Yet another, BMW E-36 LSx conversion... by BRAAPZ

4 minute(s) of a 105 minute read

Maiden voyage update.

Buttoned up the front end today, took care of the Alt charge light, drove into town, filled the tank and put 30 miles on it, mix of highway and tight twisty backroads. Drove excellent, LOVE the additional torque, no added noise or buzziness, the rubber mounts keep the smooth BMW refinement, no sacrifice in performance. ;-)

Brought it back home, obligatory burnout video. You can sort of tell how quiet it truly is in the video, note how loud the hood closing is and induction noise vs exhaust noise. WOT bouncing off the rev limiter set at 6000 RPM.

Yee HAAA

6-1-2011

First maintenance, starter R&R. My new cheapo eBay starter decided to eat itself on Sunday, parked the car and ordered another $80 cheapo starter, will be here Friday.
Starter removal was painless, just unbolt the passenger lollipop and lower the passenger header, (unbolting the lollipop allows for header manipulation to extricate the starter). Thank goodness for V-band collector flanges and reusable OE GM MLS exhaust gaskets.dum

The JTR Sanderson headers have a V-band flange set up much like the hub-centric design BMW uses for the wheels. Exhaust pipe slips into the header V-band flange locating it radially so the V-band itself only has to clamp, not align.

Sanderson headers also incorporates a wonderful design for the head flange seal. As the bolts are tightened the flange won't warp or distort maintaing a positive leak proof seal. I REused the OE GM MLS gaskets from my wifes Suburban with 160,000 miles, and they sealed 100%, and the bolts were still tight, no backing out.

Heads up for those using the cheapo $70-$90 LSx gear reduction starters as found on eBay. The planetary ring gear of the gear reduction being made of plastic WILL fail if overloaded. I don't know if the genuine GM starter is any different, ymmv. If the starter is over loaded, the ring gear will crack/split and proceed to strip its own teeth quite rapidly. I looked and didn't find many complaints, though my first hand experience is not to overload it with a seized engine, cranking while in gear, tons of compression, etc, or it WILL fail.

6-3-2011

New starter is in, did a Bubba fix to get the center of the fuel tank above the tunnel roof so it wouldn't rub on the drive shaft, gave the car a quick rinse, my oldest daughter asked to drive it around the lake, and off we went. Every time she pushed on the throttle she giggled, when she tried WOT in 2nd and 3rd, giggles stopped, BIG eyes, then lots of giggling.dum

Lots of little stuff to finish such as PCV, air filter, mounting the GM cruise module, etc. Till the next update, a few shots after the rinse.dum