blunttech LQ4 / T56 E12 Swap

When I get the belt I will probably get 2-3 different sizes and then take back what doesn't fit. Or get another 2-3. The local parts shops just let me go back and pick through what I need pretty much.

It does have power steering so...

A bit more progress today....the list is getting shorter.

ST Front sway bar in Blunttech SS brake lines in Suspension all tightened up 255lph fuel pump is in

TSP 224R cam, pac springs, and upgraded push rods installed. This was the first time I did this so it was a bit of a learning process and went a bit slow. By the last set of springs things were going quicker.

I didn't take many pictures through all of this as it isn't that exciting really...

parts laid all out

Old springs...

New springs...really doesn't look very different

Taking up the entire garage today....wife has to park outside. I really need more space!

I know you've got a day job, too, but it still looks like a toehold on living the dream... Don't need motor mounts yet, but I had to grab a shirt as a salute (and I can always use another T-shirt...)

thanks! I got the shirt order. Might be a week before it goes out....I don't have that size/color in stock. I am working on using a online printer to drop ship and it is taking a little longer than I hoped. They will be on the way soon. I should have stickers then too so I will send a couple of those as well.

Yes I do have a day job but as this grows it might become my real deal job. I really need more space to make that work first tho. Really can only have one project going at a time now. I think if I could have 2-3 at the same time it would be doable.

Awesome! No hurry, and I didn't mean to threadjack to talk about my wardrobe

Here's hoping the additional space and business fall into place!

You've got me eyeing E12s everywhere I go. I've even driven one and mostly got over it 'cause it felt like somebody had shot my 2002 with an embiggenment ray and made it feel huge... But they look so good... And four doors makes it totally practical no matter what I do to it, right?

I ordered some shirts also, I like both designs. I've been eyeing a e34 wagon that's for sale near my house with this in mind. Looking forward to this one rolling!

I would LOVE to put an LS into an e34 wagon. I have a guy in town that wants to do one into his e34. So....I might have mount available for that chassis in the near future.

Just a small update...

Fixed the hole in the firewall. Blunt wanted functional over looking good. It's nothing fancy but it will stop it from rusting more and fill the hole.

You can see the hole in the firewall here....

Some paint just to cover the bare metal...back side also was painted. This will all get covered up anyway with new insulation.

Relocating the alternator to make room.... Made a bracket, love my new plasma cutter. This will get drawn into cad and cut on a water jet for the final version.

Also mounts to the head. This may or may not stay.... There will also be spacers between the water pump and new bracket.

I'm not sure which idler I like better yet. I have another one coming to try too. Plate will be drilled and tapped for the idler pulley.

If I was you neighbor . . . I'd be in your garage everyday . . .

jakeb wrote: I would LOVE to put an LS into an e34 wagon. I have a guy in town that wants to do one into his e34. So....I might have mount available for that chassis in the near future.

If this wasn't brown/beige/gold I would have it already. I loved my E39 touring.

I'll pull a bunch of them from the local place and see which fits the best.

Cut and threaded the rod on the hydroboost...testing it all in there.

Fitting up to the pedal...pin is in but not pushed in all the way as it will have to come back out.

sound deadening on the firewall

covered with some heat reflection stuff

Still need to add a little bit over on the drivers side.

The list is getting pretty short. Engine can go back in soon.

How I left the garage today... Brought my 2002 home today...been in storage sense last fall...who knows why. Driving it home made me remember how fun it is. I like driving it the most during the fall anyway.

Waiting on a couple things before the engine can go back in....also went back to my day job this past week...well sorta. K-12 band teacher...kids start next Tuesday. Hard to go back every year.

Got a belt for the new belt routing...and I only got one belt at the auto store and it was right the first time around. Tensioner still have a lot of adjustment if the belt stretches a bit.

Alignment of the belt. I rolled the engine over about 5 times and it seems to track straight.

Tensioner bolts to the waterpump and then two threaded standoffs that are welded to a plate that bolts to the drivers side head.

idler

The mount off the head will be replaced with a threaded stand off. What is there was just to mock this. You can see the two spacers that go from the plate to the waterpump.

The reason for moving the alternator was a couple reasons. One to be able to gain space down low for exhaust on the drivers side and second to be able to reuse the truck accessories.

Btw this will have AC....AC fittings and new crossflow condenser came this week.

The e12 uses flare fittings on everything so I had to get adapters to go from flare to the new O-ring style.

Coming off the drier (new one waiting) will be the GM AC pressure switch and the high side port.

Condenser mounted using the stock e12 mounts up top and a couple small brackets on each side near the bottom. You can sorta see the brackets down low.

Started on the engine harness.

I took all the split loom off a couple weeks ago...looks like this.

Then go through and take off most of the tape so everything can be split apart.

Then I de-pin both PCM connectors.
First the blue.

Then the red

All the wires that will get rehooked to the connectors are labeled with the connector color, pin number, and function. Removed wires are just pulled out.

Next step is to pull all the wires apart...remove unneeded circuits. Reroute it...on and on. More pics and details to come.

After some discussion over at BF.c I changed the belt routing a bit. Some guys over there said that the tensioner should be the last thing in the line of accessories. After looking at a bunch of other setups I couldn't find any with the tensioner not at the end of the line.

So....new routing it was. Belt is a lot shorter. The bracket on the alternator is just temporary as the tension is only held with one bolt right now. Waiting on a new one from the waterjet.

Also worked a bit more on the wiring...I pull the harness all apart to reroute it. Pull out circuits I do not need and also make sure all the wires are in good shape.

So after labeling all the pins as I did before. Next step is to just start pulling out each circuit. Putting ones I keep in one pile and ones not needed in another pile...

Keep pile...the rats nest over to the right is the injector and coil harness. No reason to pull that all apart

The unneeded pile...there are a few other stray wires not needed but this is most of them.

Awesome progress re-powering another 5er.

Looks good, I got my shirts they also look good. Thanks!

The e12 uses a mechanical speedometer where the t56 trans does not. I was going back and forth of either getting a electric to mechanical speedo driver or converting to an electric speedo.

Going with the electric speedo....better accuracy...and a odo that can't stop working because of old gears.

VDO speedo and e12 speedo/ VDO speedo has already been pulled out of its housing and the glass has been removed.

Remove both needles of the gauges

The needle on the e12 happens to be the same size shaft as on the new electric vdo

I will scan both faces into the computer and edit the e12 face to match the swing on the new vdo gauge.

I know Blunt is at vintagefest in Chicago...wish I was there as well but other commitments wouldn't allow this year.

Haven't had an update in a bit...I am back to my day job now so time is a little limited. We were also waiting for the trans to be gone through. New syncos, fork pads, keys, realigned, and a steel 3-4 shift fork.

Engine should be going back in in the next couple days...

a few pictures of little things getting done

New slave cylinder/release bearing with remote bleeder and hydro line

Removed the wire connector off the skip shift solenoid. The skip shift gets shut off in the software, connector was close to the trans tunnel. It needs to stay now just as a plug.

Ford t56 backup light switch...again for tunnel clearance

Modified hydro boost....also now with an6 fittings

e12 temp sensor rethreaded from m14 to m12 to fit in the passenger side head

Oil dummy light sensor...adapter from m16 to npt and then a sensor from a 89 s10

truck dipstick location plug

Debating if I should jig up the mounts to reproduce.....Keep going back and forth. if anyone is even remotely thinking of wanting a set of mounts for an lsx e12 please let me know....

Ended up making jigs for engine mounts, trans mount, and drivers side exhaust manifold.

Engine is back in....

A couple close spots in the trans tunnel that had to be opened up.

I did run into one issue...I mocked up the motor mounts with the stock sway bars. We upgraded to ST bars and the ST bar has a slightly different path than the stock bar. So the bar is hitting the oil pan. The engine really couldn't go back any further anyway so we either have to go back to the stock bar or move the ST bar.

The two bars stacked...

So if I push the bar forward just a bit everything will clear the pan. I will make some mounts sorta like the e28 m5 off the frame rail.

I may have to get some different end links to keep everything lined up correctly.

Cut open the hole in the trans tunnel for the shifter. I will make an adapter to allow the screw on BMW knob to go back on and be centered in the surround.

Can anyone guess what this is? It's new...

The list is getting shorter

So because of the sway bar situation I have been working on moving it so it clears the oil pan and exhaust. Here are some pictures and I have a couple questions if anyone has suggestions....

Ok so here is what I am thinking for the new mount. It is a 2" square that will get welded to the frame rail.

So becasue I have to push the bar forward about 3" from the stock location the bar arms and end link mounting holes are not lined up with the holes in the control arm.

So I am trying to figure out how to connect everything. I have a few different ideas/options. If anyone has another idea let me know or if one over the other would be better again let me know.

First idea is to use some heavy duty swing fittings on both the sway bar and the control arm with a rod in between.

The swivel would be like this... and then setup like this...

The second idea is to put a solid rod end in the control arm, a spacer, and then a swivel heim joint with a bolt and spacer up to the control arm.

Solid rod end like this.

Setup like this...

Or finally extend the bar with some steel and use a straight connection down to the control arm. like this...

I know if the arm length is longer that the stiffness of the bar goes down. I found a calculator and the stock bar is around 216 in/lbs rate, new bar is 443 in/lbs If I were to extend the arm length by about 3" the rate goes down to 310 in/lbs

Any suggestions / help would be great

In reply to jakeb:

What if you take some 1" square tubing about 5" long, capped the forward end with a nice solid piece of plate to attach the lower heim joint of the sway link to, and 1" forward of the rear end of the tubing welded in an anti-crush tube so that you can bolt through the arm with a sizable bolt.

Here's an attempted picture:

Perhaps a couple of nice beefy washers or cut down plate to allow things to be really clamped through the hole in the arm...

My hope here is that you'll get something more rigid than the solid rod end referenced above, and not have to muck about with changes to bar rates...

Hrm. Maybe even do something like the above, but with 1" by 2" tubing on edge, with a section cut out for the arm to go into and the bolt run through everything. Just trying to figure out how to get the extension and its attachment to the arm to be sufficiently rigid...

I just thought of a potential issue with my suggestion: I don't know what the E12 lower control arms look like; I saw the part visible in that picture and just started picturing E30-style "L-shaped" forgings which would be unlikely to try to twist in their mounts with an extension like that. But this pretty clearly has a drag link, and the offset of my proposed extension is going to try to twist that LCA, and in so doing cause a possibly significant binding at the LCA's inner pivot and that joint with the drag link (though I don't know how much that one actually moves...)

Aha! <Sergeant Angel>Idea!</Sergeant Angel>

How about attaching a point to mount the bottom of the sway link to the strut body, E30 M3 style? Improved motion ratio (assuming you don't mind a slightly effectively stiffer front bar), reduction in the number of bushings the forces pass through, and could fix the packaging issue.

Win/win, I think, as long as the packaging actually works out.

hmmm ransom, that is a good idea. I am going to tack the mounts and get it on the ground and see how things line up. I might be able to just angle the straight mounts from the sway bar to the LCA as when I looked at it today a bit more things are lining up better than I thought.

But mounting to the strut tube would be pretty easy actually. It is pretty close to the tube already. Another idea would be to connect it to a plate that bolts to the bottom of the strut...there are three bolts where the strut bolts to the lower knuckle (if that's what you would call it)..... When I get it on the ground I will decide where it will mount up. Looks like it will work one way or another.

Small update... Here is the difference between an LS1 intake and LS6 intake. The LS6 is on the left. They look the same on the top but on bottom the LS6 is flat...it is bigger on the inside and good for 15-20hp on it's own.

On the engine

Power steering/hydroboost lines are made

Other things done or at least figured out but no pictures of... throttle cable power steering/hydroboost return lines (they have to T into each other) Drivers side exhaust manifold bolted on for the last time (I love putting things on for the last time)

jakeb wrote: Another idea would be to connect it to a plate that bolts to the bottom of the strut...there are three bolts where the strut bolts to the lower knuckle (if that's what you would call it)..... When I get it on the ground I will decide where it will mount up. Looks like it will work one way or another.

Depending on how much the car is being lowered, a spacer between the strut and ball joint or lower knuckle or whatever it is may help restore geometry a bit by lowering the outer ends of the control arms, but I'd want to think all that over carefully, as it could introduce unintended effects... Bump steer springs to mind, though if there's room to space the outer tie rod down equivalently, that could be worked out as well. (EDIT: Not to mention the quiet terror of introducing new parts and longer hardware to such a critical location)

In any case, you could certainly build a strut/ball joint spacer which had a facility for a tie rod link mounting point. Though the struts I had on my E30 with the M3 type bar linkage were really just thin plate welded to the strut body; very simple, and avoid that can of worms.

Certainly, if things just want to line up as-is, that's even better

Saturday lunchtime update.

Hard to really get pictures of this..but it all the high pressure lines from the power steering pump to the steering rack and the hydroboost. The T you see here is the return from the steering box and then from the hydroboost.

Lines coming off steering box

Connection at the pump

Oxygen sensor bungs tacked in...just need to fully weld Drivers side..

Passenger side...added an extra here in case I want to log some data with my wideband and HP tuners.

Shifter coming up through...using the stock camaro stuff for now.

Plugging away...

O2 bungs fully welded and the remainder of the exhaust is painted with high temp paint.

Throttle cable bracket

Where it connects to the e12 lever. The throttle lever on the e12 normally is much lower and pointing down. It actually pushes when you push down on the pedal and uses a bunch of linkages up to the throttle body. For it to work with a cable it needed to pull... I was able to rotate it so the arm was pointing up and make it into a puller.

Then it loops around the intake.

Where it hooks to the throttle body

The coil for cylinder #7 had to be moved a little bit

GTO engine covers...they will need a little trimming on the drivers side to fit but they should work nicely