LS1 / T56 DD e28 BMW Build

[jakeb]

I am just about to start my swap but thought it was time to put together a build thread. I bought the e28 at the end of the summer after selling my practical e46 AWD wagon. I bought the e28 without a motor but a bunch of suspension goodies already done. LS1/T56 was the plan from the beginning.

I recently picked up a wreck 99 z28 with 55k miles. Just about done parting it out....this really was the best was to go to make the swap inexpensive.

I am a school teacher and the plan is to get most of the swap done over my break which begins in just under 2 weeks. Or at least the engine in, mounted, and most of the fab done.......so the heavy lifting work.

I have done a bunch of engine swaps but this will be both the first in an e28 and with an LS1.

Not many pictures yet but I normally go overboard with pictures...

Here is one of the car it is going in, 85 528e, red sport interior, euro bumpers, bunch of suspension mods.

And the LS1/t56 that is going in...pretty much stock, other than bigger TB, SLP Maf, SLP under drive pullys, the headers will not fit so they will be coming off

This car will have everything as it would from the factory, ac, cruise, etc etc. I may try and use all the AC stuff from the camaro, other than the parts in the dash.

I am pretty excited to get going, it should be fun!! I have this same thread on a few different forums so I will try and update them all.

[bluebmw]

What do you teach?

[Harland]

Yeah Jake.

This should be interesting. I absolutly love e28's!

Do you know what the weight difference is going to be from the stock motor?

[jakeb]

I teach K-12 music.

The LS and m30 are about the same weight...the LS might be a little heavier but it is set back a bit more than the m30. The t56 trans is a lot heavier than the g265 tho... But the power is almost double so...

[Guest]

Supposedly from a friend who has done this, engine is 50lbs heavier than the M20, T56's are like 130lbs or something while a 260 is 80ish. The weight is further back compared to the M30 so it should handle better than an M30 E28.

This is going to be sweet, it'll be really fast and get great mpg if you leave the stock 2.93 diff in.

Needs euro bumpers

[jakeb]

already has euro bumpers....

pictures from the person i bought it from

[Chamonix72]

I do believe I will keep checking in for updates. The E28 might be my favorite BMW body style. LS swap? I'm in!

[Guest]

sob, haha, so distracted by the thought of an LS1 E28/the lower air damn I missed that...well that is going to be one sweet car!

[LS1CMR]

Awesome build man, you will love the LS1, i know i love mine.

Mine is in a 2000 Z28 makes 411 RWHP 390 RWTQ, Moser 9" rearend, PST 4.5

" aluminum DS, All UMI suspension with Eibach Sportlines, Billet Specialties Streetlites 17x11 in the rear with a 6" lip and 17x7 up front. Very fun car but im now building my 76 2002 since im pretty much done with this for now.

[whiteout]

Wow! This is a great build. I cannot wait to follow it.

If you need any help with the LS1 end of things, check out motownmuscle.com. There are a lot of helpful guys there.

Nick

[HarryPR]

Subscribed....

This will be one cool project!

[M5wanaB]

Jake, come on! We know how fast you work, give us an update.

[jakeb]

haha, you know me well. Camaro ward on went to the scrap yard last tuesday. e28 is actually in the garage now and sitting on the lift. I am going to start pulling the m30 this weekend and start getting the ls1 ready to go in. Hoping to have the engine sitting in the bay monday or tuesday and mounts made soon after.

pics will come every day i work on it

[AndyS]

Guess I have to get in on this!

[jakeb]

just a small update.....more will happen tomorrow.

Got the garaged cleaned up some and the e28 up on the lift.

Engine came out (it had half an m30 in it, head was gone)

had to make a scrap run (m30, old m10, more random camaro parts)

The GTO oil pan will get swapped on tomorrow and the LS1 will get dropped in. I did some simple measurements and it looks like with the shifter in the middle of the console opening the heads will be in front of the brake booster. I have a remote booster from a e34 540 if needed but I will start with trying to keep the stock booster.

I have decided to drop both the front and rear subframes and have everything powder coated. The first stage will be to have ALL the mechanical bits of the car refreshed.

The firewall insulation is pretty beat up (what do you expect for an 85). A new one is NLA so I need to figure out if I want to just leave it or replace with something different. Any suggestions?

On to some pictures.

The lab...

The patient

Old m30

It's new heart

It's new home

I normally take a bunch of other random pictures so as I am sitting on the couch and need to figure something out I have pictures to reference. They all get dumped here for this project. www.theguestroom.net/e28 Feel free to check them out.