Project Update for July 25, 2011: Wow, its been two months since my last update? Dang, sorry guys. Well, we have been severely swamped since then, and are right in the middle of moving to a much larger shop, but we actually did some work on this car in June. Let's see...
Let me start off by saying I'm not a fan of replacing the stock K-member for an engine swap unless absolutely necessary, and neither are the rules makers for many racing sanctioning bodies, so we are going to make the LS1+T56 drivetrain fit the car with the OEM crossmember intact. Sure, somebody will pipe up and say they can make a crossmember that's affordable, rigid, fits better, holds the engine better, has more clearance with this or that, saves 15 pounds, and makes your butt look smaller - but there are ALWAYS compromises when you use a non-stock crossmember, not just for racing class rules. Some of the kits I've seen had big compromises with respect to tubular crossmembers, with sketchy under-engineering or the other way - "steel-itis" (where they just throw a bunch of steel at it). Sometimes its a beautifully fabbed crossmember that costs $1500, so it costs you. And you have to remember that the pick-up points for the front suspension tie into this, as does the steering rack. So not only is the crossmember securing the drivetrain, its taking all of the suspension and braking loads, too. Its pretty important piece of engineering, and the stock front crossmembers (at least) on an E46 BMW aren't at all bad.
This means we are going to keep an eye on the OEM front crossmember for clearance to the oil pan and headers, which is nothing new to us. The initial mock-ups we did in May were using a complete/dressed 5.7L Camaro LS1 and T56 trans, with the '98-02 Camaro oil pan and front accessory drives. We figured out pretty quickly that this relatively long "rear sump" oil pan wasn't going to work in the E46 chassis with this V8 motor, as the engine bay layout is enough different on the E46 vs the E36 to make the barely-E36-swap-friendly Camaro LS1 pan not fit. We had the crossmember dropped down a few inches in those early mock-up pics, but I had some ideas in mind. Since then we did some looking, took a gamble, ordered an oil pan that just came to the market, and found a solution that fits beautifully for this swap - that's both affordable and very well built.
This LS-fit oil pan has the same capacity but has a shorter length rear sump section, that with this drivetrain clears the crossmember by several inches (unlike the various LS1, LS2 and truck LSx pans we tested with; it even fits better than the Camaro pan in the E36). Its the only one we have found that has the right dimensions fore-aft for the oil pan sump and its still pretty short and flat at the front of the oil pan. So we've got this pan on our mock-up motor and put the drivetrain in the engine bay where it optimizes placement to clear the oil pan sump at the back, is level with the crossmember underneath as well, has good firewall clearance (but still big rearward engine set-back), and also clears the stock steering shaft and has the best fit for exhaust headers. Hours of measuring, mocking, angling, tilting, and testing to finally get the drivetrain where I was happy.
A few more hours and the crossmember was built in the car, with a measured "spacer block" under the oilpan. This sets the drivetrain angles and fire-aft plus lateral locations, and most important - it got the mock-up drivetrain off the floor and in the ca,r so we can move the Alpha car to the new shop easier. As you can see we have the prototype trans crossmember built and bolted in, as well as most of the motor mount components in place - another 3-4 hours and those will be complete. Primary bends, merge collectors, and exhaust port flanges are here and also awaiting some fabrication time (once we are moved into our new shop) to get the prototype headers built. Then we'll make a driveshaft and get a real engine in there (just a mock-up block/headers/trans in there right now).
Last month I also bought a rolled-over 2005 BMW 330Ci, which was chock full of good parts we needed. I got it primarily for the stock, low mileage drivetrain (to re-use the M54 in my blue '01 330 track car). As a bonus we also got many odds and ends that were not on this white '01 330 Alpha car when I bought it. The guys here at Vorshlag spent about 2 days and salvaged the entire wiring harness, fuel tank, HVAC system, dash, gauge cluster, rear subframe assembly brake-to-brake, and more, then I hauled the wrecked chassis off to the scrap yard. That score of spare E46 330 parts will help greatly in getting this white Alpha car, which is very parts deficient, back together and more complete. The '05 M54 is already in the blue 330, now awaiting a new prototype M54 balancer before it fires up. Win, win.
More soon,
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