e30 LS1 Buildup!

[garretvs]

All right, so I finally decided to nut up and make an e30 Buildup thread! We're making good progress on our swap and we are expecting to have it running by summer! I guess this will put little extra pressure on us to work faster!

My name is Garret Van Swearingen, my dad is Steve. I go to the University of Washington and am pursuing an ME degree. My dad is Cheif Mechanical Engineer for AIT, a company that does Aerospace Automation. I'm saying this because we've modeled up some of parts in CATIA v5 and run FEA on them (Engine Mounts). Here is a brief history of our swap and what motivated us to do this! We've been wanting to do an engine swap for a long time, and last year we learned of the Vorshlag e36. We began looking for an e36 and were on the verge of selling my e30 when I came across the Jagermeister e30 LS1, and immediately decided to do the same to my e30. Within week we had purchased an LS1 with a T56, driveshaft, all accessories, etc. With one last celebratory thrashing late at night of the m20 (pretty much drove the shit out of it, I started it up the next morning with some nice white smoke coming from the exhaust...lol) we began the tear down. Here is a sparse picture journal documenting what's gone on since last summer.

We have much more documentation then this including CATIA models, receipts, pictures, wiring diagrams, etc. For those interested, when we are finished we WILL compile all of what we have done and how we did it and sell it at a very reasonable price. We may even consider making some of the custom bits like Motor Mounts, Tranny mount, etc.

Finally, since I'm at school and can only work on this when I go home on the weekends work has been a little slow, but it is coming along. Oh, and I know that our steering rack is a little rusted but it's getting replaced this week, as well as that the bay is a little dirty, but it will be cleaned immensely for the final install. Also, we will be getting rid of the metal bumers. lol...Enjoy!




Bringing the LS1 home





Pulling the m20









Our, "holy shit will this thing really fit" moment!





I had to....




I was tired taking out the old driveshaft....





Test fit of the T56




A little hammering on the tranny tunnel




Foamie mock up chillin in the Engine bay...Damn does that look nice!




Test fit of Radiator





Comes right up through the original hole!






Our modified GTO front sump oil pan to fit over the crossmember





This is going to make the rear end no problem!





Welded up Engine Mounts



















That's it for now, I'm in class on my laptop so maybe I should pay attention...

Hope that I didn't screw up any of the images...

[rao]

Looks good!

[bmwleethaxor777]

what car whas this to start? that looks like it will be fun

[garretvs]

It was an 86 325es....it will soon be an 86' 357 is.....

[JoeZ]

Looking good bro

Great pics...keep 'em coming!

[UselessTurbo]

Good looking! Points for teh e30 Keep us posted with updates!!!

[Dungbeetle]

This may be a dumb question, but what is the advantage of an LS-1 over a regular aluminum small block chevy? Is it smaller or lighter?

[Kaiv]

Wow, that project is awesome man, thanks for sharing and keep the pics coming

[BigM62]

I wish my dad was an engineer. .............. Thanks for sharing!

[htrdbmr]

Glad to see there are young hot rodders out there to take over for us old farts! I put a 1 pce driveshaft in mine, same type of rear u-joint. I don't know if it matters to you, but Inland Empire Driveline markets trans yokes w/ removable caps. I had to use one for my E32 conversion. Keep it up, looks good.

[masofshad]

Garret, does SX300 mean anything to you?

[sandusk]

Up for a fellow Washington IET Major!!!!

[1GeezersGarage]

I like your motor mount design--clean, simple and strong. Love to see some more close-ups of the oil pan mods.

[garretvs]

Originally Posted by masofshad

Garret, does SX300 mean anything to you?

Um...I'm drawing a blank here...should it? Like nissan 200sx?...but 300SX?

[promp3]

for some reason those motor mounts look to me like they are going to break, Im sure you dod knows what he is doing but why are they off set forward? with that long horizantal leg and 90 degree angle... I dono the'll probaly work fine though looks like thick metal and nice welds. I probably would used a more triangulated design

[Dungbeetle]

Originally Posted by promp3

for some reason those motor mounts look to me like they are going to break, Im sure you dod knows what he is doing but why are they off set forward? with that long horizantal leg and 90 degree angle... I dono the'll probaly work fine though looks like thick metal and nice welds. I probably would used a more triangulated design

I was thinking the same thing. I've seen to many headers where the metal began cracking just above the weld at the point of maximum stress, and then the crack progressively worked its way around tube in both directions following the weld.

[Schnell325]

Wow....looks like a good start.

[garretvs]

Originally Posted by promp3

for some reason those motor mounts look to me like they are going to break, Im sure you dod knows what he is doing but why are they off set forward? with that long horizantal leg and 90 degree angle... I dono the'll probaly work fine though looks like thick metal and nice welds. I probably would used a more triangulated design

We put them forward because headers are going to be a pain and that gives us extra room. We also did a bunch of FEA (finite element analysis) with 3D spacemodels (CATIA v5)to see if they would break. We put 700lbs vertically and 350lbs horizontally at the same time, but the real amount that we'll see is 1/2 the engine weight + half the torque which is gonna be 250lbs+175lbs=425lbs. Also the horizontal beam in the model was 1 inch longer than it really is, so we should be good.

[promp3]

well it sounds like you have done your homework, 700 lbs verticle seems like alot.(and its a light engine) you are using the factory rubber mounts so I think that would help absorb alot more than if you were using solid mounts. I'm not an expert by far but it seems like there is alot of stress involved with hard shifting, bouncing revlimiters, hitting hard bumps in the road.ect. its not like you are building a race car and you would through thousands of dollars out the window with a dnf, it would only be a minor inconvience if you were to have one break. there is a high probability it wont though, I have seen some pretty hagard looking abominations hold up.
I want to see some vids of this beast when you are done!

[garretvs]

Allright, so it's finals time for me so I haven't been working on it much lately but here is the latest:

We got out new steering rack and that will be going in this weekend...probably. We got a hydro boost brake booster and found out that it WON'T fit where the old booster went so we need to make a linkage for a remote setup of the hydro boost. Here's a model of what the linkage is going to look like mounted to the firewall.

[masofshad]

Garret,

SX300 is a kit airplane, the Swearingen SX300 to be accurate. Talking about your father being in the Aeorspace industry and being a DIY guy it was too many coincidences.

Go here for more info: sx300group.org/index.htm

[dmenheere]

Originally Posted by garretvs

We put them forward because headers are going to be a pain and that gives us extra room. We also did a bunch of FEA (finite element analysis) with 3D spacemodels (CATIA v5)to see if they would break. We put 700lbs vertically and 350lbs horizontally at the same time, but the real amount that we'll see is 1/2 the engine weight + half the torque which is gonna be 250lbs+175lbs=425lbs. Also the horizontal beam in the model was 1 inch longer than it really is, so we should be good.

You may want to consider manuvering loads ... compression bumps in the road, vibration, etc, especially if you decide to hit the track. Despite the car being ground based you might want to shoot for some kind of safety factor like 5 or 10 since weight (relatively) is not really as much as a problem as it would be in an airplane. I know if they break on the ground it wouldn't be the problem it is in the air but it could still tear the hell out of your car.

2 cents worth from a design engineer who gets to work with the smart structures guys everyday.

cheers,

Dave Menheere

[Smokingtires]

I've daily driven my e30 for a couple years now while I saved up to do a ls6 swap in my Camaro. With this insight I might be doing the swap on my Camaro later...

[RECTHEGR8]

Any hassles with the swap yet,

I have heard about the master cylinder placement being an issue as well as the steering rack, but have heard using the e34 cylinder which moves it infront of the engine and using a Z3 rack make this work. Also what are you going to be doing as far as the rear end. With power such as that you need to have a good dif to hook up the power.

[MWrench]

Originally Posted by Smokingtires

I've daily driven my e30 for a couple years now while I saved up to do a ls6 swap in my Camaro. With this insight I might be doing the swap on my Camaro later...

I am in the Bay area and you are more then welcome to come down and see what I am doing with the E24/LS6. Email me and we could set up a time if you like.

ed@mwrench.com

Ed