A little progress on the S52 -> E30 swap...

The car as it sits now, sans subframe, strut assemblies, camber plates, control arms......

My dirty wheels from the crappy gravel/dirt driveway.....

My super awesome professional driveshaft holding mechanism.....

My minty reinforced and freshly powdercoated front subframe.....

I now have the majority of the swap parts together for the OBD-I S52 swap, just need to get the reseal parts for motor and trans, belts and tensioners, new radiator and hoses, and send off the injectors to get refreshed. Modify the 944 booster that is in transit, get my TRM chip to compliment the 540maf and BW intake boot, buy some eBay headers and the other exhaust components.

I figure I've got about $2k or so left in parts to buy.

I've also decide to refresh the suspension while I was doing all this so I have:

a 328 rack and pinion waiting to go in new control arms with M3 CABs rebuilt GC camber plates, upping the spring rates to 550/750 UUC slotted rotors, rebuilt stock calipers and Hawk HP+ pads UUC Swaybarian kit with reinforcing plates

The only thing I'm holding off on for the time being is dropping the rear subframe and trailing arms to replace those mounts and bushings and have it stripped/powdercoated. I want to get the car on the road and get any driveability/problems sorted out, then we will handle dropping the rear suspension.

But who knows, I may go ahead and just do it since there is so much other bullE36 M3 I've just gone ahead and done since "We were in there."

Excellent! You are boiling the ocean all at once. I love it.

I finally got my E30 off jack stands and out to the track after a huge suspension/brake/steering replacement - it did really well. It was completely worth all the scars. She is a fully caged, 5 lug, true coilover setup with overhung tilton pedals and Wilwoods at all 4 corners now. NASA GTS4 here I come (right after I build a motor that is...)

That's excellent! How are the rear suspension modifications working out for you? Those were some great pics by the way, you should share them with the forum.

1. I may shoot you an email over the next few weeks about control arm design, as you know, in SM I can do custom control arms, but can't modify the pickup points, so I'm trying to figure out a way to build to a custom control arm that is toe/wheelbase adjustable like yours, but also camber adjustable.

PS, GRM editorial staff.

Feel free to contact me about doing a feature on my car. I'll even let you have a go with it at Hallett!

why the 944 booster? Is it smaller? If so, can I get dimensions?

My buddy has a e30 S52 swap as well.

z31maniac wrote: The only thing I'm holding off on for the time being is dropping the rear subframe and trailing arms to replace those mounts and bushings and have it stripped/powdercoated. I want to get the car on the road and get any driveability/problems sorted out, then we will handle dropping the rear suspension. But who knows, I may go ahead and just do it since there is so much other bullE36 M3 I've just gone ahead and done since "We were in there."

I've heard that the stock E30 subframe is not quite stout enough to handle that much extra power. As I understand, it's not going to be an immediate issue. I just hear that the rear subframe can tear itself out after enough abuse, much like what can happen with the Z3s.

Haven't read that anywhere on the forums. The only thing I've seen in regards to weak components in the rear is a guy with a turbo'd S52 pushing close to 600 whp who continued to snap axles.

So he cut everything out and modified a C5 IRS to go in the car.