More Updates End of Jan 2024

Alrighty. Succumbed to impulse purchasing a 550i air box. Obviously didn't fit. Glad I wasted the money. Debated on cutting it up just for the purpose of having a "box", but that would've required cutting off the tube, part of the side next to the power steering reservoir, and right next to the alternator. A low mount alternator likely would allow one to use this air box or even the stock N52 air box (which sits even worse due to it's angle) and I even stood at the car, just staring at the accessory mount, debating if I should cut off the tabs for the alternator and drill new holes to bring is ever so slightly more "in", but I opted not to after about 10 minutes of just staring and thinking.

I then went to the junkyard this morning instead of the gym as I got distracted looking at the E53 M54 air box and the local junkyard ended up having one. Grabbed it, went to the sole E60 in the yard to try it, and wouldn't work (duh). I then spent roughly 2 hours walking around the yard, grabbing various air boxes from virtually every make and model possible that looked like it would fit. The closest I came to something that would've worked was this laughably small one from a 1992 Buick Century:


It's issue was where the outlet was (too far towards the firewall) and the thickness of the inlet side lid (couldn't really angle it anywhere) on the E60. The lid wasn't wasn't reversible. If it was, It likely would've been the perfect candidate.

Came home and decided to relocate the wiper fluid fill neck. There are two tiny "tabs" of some kind on the PS reservoir mount that you need to hammer in and then it'll fit:



Then I beat in the original mounting spot for the fill tube and measured the space I'll have:



You're looking at roughly 3". Remember, this is with my engine mounts swapped and the engine pushed as far back as possible. I can't imagine how bad it is for the other guys. The stock N62 tube is 3.5" and the OEM LS3 throttle body is 4" so 3" just feels so small. Currently waiting for a 90* 4" to 3" coupler to come in and then I'll order an aluminum tube, a filter, and potentially another angled coupler as you'll see why below.

I then had a bit of fun with cardboard and tape:





As you can see, there's really no space in the E60 to do this.

I'm going to likely have to cut a part of the inlet tube out in order to allow the heat shield to sit straight, but it'll be flush at least.

I cut out slightly over 3" to get a general idea but man, not ideal. I can reuse the two bottom mounting locations as well as the one by the PS res; I'd like to use the one that's for the air duct inlet connector, but we'll see how it turns out. My main goal was blocking as much of it off from the alternator and the rest of the engine bay while staying away from the belt and trying to keep the dust to a minimum.

Currently have some 1.5mm thick ABS sheets and a3" Spectre cone filter coming in on Tuesday so I can mess around with this a bit more. Seeing complaints about cone filters allowing more dirt in (required for more air flow) has me thinking of doing a small screen or something at the inlet duct. I have filter media I was going to use for my 3d printer, but this could be better.

 

The goal is to get this freaking thing running this spring. Not only because I loathe my S211, but I want to start an E46 ute build and don't have the space for two projects at once.

Dismissing the custom airbox for the time being, but still wanting to do it. Instead focused on getting a "clean" shot to the air inlet like the OEM box:







Random GM accordion coupler with a spot for the IAT and part of an intake tube from a Pontiac G6.The G6 has two versions so if you ever be dumb and do this like me, just make sure you pay attention.

Needed to put a bolt through the straight tube in order to keep it where I wanted it to but will swap out the current accordion for something the correct size at some point, maybe. Will loctite it while I'm searching for something that'll work.

I've gotten lazier (and year end bonus came in), so I ordered a PnP harness that connects the Holley to the E9x/6x as well as a canbus box to make everything happy. Determined I'll need to replace the battery which is why I haven't been able to ever code the damn thing in the meantime. Ideally I'll take the newish one out of the S211 when I get rid of that damn thing and swap it with the near dead one from the BMW.

Also ordered one of those universal driveshaft loops that'll need a bit modified as a pre-caution as I'm not in the mood for this car to kill me right off the bat.

Hopefully next update is a video of it running for the first time (lolno).

 

Summer 2024

Lol it's still not running but it's still a thing.

the 5th gen Camaro v6 exhaust is 2.5" at only certain locations. Majority is 2.25" and 2". Now have 2.5" mild steel and X pipe waiting to be cut.

Also cut up, re-welded, and painted the driveshaft safety loop. It's honestly probably overkill, but I'd rather play it safe:




Has space as it sits. We'll see what happens when it's on the ground and moving. Even have the heat shield installed, just trimmed a bit.

Also gave up on trying to make the plastic intake tube idea work. It was just a massive pain, so a 3" 45* aluminum tube fixed it. Got a free reducer for free and it worked great to make the 45 fit in the accordian. Either I'll trim it up or 3d print something.


Speaking of intake and 3d printing, I "designed" an 89mm elbow (I think 65*) in order to direct the flow coming in more in to the cone:


It's currently PLA+, but I'll be printing it in ABS at some point. Maybe I'll just see how this PLA does then go from there. I also cut out a little ABS that I had from the original idea just to try and close off that area a little, too.

Even MORE 3d printing, btw. I needed a retainer plate for my shifter because I have no idea what happened to the original one. I had previously cut up some scrap sheet metal and it was utter trash. Now that I have a nicer printer (P1S) that just prints well AND in ABS, I quickly made something:



Stupid simple. Just needed to do a couple variations to make it all work.

Also have 10ft of red and black 2ga cable to finish wiring up the starter and alternator. After that, it's pretty much it. Hopefully. I still have no idea where the 4th wire in the clutch switch goes for the swap or if it's even needed, but I'll cross the bridge in the future. Also need to figure out why the car won't let me connect to it through OBD2...

 

Hey man. Props for sticking with it and thank you for documenting everything to help people out in the future. It's so much extra work remembering to take pictures and writing up these posts with really no benefit to you. I/we appreciate it.

These cars have gotten cheap so they've fallen into the hands of shitty owners and end up in the scrap yard but there's still people out there that love them. This is also good for us 'budget' modders. Manual swap prices are already starting to drive down and I'm seeing complete OEM 6-speed "Don't know what's wrong with it, my loss your gain" cars going for around $1,500.

3d printing is changing the world. Most people don't know, but the cost of 3D printing has come down substantially. An Ender 3 v2 can be had for $60 on Facebook and can print almost everything you need as long as it's within that 200 mm bed size. Once you figure out what you're doing, which really isn't that hard, you start using it for everything. Mine paid for itself within the first 3 or 4 days.

Good luck on the project. I haven't had time to go through the whole thread yet but I'm going to try to get to it this week. Keep on keepin on.

 

Since it's technically still 2024, if it's running this year it still counts with my earlier desire of spring/summer, right?

First thing's first, I did an initial start. It's loud. Kinda forgot I have next to no fuel and what's remaining is kinda old so I immediately stopped. Was chasing a fuel leak under the intake manifold to the rear. Replaced a pinched O-ring, replaced the intake manifold gaskets, added more JB Weld to where I ported, and re-routed knock sensor cabling, but was still happening.

My final assumption is that since the stock fuel pump/EKP will continue to pump while the ignition is turned to 'On' instead of a two second prime, it will flood and it will seep under the intake gaskets. I believe there's two current known fixes for this; either replace the EKP with a relay set up OR get fancy and order an upgraded EKP board from Speedsty. I went fancy. I believe it'll arrive sometime next week. A lot of guys just deal with it, but if I were to ever let someone else drive the car, I don't want them flooding it and/or starting a large fire.

Couldn't figure out how to finish up the clutch wiring until Speedsty commented on a post and told me the one wire I was confused about wasn't even needed.

Had another issue of the clutch just refusing to bleed. After lots of head scratching, pedal pressing, and yelling at the vacuum bleeder, I took a syringe and just started forcing fluid in to it through the hose while pressing down the pedal. It started working after that.

Had to also put on 12.5mm spacers on the front to fit my Style 94s back on in order to clear the new calipers. Just a heads up to anyone in the future.

Also ended up needing a shifter cover as the one I previously found at the junkyard was for an LCI; for whatever reason there is a difference in the curved portion. $6 later on Aliexpress and 2 weeks of shipping, it actually looks kinda decent for the price and it even comes with the frame which was my biggest worry.

I've been slowly putting the interior back together to free up space for my "new" Mercedes since it's cold out (2016 E350 if you're curious) and prepping it to finally be done. Need to finish up the exhaust, but I want at least one more start up for that sweet sweet motivation. Have been debating on pulling the safety loop off and welding the connector piece to the top U in order to ensure the bolt threads won't touch the driveshaft. It'll beef up the safety loop even more and provide a little bit more piece of mind. I'm really not in the mood for myself or someone in the passenger seat getting an aluminum driveshaft in the leg if for whatever reason it decides to pop out. I'll happily spend an hour in a junkyard pulling another driveshaft from a sketchy Crown Vic, not multiple weeks/months away from the gym.

Still need to figure out how I'll code the CAS to know it's a manual now as every time I've tried to connect it just won't. Still need to finish up the headlights. Still need to do the damn fiberglass roof. Still need it tuned; there's a guy in the swap community that does remote tuning for seemingly pretty good prices so will likely use him.

Likely this weekend while I have time, I'll update the first post more. Also noticing all my pictures have vanished on here so that's cool. I'm on Brave, so maybe that's it or maybe forums are truly in their death spiral. May just need to make one long video once everything is wrapped up.

 

Whoops. Been a few months. Winter sucks.

Some minor updates.

Some guy local to me was selling LS2 injectors for $40. They're technically "weaker" than my current ones, but no spacers and weird sized o-rings needed anymore. If/when I ever turbo it, I'd need bigger injectors anyways.

Re-did the fiberglass pano. Felt great. Was super excited. Went to remove it from the mold aaaand for whatever reason it never hardened. In a fit of anger, I decided I was done with fiberglass and took a sawzall to an XC70 at my go-to junkyard.



It's something like 5'x4' and about 18-20ga. Comes with the much-needed roof bend and at least two support beams if you like and only cost me $14 thanks to it not being a full roof and only being charged for a large panel. Only downside is it'll easily get dents in it when you're dragging it to checkout.

But I also do not suggest this to anyone unless you have a proper MIG welder, the skills, the know-how, and the patience; everything I lack. Seriously. I could've done this far, far better if I'd spend more than a few minutes watching some videos.




It's ugly. There's some waves in it. I've been chasing pinholes non-stop and at this point I'm done. I have seem sealer coming in I'll hit it from underneath with and I'll be using some primer on top before ultimately bondo-ing the hell out of it to make it somewhat decent.

If you're curious about weight, the panel was around 14.5lbs. With the welding, bondo, etc, I'd assume it'll be around 16lbs or so; roughly 50lbs less than the pano. May end up welding in one of the support beams down the middle just as a CYA (2ish lbs), but not sure. I don't want to ruin my previously pristine interior any further.

My horribly done exhaust is about down, too. I should aim for a proper first start relatively soon bare any other stupid ideas I may have (like did you know you can order a brand new slick top headliner in anthracite from various BMW dealers for around $1300 shipped??)

 

Keep it up. Almost over the line!

 

I promise I'll try to stop getting distracted and remember to post here. But enjoy the pictures and my fixes-to-mess ups.

Panel is being bondo'd and occasionally sanded. I did an initial layer of the fiberglass bondo to cover any and all remaining pin holes and provide some extra strength:




I DID end up welding in one of the support beams close to the middle-ish of the panel as well. This was one of three of the support beams from the XC70 panel, just trimmed to fit. Tack welded. primered everywhere underneath that I welded, and then seam-sealed both the panel and the support beam:




Can't remember if I mentioned about welding the top part and joint piece of the DS safety loop or not, but it provided more clearance for the driveshaft now:




ECS was also doing a sale a month or two ago and I ended up picking up the H&R front sway bar for something like $180 shipped. Can't complain one bit about that. It's thick. It's heavy. It's blue:





Rolled it out of the garage by myself somehow as well. Surprised I didn't hurt myself, the car, or my house in the process. Filled it with oil to start it the following day to only come to all the fresh oil covering my driveway. Got the engine out to address the known "small" leak at the oil pan in the rear to realize the rear cover was too high and not sitting flush at the pan combined with the oil pan gasket missing chunks of the gasket material and them floating in the pan...Figured since the pan was off, I'd double check the front and the front cover was sitting low and not flush with the oil pan either....Is it obvious this is the first engine I actually rebuilt?

While the engine was back out, I swapped the automatic radiator with a brand new Nissens manual radiator. Really the only difference is there's now no transmission cooler port that I blocked off w/ a hose with a bolt and loads of JB Weld. It's also slightly thicker on the ends it seems and there's clips of some sort that had to be removed from both sides on the radiator mount thing.

But that's it for now. Going to the gym and if I don't see any oil on the cardboard I laid out last night, I'll check the oil level, refill the coolant, and aim for a true test start today.

 

Loving the updates and the work you're doing. Yes it's obvious that it's your first engine build but that's how we learn. Keep up the good work

 

After enough angry yelling as to why ProTool can't connect to my CAS (or any other software right now for some unknown reason; maybe because the ECM isn't connect?), I corrected some tuning (I have no idea what I'm doing) and got it running relatively safe. Did shut off a little after the video for some reason so I need to look in to that, but I'm pretty damn happy right now.


I'll continue working on it, hopefully get it running properly, take it around the block etc etc. All the fun project stuff.