S54 E30 M3
 

I started this process a few weeks ago and figured I'd log some updates here.

After the long restoration on the M3, I ended up throwing in the S50US out of the yellow car in order to get it driving. This had the advantage of being a very cheap, easy swap that I could do basically for the cost of building an exhaust, and providing a cooling system. I had pretty much everything else in hand.

That said, I've never been particularly satisfied by the S50US. It doesn't rev the way I want. It doesn't quite make enough power. It doesn't have enough throttle bodies. It looks quite utilitarian in the engine bay. You know, because it is. It's just a mildly built M50. It was never a long term answer. It just got the car on the road.

I dithered for a while on rebuilding the S14 vs. putting in the S54. Ultimately, though, the cost of rebuilding the S14 and the insane cost of replacement motors if I blew it up (think comparable to the 993TT) pushed me towards the S54.

At this point, figure $15-20k to do a home assembled rebuild of the S14 to a spec that would put down about the same power as the S50US. WAY more interesting motor. A little shy on power. VERY peaky. If only I'd bought half a dozen S14s when you could buy them in good running condition all day long for $3-5k.

S54s are about $4k in good shape. They made tons of them, so it'll be a while before they get scarce. They're actually quite reliable. They'll spin 8,600 to 9,000 RPMs. And 300whp is a baseline expectation. And I already had one in the basement.

Photo courtesy of clyde.

The easy part.

Motor out.
Motor loaded up.
Motor descending into the shop.
S50 and S54 together for a brief moment.

I had a relatively limited window on Mike's lift to get a few key items done in between my truck getting finished (a new fuel hard line turned into a frame off partial restoration :lol: ) and the next project - an engine swap for his neighbor's '70s Camaro. Yes, it's bitchin'. Or at least will be.

The key objectives for the time on Mike's lift were:
1) Install engine. This is a LOT easier when you can raise and lower the car instead of the lifting the engine in. I could do this at Doom, but why?
2) Build exhaust. This was the part that I really couldn't do at Doom. I don't have the equipment.

The original intent was to get this done in two weekends, but I got hung up by my original muffler plans not working out. The S54 wants either dual 2.5s or a single 3.5" exhaust. 3.5" exhausts are LOUD, and it's hard to make the clear the ground, and it's hard to get a good catalytic converter option for them without spending $$$$. So dual 2.5 it is. (Single 3" works, but you lose top end on the S54, and the muffler options aren't ideal.)

Still, three weeks later (and just ahead of a "snow storm"), I towed it home. Big thanks to Mike both for the use of his garage, AND for helping me push the M3 inside Doom after towing it home!

This is awesome! How's the truck doing after all these years?

The truck is doing great after we (mostly Mike because it was his COVID project) ripped it apart. :lol:

Had to pull the transmission again, because unfortunately, finding a flywheel and clutch combo that work with the transmission I picked turned out to be more complicated than I expected. The transmission was installed knowing that I'd have to pull it again because it's necessary for exhaust fabrication.

Pro-tip: When you're reinstalling the transmission, don't use a creeper. You lose all your leverage when you're on wheels.:lol::eeps:

Also got the exhaust painted black. I don't like shiny exhausts.

This brings us roughly to the present.

We're at the "it's a fucking mess" stage.

The worst part was that I had all the wiring neatly arranged and tucked away. But then I discovered that the intake manifold occupies the exact part of the engine bay that E30s normally use to pull the engine wire harness up from the block. Which meant that all the work I'd done to neatly arrange things had to be undone. Sigh. :mad2:

At least I have the wire length available. The wiring in the engine bay will be tidy enough once I've installed the wire harness carrier and cover. I'll need to make a couple of brackets for fuses and relays in the glove compartment. The S54 brings four wire harnesses to the DME, so there's a lot more to put away. It won't look anything like it currently does when I'm done. :lol:

Wow, thanks for sharing!

:lol:

Cool...
IMO - Messes are good. They result from work. :)

My experience with a teenage son says otherwise :D

Wow, that's cool. Neat exhaust setup.

This is your reminder to buy a half-dozen S54s now.

:mad2::mad2::mad2::lol::eeps:

I'm particularly looking forward to the last shifter components arriving so I can get the driveshaft and exhaust and heat shields reinstalled. That'll free up a LOT of room on the floor. "Luckily" it hasn't been a real issue since the roads still have salt on them and we only drive two cars in these conditions.

Epic:bigpimp:

What is the weight difference between the s14 and 54?

It's hard to get an accurate count on the delta. But probably about a hundred pounds. Not much different from the S50US, though.

You can definitely tell that it's heavier on the nose than an unswapped car. I don't mind, given the power delta.

I was admiring this funky setup this afternoon.

http://forums.carmudgeons.com/attach...9&d=1609170954

Yes, there was an invasion.

Ha! Forgot to include a major pre-installation component of the story.

So. The engine. I was regasketing, rebuilding vanos, etc, because it sure is a lot nicer to do that on a stand than in the car. I also decided to do a leakdown test. Unfortunately, it failed leakdown.

It turned out that the valve seats got contaminated during storage. It's amazing how much air you lose to even the slightest contamination (see the black spots on the uncleaned valve). Some cylinders were as high as 30% leakdown. Which is not ideal. Fortunately, after cleaning the valves and lapping them in, everything went to the 1-2% range where it should be.

Bonus headers content in the last picture. It turns out that the stock US headers actually work really well when they aren't plugged up by cats right at the merge. Since you need to cut the headers up to fit them in an E30 properly, these are a really easy, cheap, great functioning option. (Especially cheap when you already have them.) Some aftermarket headers kind of fit, but they usually don't clear the control arm bushing and hang down too low. Also, the HUGE advantage of the stock headers is that BMW clearly designed them to be easily removed and replaced. Aftermarket headers usually require a painful amount of time with small turns on a wrench.

This thread makes me miss the s54. Not great sounding without help but a great engine nonetheless.

I'm glad I got to hear Chuck Stickley's S54 in person. One of the greatest engine noises I've ever heard. That was an unlimited cost engine build by an engine builder for himself. North of 400 at the wheels, around 500hp at the crank. (Maybe more.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmFrO_3Kft0

At the start here, you can see him outdragging 911 GT cars and Turbos. OK, fine, a long time ago, but still. Normally aspirated S54. The video does not convey just how absolutely insane the noise was coming and going, though. There's very little that makes the induction noise an S54 can. And even less that can make the noise that this one could.

The video does a pretty good job of conveying how insanely fast the car was, especially to anyone who has driven Summit Main. It was only OK in the corners. And Stickley was a not young guy who'd had, IIRC, quadruple bypasses. But holy crap. It MOVED.

Apropos, what about the M Performance exhaust you put on your 340? Did you conclude it was worth the effort/expense?

That's awesome. Which mufflers are you using on yours? Have you done any work on figuring out specifics of how it will sound? I'm just sort of curious about whether there's a way to engineer out some of the less pleasant sounds from the S54, or if it's just a happy accident that comes from less restrictive mufflers or whatever.

Ah! Yes, it's quite good. Probably sounds better than my stock s54 with the Dinan catback, though apples/oranges, turbo vs. NA motor... No complaints and worth it for me. The engine was insanely quiet before.

I did score a slightly used deal for an almost new part, so that made it a no-brainer. Not sure whether I'd do it for full price. Probably, if not feeling cheap, it helps the drivability of the car, hearing it.

A lot of the stock sound came from the US headers with the cats plugging them up. The Euro exhaust was much less of a chainsaw-in-a-blender.

Certain mufflers also didn't work at all. Borla has a peculiar tone that sounds absolutely awful on an S54 with headers. (You might remember the TMS Grand Am cars. Just awful.)

I'm running a pair of Dynomax Super Turbo mufflers on this exhaust. They're kind of a "least bad" choice of what's out there. They flow weirdly well for what they are (according to tests, better than many straight through mufflers), and actually provide something approaching an adequate level of sound deadening. The downside is that they refuse to make a stainless version, which is infuriating. In the real world, for the kind of use that my cars see, that's not a major issue, mind you.

The catalytic converters are E90 M3 secondary cats. I love these things because they work really well, are very high flow, are very tough, and because people cut them out of M3 exhausts, you can pick them up cheap if you're patient. I'm running them on my E36 as well now.

Unfortunately, in a perfect world, I would have liked to run a center muffler behind the cats. I just couldn't find the space to do it in a way that would make sense. So... This is going to be loud. Hopefully not insane. If it's really insane, I may have to accept a ground clearance penalty and put a small x-pipe muffler where the current X is.

Oh yeah? Deride the Fox bodies all you want, but 30 years ago the Walker Dynomax was the hot ticket in the Mustang world, IIRC. So at least you're period-correct?

On the Camaro6 forum, there are a near equal mix of threads of people trying to give away their primary and secondary cats as there are of people saying this play or that place gave them $200-$600 for them. It's very, very weird.

Super cool.

Good to know. I could see doing this down the road a bit, as a way to rejuvenate the 2 experience. No rush, though. I suspect it’s already louder than your 340 was in Sport and Sport+.

thanks for the link. awesome.

My 340 (maybe not having some kind of package?) had about the same sound in normal and sport before the mod. I think it still does. The roads around me are so crappy, and I take it so easy that I'm rarely in sport. Unfortunately, unlike audi or porsche, you cannot just get the throttle response or better steering by pressing sport, you get stiffer shocks as part of the package. I do rarely get to some country roads or highway stints where I leave it in sport.

Fucksake.

Not that I was expecting to drive the car soon, but I was really hoping that my special shift carrier would show up today as scheduled. Getting the exhaust, driveshaft, heat shields, etc. off the floor of the garage and onto the car would make my life easier.

I’m sufficiently halted for parts availability that I may well do the clutch in the yellow car. The flywheel is currently making deeply concerning rattling noises that suggest the DMF component has comprehensively failed.

Package delivery is seriously messed up these days.

The DMF failed on our stock e39 528i; somewhere north of 125k miles. The Valeo single replacement actually had better feel and no vibration/rattles at all; despite the mechanics' protest.

My rage against DMFs burns with the heat of a thousand suns.

Also, USPS... I'm waiting on stuff that was shipped to me in November and has been in Maryland since December 4th.

I’m pretty sure I helped convince you to go with the Valeo.

I’ll be going single mass here. (Edit: In both cars.)

fuck it.

Ditto. Two orders on November 30; forever stalled on December 8 somewhere in ATL.

I've just pulled the trigger on refunds for both.

yep, I ordered something for my daughter for Christmas on Nov 30. Has been sitting in ATL since Dec 7