Started collecting parts for an E30 LS swap with DCT build.

I found an L33 engine in a local junk yard form a 2006 Silverado 1500 long bed truck. It's an aluminum high output 5.3 with 799 heads. Engine did not turn smoothly, so junkyard gave it to me for $300.
Got it home and took it apart. There was surface rust in two of the bores, but otherwise it looked good. Main bearings and crank looked good. I honed out the surface rust and dial bore gauge says it's a runner. Only bearings that have wear are cam, but I'm replacing all bearings. Plan is an N/A build with original pistons and rods, mild port on the 799 heads, springs, cam and intake if a shaved truck intake won't fit.

I already have the BMW 7 speed DCT from a V8 M3 and the adapter to fit the LS engine. I was going to put this in my Turbo LS C3 Vette, but it didn't fit in the tunnel and the 4L80E has been great in that car.

I'm rebuilding the engine first. Started valve work and porting the heads first.
The exhaust valves were in pretty bad shape. So I set up a jig on my lathe to regrind them. Didn't take much off to get them like new.




Here's the Jig to grind them them.


I also back cut the valves. Some of them were way out of round. Hear are intake and exhaust ready to go back in heads.


Doing a mild port on the heads since the seats need to be cleaned up anyway.




Old school grinder i picked up on ebay 20 years ago paid for itself many times over.


Mild porting is just a slight opening of the valve seats, taking down the valve guide excess material, removing bolt thread hump in the intake and rounding out the floor on the exhaust. The rest is just cleanup with no major changes.

 

How are you going to control the dct?

 

What I'd really like is to build my own controller, but I don't have enough info on the signals. So I'm looking at the HTG. That's going to require wiring right into the transmission. Also looking at Maxxecu. That's integrates the engine management and the DCT control with no change to the DCT wiring.

 

i was excited until i saw that this thread would not be sponsored by arduino

 

Don't lose hope. There will be an arduino in there somewhere.

These controllers need to be told lots of stuff and that's often in CAN BUS, for example, drive, park, reverse, and manual shifts as well etc. Maxxecu talks to the BMW M3 shifter, but I don't have one of those.

 

guess i was thinking more along the lines of a full blown TCM like the 4l80e in your 'vette vs using the existing TCM with an expensive aftermarket controller, although if maxxecu has already done the heavy lifting of figuring out the CAN protocol to talk to the TCM its probably worth it

edit for context, i'm an embedded systems engineer and work on systems for heavy duty vehicles. which means i never get a chance to actually tinker on my own stuff, so i live vicariously through more motivated, energetic (and similarly skilled) individuals such as yourself

 

The reason I'm somewhat motivated is because of a promise I made myself. I was a designer and manufacturer of electronic stuff and both of my businesses were ofshoots of my hobbies. Once I started manufacturing, The fun of the hobby went away. So I promised myself to keep my car hobby a hobby. That's why I don't sell any of my electronics and instead provide info for free.

 

Looking forward to progress! This will be cool.

Andrew

 

Thanks Andrew.
This is the car it’s going into



Bought it many years ago as a “not running”. It’s an automatic so not as much appeal as a stick. All it needed was power to the fuel pump and presto it runs. It sat in the back yard waiting patiently.

 

Looks like a nice, clean car to start with!

Andrew

 

It was clean when I parked it. Needs a wash and then some now.

 

Gonna be super fun with the DCT. Stick with the BMW theme and run some ITBs on the L33. I have an E92 M3, and although mine is a 6MT, I've driven the DCT version and it's incredibly responsive and fast.

 

Now that's something I never thought about. Would be cool as hell. I started looking and saw one that would be perfect, but it was for LS3..

Let's knock this out on my 3D printer ITB

 

Got the porting done on the heads and finished all the valve seats. Sent the heads and the block to the machinist to get both decked. I have no idea how much mileage this L33 had, so I thought it would be safer to have them decked. Turns out that was a good idea because they were way out.

I took a very small flap wheel and took down a little of the very sharp edge inside the combustion chamber. The decking leaves very sharp edges.



Now I'm starting to put the heads together. Got new valve stem seals and PAC 1218 springs in anticipation of a moderate cam upgrade.

 

Those who know me know that I tend to change my mind alot. I'm having second thoughts about putting this combo into an E30. Thinking about an E36 instead. Here's why.
My friend just offered me an E36 Roller for super cheap.
The E36 can use the F body pan instead of the $1200 special E30 pan.
The entire E36 nose unbolts making the whole install process easier.
The E36 can fit more tire.
The E36 can have the rear end upgraded more easily than the E30
I can sell the E30 for about 8 times the cost of the E36 roller.

 

I was made aware of another vendor that can control the DCT transmission without having to gut and modify the computer. CANformance Engineering https://www.canformance.net/ can control both E and F series DCT transmissions with a direct plugin. No DCT rewiring needed. It's a standalone trans controller. I've heard good things about this unit. It also supports the MaxxEcu so it can be integrated. I checked out their tech pages and the CAN info is pretty easy to implement.

So far MaxxEcu can plugin support only the e9x M3 V8 trans (that's the one I have). The MaxxEcu is a combination of ECU and transmission controller. I'm kinda leaning that way because I like the integration and think they can blip the throttle better than me having to rig some throttle blip feature into a GM ECM. I heard some people having a hard time tuning downshifts, but I think that shouldn't be an issue. Although the MaxxEcu is not as well known in the LS crowd, it is a very professional outfit, very popular in Europe, extremely flexible and mostly non proprietary CAN info that can support many OEM CANBUS protocols. They even have the CAN protocol for the Volvo power steering pump, which I plan to use in this build. They also have complete ready to go LS harnesses and base maps. I'll be building my own harness in any case.

I'm going to hold off on pulling the trigger on any of these till I have to.

So when I first bought my DCT, there were no direct plugin options to control it and therefore I gutted the mechatronics (the internal computer) unit in prep for rewiring it. Now that there are direct plug in options, I bought a second DCT, for super cheap (it had burnt out clutches) and will transplant that mechatronics unit into my first trans.

 

Yes but the e30 is much lighter. Having swapped both cars, the e30 was a better looking car. I got 245 drag radials on the e30 with correct offset wheels and some quarter panel rolling.

 

Since you have experience with both, how much harder or easier was the swap on each?

 

The e36 is easier, the brake booster is the hardest part. And you can use the factory radiator and thinks like that. Headers are difficult on both if you are looking to do long tube headers

 

Really appreciate the input. I agree that the E30 is a cooler car. I usually do things the hard way, but I think there will be enough hurdles for me to jump through in this project with the DCT.

Right now I'm building the engine. That's an enjoyable part of all my builds.