S54 Engine Build Diary

[F1Dryvr]

Hi, yeah as far as i can tell the oil filter housing was the source. Its nearly impossible to tell for certain before removing the ofh and then oil is everywhere. I did use a gasket there that was sitting in my garage for a few years. I guess it must have hardened from sitting. I put a brand new one in and it seems to have resolved that leak.

Another leak presented itself off the back. Seems between the head and block but its of course in an impossible place to get to. Luckily its very slight and since i dont drive it but on track it should be manageable. I plan to do cams in the next year so ill pull the head and see whats going on then.

As far as the leak down numbers i havent repeated in a while but i can report that i took it to sebring in january and it ran flawlessly. Apart from very worriesome white smoking in the morning warmup, which completeoy disappeared omce warmed up it ran perfect all day. Power felt markedly improved, smooth acceleration, and sounded great. No issues with temps, and oil pressure was fine.

Im going again in april and ill rechceck compression and leak down during my prep and see where im at then.

[CheckA]

Any update on the oil leak and ring seal issue? I’m planning a similar build soon so your journal is a great resource/research material.

[F1Dryvr]

So far shes doing ok. Have about 60 miles without major issue. Definitely feels powerful and runs smooth. It does have a significant oil leak i believe from the oil filter housing. Ill check into that soon. Im almost certain its not from any place bad like the head or oil pan or anything like that. Changed out the break in oil to Liquimoly 10w60 synthetic. Rechecked leakdown on cylinder 3 its still at 8%. Seems like thats what its going to be....it blows out the oil cap too so i guess ive got a ring sealing problem on that cylinder. Any thoughts about what to do about this if anything??

[Robert's_BMW]

Great write up! I love your attention to detail. If I ever end up rebuilding my engine again, I’ll be going back to reference your thread.


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[Da Jemster]

Nice!

[F1Dryvr]

Yep could be that was a new bolt and crush washer.

[heinzboehmer]

Went for a 40mile drive today. Everything went fine. Good oil pressure no overheating, no strange noises no smoke. loud as hell!!!! Good power in the power band and i can easilly feel the extra torque.

Got home and did find a fairly significant oil leak on the intake side, im hoping its a crush washer issue or something near the filter housing. Ill investigate soon.

Check the top timing chain bolt behind the thermostat housing. Mine has come undone a couple times.

[F1Dryvr]

Went for a 40mile drive today. Everything went fine. Good oil pressure no overheating, no strange noises no smoke. loud as hell!!!! Good power in the power band and i can easilly feel the extra torque.

Got home and did find a fairly significant oil leak on the intake side, im hoping its a crush washer issue or something near the filter housing. Ill investigate soon.

[F1Dryvr]

Nice write up, great to this type of content back into the forum. We lost a lot of engine build threads when m3forum disappeared.

I had a very similar experience with my first S54 build. Lang was an awesome resource for me as well. I wouldn't stress too much about your leakdown #'s, they should improve over time. Also what matters is the power you're making the amount of oil it burns. Looks like your motor is doing well on both of those so just go drive it!

Good to know thanks for that feedback.

[robgill]

Nice write up, great to this type of content back into the forum. We lost a lot of engine build threads when m3forum disappeared.

I had a very similar experience with my first S54 build. Lang was an awesome resource for me as well. I wouldn't stress too much about your leakdown #'s, they should improve over time. Also what matters is the power you're making the amount of oil it burns. Looks like your motor is doing well on both of those so just go drive it!

[e46mpwrd]

Half way through, great thread. Thank you taking the time and posting your build in great detail.
I am not sure how to post videos but I would say post the dyno chart and numbers in the Dyno thread along with your mods list.
Thanks again for posting this!

[F1Dryvr]

If someone tells me how i can post the dyno video. I have to say it sounds nasty. A Very very good nasty!

[F1Dryvr]

When all was back together its quite the pucker moment turning the key that first time. I added fresh 93 octane. Hooked up the pre oiler and ran 1.5 quarts through the system. There is a way to do this so its actually oiling while you start, so you essentially have an oil pump pumping without the engine tunring, but I just pumped it in, reinstalled the airbox then started it up~20 mins after the preoil..... I added a CSF oil cooler to my setup and im guessing that thing holds some extra oil. I used 10 full liters of break in oil “Driven 15w 50 Break in Oil” It has to have the zddp additive. She started almost as if she was being driven every day. Fired like i never took it apart and off she went!!! Then it was quite nerve racking as you are supposed to vary the rpms. SO I couldn’t really get out and look for catastrophic leaks or other failures. I ran for 15 mins to warm up. Varying engine rpm. Youre not supposed to have it idle. There wasn’t any smoke smells fires explosions etc. A bit rough while revving for the first couple minutes which then smoothed out completely. At this point I shut it off and checked for leaks and checked fluids. Also opened the filter to look for metal which i didnt see. Just a few specs of dirty debris...

Next I arranged to do a dyno break in. So I trailered it to the shop and did some graded runs to 4500, more to 6000, then a few more to 7500. Some smoke came during the 6000rpm runs but then cleared and never returned. One overheat moment during the high rpm runs that corrected quickly and I was told I had a coolant air pocket. Finally the moment of truth, a power pull!!! Definitely held my junk during this…..ive never done any dyno work before, and my last view of one was of a famous video circulated recently of a 1600hp turbo diesel going full Hiroshima on a dyno run. Probably built by someone who was paid a lot of money for their experience building high hp engines, and I did mine by watching youtube…..

But she held together. Came back at 50hp over stock RWHP 327…with our roughly 18% driveline loss works out to 394 at the crank. Only bolt on power mods were a race tune and ss v1, section one and bw 3.5 from there back back, underdrive pulleys. Im not sure how good or bad this is but ill take it as long as this engine stays reliable.

[F1Dryvr]

Mounted the oil pan and new gasket with some Permatex at the front and rear joints top and bottom. Torqued it and then took outside to mount the flywheel, new bolts, clutch and trans. Don’t forget to put a new pilot bearing in the crank.

Install new pilot bearing in crank. Mine didn’t take much to press in, and it actually came loose when I had to pull the trans back off. Im not sure why it was so loose in there…Get a New Dowel for the crank to mount the Flywheel, mark this position also when you remove the dowell. I think its the only oversized but mark to be sure. Install with new flywheel bolts. Use a clutch alignment pin to install clutch. My clutch had 155000 miles on it. The last 30k have been all track. It wasn’t even halfway worn.

That’s about it on the build steps. The rest involved reassembly after installing the engine. Im surprised at how easy it is to reassemble everything. Its very straight forward. The o2 sensors might get confusing, but being smart when disassembling and labeling them and taking photos helps a lot. Installing and torquing o2 sensors/egt sensors ot the headers(or your section 1) prior to final mounting and install makes this easier.

[F1Dryvr]

Consider some transmission love “while youre in there”. New solid pivot pin, throwout bearing, and clip. Consider new seals. My pivot pin didn’t fit well and im not sure but im willing to bet its another improperly sized bimmerworld part. I hammered and hammered and hammered even tried scotch brighting to see if I could get it all the way in. In the end I gave up and it had 1-2mm of space before seating. Knowing it aint coming out, Ive left it like this. This particular pin had a taper to it and I think that’s why. I saw another one not at BW that was not tapered according to the photo and id bet that one fits fine. I think it was ECS. If its time for a new clutch, obviously nows the time. Misadventure note: I did install the transmission, followed by putting the engine back in the engine bay, mounted and had a couple hours of reassembly, only to discover while cleaning that I had a brand new pivot pin spring clip waiting to be installed. At this point, yes I repulled the engine to reinstall this new 2$ part. Cost me about 4 hours…..

Install Front Middle and Rear Knock Sensors.
Install H2O Drain plug w/ new crush washer
Replace CPV Oring w/ Viton, while youre in there

New Oil pan gasket. Install Oil Pan, use Permatex or drei bond at “T” point at front near timing cover rear of engine and Rear main seal area. Install Oil Pan, strainer gasket and oil level sensor gasket.

New gaskets and sealant for cylinder head water pipe, Add black water line and new oring. Install water pump with new gasket. Install front black water line with new oring. I used the upgraded water line seals/orings from wolfn8r. I added a VAC motorsports water temp sensor pipe so I can run a numerical gauge. Replaces the small intermediate water pipe off the Tstat housing.

New Gaskets for ITB’s, Exhaust headers. Clean ITBs thoroughly. Theres not really a good way to do this and they are nasty and filled with gunk. Taking the assembly apart is a whole can of worms that I didn’t want to get into. Install the ITB rail and torque to specs. Much easier on the stand. Install the throttle actuator.

I replaced all the orings for the fuel rail tubes, the fuel line and purchased new injectors. I wanted to have them serviced but what cost me I think $40 total 3 or 4 years ago now costs $120. So I went with new($240). I also got new plugs and coils. Plugs were not too old but one was corroded badly. Coils were >8 years so it was time. Another crucial factor to think about here is first start up. You have to stack the cards in your favor here to get the first start up to go off perfectly, no stalling, hiccupping, gurgling, misfiring. I read a recommendation to make a set up to test each coil and plug spark…..seemed excessive. You want a smooth start and run for ~15 minutes. SO having a solid fuel prep system in place with fresh high grade gas is important. If your components are relatively new or if you trust the system, you may not need all this extra expense(>$500 for coils injectors and plugs). This is all about getting the rings to seal to the cylinders.