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About this blog

Swapping a BMW s54 engine and six speed gretrag 226 into my BMW 1600

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BMW M2 with S54 engine - As it sits

Haven't posted in a while. Thought I'd provide a pic of the car as it sits now. Drove this junk up from Texas through New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri (Misery), Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, to PA. Handles beautifully, not too harsh considering the suspension spring rate. The Toyo HP's performed flawlessly when I hit a snow storm on the Penna Turnpike. You may notice I lost a wiper blade and arm, also on the turnpike. If anyone has a wiper arm with the airfoil please let me know. Waiting till spring to

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heinemann

S54 Engine install again and engine start

After finally starting the car, there was a horrible screeching sound coming from the back off the engine. Really no way to diagnose the problem without removing the engine and transmission again. I ended up pretty much disassembling the entire car: exhaust, driveshaft, fuel lines, hoses, engine, transmission, radiator, engine wiring harness. I discovered that the shaft collar for the throw-out / release bearing was contacting the splined part of the spring pack on the clutch friction disc.

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heinemann

Throttle Pedal solution

As some of you may have read already, I have been having some issues with the factory throttle set up. I decided to build my own linkage that would eliminate the slipping throttle arm. I had tried different fixes, including welding on a clamping collar to the throttle lever / arm, but it slipped anyway. So, I went out the junk yard and pulled a throttle bell crank out of an e36. The older ones are made of metal - aluminum actually. I knew it wouldn't fit directly, and since I don't have the equi

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heinemann

Updates

Thought I'd post a quick update. I finished up the wiring, built a relay bank, which is mounted in the trunk where the battery will go, and, finally, finished up the exhaust. Wiring mess. Thankfully, one night when it actually rained here, I went through the entire wiring harness, labelled everything, and removed some questionable additions and kill switches added by the previous owner. This mess has to get through two small holes on the driver's side firewall. Re

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heinemann

E30 subframe swap and Exhaust fabrication update

As promised I have some updates for the exhaust system. This was a mega pain to finish, mainly because the weather was lousy this weekend. Ever try to weld in 40mph wind gusts? Not fun. But first, some pics of refitting headlights and rear roundel. Front end. In a previous posts, I mentioned that the roundel for the rear panel did not fit with the grommets. So, I decided to cut some threads into the posts and install them with lock nuts. Rear end. On to

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Clutch, flywheel, Engine and Transmission install

Here are some updates on the reassembly. This first pic is of another angle before getting started. I also removed all the flares while working on the car. Driver's side. Paint is pretty nice, of course like anything, if you look for flaws you are going to find them. They are minor and I have planned for some touch ups, after assembly. Installed the trunk and trunk seal. If anyone has ideas on installing the rear panel roundel / emblem please let me know. The studs on

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heinemann

Seam welding, wheel well clearance, and Transmission Shifter install

Obviously, the s54 engine is much more powerful than the original M10 engine. I knew that I wanted to beef up the chassis stiffness as well as clearance the front wheel wells for the wheels I would be running. After looking at some pics of how others had clearance the front wheel wells, I dug in a made some cuts. I shaped a filler piece out of 16 gauge steel, used some rosette welds and seam welds to fix the patch to the chassis. Here is shot from the inside of the car.

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Odds and ends - Paint prep, door cards, media blasting

Jumping ahead. I have seen door card kits on Ebay but everything is on a budget. Didn't seem that hard so I decided to make my out of some good quality wood. Attached the old card to the wood and traced the pattern. Any place where the old cardboard was broken, I used the other card to make sure the pattern was correct. Cut and drilled the pattern. Here is the result. On to paint and body work. Disassembled the hood. paint stripping more

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heinemann

Fixing rust even on a Southwest Car

Even though a car looks good when you get a hold of it, gremlins often lurk underneath. Considering these cars were not galvanized, rust is unavoidable, even on a desert car. I was preparing to clearance the rear wheel wells for the flares, when I started poking around. Go looking for trouble and you'll find it. After the screw driver went into the rocker a couple of times, I knew I would have to get into them a repair the rust. I also ended up repairing a rust spot on under the driver's rear qu

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heinemann

Installing RX7 oil cooler on S54 swap

Knowing I need some good oil cooling for the S54, I decided to go with a oil cooler from a RX7 turbo. They are very popular amongst Porsche race clubs and vintage track racers, primarily because of their size, low cost, and cooling capacity. Used ones are relatively cheap as well. You will find aftermarket "RX7" oil coolers on ebay, but I avoided buying one even though it would be new.  Every cheap aluminum radiator I have bought off ebay has eventually leaked. Here's a close up of th

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heinemann

BBS Style 5 RIm refinishing

Here is a small update on the Style 5 rims that I am using on the car.  I found these at a local salvage yard for $300. They had the usual curb rash and the clear coat was peeling. Cosmetically, the barrels were pretty bad. I used various stages of grit to remove the curb rash and polish the barrels to a mirror finish. I finished the polish with a polishing compound and light cutting jeweler's rouge on a shaggy buffing wheel. This project was beyond tedious, and only recommended for true skin fl

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heinemann

trailing arms reinforcement for coilover set up.

Lats update of the night. When I ordered the front suspension setup from Ground Control, I was still planning to use to stock rear end, so they sent it with some blue coil race springs. With the 30 trailing arms that was not going to work, so I went with a rear coilover setup, Seats and springs set me back about an extra hundred bucks.  Here are some pics of the trailing arm reinforcement. I used .25 wall DOM to reinforce the mounting location. You can also see the gusset I added to the f

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heinemann

Installing the radiator and making a throttle bell crank

Here are some pics of the the radiator install. I went with Griffin Scirocco style radiator. It is only about 13 or 14 inches wide but super thick. I also knew I wanted to keep the front core support, so I used some box tubing with a decent side wall thickness to rebuild the core support with a forward tilt. The electric fan is a pusher style Spal.  Added some support tabs that the bottom radiator channel will sit on. I will add some small rubber bushings so the radiator is not riding metal

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Some updates

This is my first update in a long while and I thought I would provide some backstory on what has been happening with the project. I new that the stock diff. would not hold up to the power of the S54, so I decided to use and e36 diff carrier and swap in a e36 diff 3.91 LSD. In retrospect, it would have been easier and probably more swap friendly just to modify the e30 subframe to fit into the car. If this turns out to be a turd or starts dog-tailing on me, I will just swap in the e30 rear end.

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Baffling The Tank And Installing E30 318 Section Device And 255Lph Fuel Pump

This post is outlines the steps it takes to baffle the 1600' fuel tank and install a higher volume fuel pump. In retrospect, I should have just gone in through the top of the tank done the baffle and swirl bowl / pot and welded it back up. And, yes the tank was thoroughly cleaned before I started working. I considered the fuel cell route and maybe will do that down the line. I am not ready yet to give up my trunk interlay or being able to the fill the car from the outside. There are way around t

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heinemann

More Details On Swap.

So, I attempted to respond to Freshman02's query about doing the swap, and wrote a nice detailed message that got erased when I tried to send it. I figured I'd just post to the community instead. Figuring out the engine mounts is a bit of challenge. I know there was a guy making m20 swap mounts, which is what I based my design off of. Haven't heard anything about the M20 mounts in a while. Here's some pics. Some people have made mounts that connect to the unibody, but it is only sheet meta

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heinemann

Some More Details About The Suspension

I wanted to provide some more details about the suspension setup on this car. I knew I wanted to convert to five lugs, admittedly for aesthetics reasons rather than performance, although 5 lugs hubs do provide 20% more clamping force than 4 lug set ups. I also needed larger rims for the 12 inch Wilwood rotors. This required my to get tii strut housings, which were sent to Ground Control so they could work there magic. I chose to go with Konis, which require 51mm (what I recall) tubes rather than

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Fixing A Trashed Dash / Dashboard, Dashpad

I decided to repair the 3 piece dash of my 1600 project. I used the following products: Bondo body filler putty knives (available at any parts store) Mixing plate for dash filler (I used a scrap piece of duct meta) Padded Dash Filler Kustom Shop Poly-Glaze Gazing Putty SEM Clear Texture coating (not recommended) Matte interior plastic parts paint. The first step is to remove as much of the bad plastic covering as possible. I also removed any foam the crumbled away or came off easily to

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heinemann

1969 1600 Roundie Before And After Fitment

This car had been sitting unused for almost ten years and was neglected. The body was completely straight, but it's a high desert, southwest car so my hope was that rust repair would be minimal. Modified subframe. Tire fitment. After the five lug conversion, which used e28 front hubs and e36 318ti trailing arms. The car sat pretty well. The larger tires fit because I have a Ground Control coilover setup lurking under the car, which allowed me to tuck the tires under the body as m

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heinemann

Engine Removal

This was the beginning if the project. I knew the tii engine would never make its home again in the engine bay, but I'm sure would find a good home in a tii restoration project. My friend Dave helps and mom gets creative with her finger placement on the camera lens.

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heinemann

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