S38B36 Laguna Touring

[steve_k]

excellent thread, will be keeping my eye out for this round the county.

[lellis]

Well, this has been a long time since I have updated this, mainly down to as always, not much progress..

Unfortunately for my e30, I've been getting a bit too into these switches and for a while now it has been pretty full on.

However, that means I have finally started selling these new units, they're able to monitor oil or coolant temp to a much more accurate level compared to the cluster gauges.



It has taken me over 4 months of testing and prototyping to get to this point, but I am very happy with the final product.



Message me if you're interested

Back to the project, I haven't really been in the mood to finish this any time soon recently. Mainly due to the huge amount of tasks left to do, it becomes so much where you don't even know where to start and feel like doing one part won't exactly help the process.

But I bit the bullet and decided to send my big engine parts off for vapour blasting.

Putting my touring to good use.



Then, here are some comparison pictures.













So all was going well, until I found this:



One step forward, two steps back. Have passed it on to a specialist who will give me their verdict next week.

Great.

[lellis]

Till I find out the news on my block, I've decided to start painting engine parts. Mainly to stop be from throwing everything in the bin and locking myself in my room for an eternity.

So only photo I have of the rocker cover when I got the engine is this



First, I spent a couple evenings wire wheeling, de-greasing and paint stripping the cover.

Next was to remove the AFM mounts, this is because I'm using a flipped inlet manifold so they won't be needed.



Then I filled the rest and sanded it all done, ready for primer.



Primered



Then used VHT wrinkle paint,



And I am SO happy with how these bits came out! I still have to shave off the BMW part but I will let it set for a couple of days.

Also did my mates TDS rocker



Turns out I have this car in my garage too? Can't remember it being here..

[lellis]

Right, I may have made a slight investment..

My M30 block was still with the engine specialists and they weren't crazy happy with the condition of it. I was advised to start looking for another block, just in case it doesn't work out for them.

So, I noticed an S38 for sale. Obviously I had a quick look at it, had a dream over it then got back to searching. I couldn't find anything for sale M30 related that I was looking for, whether it be too far away or just astronomically priced..

So I had another look at the S38, passed it on to my friends, and they didn't exactly say no. A couple days go by and I bite the bullet and contact the current owner, I have a long chat about it and he says that the bottom end started to knock so he removed the engine and replaced it, it has been dry stored for 4 years and he pretty much forgot about it.. He explained that he can't guarantee the condition of the bottom end but the sale was for the top end, it just came as a complete item.

Luckily he was only an hour away from me so I decided to go have a 'look' at it.





I wasn't able to really check any of the internals, but I knew that if it wasn't salvageable, I could make my money back in parts.

Soooo I put a deposit down for it, to collect in a couple of days.

It was a pretty tight fit in a Ford Connect..





It was a long night but we had to see what it would be like when it's in place







I forgot how big these engines are.





Now it is time for me to strip it down and see if I can actual save it, I am really not fussed about how long it will take.

Is there anyone out there with an s38 swapped e30? I can't seem to find many in the UK, would be great to talk to someone about them.

[SeanOB]

ooooh that is cool. I hope the S38 is salvageable!

[Steve]

Yup, very cool, fingers crossed for the engine.

[lellis]

Yup, very cool, fingers crossed for the engine.

ooooh that is cool. I hope the S38 is salvageable!

I'm trying to keep my calm and not get too excited just yet.

Will be stripping it down early next week, so I'll either post the outcome on here or make a for sale post haha!

Thanks for the comments

[TurtleDesignTech]

ooooh that is cool. I hope the S38 is salvageable!

Me too. Could turn out quite epic!

[lellis]

Quick update;

Started on the strip down the other night to assess the cam and crankshaft situation.
Seems like one of the middle conrod caps had actually come off whilst driving, it has beaten up the journal quite bad but nothing toooo crazy (I hope).
All the other main and conrod journals are good with no apparent wear, so it can't have been oil starvation as first thought.
Seems to be a slight bit of pitting on one of the cam lobes, this will need to be looked at too.

My question is, if repairable, would it be possible for me to just grind down the one damaged journal and fit the thicker bearing, or due to the balance of the crank will I have to have them all ground?

I need to get a micrometer to check the dia of the journal first anyway, hoping to get the head off tonight to inspect the block, head and cylinder walls too. Will update the thread with pictures soon..

Help from anyone with experience on this would be greatly appreciated.

[lellis]

Is there anyone out there who has worked on s38's who can give me some guidance with the strip down of it?

I spent a long night last week trying to get the head off to inspect the whole engine however we came across an issue.

As it has a kind of two head system, we started by removing all the bolts holding the top head to the lower one, but we could not remove it. We did leave the cams in place, and i'm wondering if that by leaving them in place, due to the valves being at an angle, you cannot simply lift the head off without removing the cams and shims etc.

Is this right? any help would be greatly appreciated.

[BMW_E30vert]

Any update with this? Really interesting read, you have probably worked this out already but cams will have to come out to remove head.

I’m going to be rebuilding a s38b38 this summer so have been researching a lot lately here are some helpful links if still needed-

https://www.bmwtechinfo.com/repair/main/741en/index.htm

http://www.mwrench.com/Whitepapers/torqspec.pdf

[lellis]

Any update with this? Really interesting read, you have probably worked this out already but cams will have to come out to remove head.

I’m going to be rebuilding a s38b38 this summer so have been researching a lot lately here are some helpful links if still needed-

https://www.bmwtechinfo.com/repair/main/741en/index.htm

http://www.mwrench.com/Whitepapers/torqspec.pdf

I was planning to update my thread this evening hah! what a coincidence.

Thank you for the links! The engine is now fully stripped, it has some issues though..

[lellis]

Been a while yes, there has been progress but i've hit another issue.

I got some assistance from an s38 guru about the strip down, and got it fully stripped for inspection.



Got the head off after a lot of head scratching.





So as explained before, I suspected the conrod cap came off on piston 4 when it was running. And i'm even more certain now, the piston is broken on the edges from the valves hitting it, but no damage to the cylinder bore and the valves so far don't look too bad.

All the other bearings are in pretty good condition, there is some scores on the other bores, probably due to pieces of the conrod bearing and piston..





With everything in the house now (two stripped engines and many e30 bits in my spare room is not how I expected it to be used) more photos to come

[lellis]

Annoyingly, the engine is in pretty good condition apart from these 'slight' issues.

The plan was to either go for it if it's worth it, or sell it off. But can I really let an s38 go after all the stuff i've watched on them? Definitely not, s**t.

I got some pictures of the damage to the crank



I've spoken to three different companies now about attempting to fix the crank, to either weld it up, metal spray or grind down and custom bearing being made.

Every one hasn't been tooooo optimistic about it, but it's not like the crank is readily available (within price range), so I really need to get it fixed. The main issue is that they're saying it will be case hardened, so this has to be undone for welding then re hardened.. Big job



Hard to look at it as the rest of it is in such good condition!

P l e a s e, if anyone has any experience with getting cranks repaired, know someone who does it, or knows a better solution, message me!!

For now, I've had a 'break' from the engine, and have concentrated on getting my engine bay built, photos to come.

[lellis]

So whilst getting through my procrastination period, I've started back on my engine bay. Depending on how much of this thread you've read, I'm going for a smoothed/shaved/tucked bay, not everyone's taste, but it is for me.

After an absolute fiasco with my welder, I got it going again and got started, I had a free weekend and a mate spare.

I started by finishing off/cleaning up the side which is already tacked in. Fully welded it in, filled in a few holes and ground it all 'smooth'.



My ebay dremel bits died on me pretty quick, so it's not fully ready yet. They're on their way.

Started work on the other side



A lot of CAD (cardboard aided design) went down to get this in. Tacked in place



Luckily, my friend restores train coaches everyday, so when it came to making a piece to replace the rust, he took his skills (aged 22, but uses imperial??? Weird) and produced this piece out of one piece. Unreal.



Got it tacked in place



Then I started to weld it in place, then ran out of gas for my MIG. So that finished off the weekend, but I'm really happy with the progress.

I gave it a coat of primer and locked it all back up.



The next day, I decided to do some more grinding and actually pulled the car out the garage for the first time this year.. I forgot what it looked like





That's all for now, kinda cool actually breaking the mental barrier and making progress on what seems a never ending project.

[steve_k]

Aside from the engine drama it looks to be coming along nicely.

As for the crank, might be worth having a word with byron (maggspower) on here see if he can give you any advice.

Can't hurt to try.

[lellis]

Aside from the engine drama it looks to be coming along nicely.

As for the crank, might be worth having a word with byron (maggspower) on here see if he can give you any advice.

Can't hurt to try.

Thanks! I'll send over a pm tomorrow to him.

Wish there were more people in the UK working on s38's, I also haven't found anyone with an s38 swapped e30 in the uk yet!! I have so many questions to ask haha

[Acaciastrain360]

I have one!!








Not really, sweet thread though

[lellis]

So, even though I said I would hold onto the m30 until I know the S38 can be fixed, I've decided to sell the m30..

I finished off the manifold by first removing all the casting marks to make it smooth



Then masked up and applied etch primer



Wrinkle painted



Once cured, I scraped down the emblem and the '3.5' part to finish it off



I was really happy with the final outcome of it. I then built up the m30 just to see how good it would've looked.







Not gonna lie, it looked amazing. Posted up some pictures on my insta and I sold the painted parts to Steve (who is on here but can't remember his profile, fixedwheelnut on instagram)

[lellis]

Onto the s38, I bit the bullet and took the crank to my local machine shop (SEP, Kegworth). After a quick measure up, they seemed happy that the journal didn't need any building up, and a simple regrind for oversize bearings would suffice. Which is amazing news for me. Still dubious.. I should find out next week!

So whilst on a high, I decided to do my favourite thing and paint stuff with wrinkle paint.

I started by stripping the paint from the cam cover



Then after a quick jet wash and it was looking great, I only had to pick off a few sturdy bits. I filled in some marks and got it masked up



Etch primered



Wrinkle painted



Cured

[lellis]

My welder had been playing up for a while and it really made me lose motivation on the car. The only way to solve this was to purchase a new one.
I went for the R-Tech MIG 180 and it was possibly my best investment to date.

I finally started on filling in the other side of the engine bay



Ground it all smooth



And primered it



Still more work to do on this area, but really happy to have a proper welder now.

[Acaciastrain360]

Loving the wrinkle paint

[Steve]

Such a great project, keep the updates coming.

[SeanOB]

If you got the m30 looking that good, just imagine how tasty the S38 is gonna be!

[lellis]

If you got the m30 looking that good, just imagine how tasty the S38 is gonna be!

Thanks! Well, I do have an end goal for this engine which came from the rusty slammington build.

Nestled inside this absolute metal marvel is a pretty astonishing engine. A group 5 inspired build.











So yeh.. If anyone has an suggestions of where to acquire some heat resistant paint in that brown/gold colour, please help me out!

[Steve]

Great inspiration for the engine build, also I love the rusty slammington story.

[bab-91]

Subscribed

[TurtleDesignTech]

This just got even more more epic. Can't wait for the next update.

[lellis]

STILL waiting on a call from the engine shop, I did say there's no rush.. I'm sure they've took that literally. Still hopeful

Currently focusing on planning for my new workshop which will massively help with the building stage, very exciting.

[lellis]

Small update..

The crank is ready! A simple 0.25mm grind has sorted it, which is great news.

The next issue is that they are struggling to source the bearings..

Does anyone know of someone who can get s38b36 -0.25mm main and con-rod bearings?

[steve_k]

Small update..

The crank is ready! A simple 0.25mm grind has sorted it, which is great news.

The next issue is that they are struggling to source the bearings..

Does anyone know of someone who can get s38b36 -0.25mm main and con-rod bearings?

fantastic news on the crank, but as for the bearings it my be worth trying bmw, you never know.

[TurtleDesignTech]

If you have trouble finding bearings, it may be worth finding out who the OE manufacture for bearings BMW used at the time and looking through the parts catalogue for bearings sizes that might work.

I rebuilt a Diesel Lombardini engine for a Piaggio Ape TM. One of these:

The engine was originally ceased due to disintegrated bearing and the machine shop had to machine the big end of the rod.

Piaggio didn't make oversized bearings and the engine sat a the machine shop for over a month.

One day someone brought them an old Fiat 500 engine to have some work to the machine shop. The machine shop figured out that the same bearings would fit my Lombardini engine. Probably not such a coincidence since Piaggio and Fiat are both based in Italy.

Engine works great. Did over 3000km in 1 year with absolutely not problems. More than I have done in my E30 in a year so far...

(Also couldn't find piston rings at a reasonable price. Turns out ones for a 2L Citroen van fit.)

[lellis]

Piaggio didn't make oversized bearings and the engine sat a the machine shop for over a month.

One day someone brought them an old Fiat 500 engine to have some work to the machine shop. The machine shop figured out that the same bearings would fit my Lombardini engine. Probably not such a coincidence since Piaggio and Fiat are both based in Italy.

Engine works great. Did over 3000km in 1 year with absolutely not problems. More than I have done in my E30 in a year so far...

(Also couldn't find piston rings at a reasonable price. Turns out ones for a 2L Citroen van fit.)

That's very lucky!

I've now had the shop ring me to say they have sourced the bearings! Should be collecting it today.

Exciting

[lellis]

I've decided to start work on the ITB's, just a dismantle ready for degreasing, ultrasonic cleaning and painting!



They're pretty dirty, and will require a bit of work to get them looking brand new.



I've been taking a lot of photos along the way, as my memory is really not good for these sorts of things.

I will be getting most of the small parts zinc coated, just going to try source new bearings etc.

Whilst I was searching for some advice on the overhaul, I found a picture of these..



I was going to get my own designed and made, but these are interesting. Supposedly in stock, but £110 each..

So maybe i'll just buy one, the take the dimensions and model my own..



Also, the m88 had a different orientation to the s38, so there may not be enough room. I don't want to be cutting up the bonnet too..

[lellis]

The crank is home!



Forgot how cool this crank was.



Now to strip the head down, and get the larger bits sent off for chem dipping.
With the m30, I have them vapour blasted. And after receiving the block and head, I was forever finding media particulates in the ports etc, I don't want that with the s38.