S62 E30 AWD (Formerly: Fantastic V8 swap candidate)

[The Dark Side of Will]

I haven't looked at the E46 M60 swap... I have no idea how well the manifolds fit... or don't.

BMW does have a few different apps for manifolds, so there might be something. The big difference is the cars vs. SUV's... Still nothing like the sort of variety available for the LSx swap.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Snagged a couple of parts:



The boomerang bracket is the rear diff mount bracket from an E36 M3 CSL with 210mm diff. The bracket bolts to an E32/E34 210mm diff cover and puts the mount bushings in the same place relative to the axle centerline as the E36 rear cover on a 188mm diff.

The E23 745i turbo case, E32/E34 210mm rear cover and this bracket will allow me to build a 210mm diff that is a bolt-in swap for an E30 diff with E36 rear cover.

I also bought a couple of extra VSS trigger wheels for the VC diff. I'll experiment with trimming those for clearance to the E36 rear cover on the 3.64 VC diff I currently have.

Does anyone have the part number for the standard E36 LSD VSS trigger wheel?

[The Dark Side of Will]

Have both iX and E36 VSS wheels.
All measurements with calipers.

E36:
ID: 2.862
Radial: 1.275
OD (calc): 5.412

E30 iX:
ID: 3.453
Radial: 1.250
OD (calc): 5.953

Difference in OD: 0.541
Amount to trim: 0.271

E36 on left, E30 iX on right

[The Dark Side of Will]

No pics yet, but the VSS trigger wheel has been modified.

There are a couple of things I still need to do to The Mule and I will be able to circle back to this project.

[The Dark Side of Will]

The two zero cost things I can do to move this project forward are to disassemble the steering rack in order to modify the left end fitting and take the bellhousing off the TR-6060 in order to measure input shaft stickout from the end of the main case, and use that number to determine the thickness of the adapter between the C6 front plate and the 5HP24 bellhousing.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Made serious effort to get car on the road over the last few days.

When I brought it back from Richmond last summer, it ran like shit... felt like it had at most 3 cylinders hitting.

I started it and brought it around front. It still ran like shit. I checked spark and stethoscoped the injectors. #4 wasn't opening. I found one for $20 at a local yard and swapped it in. I started the engine again, and it ran a little better. I was trying to decide what else I was feeling when the engine suddenly became smooth as glass. I had the hood off in preparation for timing belt, water pump and front main seal replacement, so I saw right away that the car had sprung a high pressure leak from the low pressure side of the regulator. (WTF?)

After a little troubleshooting, I found that the return connection *INSIDE* the F#$%ing fuel tank is blocked SOLID. I worked on it all day today and couldn't get it opened up. The tube goes through the side of the tank at the extreme left end, drops down toward the bottom of the tank and goes right. It pops up and over the driveshaft hump, then back down into the "swirl chamber" which is a cylindrical baffle surrounding the fuel pump. Where the return line is low on the left side, it operates a jet pump that moves fuel from the left sump over the driveshaft hump to the right sump. Because of this jet pump, there are a couple of diameter changes and a venturi in the line.

I was able to use some 1/4" brake line and a short piece of hose to apply compressed air to the outlet of the return line in the right sump. Once I was able to make that kluge seal, I blew bubbles out the inlet orifice of the jet pump, so the line is clear to that point. I built a mad scientist setup to apply a vacuum to the external return line connection using a lab flask as a catch bottle. The pump pulled a hard vacuum and nothing more happened.

I bought a speedometer cable repair kit. I cut a ~9" piece, chucked one end in a drill and slipped the other into the external return connection. I spun the drill trying to use the speedometer cable as a pipe snake... I was able to get out some reddish brown sludge, but eventually I stopped getting any more of that out, the end of the cable was wearing shiny and I still wasn't getting through. I tried the long remainder of the cable from the internal end of the return tube with similar results... tried a lot and had no success.

Some previous owner was a complete moron and jacked the car up on the fuel tank. The tank is dented and the deepest point in the dent is right under the return line inside the tank. However, in looking into the tank through the left sump access port, I can't see that the tube is buckled or pinched in any way. The inside of the tank is clean, not rusty.

Bimmerforums thread on dropping the tank: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh ... ?t=1136459

Dorman makes NEW(!) fuel tanks: http://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw-fue ... 30-576-551 which FCPEuro carries for ~$300. Dorman PN 576-551

JC Whitless has off-brand stuffs: http://www.jcwhitney.com/replacement-oe ... 38634.jcwx

Edit: Amazon has the Dorman unit for $223, but their lookup says it doesn't fit an '88 325iX (???) (I checked the BMW PN that Dorman claims it replaces, and that's the correct number, so Amazon is wrong).
Amazon also has listings for tanks from Spectra and EvanFischer.

A couple of yards close enough have used ones for ~$100, but I didn't try calling today, as I didn't expect this to be as stubborn as it is.

Was also able to get the car inspected and registered yesterday.

Edit more: The FCP website claims that the Dorman tank is galvanized. Amazon doesn't say anything about the Dorman material. says the EvanFischer is galvanized, but says that the Spectra unit is Ni-Terne. I found this regarding Ni-Terne vs. Stainless (vs. galvanized): http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=207355

Ni-Terne vs. Dip Chromate: http://www.finelinefuelsystems.com/docu ... 0Steel.pdf

Reasonably nice catalog by Spectra: http://ecat.spectrapremium.com/Produits ... /000061539

[The Dark Side of Will]

Mad Scientist setup:



End of return line in swirl chamber with my brake line and hose nipple:



Dents inside the tank (those aren't cracks... just deposits:



Better view of the venturi:


Dent in the tank:

[The Dark Side of Will]

New tank and old tank:




Clip-type hose clamps on some of the vent lines; I had never seen these before, but I think they're really cool.


New tank ready to go in:


New tank is in right now with 4 of 5 fasteners. The 5th is also used to hang the fuel filter. I blasted and painted the fuel filter bracket; it's in the oven for an accelerated cure of the epoxy spray paint right now.

[crzyone]

Wow, all that because some idiot jacked it in the wrong spot. Not an easy thing to find and fix.

[The Dark Side of Will]

That's probably it... even though I can't see any specific damage to the tube from the dent.
I never understood how people can just shove a jack under a car and start pumping... but think about how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half the population is dumber than that.

It does mean that I'll have renewed all the really hard to reach parts of the fuel supply system by the time it's running, though.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Got tank, driveshaft, heat shields and exhaust installed. I hooked up the complex fuel filter plumbing... and it wouldn't start. I was out of time for yesterday and didn't appreciate working in the rain, so I went back to NoVA.

Anyway... At this point it *should* just be a matter of basic troubleshooting to get it to start

[CincinnatiFiero]

What epoxy paint are you using for brackets?

I've got the motor out of my 72 220 right now and I want to paint all the brackets in the bay.

[The Dark Side of Will]

It's in aerosol cans and comes from McMaster-Carr (PN 7633T4).
I also painted the tank with it, as the tank is actually Ni-tern plated underneath, so that should give you an idea of how it turns out with decent prep.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Better perspective on tank dents... Old tank had been bashed on BOTH sides by nimrods with jacks.

[crzyone]

That looks like a pretty large fuel tank.

[Emc209i]

so that should give you an idea of how it turns out with decent prep.

You did a fucking beautiful job with that btw. Hard to believe it came out of an aerosol can. I might have to pick some of that stuff up in a gallon for the gun. I'd love for my parts to look as good as that tank. Dry time is 48 hours with the general purpose paints - talk about the real deal.

[The Dark Side of Will]

That looks like a pretty large fuel tank.

It's the late style tank at 63 liters... the early style tank holds 55 and has a plastic cross-over tube under the driveshaft. It's actually fairly shallow, as it fits under the back seat. The driveshaft hump is obvious, and stairstep on the lobe on the left side of the photo is for the exhaust.

so that should give you an idea of how it turns out with decent prep.

You did a fucking beautiful job with that btw. Hard to believe it came out of an aerosol can. I might have to pick some of that stuff up in a gallon for the gun. I'd love for my parts to look as good as that tank. Dry time is 48 hours with the general purpose paints - talk about the real deal.

Thanks!
Yeah, it is the real deal. It's a tough paint and is REALLY tenacious on media blasted surfaces.
I scuff with scotchbrite (unless the surface is blasted), wipe down with 90+% isopropyl alcohol, allow some dry time and then spray. I try to organize things so I do the painting well before I need the part, but when I can't do that, I cure small parts in the oven. An hour at 175 degrees completes the cure.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Just got it running. I'll probably replace the engine bay fuel hose soon, as it felt pretty stiff.

An idiot PO installed RWD headers in this AWD car (Probably not the guy I bought it from, though). The AWD catalyst section is shaped differently than the RWD catalyst to clear the T-case. Because of this, RWD headers that are designed "for off-road use" don't fit.
BMW headers are all 6-2-1. The PO had to cut the 2 secondary pipes and extended them about 6-8" for T-case clearance. The mid-pipes were kludged also. Alignment isn't very great and without the transmission/T-case exhaust hanger, the whole system hangs a bit low.
The header install involved moving the O2 sensor. Let's just say that wiring was NOT the installer's strong suit. There are twisted and taped connections under the battery tray that I'll have to sort out. At least the car already has a rear mounted battery.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Drove it into the burg and back (1/2 hour each way), hoodless.
The engine seems to be running well, although it's a bit rough on idle. The front main seal is still a sieve, so that and timing belt are next.

I did try dropping the clutch from 4-5K once... It barked and got underway pretty violently. I looked back and had left three black marks on the road. AWD makes me

The front diff seems to be making noise. I had the shop top off all four gearboxes when it was inspected in June... I guess I need to check the level in the front diff again.

[Aaron]

I did try dropping the clutch from 4-5K once... The front diff seems to be making noise

Huh, I wonder why?

Kidding of course, though I doubt the AWD clutch drop helped matters any!