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

10 minute(s) of a 105 minute read

Put 150 more miles on it over the weekend, LOVING it. Runs and drives just like the stock M3, similar power band and same drivability but with a butt-load more torque everywhere, even with the tiny 5.3. ;-)
Hooked up the GM cruise control and it works perfect. Also hooked up the cooling fan, still have a few more loose ends to tie up such as intake plumbing, PCV, etc. taking it to work this week, 153 mile per day round trip
Love the GM cruise control, doesn't lag over hills and responds crisply to accel/decel inputs. Another attribute of GM cruise strategy that I really like is each click of accel or decel raises or lowers your speed by exactly 1 MPH per click, 5 quick clicks adds or subtracts 5 MPH even if coming down a hill and it takes several seconds to coast down, it gives you what you asked for, not just a momentary switch you hold till you reach the desired speed.

6-8-2011

Wife says AC is a must, condenser is on the way and if my M compressor wont fit will be sourcing a compressor.

MPG update. 90% freeway, 65-70 MPH, 10% city, tight mountain backroads, (2nd gear), handful of WOT blasts to 90-115, PCM with mix & match maps and settings, LTFT showing 10-20% compensation, achieved 26.7 MPG. I am quite pleased with that considering. With a bit of tuning I think 28-29 MPG under the same conditions is a reality.

6-27-2011

2200 miles on the clock and still going strong, LOVING having it back as my daily driver. Most common phrase people use when they drive it or ride in it is, "refined". Mission accomplished, thank you JTR. ;-)

Only issue right now is the engine itself, oiling issues, (currently very weak oil pressure) since it sat for 5 months since first start. I don't expect it to live much longer, I'll just keep driving till it dies. Currently looking for a stock sub 150,000 mile 2001 or newer 6.0L long block to swap in.

7-6-2011

3500 mile update.
Friggen LOVE the conversion, Soo smooth, abundance of torque, quiet, yadda yadda yadda.

Brown Santa dropped this off for testing...

Will hopefully get the 2 piece driveshaft installed this coming weekend for testing.

2+ years ago bought HID headlights, tailights, Euro M3 steering wheel, waited till the car was on the road to install the goodies, last week was that time. Also attached my 16-valve sucka emblem, 6 speed badge with the ASC delete. ABS still functions perfectly tested on wet and gravel road, modded the fog lights to remain on with highbeams as well.

7-8-2011

Pics from today.

7-29-2011

5000 miles and LOVING IT! The JTR kit awesome. Good friend with same car and LS1 using another kit with poly bushings raves over how smooth and quiet mine is vs his. Our cats are identical, even the exhaust is pretty much the same, the JTR kit retains the smoothness BMW originally designed, the LSx adds the torque.

Recent opportunity arose with the 5.3 that opened the door to an upgrade. Hope to have it installed this weekend.

Happiness is...

8-8-2011

Just got back from an impromptu trip to Idaho to see family, put just over 1000 miles on the LQ4, ran flawlessly. Got 27.1 mpg with cruise set at 72 through the Columbia River gorge fighting a steady 19 mph head wind, (white caps on the river).

3-2-2012

20,000 miles on the conversion and loving it. The conversion itself has been flawless.
Mods planned in the near future, to install my LS6 intake, my Euro cluster that has been collecting dust on the shelf, adding V-bands just ahead of the OE muffler to swap it out for pipes to hear that Spintech on those weekends wanting to play, and replace the rear suspension/diff carrier bushings. Still researching what I want to tighten up or leave rubber, don't want to add any NVH.

9-23-2012

The 2 piece I tested needed some refinement regarding the carrier bearing bushing/bellows, havent re-tested a 2 piece drive shaft yet, plan to some point in the future, been running the single piece ever since. Once the changes are made and I get the 2 piece back again I will retest and report the results.

For now, 28,000 miles in 15 months on the conversion and STILL loving it as much as day one.

12-10-2012

Couple updates, putting the car, ’97 M3 sedan, up for sale minus the engine and trans, I’m moving on to a BMW 5 series to install my 6.0L and T56, the M3 will come with all the other goodies as outlined in this thread, (the Brembo big brake kit with new pads recently installed, brand new tires on all for corners just installed today, auto dimming mirror, the speaker box mentioned below, Euro Ellipsoid HID lights, etc, peruse this thread for more of what this car has). If anyone is interested, contact via E-mail or PM, drive it before you buy it ready for your LSx and trans.
Car is doing fantastic, just over 31,500 miles on the conversion and its been flawless. Daily driven over the past year and half, through the freezing winter here in the Pacific Northwest, trip through the desert mid summer in 107+ degrees, car has been awesome. Only issues that cropped up have been the relay for the back up lights and reverse lock out went bad, cheapo polyurethane Lollipops cracked out replaced with nice solid BMW rubber versions, had a fuel line ahead of the fuel filter swell and leak, have a feeling when I purchased the EFI hose I was given some non EFI rated hose so all hoses have been replaced with known EFI hose just in case and the original 5.3 had oil pressure issues from the start up, knew it wouldn’t last long, was replaced with the addition of 700 more CC’s late July last year. Currently the trans is starting to howl a bit, will rebuild it before it goes into the E39.

Couple months back finally finished up the speaker box for the single 12” sub. 1.25 cubic feet volume, built so the spare can be retrieved without having to remove the box and being a ski-pass rear seat, took the time to seal the box to the ski pass. That alone made a noticeable difference in the quality and quantity of sound from the sub.

2-15-2013

Car is sold, time to move on to next project.

6-4-2013

I retained the BMW diagnostics plug, (DLC), and all the pins in it to keep the car as OE as possible and retain the ability to troubleshoot any SRS, ABS, climate controls, ZKE instrument cluster issues, and to reset the service oil service indicator. when I removed the BMW engine ECU, (DME), I only cut the DME wires that went to the DLC so when/if you have have the dealership plug into your car everything is normal, they just dont see the engine ECU, (actually had that to bring up an ABS code after my conversion that turned out to be just the brakes pedal switch).
I suggest not wiring the CM ECU, (PCM) into that DLC as the BMW wont be able to interpret the PCM, languages are different, and the GM PCM is communicated with via the OBD-II port. For your OBD-I car, you just need to get an OBD-II port and place it somewhere in the car. If planning to tune the GM PCM yourself I'd recommend in the cab of the car, passenger side footwell for ease of connection to the laptop and the laptop wire wont get tangled in drivers feet while data logging/tuning.

Here is a spreadhseet I put together that covers the main BMW plug and its pin outs, that is ithe umbilical which the LSx will communicate to the car, as well well the DLC to the car, (In the X20 connector, pins 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, and 25 are all the DLC, you will want to retain those). Your OBD-1 car will be the same regarding the X20 connector, It will have 1 possibly 2 pins either added, deleted vs what I have listed here, pretty sure the Check Engine Light was one of those, you'll have to comb the ETM to verify. (The ETM doesn't have a pin out or section dedicated to the X20 connector which is why I built this spread sheet. Fwiw, I did comb the ETMs of each individual E36 model 1992-1999, 318, 323, 325, 328, and M3, tracing every wire related to the X20 connector and found the X20 connector to be consistent through the years and models of E36).