Thanks for the update! I am still collecting parts. The engine is coming out this weekend. Did you ever sell the t4?

 

Sweet! That's a huge step in the correct direction.

The T4 is still for sale. You should buy it. Merry Christmas to you!

 

Updates!

I'm not sure where to start!

The car went on its maiden voyage. It was successful, but the "to do" list got longer.

After a lot of consideration, I modified a Crown Victoria police interceptor driveline. It used a 4 bolt flange on the pinion and the JTR BMW flange. It was fine until the car was on the ground and any power was applied. The driveline rubbed the ebrake cables in the trans tunnel. This was not a successful endeavor- 3.5" outside diameter is too big. Finally, I came to my senses and listened to others that have already and done this swap. Driveline version 2 consists of the stock E39 6-speed 2 piece shaft. The pinion flange was swapped back to the 6 bolt style to accommodate the CV type end that the stock driveline uses. The center support bearing was replaced with a genuine BMW unit. I cut the front half of the driveline to measure the inside diameter. It was 2.822". Dana spicer makes a weld in yoke (1350 joint) that has an outside diameter of 2.821. It fit perfectly. It's all welded up. A quick test with the car in gear (on jack stands) seems to be a success. There is ample clearance between the driveline and the ebrake cables. There were no scraping or clunking noises. Test drive coming soon!

Next, the Volvo electric p/s pump worked out well. A custom hydraulic hose and -6an adapter fittings (on pump and rack) made for a straightforward install. A 10 row stacked plate cooler is installed in the return line to keep fluid temps in check. This has been a success. The steering feels just about perfect. I will be using this setup in future projects.

Rear differential swap:
I built an E32 210mm LSD for my E36 swap. The stock 540 differential is not LSD and you can't just swap the carrier from another 210mm (they don't interchange). The E32 differential is similar the the M5, so the fun began. I scored an E39 M5 diff cover on eBay for a song. It bolts directly up to the E32 housing. The front mounting point between the E32 and E39 is different, this was solved with a custom adapter bracket. E39 540 axles bolt right up the the E32 flanges.

A set of original M5 wheels were located last summer. The previous owner was using them for his winter wheels. On closer inspection, one of the front wheels had a bent lip. I decided to be patient and keep an eye out for a second set of rear wheels. Again, eBay came through. The finish on all 4 wheels needed to be re-done. I had a local guy strip and re-coat them. They are not the original shadow chrome, more of a standard silver. Too many parts to buy to spend the kind of money it takes to get that finish.

I'm also working on a headlight projector & lens upgrade. Acura TL projectors barely fit in the non facelift housings, but it's possible. I had hoped to retain the auto level feature, it's proving to be more difficult than initially expected. The difference in light output is significant. A dual high beam will be nice too.

 

Wheels- before and after
Wheels
TL projector/ removed inner glass lens.
TL projector upgrade
Fabricated bracket to bolt the beast up!
Diff adapter bracket
Modified BMW Driveline bolted in. Driveline

 

Nice progress!

 

For someone else embarking on an e39 swap I have the engine/trans mounts for the LS motor.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/parts-cla...esusfreak.html

sorry.... shameless plug

It is crazy what a wheel guy can do to a set of rims with about 1/2 day worth of work.

 

Hi
Why did you need to change the oil pan?

Thanks in advance

 

I used a pan that fit the chassis.

 

This thread has been completely neglected, time for an update!

This car is a ton of fun to drive. The combination of the turbo, auto trans/ 3400 stall converter and 3.15 gear makes this thing pull like crazy on the top end. It doesn't spin, at all. This doesn't make sense, but I will take it. This is the first car (rear wheel drive) I've built that doesn't waste the tires. Wheel hop is a different story though...

The shake down phase hasn't been all that bad. I was reminded of a heater hose clamp that I forgot to install. Thanks to a coworker, I was back in business in no time. The Taurus fan was working OK, but the car sporadically got hot at idle. It was swapped for a Lincoln MK8 fan (trimmed 3/4" off the face of the shroud). It barely fits, but the temps stay in check now. After multiple WOT pulls, 208* was the hottest temp. It cools right back down to about 192* and maintains it.

The single Hooker Maxflow left the exhaust louder than I had hoped. A second identical muffler installed At the rear number (location of OEM mufflers) toned it down substantially. I hate the look of a single 4" tip, used a Columbia mandrel bends 4" inlet to dual 3.5" outlet y-pipe (trimmed down and the dual side staggered to emulate the curve in the rear bumper) along with a set of Motorcycle 3.5" slash cut aluminum tips to finish it off. Once I'm 100% happy with the exhaust, a local powder coater is going to do the entire exhaust in black ceramic.

The Holley HP system has been swapped for a Holley Dominator. If you decide to go with this system, spend the $ on the Dominator. I ran out of the programmable inputs/ outputs very quickly. In addition to the inputs/ outputs, the Dominator will control the 4L80e as well as a second wideband. Right now, it's controlling engine cooling fan (high and low), transmission, cooler fans, boost control, transmission paddle shift function and eventually the Davis traction control module. I bought the Davis box before I realized it wasn't going to spin, the Davis box isn't setup yet. Might as well install it since I have it.

Things on the "to do" list include a cam, intake and fuel rails. I've debated back and forth on all of these. The current setup is a BBK SSI intake, TSP 228r cam and a set of cheap eBay fuel rails. I've seen more than of few people complain that the bolt on plate (bottom side of BBK) leaks or distorts under boost. The 228r has the XER lobes and is not anywhere near optimal for the S480. An LS6 intake, a set of '98 Corvette fuel rails (factory return style) and a LJMS/ BTR stage 3 turbo cam with new LS7 lifters are being installed soon. It's taken a while to collect all the parts, but the cam (last part of this puzzle) is supposed to be delivered today. The fuel rails will allow the Corvette fuel rail covers to be installed. I'm tired explaining what an "LS" style, let alone an LQ4, engine is to people who don't know cars. Although it's not technically a Corvette 5.7, the visual clue is more effective.

The interior of the car is 99% reinstalled. I'm working on a solution to have music. Initially, I was going to use a cheap Windows tablet mounted in the stereo location as my "gauges" and a music interface. This didn't turn out how I had hoped in regard to the gauges. The Holley software works fine on the tablet, but the gauges are difficult to see. Instead of a tablet, the Holley 5.7" touchscreen is going to be used. It fits perfectly (height wise) in the spot where the stock radio was. There is about 4" on the side of the screen when it is all the way to the left or right of the radio opening. Plan B for music is a marine Bluetooth amplifier (no stereo deck needed). It has a small control head that will be mounted in the remaining space next to the Holley screen. I'm going to connect my phone to it and stream music. The local FM stations suck, no loss there!

Last on the list is a brake upgrade. Porsche Cayenne 6 piston calipers are reasonable for a reman. I'm contemplating using the 14" Wilwood rotors off of my E36, if this doesn't work I will be stealing some ideas in regard to using an E60 535 front rotor. To make it easy, an E60 front wheel bearing/ hub will be used as well. They bolt on to an E39 spindle. The main difference is the center bore on an E36 & an E60 is 72.5mm vs E39 at 74.1mm. This prevents the rotor from having to be modified to fit (center bore anyway). A custom bracket will be necessary to bolt the caliper up, this shouldn't be too difficult.

 

http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4gmtyoxs.jpg

 

Get ready for the ******** that will look at the Corvette fuel rail covers and say "but it's not a motor out of a Corvette, wahhh, you're a poser, wahhhhh" (despite making number well in excess of an actual Corvette powerplant

 

Never had that issue on my E36. I was going to put the BMW logo on the coil covers and caught more crap over that. If someone doesn't like it, they can stick where the sun doesn't shine.

 

I've neglected this for way too long, again. Here we go...

I ditched the headlight projector upgrade after one was completed. The stock projector works as well, if not better, than the Acura unit.

The brake caliper upgrade is a no-go as well. They don't fit under the wheels. I may revisit this later, but it's the stock stuff for now.

I broke the #7 piston in October. It was the normal ring land issue many of us have dealt with. Tore it down and slammed a piston in. About 10 miles later the #7 piston melted. The only reasonable explanation was the rev limiter settings. I have the Holley Dominator, rev limiter was set to cut spark only. Both times the piston broke was right after hitting the rev limiter. Overfueling would explain the melted piston. Anyway, that was changed to spark and fuel. The injectors were flowed and cleaned (came out with 1.5% of each other). The new engine is still in one piece, lesson learned.

Initially, I was going to fix my engine and replace a few things with forged parts. I came across a deal on fully forged Gen IV engine. Brand new GM block, Eagle rods and crank and CP pistons ARP studded lower end, balanced, etc. Swapped over the parts I could from the Gen 3, new front cover, cam & crank sensors. Also modified the Holley harness for the 58x crank and 4x cam sensor. It fired up and ran fine, but oil pressure was low. I made a rookie mistake and used a double roller timing chain. Spacing the oil pump out to accommodate the thicker timing set seemed like a bad idea. Never again. Pulled all that crap back out and put a stock timing set on it, oil pressure is perfect now. The pickup o-ring was fine (reused the same one).

Also changed up the p/s and turbo setup. Originally, the belt driven pump was replaced with a Volvo electric p/s pump. This was merely because I couldn't fit a T6 turbo and the belt driven p/s pump, it was one or the other. The electric p/s worked ok at first, but eventually there was a lack of assist when turning the wheel only to one side (want to say to the right). A second Volvo pump had the same results. A Toyota MR2 pump wasn't much better, the assist was equal left/right but was not near enough. No or under assisted p/s with 275/35/18's on the front made the car less than fun to drive. The solution was a v-band turbine housing from Bullseye performance. Physical size of the housing is significantly smaller than the original Borg 1.32 T6 turbine housing. The Corvette p/s pump, alternator & bracket fit without issue with the smaller housing. This is a recent change and I haven't been able to road test the steering, but it's 100x better when sitting in the driveway. So far, that v-band housing was well worth the $. Also, spool is supposed to happen a couple hundred RPM sooner. We will see.

The original driveline worked but there was a vibration anytime I accelerated from a stop or low speed. It felt like a typical IRS wheel hop. I never felt comfortable with the modified stock driveline and looked into an aftermarket solution. Long story short, I settled on a forged Sonnax 4L80e slip yoke, aluminum 7075 Sonnax bolt on differential flange (originally designed for the Hellcat Challenger) and a strange chromoly driveshaft (1350 joints). The transmission and rear diff were shimmed/ mounts adjusted to achieve acceptable driveline angles. Also installed a poly front differential mount bushing. With this setup, the vibration is gone. I suspect the center support bearing on the original driveline was deflecting and causing the vibration.

Drone inside the car was becoming an issue as well. The exhaust was a full 4" with (2) Hooker Maxflow mufflers with a 4" to dual 3.5" tip. In a moment of frustration, I cut the middle muffler out and replaced it with a 2.5" glass pack. It went 4" directly into a 2.5" glasspack back to 4" and the aforementioned tip. My expectations couldn't have been more wrong. The car wasn't any quieter. The drone wasn't noticeably different. Performance wasn't all that much different. It spooled a little slower and lost ~1lb of boost. This led me back to my original idea of using a stock muffler and resonator with a cutout. The M5's had dual exhaust, thats what I'm going with. eBay is a savior when sourcing some of this stuff. The car isn't ready for road testing as this is a work in progress. A significant amount of sheet metal work is needed in the trunk area to make the passenger side muffler fit. Part of changing the turbo housing was modifying the downpipe, it now has a 3" boost activated cutout. The 4" still continues under the car but will be necked down into dual 2.5" pipes to adapt to the stock resonator and mufflers. This should give the best of both worlds.

Unfortunately, my picture hosting site is not working. I will try to update this with the pics soon.

 

Helmholtz pipes is what you want to stop the drone. Have them on my 911 and the difference is amazing!

https://www.performancetrucks.net/fo...-drone-489463/

 

I tried a Helmhotz pipe. It changed the exhaust note, but the drone was still there. Space limitations probably didn't lend to an ideal location.

 

Try different lengths or did you do the math? I'm told the best way is to make a long pipe and a slip joint, then slide it shorter till the drone is cancelled.

On the 911 turbo the exhaust is very short. The OEM exhaust is heavily muffled and restrictive, most aftermarket systems drone. The one I first had was ungodly awful. The replacement uses these tubes and cancels the drone - it's not even muffled. http://higherarcing.org/ Made it, their FB page has lots of good pics.

It works for sure, just have to figure out the right volume. On my car and on those trucks they seem to use it pretty close to the end of the pipe. It doesn't have to be a straight pipe either, mine is pretty twisted!

 

I made mine based on the math. I'm sure it could have worked if I had messed with the length. I wanted something more quiet and I like the look of M5 quad tips. The stock exhaust fits both bills.

 

I have a very close friend that parts out E39 M5's, if you still need something. I can give you his contact info. He has any part you could ever want from them, including full exhausts. I am using the resonator from the stock M5 exhaust, but will be using some sort of aftermarket mufflers, no cats......

Glad to see this thread updated. Would love to see some pictures.