BuschBertl wrote:Crazy expensive Project
- I have also both engines but in 2 cars
I did a complete renewing of the S54 engine last year without a damage on the crankshaft! This will be very expensive - but please don´t stop this awesome Project.
Haha don't worry, those pictures were taken nearly 2 years ago, i'm not planing to stop now! I already have (almost) all of the parts to rebuild this engine, but you're right, BMW engines are not cheap to rebuild!
I sourced a good used crankshaft and con rod to replace the damaged items, and i'll balance the pistons and con rods before assembly
And Jeroen, this was a 2006 engine so had the updated bearings and con rods, it must have had a hard life (the 10000 mile service intervals probably didn't help)
More catching up now, this time the gearbox!
Now, obviously the E21 drivetrain won't be able to handle nearly 3x the original power output, so will need to be replaced. There are a few options, the best probably being the ZF 5 speed found in E36 328 tourings, E46 328 and 330s. Its more than strong enough and just about fits in the E21 tunnel. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted the 6 speed gearbox! The only thing putting me off was the price, then I happened upon an E36 M3 Evo SMG gearbox for just £70!!
The SMG system is a bit strange, in that is uses the same Getrag 6 speed gearbox as the manual cars, but controlled by an ECU. Because the gear linkage is controlled by a computer, the SMG boxes don't have any of the pins and springs that give the gear linkage 'feel' and layout the 'H' pattern that you feel when changing gears. To convert an SMG box to manual, you simply need to add these pins and springs. One way of doing this is to take the SMG bellhousing and machine the holes needed for the pins and add them this way, alternately you find a scrap manual gearbox and swap the bellhousings over! Eventually I found a scrap E46 M3 manual gearbox and set about swapping the bell housing to my good, 60K mile SMG box:
Here is the 2 bell housings side by side, can you spot the difference?
This is a closeup of the SMG, notice the cast lumps? On the manual this is where the shift pins sit
Here is the manual, see the addition of a bearing to the arm, and 2 pins in the casting? this is what gives resistance as you move the gear stick left - right, along with the spring.
Another advantage of the E36 evo gearbox is it uses a 10 spline input shaft which is shared with loads of other BMWs, whereas the E46 uses an 11 spline input shaft and is the only car in BMWs range to do so. This basically means I can use clutch kits and flywheels for M50/52/54/S50 cars, which tend to be cheaper than E46 parts.
E36 10 spline:
E46 11 spline:
Sorry for all the words and boring pictures, but i love all this nerdy technical stuff
I promise the next update will be more interesting!!
