bmwe21.net forums

Some of you may remember me from a while ago when I did my E30 M30, then a new E30 M60, then transformed that into E30 S62. I still have that E30, but now I’m on to smaller and, frankly easier, projects. In short: I’m teaming up with Garagistic LLC to undertake a risky project. The risky part being a somewhat aggressive build schedule, posting updates daily AS I MAKE PROGRESS. That’s right! That is a 10 day S54 build in the forgotten 3-series, my E21.

You want more technical detail on each of these daily updates? Check out the blog I have started writing about this amongst other projects!
http://blog.garagistic.com

Ok, so here are the bullet points of the near term overhaul.

Intro: Start with bone stock 1980 E21 320i FI M10

• S54B32 101k miles from 2001 M3 w/ ZF S5D-320Z-HCH
• Complete E30 Rear Suspension with offset TA bushings and S3.46 Medium Case, rear disc
• Rota Slipstream 15x7.5 ET25 on Hankook 205/50-15
• Full GC Coilover 350/400 suspension
• 80A Poly bushings all around, new bearings, brakes.
• New Windshield

Exit Criteria: Fully Functional E21 with new drivetrain, suspension. I won’t have any HVAC, no P/S, heat, No power anything. No creature comforts. Without a roll cage (yet), this will be a near race ready e21. Making custom mounts, exhaust, shifter, program ECU, harnesses…etc. All that jazz.

Here’s some history:
I bought this 300k mile E21 in February as my daily driver to/from work. I was getting 30+mpg for a while until I sprung an oil leak in July on my 50 mile commute home, no indication of lost oil pressure resulting in a blown connecting rod slip-slappin’ inside the case. So the motor was toast. What a better time to do a motor swap than now!? So I’ve spent the last 2 months collecting parts with Garagistic, planning schedule, and getting ready to tear into it. The time has now come.

Yes, this is as live as it gets with swaps and there’s a chance I won’t do it in 10 days.
Yes, the car was plasti-dipped when I got it. I plan to re-spray it next year.
Yes, There’s surface rust, but the rest of the car is solid (except under the driver pedals).
No, I don’t plan to issue a formal write-up about it, but will document here on the forums.
No, I won’t be answering every single question. Won’t have the time.

I plan to get the car running in 10 days. Next build post will be this Saturday, September 10th, after I get the car to the shop and start tear down!

Here are some pictures:






























With that being said, I have some things to sell. The following parts to be picked up in Huntington Beach, CA....
Front Spindles, unmodified - $400
M10B18 - Blown Connecting Rod - $100
Getrag 240/245 - $200
Driveshaft Complete - $100
Exhaust - $100
Complete Rear End with modified TA’s (Shock mount cut off), half shafts (no diff) - $150
Differential 3.91 Open Small Case - $200

The following I WILL ship:
AC Lines - ($30)
Front Set Headlights w/ Side Grills - $150

Parking Brake Pads Brand New - $25

Front Shocks Offbrand Brand new - $120

Front Shocks Used Bilstein - $100

Rear Seat Tan - $100
Rear Door Panels - $20

So there you have it. Daily updates posted around 10pm EST and with Garagistic’s help, I am sure we can do this, so stay tuned!

Thanks, Garagistic Team, for making this a reality!!!!

More detailed info posted at the Garagistic Blog: http://blog.garagistic.com/

Ok, so one day down, and yes, it was purely a tear down! Not much technical info here. Took us 4 hours to get to this point on a Saturday Afternoon.

Car got picked up today from my place:


Got the E21 on the lift today where she shall stay for the next 10-12 days:

Getting rid of that shitty windshield!


Major components removed today.

Front Suspension – Going 100% poly and GC:





Engine/Transmission/Driveshaft/Exhaust. It’s was leaking something fierce.



Rear Suspension – Dropped right down:





Some pics of the underbody and tunnel:

Compared the driveshafts. Most likely, that will dictate the location of the engine position and as a result,
You can see below that the new driveshaft is much shorter, and the Center bearing location is much further back.



You look below you can see some new products coming out, using a custom Garagistic part for E30-LS1 driveshafts. This U joint will handle up to 1000hp easily and be provided exclusively by Garagistic’s LS1 powered E30.



Sunday is an off day .Restarting on Monday, at which point, I have the following list to-do.

1. Siphon the gas out of the tank, if necessary.
2. Do whatever it takes to get that E30 rear subframe to fit
3. Cut out all unneeded sheetmetal from the assembly. Battery, trans tunnel, rear wheel well.
4. Hang muffler in place.
5. Flash the ECU
6. Standby for more on Monday!

Damn, some great plans and progress!! Going for the euro look?

Now that's an extensive post! Thanks for this lovely start and looking forward to seeing this project develop Frank!

Jeroen wrote:Now that's an extensive post! Thanks for this lovely start and looking forward to seeing this project develop Frank!

Thanks, Every day for the next 10 days (not Sunday) will be new stuff, updated as I make progress. The car is as you see it today!!

uwbuurman wrote:Damn, some great plans and progress!! Going for the euro look?

Yeah, I have euro bumpers that I am going to shorten, paint body color and have a slim black trim in the middle. Might take some time, but I think it will be worth it.

Stay tuned for updates tomorrow.

Can't wait until the next update....Go for it.

10 days, now that is a challenge, and nice choice of motor, they do go well in the E21

Some more detailed info is at the blog.garagistic.com

Today was all cutting and grinding. Turns out I didn't need to do any E21 fuel tank siphoning. I just needed to bang it back a little. So with a bit of persuasion, it turned out just fine and cleared the subframe.

Installed parking brakes. E30 parking brakes fit just fine, but the crimp does not fit into the tunnel like the E21 does, so I will need to simply tack weld it in place so it stays solid.





Cutting out the rear wheel well. Making room for the exhaust. That's for tuesday.


Look at the interference on the E30 subframe to the E21 body.



I then installed the diff housing and got a rear engine position. Very exciting.




Installed the driveshaft just to make sure it clears the gas tank hose. It clears!!




Now that I have the diff in place, I can see where the rear cover ear will mount up. Very close, but still offset. I'll need Garagistic's custom offset diff ear mounts to get this mounted!

It looks like it will fit, but it's way off. So I cut it off and am welding new ones to the frame, beefing up the frame in the process.



I welded the driveshaft center bearing brackets to the body and the front half driveshaft now attaches to the body without the need for the rear half. Effectively separating both halves independently so that I can work on the front or the rear. This is a big convenience factor for the swap.

Did some sizing on the shifter position. I can easily cut and tig this shorter to be the perfect size. This part of the swap is a cinch. THis is preliminary, but should work in the final design



Some more pics of the extra cut out. There are actually like 3 layers of 14 gauge metal here that make up the subframe. I plan to weld more metal higher in the frame to strengthen it back to stock.




Continued to collect parts for the entire swap. Thanks Garagistic for the stainless steel brake lines, clutch line, and Z3 shifter!!

Here is the E21 in all its glory. Not bad for a days work!


One of the setbacks i can see is a resistance of the subframe from getting pushed up as high as possible and that's due to the fuel filler. It will hit it. Subframe must be a bit lower than I desire, but still high enough to get plenty of thread engagement.

Next is to sort out the fuel filter/pump/regulator area. it's clearly going to hit the half shaft.



Tuesday:

Weld subframe triangle holes in, hang muffler, cut rear skirt, relocate gas filter, put my battery on a charer, rear trailing arm work for the shock mount. Assembly ZF trans to S54! Stay tuned!!

Impressive progress again, and many thanks for taking the time to share this here with us!

So today I spent about 5 hours on Exhaust, Suspension, and radiator mounting.

Fuel filter stuff removed. I am going to a walbro 255 external pump for this assembly. I'm sticking with the same fuel filter (new), and fuel accumulator to keep fuel pressure up on starts.



Mounted the E46 M3 exhaust - Had to cut out some of the piping to fit. I didn't want to do a completely custom exhaust system, but it looks like that's what may happen. Everything is custom.





Thus far, I'm going with 2 mounts for the muffler assembly itself. Then after I start welding the mid pipe, I'll be adding a 3rd one in the same vicinity.

The top of the muffler is just at the top of the spare wheel well I cut out. Might need to figure out a new method of capping the wheel well.


I decided to use the new exhaust cut outs to plug the old exhaust outlet. I maintain the same curvature, bend, and character line, so it's seamless.



For now, I'd like to simply add weather stripping, but in the future outlook, we've got some cool Ares LS1 ideas for this exhaust. More info on Garagistic's E30-LS1 Ares swap coming up soon.

The radiator mounting is being prototyped, but at the moment this works very well. Used some M12 bolts, 19mm head actually fits these poly bushings perfectly.



Clamp the bolts down - to be welded later.




Bushings slip right on top. Square off the head of the poly bushing so it accompanies the radiator and it's not moving anywhere!


Out with the old!



In with the new, Let's get that S54 in tomorrow!

Nice project .. thx for sharing, looking forward to your progress

Nice progress indeed!!

Thanks, Guys! I'm making progress in real time. This is very difficult and quite pressuring, but I'm getting through it. Day 4 starts today!
I'm not going to use this product because of my E30 Subframe plans, but for those purists looking to strengthen their E21 rear subframe, take a look at these guys, new product from Garagistic!

Today was monumental. Got a whole lot done in 4hours!

Because the E30 parking brake cable did not fit into the E21 tunnel, I simply tacked it together. I'll paint it later.



So day 4 I got the S54 in the car. Lifted it by traditional means with a hoist. It wasn't all that bad getting it in. I needed to cut the front radiator shroud area to get it fit. Please note that this is NOT the final resting place. it will get pushed back at least another 4-5 inches.

Below, I installed the front half of the driveshaft. That already defined the center bearing location as shown in Day 2. Now that it's sitting suspended as shown, I can place the engine and mate it to the driveshaft. Once mated, the engine is now in place.

It took no more than 45 minutes to get the engine in. It's sitting much further forward than I'd like (aka the driveshaft and transmission are way off and the engine needs to sit further back).




As of today, the S54 is sitting on the subframe, unobstructed and the trans bracket is installed, but will need to move much further rearward to mate to the driveshaft.

I didn't do too much with the subframe. No welding today. Stay tuned for tomorrow! Garagistic has some pretty sweet 80A mounts that I plan to use that will allow it to sit exactly where it will live with minimal movement and minimal vibration transfer.



I welded the exhaust hangers up a bit better today. I welded lips on the exhaust stem so that the hanger sits right in the center and doesn't move side to side on harder cornering.



I also welded studs for the rear subframe lower poly hold-down brackets. I did this because the E30 subframe is wider and the subframe was actually hitting the bracket weld-nuts. So I removed the weld nuts from the brackets, I welded studs from the inside flush, and will now bolt the bracket on the OUTSIDE of the body. The only thing I need to do is elongate the subframe bolt.


Welded studs (countersink screws) from the backside pointing outward.
View from outside looking in:


View from inside looking out:


I need to clean these welds up, but the idea is that now the E30 subframe will not hit the body due to it being wider than the E21 subframe.






Thanks for reading. Standby for more work tomorrow as we set this drivetrain in it's final resting spot!

Great project and a fantastic read. Going by the standard of your work I'm sure it's occurred to you but when I looked at dropping in a complete e30 rear axle the trailing arms were far too forward / short. Meaning the wheel would be right at the front of the rear wheel arch and not centred. I didn't look at it any further than that though. Interesting to see what you do