S54 Swap

Here ya go:
http://s723.photobucket.com/albums/w...cpZZ1QQtppZZ16

This was the wife's before we got the CaymanS. Coming around Oak Tree at VIR.


The little dude down at Roebling Road going through his tuition money.

Wait...


What flavour punch was the turd dropped in?

Originally Posted by jonesin

Wait...


What flavour punch was the turd dropped in?

L O L

Boy's I drive a truck for a living. It's not what you make, it's what you do with what you make!

Gorgeous cars my man keep trucking on this project

Originally Posted by beamer claus

Gorgeous cars my man keep trucking on this project

Are you a freight nobody would catch that pun? I only semi missed it at first.

Jay, with the S54 your car is going to haul!

Originally Posted by EnserioJose

Are you a freight nobody would catch that pun? I only semi missed it at first.

Jay, with the S54 your car is going to haul!

Giggity

Sub'd!

Well I made a little progress this week. The correct ECU arrived so that can sit in the growing parts pile. I ordered an engine stand that should be here this week. Got in the gas pedal so drive by wire is all set. Two issues I want to address while the engine is out of the car. The first is the bottom end. I have decided to road trip to Florida and take the engine with and have Randy Forbes replace the bearings and look over the bottom end. I also want to adjust the valves and I will do that myself. Two great videos on youtube on how to measure and how to replace the valve shims. This job does not look hard and with the engine out should be relatively easy although time consuming. The issue with this is the kit for the shims will set you back @$400. In most cases you can get the kit and resell after you are done. I am going to attack this a little different and if you have the time this might be an option. You can order the shims from various places for $4 a piece. Here is what the kit looks like. You get 6 of each size shim.
Basics of this project are:
Remove valve cover
Measure rocker arm clearance
Specs on intake between .007 and .009 inch
Specs on exhaust between .0011 and .0013 inch
If out of spec pull clip and slide rocker out of way and remove shim with magnet tool
Measure shim thickness and replace with proper shim to bring back to spec
Re assemble rocker and and measure again.
S54 loves this so I will do the measuring next weekend and report back.

I wanted to see what I have here so as part of the project I wanted to remove the plugs and see what they looked like. I think they looked okay. I have no idea how long this engine has sat.

Wanted to get the oil out so I used a small syphon set up. 10w 60 took forever but the pan is pretty dry until I can get it off. I also shot some fogging oil in the cylinders and turned over the engine a few times just to limit rust in the cylinders. Wanted to get the air box off and getting the clamps off the throttle bodies was a pain in the ass. Checked the threads on the back side of the engine, block and flywheel and cleaned them out with a little pb and a thread chaser.



Block threads will be used for engine stand. M12 X 1.75
Flywheel bolts are M12 X 1.5

Plans for next week are to drop the pan and make sure everything is clean and dry for bearing replacement and measure the clearance on the valves. Gloves did a good job of covering up the exposed tb and removing a motor mount allowed me to roll the engine so I could get at the clamps. Pulled the oil filter housing and power steering along with the ac.

NicE! Glad to see progress, so many guys start projects like this and never finish or give up. I don't think that is the case this time!

On another note, didn't realize the shims were so expensive, yikes!

Sent from my ADR6400L using Bimmer App

Originally Posted by JayMac

Specs on intake between .007 and .009 inch
Specs on exhaust between .0011 and .0013 inch

Those exhaust lash specs seem awfully close to me. Are you sure it's just over one one thousanth? I'm not at all familiar with valve lash on the S54, so forgive me if that's a dumb question.

BTW, the S14 takes the same style shim adjustments.

Check out the video on youtube. The guy does an awesome job of walking you through what you measure and how to do it. Shims are not expensive, the kit just gives you 6 of each of about 24 sizes. From what I understand, part of the issue is you have to cool the car to take the measurements so it becomes labor intensive. Since the engine is out I can measure this weekend and order specific shims. Worse case is $100 for shims but in most case you can use some for other valves. I am not claiming to be an expert or even correct on this but it is certainly a job you can do yourself.

People do their own valve adjustments on S54s all the time. Definitely a DIY job. Nice work so far!

Looking awesome man! keep cranking

Okay, got in some stuff this week, engine stand, micrometer, harness for injectors, and feeler gauge. Goal today was to get the engine out of the Jeep. Poor planning on my part. Then I got the idea to cut away the part of the pallet I didn't need and use the lift as a lifting table.
That's about 20 inches wide so I just backed the Jeep up to it and my wife and I slid the engine on to the platform. Since we had already bolted the plate for the stand to the block, we then moved the Jeep out and lowered the lift until we could fit the stand to the block. Lowered the rest of the way and the engine stood right up on the stand. Box is the new dif waiting to go.

Plan for tomorrow is to get the pan off and let everything drip out of there and start measuring the valves. Local dealer said the will sell me the individual plates so I don't have to buy the kit and try to sell it later.

Starting to compile list of spare parts I will have available to sell:
Starter
Euro oil filter housing
BMW oil lines
3.15 lsd
Kosei K1 16X7 with Bridgestone REO 1R 225 50 16
M52 with S52 cams, M50 manifold, Ireland long tube headers, and Shark injector. Note the injector has not been installed so it will work with any car. Also the harness and other items if someone is looking to swap in to an appropriate vehicle.
Thats it for today. I will get a selling thread going shortly.

This is one hell of a build, doing everything right the first time and getting that S54 running right before you drop it in. Can't wait to see the results, and did you decide on the 5 or 6 speed yet?

I spy with my promiscuous eye a cobra

Had a little more time so I dropped the pan to let the bottom end dry out. I have no idea what went on in this motor but it looked like some one was doing some cooking.



The oil that come out looked like tar and I am sure whoever had this had a few issues as the drain plug was set with a helicoil. It appears this is a common failure with these pans. Great!



It takes a 6mm hex and I started with the hex key, then the hex socket, and finally soaked it with some PB Blaster from the inside and went to a big breaker bar to get the plug out. I am guessing someone got confused between inch and foot pounds or thought is tight is good, real f#%@!>+ is better. Out and cleaned and ready to go back on when we take it south.



Thinking on staying with the 5 speed in answer to the question. Don't know anything about it but keep reading it is stronger. Right now just want to focus on getting the ponies running.

few issues as the drain plug was set with a helicoil. It appears this is a common failure with these pans.

It is not an issue, but at BMW dealerships most of mechanics are very young from tech schools, that get payed very little, so when you take your expensive BMW to BMW dealer is a same thing if you take it to jiffy lube. That when you will get unexpirienced guy torq on 14mm drain plug too much and strip the threads.

I am also looking for one of those engines, I already have a shell to put it in. But I would like to find one localy so that I can see it.

Breaking for lunch but the valves have been checked. It was very simple to do. As Zee stated a few posts back, definitely something you can do. When I pulled the cover I noticed dirt on the seals around the plugs.

A little work with the shop vac and a narrow nozzle took car of that. Amazing how much oil is still up here since I have no idea when this thing ran last.

I looked for any signs of unusual wear but did not see anything so I proceeded to start with the feeler gauge. I did the intake side first in order and you quickly get the hang of it.


It's a little dark but you can see the spring, shim, and rocker arm in this shot. Your feeler gauge goes between the cam and the rocker arm. Careful here because you can get the feeler under the arm and you aren't measuring anything.


I just listed the cylinders, 1-6 and a 7 and 9 for each valve, if it was good I circled it, if not I circled and slashed it as the "no" sign. On the intake side I found two valves that need work, both had too large of a gap. On the exhaust side I found two again but one of each. Easier to photo. Here is the 13 feeler "fitting" between the rocker and lobe, it should not.

The little clip in front of bolt just pulls straight up. This allows you to move the rocker out of the way to access the shim.

I have the 4 shims out that were out of spec. I wanted to devise a system for keeping this all straight and I anted to remove all the shims at once. Dixie cups! Shim tool and my notes. An added bonus is you can stack them and you won't loose the shims if you remove them for measuring.


Rocker arms dropped waiting for the new shims from the dealer.

All that is left is to measure the thickness with a micrometer and order the appropriate shims.

Looking awesomeee man keep up with the pics looks promising great work so far sorry about the pan sorta sucks but isn't a huge issue

GOt a little bit done today. Picked up the shims at the local dealer $6 a piece so nothing like the $400 kit.


Also bought a cover for the pan where the oil level sender sits.


I am going to see if I can drill and tap it and I will be able to mount an oil temp gauge sender unit right in the pan. I will see if I can get that done this week.


The shims have their size printed on them. I don't know if you can see it but they do incase you mix up the new ones.


My chicken scratch for each cylinder. If the small feeler fits and the larger one doesn't you are good to go. 7 and 9 on the intake, 11 and 13 on the exhaust.

You measure the shim with a micrometer and then convert to mm. Then compare the existing shim to the sizes that are available. Order your shims and go. Bottom line is that you can screw up your math it still comes down to the gauges fitting or not. That means you are within tolerance.

The new or corrected shim sitting on top of the valve.



Then the rocker arm goes back on and you check with the feelers to make sure you have it correct. You can see the rocker arm just to the right of the spring. It is sitting on a rod and just swings up and then you push it over the valve and it is held in place by this clamp.



The clamp just pushes down on the bar that the rockers sit on. If you do one at a time you get the idea real quick. You can see how the look to the left and right.



AS fate would have it, I ordered some additional size shims but did not have the one I needed. On one of the exhaust valves the 11 feeler fit but it was real tight. I needed a 2.28 shim but all I had left was a 2.24 and the original. Since the 2.24 was way too small. I busted out the wet sand paper. Presoak your paper for a whiles and have at it. A few circle motions on each side and back on the valve to check.



Took a few times but in the end all within spec and ready for the next step. All rockers back in place. Clips in and cleaned with brake clean to get oil and gunk out. Rotated the crank twice and measure with the feelers for tolerance and all are good to go. Next stop for the engine is to have the rod bearings replaced. I am going to take this to Randy Forbes in Florida. He has done over 30 of these so I trust his work and he is a wealth of knowledge.
In the mean time I am going to get the 3.91 lsd installed.

It seems that these engines heat up oil quick, just look at the darkened places in the engine

I agree, but you also don't have any idea of how this was maintained prior to me. You can find plenty of pictures where the engines look spotless. You get more hp at the expense of heat so you have to find a way to get ride of it. There is a reason the the S54 is one of the few set ups that comes from the factory with an oil cooler. Another issue with oil is low mile trips suck. You get condensation in the block and if you don't get the oil up to temp for a suitable amount of time you don't distill off the water and that forms the acid that helps get you sludge. I was pleased not to find scoring on the cams, which is more of an indicator than the dark crap. If you go back and look at my shots of the oil pan. That was all caked on. It took two hours of scotch pad, WD40, brake cleaner and simple green to get that off. Oil choice is important too. BMW changed the weight spec of the oil after the bearing incident. It went from 5 w 30 to 10w 60. This opens up plenty of debate on oil and the like. For the record I don't plan on the specified oil rather something that is higher in zinc and phosphorus.

One other thing on the oil. If that was 10w60 in there it is some thick goo. Any oil left sitting on hot engine parts will do this. What is amazing is the amount of oil on the upper end weeks, or even months after this thing was run.