WannabeRacer | Made in the USA.

[Don Nguyen]

Finally starting a build thread of my own. There's not much done yet, as I am still waiting on parts to get to me, before I can throw the engine into the car. The car is primarily being built for drift/track events, with maybe an autox or other random events thrown in here and there.

Justin Samberg will be supplying the subframe/engine mounts, transmission mounts, headers, and steering rack, for my swap.

I was going to rebuild new hard lines to relocate my ABS unit, but I ended up being able to just reuse the stock hard lines by bending and moving them slightly.

For the remote bleeder kit, I purchased one from Tick Performance. Then for all of the other miscellaneous lines (IE power steering, clutch, etc), I purchased various fittings and braided lines to fabricate them myself.

Hardest part of the install to me, so far (and in theory), is going to be the wiring. Apparently it is fairly straight forward, so we'll see how things play out once I get closer to that part.

Either way, here are some pictures:

Front end removed and preparing the engine to get pulled out.


Engine out of the M3 and engine/subframe on the Camaro is dropped.


And that's all for now. I told you I didn't have many pictures. Excuse their quality too, as I am only using my camera phone to take these pictures. Can't get the SLR all dirty and grimy now!

*Edit*

Took some more pictures from today.

Made new ABS mounting brackets and bent the hard lines so that they tucked in and away from the headers better. Still don't know if it will be enough until I test fit the engine in the car with the headers though.



Routed the heater lines as well. I reused the original hoses that went to the heater valve control, for the initial bends coming out of the firewall. This worked out well, because it let me angle the heater hoses more, without having them collapse/bend on me. Since I have the donor car with me, I also reused the heater hoses that were coming off of the engine, connecting the two hoses together with a straight barb fitting.



Took this one for fun. This is what's going to hopefully provide me with enough grip, for the new found power the LS1 engine will give me.



-Don

[Mooseiah]

Fuck yes.

[e30bmw]

Fuck yes.

This.

[NoOneBetter]

feels good man.

[Haris]

[bimmer 323 is]

yes pleasee

[purpm3]

the R888 Toyos will give you more grip Don then what you had but the LS# motor will still light them up. I've found them slipping with 380rwhp on my M3.
depends how you feed the power into them

how wide are they? they look monstrous. I've been running 265/35/18 wide on the rear with a ten inch LTW5 rim.

[llegos]

you better be throwing a cam/heads on that LS1

[MarketMaster]

Perfect car, perfect kit, perfect motor = perfect combination. great job don.

[EThirtySicks]

Yes, yes, yes, and yes.



After all that tracking, you still had the A/C in the car? Is that going to stay or finally be axed when you put in the new motor?

[mateo m3]

yeah baby

[JETninja]

Sweet Don! Take lots of pics, my son with the '94 318is wants to drop an LS1 in his too. Maybe we can stop by sometime, were just south in MV.

[LWRNCE]

annnnnnnd the haters shut up.

[Don Nguyen]

the R888 Toyos will give you more grip Don then what you had but the LS# motor will still light them up. I've found them slipping with 380rwhp on my M3.
depends how you feed the power into them

how wide are they? they look monstrous. I've been running 265/35/18 wide on the rear with a ten inch LTW5 rim.

Those are 335s on the rear. I will have 275s in the front.

Yes, yes, yes, and yes.



After all that tracking, you still had the A/C in the car? Is that going to stay or finally be axed when you put in the new motor?

Yes, I'd like to be able to keep the A/C and everything in the car. I will keep it in the car until the day I need to take it out to become more competitive. People may argue about why I am keeping all of these accessories on the car, or why I don't have a cage in it yet. However, the car is built exactly to my specs and how I would ever want my car to be.

-Don

[denyo77]

I drooled.

[boriksh]

great start

[mateo m3]

Don I have already spoken to Justin and will be purchasing the kit myself, just had a little set back as business is really slow at the moment, and bill need to be paid, but really soon, hopefully within a week or two maybe a month, by then your car should be running i hope. looking good men!!!

[Don Nguyen]

Don I have already spoken to Justin and will be purchasing the kit myself, just had a little set back as business is really slow at the moment, and bill need to be paid, but really soon, hopefully within a week or two maybe a month, by then your car should be running i hope. looking good men!!!

Sounds good. For the price, it can't be beat. The only thing I would suggest is to get the pieces powder coated or painted as soon as you get it. It might not be entirely important, but it'll help from minor surface rust appearing on it. Plus, it'll make things look cleaner and nicer as well.

Pictures of Justin's subframe attached to the steering rack. I am going to leave it loose like that for now, until I get the engine in, to make sliding everything in easier.



Pictures of the ABS unit and all of the hardlines attached. Hopefully this will provide enough clearance for the engine/headers.



I also finished up the heater lines, using various fittings and the original hoses from the BMW and LS1 engine.



-Don

[pimpstaty5y]

Sweet build Don. You going to do anything to the LS before you drop it in?

[hefftone]

There are all kinds of cams out there. I suggest you pick up a magazine like Chevy High Performance, pick a company, and just call them. Tell them the mods you are making, and PLAN to make. And the kind of power you want to make,They will set you up with the right cam.
These motors are'nt like bmw's where there are just a few cams to choose from with a $1000+ price tag,... there are more types of chevy small block cams than there are women! Pushrod haters be damned.

Oh yeah, off to a great start....how much was the powdercoating?

[Don Nguyen]

There are all kinds of cams out there. I suggest you pick up a magazine like Chevy High Performance, pick a company, and just call them. Tell them the mods you are making, and PLAN to make. And the kind of power you want to make,They will set you up with the right cam.
These motors are'nt like bmw's where there are just a few cams to choose from with a $1000+ price tag,... there are more types of chevy small block cams than there are women! Pushrod haters be damned.

Oh yeah, off to a great start....how much was the powdercoating?

I already know what I am going to go with, and will have everything done by the same supplier, so they can match everything together and optimize the set up for my use.

I didn't powder coat the parts. I merely spray painted them myself.

Good thing is, I destroyed/frayed the LS1 Camaro throttle cable trying to modify it to fit the BMW, so now I will have to spend the $50 dollars or so on a Lokar one.

-Don

[Mas280]

I was at Justin's shop today looking at his headers. I wish now that I took a picture of the DS header. I would like to move my ABS to the same place that you did. I hope that the headers will clear the abs pump in that loacation. I cant wait to get started on my swap also, thanks for the pictures. I am going to use DBW on my motor. You might want to pick up a RX7 Cable for the TB. I think that it will work and will look better than a aftermarket cable. Also some honda's have good cables that work good on swaps.

[Don Nguyen]

I was at Justin's shop today looking at his headers. I wish now that I took a picture of the DS header. I would like to move my ABS to the same place that you did. I hope that the headers will clear the abs pump in that loacation. I cant wait to get started on my swap also, thanks for the pictures. I am going to use DBW on my motor. You might want to pick up a RX7 Cable for the TB. I think that it will work and will look better than a aftermarket cable. Also some honda's have good cables that work good on swaps.[/IMG]

What do you plan on doing with that evap can that's attached on top of the intake manifold/engine? Just leave it open and venting to the atmosphere?

-Don

*Edit*

Just did the fuel lines. I reused the factory hard/rubber BMW fuel lines and bent them so that they looped behind the ABS hard lines and back up over where the headers will hopefully be. This takes away some of the extra parts/fabrications that I would have had to do. It also lets me use lines with beads on them already, so I don't have to worry about using compression fittings or trying to make my own beads.

[Thaniel]

What do you plan on doing with that evap can that's attached on top of the intake manifold/engine? Just leave it open and venting to the atmosphere?

-Don

*Edit*

Just did the fuel lines. I reused the factory hard/rubber BMW fuel lines and bent them so that they looped behind the ABS hard lines and back up over where the headers will hopefully be. This takes away some of the extra parts/fabrications that I would have had to do. It also lets me use lines with beads on them already, so I don't have to worry about using compression fittings or trying to make my own beads.

If you park it in a closed garage just venting it will make the garage smell like gas on a warm day. Yes I know from experience. I ended up installing the BMW charcoal canister.

Using the BMW fuel lines? I thought the BMW lines were smaller in dia than the corvette FPR that is popular to use. My memory is bad I could be remembering the sizes wrong.

[Don Nguyen]

If you park it in a closed garage just venting it will make the garage smell like gas on a warm day. Yes I know from experience. I ended up installing the BMW charcoal canister.

Using the BMW fuel lines? I thought the BMW lines were smaller in dia than the corvette FPR that is popular to use. My memory is bad I could be remembering the sizes wrong.

Did you use the canister on the LS1 in conjunction with the BMW canister, or did you remove the LS1 canister and did a line directly to the BMW one.

The LS1 fuel rail is just slightly bigger than the BMW fuel lines, if I can recall correctly.

-Don