My Completed m52 conversion - Update

[alan1272]

good work. how are you trying to take the viscous off? a swift smack with a hammer and chisel usually does the trick, just remember it's a left hand thread.

[jonnie]

Get the viscous off pal, otherwise it will start eating your rad.

[blue30]

^^^ Yes deffo, the engine will move around a bit on braking etc. and make a mess of the rad.

[e30-EVN]

i wouldnt wanna risk it mate!! give the nut a good smacking to shock it then use viscous spanner and hammer in the usual way....

the viscous was a right twat on my old m50 but she came off in the end lol, thankfully dan saved me the bother with the m52 and it was removed before it got to me

BTW,, great work so far mate. the end result will be worth all the hassle trust me on this

Ant

[deanocool]

good work! it was a right ballache getting the sump over the front of the car and drop in for me what with the bowl being at the front. the engine mounts were also a pita too. mines sat in now, just need to connect up the power steering pump and pipes and sort out the rad and exhaust. keep this thread going dude!

[Green]

Ali it's taken in total I'd say in actual hours of work which is usually a couple here and there with many cups of tea.. so in all so far probs around 12ish if not slacking hours worth of work to get to this stage. I spent most of the time just looking at it haha

Ahhh not looking forwards to removing the viscous now the engine's in -_-; I'll give it a go maybe today, then failing that i'll whip the grinder out !

Dean for me it's where the sump was resting on the ARB and steering rack then wouldn't move back, having to jack the car up with the engine half in, then jacking the rear of the box up to move the engine into the right position for the mounts... doing this with only a few inches of arm room proved hard under the car!

I need to buy a shorter fan belt as I removed the power steering for the time being, if anyone's got a part number and a merchant that sells one let us know cheers.
I'm patiently waiting for my loom and mani back so I can get the exhaust of the e36 modded to fit.
In the meantime I was thinking of plugging in the inlet and getting it ready for a straight plug in but it will probs be better to do the loom whilst the mani's off.

[ali50ferrari]

Dude im in luton and i will be calling you when i get mine underway!

[Green]

Just down the road then, and where I purchased my E30 from I'm literally just off the A5 in Leighton so if you do need to look at anything once it's done let me know.. although I do need to source a better diff out still!

[e30-EVN]

it will be much easier to do the loom with the inlet off mate! you'll be better off fitting the loom and then the inlet. part of my first loom burnt out a few weeks back and i had to take the inlet setup off to get to everything......

best thing about the m52 loom is all the plugs have different designs which means you cant, for example, mix up cam and crank sensors ect ect, unlike the m50 loom!

[Green]

Well that's decided then, I'll find where I put the bolts for the inlet so I have them ready, and I'll plumb up the gear to fit the m50 manifold with the ICV so it's ready to pop straight in.. oh how it pays to be organised

[e30-EVN]

you've got the right idea.. organisation is the key lol

[Green]

Well plugged in the ICV earlier and injectors ready, contemplating removing the fuel lines off the e36 to replace the original ones from the e30 as they look better, shame I put an engine in the way of the connection

Also noticed this water hose here, it's the one that goes above the hose to the bottom of the header tank, doesn't seem to have a place to go so I assumed it's got the TB which is now disconnected, so I'd guess it can just be blocked off?

[DanThe]

Yep, cut it off and weld it up.

Your loom is finished now mate, fan loom and manifolds to do

[Green]

Sweet, the welder's out of order so until my mate gets it in order I shall have to plug it as close in as I can for now.

Thanks Dan that's awesome! Getting me more excited now, being patient is killing me! I've already accepted the fact I'll be going to edition38 this weekend in the Focus C Max.. oh the shame

I need to still purchase a breather hose from the rocker to the intake boot, and I was going to be tight and not buy a new exhaust gasket but I get paid in a couple of days so I might as well source them out. Also realised I will need to grind out the original brackey for the airbox as it just will not fit with it there!

[Green]

Was bored after getting in this morning and nothing being on TV so dedicated an hour of tinker time to find nuts and bolts and do some cleaning up.

First things first was grinding off the original AFM bracket and spraying it with some rust treatment to keep it tidy. The whole engine bay needs a respray so might do it over in matt/satin black until I get around to it.


I then swapped the fuel lines from the e36 onto the e30 so that they connect up to the fuel rail like BMW originally intended

Test fitted the m52's airbox and it's pretty much perfect, the air intake more or less lines up to the gap in the headlight covers.. I might modify one of the intakes from either the e30 or e36 to it for a better intake.



Looking more or less complete now!


What's the nuts that are used to secure down the inlet, I can't find where I put them so going to buy new ones?

[craigieeb]

What's the nuts that are used to secure down the inlet, I can't find where I put them so going to buy new ones?

M7's iirc

[DanThe]

They are indeed 7mm, I can bung some in with your big box of parts that will be coming back this week

[Green]

If you would be so kind Dan I'd appreciated that very much..! And now having the excitement knowing that news is going to keep me up for hours now...!

I just can't wait for the initial start up (Followed by the initial debug)

[Green]

Few final things I sorted out so that it would be more or less a straight plug in play when my bits arrive.

I connected the prop and gear linkage back up, but thought whilst I had it out that I could replace the e30 gear stick thingy (can't think what it's call ) with the e36 one and see how that would be, turned out very well! Changing gears feel a lot shorter and a tighter throw.. look forwards to testing how it drives with that

Bit of a disaster today, when sitting in the car sorting the gear stick out I put the clutch down and hadn't connected the clutch slave to the box yet... which ended up bursting the spring through the seal and pissing the fluid out

Is the e36 slave one usable or will I be needing to get an e30 one?

[DanThe]

Use the slave for whichever gearbox you have fitted, the 328i shifter is AFAIK the same part as the favourite Z3 1.9

[Green]

Well that means I'd better find a m42 one fast, euro's looked out of stock when I checked but I'll call them tomorrow.
If that's right about the shifter that saved me a few bob having to buy one

Not all bad seeing as I'd have found out I'd needed to replace the m20 slave when I got around to driving it

[Green]

Received an package full of awesome yesterday when I got home from work, I was so excited I tried to get it all connected last night in the dark! Which failed might I add

So upon inspection today I've checked the connections and turned it over but to no avail, it seems the injectors aren't passing fuel through them by the looks of it? I checked the fuel lines which are the right way around now, I pressed the bleed valve on the side and fuel came out quite fast.. but still the injectors don't seem to be flowing upon cranking it over?

I have a feeling I'm missing something here but not sure what, and having barely 2 hours of light getting home from work helps.. I may pull a sicky tomorrow to get it sorted as I am in desperate need of my car back!!

[DanThe]

Are you sure the fuel lines are the right way round? take one off and turn to ignition for the pump to prime, if it sprays fuel it is the supply which should connect to the round tube that is on top of the rail, the regulator at the back of the rail is the return.
Is the EWS module clicking when you turn ignition on or when the chip is put by the ring?

[Green]

I had to check the fuel lines were ok, I wasn't sure myself as I'd replaced the lines with the e36's but after checking it confirmed I had it right

I had a play about with the EWS as I had it dangling in the footwell, heard it click and turned the
key, hey presto fired to life last night! Oh it sounded so meaty and the unsheathe roar the six cylinder beast drove fear into the neighbourhood

Today I got around to fitting the new clutch slave.. feels weird compared the new old one.. hell the whole car does now! Fan loom all wired up, will have to check it's working but I've only managed to find one relay that'll fit so need to purchase a couple more.
I removed all my tools, done up all the bolts and lowered the car onto the floor and drove it off the driveway

I went to go around the green outside mine and as I came into the bend, NO BRAKES! this was resolved with skill of a handbrake turn followed by a scummy neighbour shouting if I did that again she'd smash my windows in...
So I've spent the majority of the day trying to get my brakes to feel right... which doesn't seem to be happening that easily, taking the master cylinger off to extend the screw in the servo causes either lack of brakes, or brakes locked on... currently though i've managed to get it on some sort of brakes but only really bites when it's slammed to the floor

Also Dan had a bit of trouble lining the downpipes up under the car to the old system, it has been matched with the numbers and lines you provided but one seems to drop down too low from the bottom of the car, I'll see about another look tomorrow to see if that's just my mate being a bellend and incapable.

So happy to drive it today, even though it was almost into a curb.. really feels like I'm near the end of this journey... but i'm sure we all know that won't be the case


Here's a vid of it's maiden voyage but as it's uploaded to my mates facebook I'm not sure you can view it

[Green]

Had some time today to get things done, mainly just sort an exhaust out. Had a right pain in the ass as they didn't line up and I got fed up of the extra modifications I'd have had to have done to get the 328i system on it, so on went to old system made of a 320i downpipes and midbox and straight through pipe.. it'll do until I get down to somewhere that can make a custom system.

I also decided that despite the brakes not being too brilliant to take it down to the local shell garage to top up the petrol.
Let's just say there isn't really a stopping distance, it's more of a slow glide to a near halt.

Halfway to the garage the engine developed a misfire, then stalled I assumed to no petrol, but looking into it a bit more in the garage it seems there's water around the spark plugs/coil packs I'm hoping this is just from when it was covered outside and some water got in there through the cover when it rained.



But my God, it did drive faultless for a few minutes and it felt just amazing

Think I'll have a look at the servo tomorrow and see if I can make the brakes any better, then I'll run it down to the local garage and they can fix it if not!

[keri-WMS]

I have to say I would advise against driving it again without brakes!

While the servo setup is probably the main thing, make sure you don't have loads of rust on the discs (or now covering the pads) after being stood up.

[Green]

Well lucky for everyone it was about 11pm when I took it out, so the roads were empty just incase! I was hoping that the brakes may have been a little dirty from sitting around hence why I took it out as well, but seems it's not the case so at least I can rule that out. I'm wondering if there's a problem with the vacuum.

[keri-WMS]

Wouldn't a lack of vacuum give you a really hard pedal that takes HUGE amounts of foot pressure to stop?

[DanThe]

Yes, make sure the rubber seal between the master cylinder and servo is intact and sealing properly

[Green]

Doesn't sound like that, it's more of a foot all the way to the floor and very little resisstance. Also you can hear the servo make a sort of "ffffst" noise when you depress the brake.

[eko]

Doesn't sound like that, it's more of a foot all the way to the floor and very little resisstance. Also you can hear the servo make a sort of "ffffst" noise when you depress the brake.

You sure the brakes are bled properly?

[Green]

Well they was working fine, like really good until the servo was changed, they haven't lost any fluid and the lines haven't come off at all I wouldn't have thought that they would need to be bled

[eko]

Well they was working fine, like really good until the servo was changed, they haven't lost any fluid and the lines haven't come off at all I wouldn't have thought that they would need to be bled

Fair enough.
How long is the spacer youve put i n the MC?

[fowler]

what servo has been used ???

[Green]

I used a 20mm spacer in the MC, used in conjunction with a 53 plate clio servo.

I removed it earlier and found the possible culprit



Seeing as there's a french scrap yard up the road I'll just get another servo to replace this one. I noticed on another topic you can unwind the thread in the servo to adjust it rather then insert a spacer, if this is the case I think I will just do that next time!