E36 LS3 / TR6060 Swap

OM.....OM......OM........OM...... Pretty work.

Really good work. You're putting me to shame when I'm struggling a little bit on my stuck exhaust manifold nuts

Mr_Clutch42 wrote: Really good work. You're putting me to shame when I'm struggling a little bit on my stuck exhaust manifold nuts

Stuck exhaust manifold nuts suck! Most of the work I do is all brand new so...

And another update...

Center section all welded

Entire system put together and hangers added

Tips

Entire thing off the car...few joints to weld up

Remote clutch bleeder

Fuel pressure filter/regulator (still needs hose clamps)

Top ring on the shifter carrier is to hold the shifter lever in place.

It's a big time heat wave here but I have a couple of AC units in the shop and it keeps it workable but temps still climb.

The list is getting shorter. Engine will be back in for the last time tomorrow...suspension will get finished up. Shooting to start it Tomorrow or Thursday (more likely)

Header on for the last time, subframe on loosely.

Clutch line off tr6060

Clutch connection from BMW hardline

Front right flare needs one more sanding and then some finishing filler before primer

Right rear flare really close as well.

ABS Pump in place... etending the wires in progress

Done

Last time it will have an empty bay

Engine In

Front suspension all on

Brakes going on

Had to put a wheel/tire on just to see how they fill them

This is will full negative camber...won't run like this but wanted to see what it looked like.

Finish filler on the left front flare

Right rear flare just about ready too.

You're making us all look bad......

Was hoping to fire it today but with the temps at 95 and 85 in the shop it's hard to work very fast...either way still progress.

All the brakes/lines/etc are all hooked up. And more flare work.

Shifter in

Shifter linkage

Under car pictures...just because everyone likes pictures.

How the AC compressor came out...you can also see the trans cooler lines in there and the battery cable.

Bonus karma motivation points for jakeb; I was sitting here getting Internetted, but now I'm jumping up to go work on the garage!

Not fired yet...waiting on intake pipe. The one I had was a bit too big to fit. It's ordered and in route...very very very soon!

Exhaust all bolted up, heat shield on, driveshaft in, etc

Suspension is all tightened up... Set it down on the ground.

Front nose isn't tightened.

Will be wiring the LSx harness into the BMW x20 tomorrow and will power everything up to program the PCM.

I love this car! Awesome build.

I used a PSI harness on this one. Connecting everything to the BMW x20.

From above

Reading the PCM

Trans cooler just showed up. It will go about here.

Any way to mount the tranny cooler low and have the heat rejected go under the car instead of back into the coolant? Tranny cooler, not an oil cooler? Manual transmission, right? Hmmm....

Yeah I might be able to mount it low rather than up high. The cooling fan and bumper take up a bit of space down there too so it's hard to say. I'll take a look for sure.

Yup it is a trans cooler. The TR6060 has a fluid pump of some sort and it has cooler. Kinda wild...

Running wires to the gas pedal. Through the pocket where the PCM will live above the glove box.

While I had the glove box all apart I replaced the cabin filter....man they get dirty.

New one in and vacuumed the box all out. Much Better

Made a bracket for the gas pedal

Angle iron piece is welded to the firewall and tapped to bolt the flat piece that the pedal is bolted to.

Pedal is about the same spot as the stock one. Feels really good.

Trans cooler..still need to finish the bracket...just weld with vise grips here.

The plan was to have it running today but the intake pipe showed up at the end of the day and didn't have time to finish it.

It has to be extended a little bit at the throttle body.

The LS3 uses a cassette style MAF and a little flange has to be welded to an aluminum intake pipe.

The flange

I am not comfortable welding aluminum yet (to the quality I like) so I will have to take it to a local welding shop to weld up.

This is such a great build. Thanks for the thorough documentation.

Jakeb - the new gas pedal looks to be quite a bit further to the right than the stocker -- will that mess up heel/toe relationship? It's not really 'heel/toe' so much as hitting the right side of the brake pedal with the left side of your foot and having the gas pedal be at the right height/distance away so that under heavy braking a simple roll of the foot causes a throttle blip. In all my time in 3-series (3 of them over 20 years) that was one of the most satisfying aspects of the car.

Wow, your work is incredible! I read through the entire thread yesterday and wow. Just wow..!

Michael...that is possible. The pedal is only tacked in in one spot right now and I will wait to drive the car a little before I commit to it. That picture makes it looks a little weird because with the stock pedal there it is almost in the same spot. When looking direct at it and not off to the side like the picture is. Also if it is any more to the left the bottom of the pedal gets in the way when applying the brake. I might trim the gas pedal a little bit at the bottom to stop that.

Intake pipe all welded up

Went to start it yesterday but didn't have much luck. Fuel pump was running, good fuel pressure but the plugs were bone dry. A little digging and asking some people and I found out I needed to disable a starter diag in the tune. Changed that did a write entire on the tune....and bamn!!

Start up videos!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijf8zhL7dMo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg9htTLEnsI

There is a slight exhaust leak at one of the vbands off the header. Just needs to be tightened up a bit more.

nice!

Wrapping up little things before it's first drive.
Made a front and rear strut brace and had it coated.

Had the intake pipe coated

Bleeding the brakes and clutch today took hours......just lots of air to get out. But all is working now as it should.

My little guy was out in the garage and wanted to check out the beast. He had some wrenches in his hand but it was hard to get a pic as he moves quickly.

The plan was to drive it today but it has been raining ALL day here. The flares don't have paint on them so I really don't want to get water all over the flares before paint. Hoping it stops tomorrow so I can drive it. Even just around the block.

Still worked on some things...the little jobs take time as well. Installed a volvo pusher fan in the BMW shroud. Pushes a TON of air.

Mounted the trans cooler for good. Bracket back from power coating.

Clearance between the bracket and fan.

I had the BMW coolant temp sensor turned down from the stock M14 size to M12 to fit in the LSx head.

Where it lives....there is a BMW 2 pin connector that goes on the sensor. Just not connected in the pic.

I wasn't very happy with how the caster was ending up with the bimmerworld fcabs...they are set inside and it was pushing the wheel too far forward. While it was clearing everything it just wasn't right. So I switched from the offset bimmerworld fcabs to a centered bushing from condor speed.

Fitment before...

After...much better

Been also doing finish work on the flares. I'll snap some pictures tomorrow of them.

jakeb wrote: Wrapping up little things before it's first drive. Made a front and rear strut brace and had it coated. Had the intake pipe coated Bleeding the brakes and clutch today took hours......just lots of air to get out. But all is working now as it should. My little guy was out in the garage and wanted to check out the beast. He had some wrenches in his hand but it was hard to get a pic as he moves quickly.

Hee hee. I have a two year old. She has not seen daddy wrenching quite yet.

My son is 17 months old. I was putting a new trailing wiring connector on my truck today and my son was out with my wife wanting to help me. "dad dad" he says... picking up wire and other tools.

I tell everyone welding by 5...maybe it will be sooner.

The car is coming out great. The wheels and flares work really well together.