of the "M"motor.
IMG_7532.jpg

- - - Updated - - -

All correct.....In this case its the lower height of the E39 Rad support in relation to the taller S54 motor that is just a hair different.

[blackknight530i]

Yes the blades were just touching. The S54 motor is slightly taller in height, tall enough that the hood has just enough room to close (minus insulation)....so yes the fan sits higher because of this. or from a different perspective the E39 (M5) radiator support sits a hair lower then the axis of the fan (it does stick out further too)....we are talking about 1/4 inch at most, but the blades had to be massaged to clear top of fan shroud...If it wasn't pointed out you would be hard pressed to notice the geometry...mostly because you would be staring at the the S54 bulging out the engine bay. Here is a pic from another angle....that shows a bit more of the height of the "M"motor.
IMG_7532.jpg

So you're saying the blades weren't touching the radiator itself because it was too close, but rather that it was higher up and rubbing the shroud? Interesting. Did you modify the shroud to fit the blades or the blades themselves? Any balance issues assuming the latter?

Did you have to keep the insulation out to get the hood to close? I hadn't thought about that being a problem. Did you use anything else in place of it?

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[Bluegrass]

The Insulation had to come out...to avoid contact (resting on) with the oil cap and fuel rail.....it was over an 1" think....will probably replace with a
'stick on" thermal temp control mat.....or modify the hood down the road.
engine mounted fan was just a hair to tall...plenty of room tho between the fan face and rad itself.
So Yes blades were cut down/shaped, and made sure it was still balanced and smooth.
Otherwise they would rub on the top side of Plastic M5 shroud....

This all made for a clean factory look and kept the rad mounts all stock and tight where they were .
Air flow is straight thru just like it should be.

Will take more pics if interested in a few days.

[computiNATEor]

I wonder if the taller M54 shroud would clear without modifications. The M5 fan, IIRC, sits down and in quite a bit relative to the I6 fan.

[Bluegrass]

Had the M54 shroud....does not work. you could look at lots of choices for this.
Plumbing inlets become an Issue..as the M54 is different then the S54 locations....that is why the M5 was used... Expansion tank location was a bonus....

Also notice the top (upper radiator hose) took 2 hoses to make this one, had bend just right so it looks right....the bend in the hoses matches the coved out shape in the Air-box even!

I think Jason did a real nice job on it ...looks like it belongs.

[computiNATEor]

Gotcha.

[auaq]

I may have missed it but what engine mounts did you use? M54/S54/E39/E46?

[Bluegrass]

E39 Motor mounts

[zack.fastech]

E39 Motor mounts

Hey Guys! Jason here @ FasTech! I apologize for the LONG delayed responses! I am here to answer everyone's questions!
First and foremost the e39 wagon is running and driving! Second you guys and your Coolant flow diagrams rock! Lines routed as diagram shown with the secondary valve deleted from fan shroud was spot on! Seeing normal operating temps with no issues! Now with that as BLUEGRASS has mentioned there was some custom coolant lines made. With that The M5 Rad hoses will not work for 2 reasons #1 being not only the lenth of the hose being 3inches too short(mainly Upper hose) but also the factory bends did't quite work. #2 being one end has the quick connect fitting(no issues here) and the other end typically clamps to water pump/ t-stat housing with the M5 hoses the inside diameters were actually larger in size than the M3 housing that the clamp could not account for. So basically that left us with making custom coolant hoses. We had to cut the metal band off of a few different bmw hoses in order to get the right quick connects needed and was able to make coolant hose from local part store work with right bends as well as lenth!

Moving on to the M5 Rad shroud and Coolant tank. These were used not only for appearance but function. The factory 5 series Exp. tank had not 1 but 2 coolant outlets with 1 going to valve mounted on rad shroud and the other hose went to heater valve mounted in engine bay near steering rack. With using M5 coolant tank the M5 shroud was also needed to mount the tank, with the M5 tank it only has 1 coolant outlet. Now with that we still had the hard pipe with the hose that has about 150 Degree bend in it that connects to M3 coolant tank. Seeing as there are no mounting points to make the M3 coolant tank work this raised the question of how in the world to make this quick connect stretch all the way over to the M5 tank? Well with eliminating the aux valve on fan shroud we were able to take the extra coolant hose that ran from the stock coolant tank that connects to another hose that in turn runs to the heater core. The end of the hose had the male quick connect that just so happened to be the exact same connection needed to extend the elbow from the hard pipe and with cutting to length to mate up to M5 tank! Now with using the M5 shroud it will need to be modified in a couple places along with slight trimming of fan blades. #1 On the 5 series the Aux fan module mounts on the d/s of the shroud above the sec. heat valve where as on the M5 it mounts on the P/s bottom underneath the coolant tank, with it here not only will you have to lengthen the wire harness but you run into clearance issues with the a/c so this needs to be notched out. #2 With the way the shroud covers more of the radiator it had to be notched to account for upper hose.

The mount arms that bolt to the block were from the 5 series as well as the rubber mount. The M3 mounts were similar but the alignment dents that pair to the sub frame were slightly different and could not be used.

Yes the next issue was the intake!? what do you do? the stock M3 air box didn't fit with upper rad hose there and mount on intake did not align to secure to engine bay. So with that we decided to use the STOCK 5 series wagon intake box with using portion of M3 intake where MAF sensor mounts in conjunction with a cut off end of a 5 series MAF where it snaps into intake for a nice clean OEM look.

I'm sure there are things that i'm forgetting.... But i CANNOT thank you guys enough here @ bimmer forums for all the help and Positive feedback!

[auaq]

Great info. If you don't mind, can you elaborate a little more on the cooling system? Because it sounds like you had to tackle the routing of the hoses quite differently from what was initially discussed in the other and long 'S54 in E39' thread. Also, what are you guys trying to fix in the 'e-box' department? Again, it sounds like there's more hack/modifications involved here than compared to other discussed thread.

Thanks.

PS. Any running videos? Post 'em up.