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Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

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  • #31
    Re: Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

    Project Update for June 22, 2012: Two months without much progress on this car? Yea, its been busy here at Vorshlag working on all sorts of other in-house builds. Our $2011 GRM Challenge winning E30 V8 has been getting a lot of updates, as has our 2011 Mustang GT and our blue 2001 330Ci street/track car. We've got a ton of work completed on Matt's 1995 M3 LS1 and McCall's Z3M Roadster LS1 (both of those are almost completed). Now we can finally get crackin' on the white E46 330 LS1 Alpha car!


    Left: Matt's 1995 M3 LS1 is very close to completion. Lots of new Stage 1 parts developed! Right: Blue 330 "track car" is street legal again

    Remember how back in April I said we'd be making the E46 Alpha car into a pure track car, with zero street capabilities? Well... that's not what you guys asked for. So many people wanted us to go for a more street and track capable build that we have reconsidered and are going to go with the "Option 3" build: a car that is street capable yet still a very track worthy car.

    In the 4th and final installment of my event write-up for the Optima Faceoff at HOT ROD Power Tour autocross/track deal I mention this very E46 LSx build as the perfect opportunity to make a car that is ideal for these types of "unlimited street car" competition events. Optima Challenge, OLOA, TX2K, UTCC, and more. Could still be fun in NASA TT also. Taking our Mustang to the Optima event was fun, but that car is built around SCCA's ESP class rules - not even very far down that prep level yet - and is still mostly stock in many areas. This E46 could be a bit more extreme in its competition preparation level yet still have the basics of what many consider to be a true "street car": working lights/signals, windshield wipers, a heater, and even a few "optional" things like ABS brakes and power side windows. Now we won't be adding every factory feature back just yet, but enough to be street driven "on a nice day".



    We've got a pretty ambitious build plan mapped out but I'm going to hold back some details... in case things don't go according to plan. I'd rather "under-promise and over-deliver" on the performance goals this time. As you can see in the picture above, that I took out in the shop today, the windshield is out. The stock unit was smashed so it had to go - with it out of the way making a roll cage will be easier. Wait, roll cage in a street car? Yes. And it will have carpet, a dash, door panels, head liner, and all of that. Even with all of that - the car will get much lighter.

    Stay tuned for more regular updates the rest of 2012.
    Last edited by Faerus; 06-22-2012, 06:17 PM.
    Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
    2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
    EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

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    • #32
      Re: Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

      I'm ready !

      My new to me $4500.00 328i fresh off an All season, 225/17's run at ECR. It was still fun.



      Only 125k on the motor though. I may have to sell it to finance the LSx.

      subscribed.

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      • #33
        Re: Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

        Project Update for August 23, 2012: This project has dragged on much longer than I like, but we have a new focus in the shop to complete this build and get the Stage 0 kit parts in production now. One major change that happened recently was we stopped doing routine "automotive repair work" and are now only doing the race fabrication, turn-key jobs, and racing related service work in our shop that makes sense. We were slowing down to do little $200 repair jobs and turning away big dollar turn-key LS1 installations, large race car fabrication jobs, and delaying long term prototype projects like this. Not any more. From now on, our fabricator and technician are unburdened with senseless wrenching and instead knocking out some development work on our new Miata LS1 Alpha, the Z3M LS1 turn-key (which is nearing completion), building three other turn key E36 LS1s, and attacking our E46 Alpha LS1 here.



        The Miata LS1 prototype kicked off last week and we needed the mock-up LS1/T56 drivetrain from the E46 Alpha, so the E46 got some much needed attention. You can see in the above right picture from earlier this week that the mock-up drivetrain is out.



        While it was in the air, the prototype headers were finally massaged for the last time, removed, and finish welded. These will be sent to our US supplier to have fixtures made for a batch production. The production units will be tainless steel, feature 1-3/4" primaries and a 3" merge collector.


        Prototype Vorshlag E46 LS1 swap headers are finally finished and ready for low-volume production in stainless steel

        The trunk floor damage is the worst I've ever seen on an E46 - this is what happens when you let the cracked floor pan go for a year. Or two. There will be substantial trunk floor replacement work going on here soon - we've re-mapped out how the roll cage structure will go, based on what we learned from fielding a car at the 2012 Pikes Peak event (and the many crashes there), and the trunk floor subframe mounts in this car will tie into the rear of the cage.



        After assessing the rear trunk floor damage, the 188mm ring gear "medium case" E46 differential carrier was removed. This was so we could mock-up the 8.8" ring gear aluminum 31-spline 2003-04 Cobra IRS carrier in its place. The front mounting flanges won't clear the rear subframe opening so there's not much to show. We do have two E46 subframes on hand and one will be modified to fit this front mounting style and then fabrication will be done to fashion proper mounts for the big Ford differential.



        We will show more in the next installment... but we will no longer ignore this car.
        Last edited by Fair!; 08-31-2012, 08:08 AM.
        Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
        2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
        EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

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        • #34
          Re: Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

          As usual, nice to see progress and good to hear that these kinds of jobs are getting priority.

          Beyond the physical aspects of this job, what is the current state of the electronic side of things? I see a few possible options, some more feasible than others.
          • Remove BMW ECU entirely, use GM unit. This would require aftermarket gauges or installing a GM cluster and may have unexpected effects on other important computers in the car such as LCM and the general module.
          • Piggyback BMW ECU on GM unit, feeding along the appropriate signals to keep the German side of things happy.
          • Third-party ECU (MoTeC, Megasquirt, etc.), either alone and directly interfaced with any necessary data buses or piggybacked with the OEM unit
          • Reprogram stock ECU and adapt harness to drive the V8. (I doubt this is possible)
          • Reprogram ECU from another BMW model which did support V8s such as one from an E39. (Slightly more likely sounding than the last, but not by much).


          I ask of course because for many of us, myself included, any street usability regardless of the state of particular accessories and comfort items depends on being able to pass an OBD2 plug test.

          I'm not a lawyer but I have been led to believe that as long as the ECU that responds on the OBD port is from the same model year or newer in the same class of vehicle everything should be kosher. This would mean unfortunately that the third-party ECU option is out unless it can be piggybacked in such a way that the BMW ECU can be happy, but the others remain conceivably possible depending on details I don't have a clue about.

          Obviously this same issue applies to 1996+ E36s, so I assume you've dealt with it at least once. Any comment or is this something that hasn't really been looked at yet?

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          • #35
            Re: Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

            still very excited for these parts to get finished up!

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            • #36
              Re: Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

              Any progress or status of the headers? Found a buyer for my e36 and hoping to start a new project soon?
              We have been hacking away at the E46 Alpha car behind the scenes for the past couple of months. The latest progress to report is the pre-production header set was built and tested...



              We sent our prototype set to the header manufacturer, they made fixtures from the prototypes, and then made a single pre-production set from the new fixture. They sent the pre-production set back to us (shown above) and we test fit them in our E46 330Ci chassis. Well... we found a few things to tweak, which is normal, so we marked them up and sent them back for tweaks to the fixture. This is an iterative procedure that always takes more time than you want.



              And now Hurricane Sandy has flooded their shop and almost all of their crew is at SEMA this week. Hopefully next week they will have power, the flood damage will be repaired, and we can get the next revision of the headers back and test fitted.

              As soon as the headers are finalized, then we can begin production of the fixtures for the motor mounts and transmission crossmember. A run of headers will also be produced at the same time. Our low-profile E46 steering shaft assembly is already in production and the driveshaft won't take long. That's the Stage 0 kit and it could be available in a very short time... as soon as the headers are finalized.



              We finally have the wheels and tires lined up for initial the Alpha build and an LSx motor will be built soon. I will update this thread when the headers are fully production ready and we will release pricing for the E46 LS1 Stage 0 parts (should be nearly the same as our E36 LS1 parts).

              Cheers,
              Last edited by Fair!; 11-01-2012, 04:56 PM.
              Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
              2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
              EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

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              • #37
                Re: Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

                How bout that diff swap? I'm predicting breakage on my setup soon and want this 8.8!

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                • #38
                  Re: Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

                  Progress!!?!??!?!?

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                  • #39
                    Re: Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

                    Originally posted by critchie View Post
                    Progress!!?!??!?!?
                    Yeah i've been checking everyday for updates lol

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                    • #40
                      Re: Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

                      Quick Update for Feb 28, 2013: We have the third and hopefully final iteration of the production headers tested and they work! Finally, some progress.

                      I wanted to give a quick shout-out to a new forum, "LSMotorswap.com". We have copied all of our updates since 2011 onto this thread there. We are also updating the same threads concurrently on vorshlag, corner-carvers, bimmerforums and sccaforums.



                      Here's the final FINAL final production header, that took many more iterations and months of waiting then we had ever dreamed.



                      We've since pulled the headers, drivetrain and motor & transmission mounts out of the car and started making production fixtures. There are some new laser cut pieces that we have to draw and order, then we can get to work cutting tubing and welding up the mounts.

                      More soon,
                      Last edited by Faerus; 03-01-2013, 11:30 AM.
                      Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
                      2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
                      EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

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                      • #41
                        Re: Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

                        Excitement!

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                        • #42
                          Re: Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

                          Any updates on the ford 8.8 swap?

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                          • #43
                            Re: Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

                            Or just a status update in general on the project?

                            Obviously fitting a V8 peg in to an I6-shaped hole isn't entirely straightforward, but I thought the update from February looked like a basic "what you need to physically bolt in the engine/trans" type offering was right around the corner.

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                            • #44
                              Re: Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

                              Any updates?

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                              • #45
                                Re: Vorshlag E46 Alpha - 330Ci LSx Build Thread

                                Yes there were, sort of large updates, that for some reason no one at Vorshlag thought would be worthy of posting here...

                                http://www.vorshlag.com/blog/?p=631

                                Stage 0 bits are on sale since July. I wish I had checked the blog when I made my last post, but I assumed I'd get a thread sub bump when anything actually happened. Anyways for anyone else who had subbed here and doesn't follow their blog, click the link and see parts.

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