May 2011 Project e28s52t (Engine Management)

[SpongeBob]

Here is an update on my project - e28s52t. My 88 528e with an e36 M3 3.2L turbo motor.

Chassis - 1988 528e, 52K miles, single owner, full documentation, sat in garage in Orange County from 92 on. Last time it was registered was 93. EVERYTHING works and is in great shape, no paint chips, no cracks in windshield, no sun fad, perfect dash - The guy I bought it from was really glad that a true BMW enthusiast was buying, he was very happy - I am sure he did not understand what I was going to do with it! This is the nicest used car I have ever bought - it is like going back in time.

What it needs - carpet; since it sat for so long, mice made it a home, so it stinks like urine - YUCK - I will replace the carpet this winter. I have a set of manual sport seats that I will recover in a proper euro style fabric with matching rear bench and door cards, I still need to install the manual pedal cluster and shift linkage

Engine (complete) - S52 - displaces 3.3L w/ 8.5 to 1 turbo pistons, ARP head, main and rod fastners, Eagle rods, balanced. Rebuilt head with fresh valve job, MLS head gasket, M50 intake, fresh timing components - chain, sprockets and rails, rebuilt oil pump, e34 M50 sump, euro filter housing with oil cooler fittings.

Transmission - e36 M3 ZF 5 speed, 2.93 LSD, light weight aluminum fly wheel and 400 hp clutch, fresh slave and master cylinder

Exhaust (60% complete)- TCD cast turbo manifold, true T04e-60 turbo able to support 500 hp, update 5/09 single 3" pipe to the rear, will use a 3 " down pipe, external 38mm wastegate (TIAL)

Intake/Fuel (60% complete)- M50 intake manifold, intercooler still pending (very tight for an air to air), might do H2O to air, 42lb injectors

Engine Control - I am leaning towards the AEM setup on Evosport.com website - it is PnP for the s52 engine harness. http://www.evosport.com/product/aem/

Motor/Transmission mounts (complete) - e36 motor mount arm (drivers), e36 turbo motor mount arm (passenger), Toyota Supra polymounts - ( the e12 motor mount setup was way too soft), e34 M50 manual transmission crossmember (puts engine/tranny at the correct angle - took a while to find the right combo via the ETK), e12 poly tranmission mounts

Front cross member mods (complete) - remove the worm & roller box mounts, idler arm mount (in the way of the turbo), steering stop arms (little things on the subframe), add needed material to raise motor mount locations by 2" (I used 2" square tube welded to the subframe), make features to support steering gear - in process

Suspension (90% complete)- Ground Control coil over setup front and back, with Koni SA shocks/inserts, cut down front strut housings to put shocks in ideal travel location, GB camber plates, e31 840i aluminum control arms with spherical bushings, e34 M5 spherical trailing arm bushings ($), e32 750i front thurst arms, fully machined poly subframe bushings, poly filed diff bushings, strut bottom spacers (get the roll center where it needs to be after lowering - allowing good camber gain), Ireland Engineering camber and caster adjustments for the rear subframe, Koni sway bars with spherical drop links and poly mounts - no rubber anywhere, it will be rough, but I want a very good handling 5 series.

Steering -(90% complete) - originally - power rack and pinon from an e39 528i 3.25 turns lock to lock - THIS DOES NOT WORK!!!!!!!!! I am a ding dong - the e39 cars are front steer cars - I had this 90% done and realized my bone head move. Back the drawing board.

Update - 2/09 - found a rear steer rack at www.Unisteer.com. This is a power unit with 2.8 turns lock to lock, roughly a 13.5 to 1 ratio - so pretty quick. Brand new - $300 delivered. I will need to run a pressure reducer circuit in the PS setup - the BMW bump puts out more PSI than the rack needs. I found one on a local hotrod web site.

Had to have the inner tie rods shortened and new M14 threads cut to work with the e28 outer tie rod ends. I found an e36 u-joint that allowed the BMW splined steering shaft to mate up with the double D shaft and splined end of the rack. I tied the front subframe and rear lower brace together to provide a location for the rack to sit. Worked hard to assure the rack was at the right height, so that steering arms and control arms where parallel to avoid bumpsteer. Had to move the location the steering shaft exited the firewall - used a firewall steering shaft bearing to seal it up.

Brakes - (complete) e34 540i calipers front and rear - powder coated black with new clips and pads, Zimmerman cross drilled rotors, e32 750i master cylinder, new SS flex lines

Exterior - (purchased, but not installed) full euro, had the bumpers rechromed, big/small head lights, proper euro valance and factory front spoiler. I found a real nice euro e28 under tray on the ETK - that goes from the valance to the subframe - you can see that in one of the images...

Wheels - factory e39 540i sport wheels 8x17 and 9x17 with 235 and 255 tires

I want this car to be a sleeper. No spoilers, stripes, wings, in fact I have a set of 16" factory steel wheels which I will have widened to 8" and will run BMW hub caps and beauty rings. I want to see the face of the Porsche GT3 or new M3 driver when the old euro taxi goes flying by at DE school.

I think it should be running by December08 - Update 5/09 - maybe end of the summer 09?

[landspeed]

Looks great, should be very fast and handle great, keep us updated.

[mooseheadm5]

I know you have already gotten a different rack, but have you considered a flipped UK E39 rack?

[babisbabou]

Nice keep us posted!

[Russianblue]

spongebob, did you fab your own bumpsteer spacers?

[Soco]

i love you for what you are doing.

you had better post track videos of the guys that you dust in your old boxy eta.

you could rebadge it as a 533 since its technically more correct, but passing people in a "528e" would be more satisfying.

[downernsp]

Very nice please keep us updated I am trully jealous,but can give you props.

[Shadow]

Is this a difficult and rare swap for the e28?
Looks good.

[Adam W in MN]

Hey "spongebob", nice to see you on here. I thought you were doing a V8 in this thing? The suspension sounds like a real work of art.

[SpongeBob]

Hey Guys - sorry for the delay in response.

Thanks for the positive comments. Work has been a bear - and summer kid activities has taken its toll on my project time but here is a quick up date.

1 I lowered the engine in the chassis by .5 inch - does not sound like much, but I did not like the way it was. It is now fixed. I used a friends e36 to verify engine angle back to front.

2 What does it take to put an e36 engine into an e28? Couple of quick items - convert all fo it, meaning get the enigne, tranmission (the e28 M20 5spd - puts the engine at an odd angle, making subframe mods ugly) cooling system including radiator - it is not worth trying to save any of the e28 stuff. Use e36 motor mount arms and mounts - the modification will be on the e28 subframe (this was not too hard, but took a few times to get right).

3 Adam - I was going to do the M62/6spd, but a few things happened along the way. A) My M62/6spd was so low mile - it was actually worth a bunch of money (mostly the tranny) so it funded a bunch of stuff - I sold it in 2 hours on eBay B) even after installation - there would only be 282 hp w/M62 - and at 5000 ft elevation, it would have been 240hp - with a turbo motor it was at 450 hp plus regardless of altitude C) the amount of aftermarket support for the M50-S52 engines is huge D) the S52 was a much easier swap than the M62 - alot less fab E) I wanted a very fast car - the V8 would have sounded cool, but would have been huge $$ to get to 450 hp.

I remember you going through alot of variations on suspension to get your e12 where you wanted it and I was not sure where I would have ended up with after-market springs, so I decided to go full bore with a GC setup. It was much easier to do then I thought. Since there is no rubber in the suspension - I am sure it will be load and stiff - oh well. Hope all finds you well.

SBSP

W

[SpongeBob]

Update - 7/9/09 with more images -

I removed the lower radiator core support when I was doing all the engine test fitting - made sliding the engine/trans in from the bottom so much easier than from the top. This was a good move, because mounting the radiator and intercooler required me to fabricate a new core support. That is done and I am pretty happy with it - strong but light.

I now have the e36 aluminum radiator and large A/A fitted. The intercooler core is 24 x 12 x 3 - and it required a large amount of surgery on the bumper/frame rails to fit. I am not worried about the lack of bumper support - because I have danty and fragile euro bumpers going on this thing. The front valance fits over the whole arrangement just barely and will require a few mounting modifications.

I am pretty happy the position of both items, because the intercooler and radiator only over lap 50%, so the top 1/2 of the radiator gets fresh air through the front grills. The intercooler gets fresh air through the valance vents.

On a different note - I spent another few hours repositioning the engine. I needed the additional room on the back side of the radiator for the fan and shroud. I was able to move the whole arrangement back about 1.5" and down another 1" - to do this I did have to shave off the last 2 ribs on the e36 intake manifold to clear the brake booster - but that was 10 minutes with a dremel tool. I would have done this anyway - because it is good for handling.

There is an image that shows the factory steel valance with the factory euro undertray attached - even in the 80's BMW was managing air flow UNDER the car.

There is also an image of test fitting a front spoiler on the valance - it is very agressive and shoud make the old euro look kinda sexy.

Enjoy.

SBSP

[2ndeagle]

Man, I'd like to have an undertray. Is this an easy item to find? Pricey?

[SpongeBob]

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=51&fg=70

See the bottom image, item #7 - this I believe is the late version.

FWIW - there are 2 features hanging down from the front frame rails on our cars, behind the core support -- I never knew what these where for. These are there to provide support to the undertray - which we never received on the US cars. Kinda cool.

Bought mine from MM. $130.00 or so.

SBSP

[2ndeagle]

Cool, Thanks

[BadM535i]

Can you please tell me where you got those e34 M5 spherical trailing arm bushings?

[Shadow]

Can't wait to see it.
That m50 really makes this unique.

[Brad D.]

That m50 really makes this unique.

It's an S52.

[87royal]

Sick!
I love it.

[Shadow]

That m50 really makes this unique.

It's an S52.

Now you're nitpicking

m20b20 < m20b25 = m20s
m30b25 < m30b35 = m30s
M50 < us S52 = m50s

[ElGuappo]

Would you compare an S38 to an M30? Didnt think so.

SB, This car is going to be a BEAST when you are done with it. I know from driving Logans (derrith) m50 swap car, even in the initial poort state of tune, that it was Really quick, extremely rev happy, and pulled like a freight trane all the way to the rev limiter.

Some more detailed pics of the cutting away you did would be great for those of us who have an M50 sitting here, waiting...

[turbodan]

Would you compare an S38 to an M30? Didnt think so.

And he didn't. The 24v family of motors, big and small blocks, are on thier own level.

[87royal]

What make is that front spoiler?

[shocka]

This is a great project, s52 is indeed a beast. Cant wait to see pics of it when complete. I love that your keeping it low profile to dust sneering porsche drivers. That a motorsports airdam?

[SpongeBob]

Thought I would post some images of my recently finished adjustable rear subframe. The project took 2 days and if I had to do do it again - there are some serious ways to cut down the time of implementation.

I bought the adjustable kit from Ireland Engineering. The kit is pretty reasonable and they provided good phone support. For e28 running a low ride height - the most important adjustment is camber, which is the inner pick up point on the subframe. Getting the rear tires to run flat on the pavement for good wear. Toe on the e28 does not change much as ride height is changed, unlike the e12 and 2002 based cars - which does change quite a bit. I decided to do both, since I was there.

As part of my upgrade, I installed IE "racing" compound rear subframe mounts. They offer 2 versions for the e28, street and race. I like these mounts because they are captured both on the top and bottom of the subframe - so they should stay put once installed. The down side - you have to remove the subframe to install or remove the subframe mounting bolts from the body and drop the frame slightly. In my case - was doing it all, so I just removed the subframe - this involved - 1) remove exhaust 2) remove drive shaft 3) remove rear brakes with emergency or disconnect the emergency brake cables 4) remove drive shafts 5) disconnect rear sway bar and shock/springs 6) remove trailing arms NOTE - I found it easier to remove the subframe with the diff still attached - putting a floor jack under the diff (towards the rear) and small bottle jacks under the outboard ends of the subframe. 7) loosen diff mount and subframe mount bolts and slowly drop as an assembly.

I made a quick jig out of a 2x4 and a sheet of plywood, so I could get the subframe securely mounted to my bench and also make sure that the subframe was not tilted or rotated.

The kit includes grade 10.9 bolts with an eccentric washer on the bolt head, and a special eccentric washer that fits into slots on the threaded portion of the bolt, and a nut. There are 2 "guides" that need to be welded both sides of each pick up point on the subframe - the guides are where the washers ride in. The guides have a slot, that the bolt can slide in, and the existing trailing arm mounting hole in the subframe needs to be slotted to match the guide slot. A couple of key points (1) the guides must be welded on the subframe in the same position on both sides of the subframe and both sides of the pick up point. The best way to do this is use the original hole as your reference point. (2) It is important to get the guides as close to vertical (camber) and horizontal (toe) as possible - so that the adjustment will only move the trailing arm up/down (camber) or back/forth (toe) - not diagonally.

The images attached show the amount of movement these adjuster provide - about .60 inch. The camber adjustment starts at the stock position and provides adjustment in one direction, the toe adjustment is center on the stock location. You can see the toe and camber changes when adjusted on the bench - really cool stuff.

My next upgrade - installing e34 M5 sliding trailing arm bearings - these are NOT bushings - no rubber.

Inner pick up adjusted down.(camber)

Inner pick up adjusted up. (camber)

Outer pick up adjusted forward. (toe)

Outer pick up adjusted back. (toe)

Outer pick up with bolt.

Outer pick up with bolt and trailing arm.

Slot in pick up point.

Complete trailing and subframe.

[EuroShark]

Wow, this is the first I have seen of this project. Very cool stuff! It's not running at the moment by chance, is it? I saw a white Euro bumpered E28 heading east on Valmont in Boulder a few weeks ago but I didn't get a great look at it.