Project 6.0L Sedan

[JustinG]

I am sure you will be fine with a simple L bracket out of 1/8, I don't see a need to reinforce it. The sparco seat brackets have a tab for the factory seat belt and it is just a simple piece of 1/8 flat stock welded to the bracket.

As long as the welds are good, or the bolt you are using is good I dont see an issue.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Can you steal the factory brackets out of the race car and bolt them to the chassis the same way the factory does it? How were the vaders installed, aren't those coupe seats too?

All E36 seats rails were probably built the same (with the hole). E46 M3 seats is a whole new chassis/rails. But yes, it did take me by surprise.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Made a little progress on the LS1 M3, but most of the effort was on the Race car. Pulled the race car's motor and trans out with the help of a few friends and loaded it up on the trailer.

Buttt this thread is about the sedan.

As stated, here is my relocation of the heater core valve. This will be hidden when the euro tank goes in above it.



Washed the engine bay out and installed the throttle body cable into the cabin, you can also see I relocated the ABS.




And starting fitment of new brake lines. I have 2 out of the 6 done. Hope to finish up the other 4 tonight

[Beej]

I mean I realize it's mandatory for cool shit like motor swaps, but I swear to god I hope I never have to fab up brake lines. Just seems like it'd be so difficult to 1) not pinch the little bastards shut and 2) make them clean and parallel and nice.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Hours...and hours...and hours spent on making the brake lines. They are each secured by rubber insulated clamps, heat shielded and out of the way. I don't envy those who did it all the time. Cutting/bending/chamfer/flaring 8 lines took me a very long time, but it's done!

So Matt Bralley and I hunkered down and went at it saturday and sunday morning.

This picture says a lot...ABS lines done, motor/trans/headers/driveshaft is in!

[ScottyB]

love how factory that looks. nice!

[D_Eclipse9916]

Sorry for the lack of pics, but this Sunday was "go" time to get the car done as I want it ready for H20 (this upcoming weekend).

The E46 M3 seats have to ovalled out a bit, I have a perfect bit for this too that I bought for another project. I built/painted the brackets for the seatbelt so that is ready to go.

Yesterday, we pulled the rear trailing arms to replace the balljoints and found the lower balljoijnt seized to the bolt. So that ended up wasting a lot of time. I also finished up my ABS "extension harness". I simply went to the junkyard and pulled the ABS connectors out of a junkyard car, wired them up, so my extension harness is just the BMW connectors and can be easily removed for jumping wires.

I also got the engine harness mostly squared away. I have the reverse wires to hookup, and the relays for the power to the ECU. I expect to get the ECU back today from the tuner. Fuel lines and Power steering lines are cut and almost ready to put on. Throttle cable/pcv hooked up and ready to go.

The largest progress we made was the exhaust. Completed the Section A part of the exhaust, from the headers 3-inch V-band to 2.5 back to the catalytic converters. Then from the Cats to the X-pipe. This was only my 2nd time building an exhaust and I was very happy with the way it turned out. This car is going to be dual 2.5-inch all the way back just in case I decide for more power.


To-do list for tonight:
Wire up Relays
Install E46 M3 seats

Ambitious:
Coolant Lines
Pull out front struts, swap hats and put in springs.

[JPolen01]

I like where this is going! Wish I could make it to h2o to see it but I guess I'll have to wait.

[D_Eclipse9916]

This project took a backburner for a couple weeks as I got real busy, but is back on the list.

Next on the list was to get the rear suspension together. New ball joints in the rear and rear suspension assembled.

I also got to work on the cooling items, and picked up all the coolant hoses needed to run a heater core in the car. Took some time with all the hoses (3 out of the heater core, 2 heater hoses out of the water pump alone, 2 radiator hoses out of the water pump, 1 to the coolant housing..etc.

I also mounted the euro coolant housing, it moves it off the radiator and into the corner where emissions equipment originally lived. That now means it is self-bleeding like any half-respectable car. Taking off stock mounts and mounting new ones before cleanup...



And a quick picture of our section A exhaust. This is only the second exhaust I have built with Paul Galleron and it came out ridiculously well considering our experience. 1-ubend and half of a straight section built this entire pipe. 2.5" dual piping to cats with oxygen sensors and and x-pipe. V-banded to the headers.


Also finished up 99% of the wiring and was planning on firing it last night, but it had other ideas. It turns over very cleanly but isnt attempting to start. I started with fuel. No pressure at the rail..okay. So I started going through all the relays I had wired up. I found no power going to the fuel pump, heck even no power relay itself. Turns out the main unloader relay was dead. I had just popped in relays I had laying around, so maybe just a dead one. Replaced and I got power. So now I had power to the relay, but still no power to the fuel pump.

There is a signal 12v+ from the ECU to fuel pump, which I threw on a relay to provide more power to the pump. Unfortunately the ECU is not sending out a 12V+ signal. I had the ECU tuned to remove VATs (GM security), but the ECU is acting like it is still on. Sending an email to my tuner today for some ideas. It was late, so I called it a night anyway. May just be ECU is not getting proper ground or power somewhere.... or that the ECU didnt get VATS deleted like it should have...

[ScottyB]

dude that exhaust looks fantastic. you should pat yourself on the back for that!

[D_Eclipse9916]

Okay internet fanbois, if you just like to see finished clean projects, dont look below.

I always leave wiring out and test before I clean things up and put them away. This was learned from many mistakes of cleaning it up, putting it away, and then having to pull it all out to figure out why something does not work. I left all the wiring out for this project especially. Merging an LS1 98 harness with an OBD2 M3 harness is not simply plug and play. There are no instructions, it was all researched by me looking through wiring diagrams. Unfortunately it would have been much easier had I gone with OBD1, and a 99-2002 f-body wiring harness as those are well documented at this point.


Yesterday I had fixed the dead on arrival relay that was in part of my harness connecting power to the rest of the car. After I Fixed it though the car would not start. I was not getting power from the ECU, even though power was going to the ECU. The battery was very weak so I decided to charge it up overnight and check it out the next day.
I got home late last night and just wanted to see if I could quickly find out the wiring issue. So I hooked up the freshly charged battery, and clicked the keys into the on position. VROOOM!!!!! The sound is soooo noticeably different than an inline 6 I was actually caught by surprise. It definitely is weird to hear 5.7 V8 sounds out of this car.

Turns out the ECU just needed enough juice in it to send power to the fuel pump. She starts!
If I get some time tonight, I will be doing the learn procedure on the TPS and IAC, cleaning up the wiring, and hooking up the coolant hoses. Then I will do another test-fire before she gets buttoned up.


Picture of said diagnosing and test-fire.

[Steve85]

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

[SlimKlim]

I AM SO EXCITED BY THIS!!

[BLINGMW]

Hooray! We need a video!
Just close the hood and drive it, looks good enough :mrgreen:
A half dead battery just about gave me fits on the '02, after having it on stands for a few weeks to do the heater core, put everything back together and went to start it and it sounded like something sizzled and shorted out, relays clicking oddly, dash lights half on and I was hock: OH NO I KILLED IT :o
After wasting another hour or trying to find what I did wrong, charged the battery and all was fine. :lol:

[CaptainHenreh]

So I hooked up the freshly charged battery, and clicked the keys into the on position. VROOOM!!!!! The sound is soooo noticeably different than an inline 6 I was actually caught by surprise.

[V1GiLaNtE]

Damn Rex. You done brokez the interwebz with that one. FTFW.

This is excellent news DJ! Looking forward to seeing this thing in person. I can only imagine what it would feel like to sit in the drivers seat and just listen to it idle... and feel it idle.

mmmmMMMMMMmmmmmmm

[SlimKlim]

:lol: Rex's gif.

So... can you start selling these now? I'll take one LS1 Graphite Gray E28 740i Sport please. Who should I make the check payable to?

[D_Eclipse9916]

Thanks guys for the kind words, and Rex always delivers.

I will say this project is not "tremendously difficult" but 30x the effort of just a regular motorswap, and a lot more effort when combining two different manufacturers. The "kit" is not really a kit as much as it is just a driveshaft and some mounts. There are also no instruction guides, so figuring out what goes where at what time (most important), is just sitting down and thinking. That said, it should have come together much quicker, but I kind of had the wind blown out of my sails after the race car got wrecked and am having a problem picking back up the enthusiasm for cars. It's there, just gotta build it back up.

[SlimKlim]

The first time you put that dirty bitch in gear and hit the go-pedal you'll have such a raging enthusiasm you won't even know what to do with it.

I'm not sure who could pull off this project faster than you and end up with as nice of a final product anyway.

[PDenbigh]

Major congrats DJ! That is awesome.