S54 Engine Build Diary

[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.

[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.

[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]

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

[Da Jemster]

Nice!

[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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[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??

[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]

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.

[bmwvsevo]

Hi F1Dryvr, I am sure you get many messages about your S54 build but I thought id ask a few more anyway
I have just purchased a 160K mile S54 that will go into my E36 track car. I am planning to rebuild it. Goal is - hpde/tt track car only. I am doing all the research currently and your build thread in helping tremendously. Thank you for documenting your journey.
I do have a few questions. If you could share your knowledge and feedback that would be great. (Forum does not allow me to send a PM hence a post here)

1. What is your overall feedback for Lang Racing? I am in CA and am 2hr drive from them. Would you recommend? Overall support/service and quality of work?
2. Bore to 87.25 - would you still do the same?
3. Head work - was stage 3 worth it? It is pricey.....
4. Rods and pistons - I see a few different brands - are you happy with your selections?
5. How is the motor holding up to date?
6. And lastly - what would you change is you would do it again?

Thank you in advance. Feel free to PM me as a response back if youd like

[Slideways]

Hi F1Dryvr, I am sure you get many messages about your S54 build but I thought id ask a few more anyway
I have just purchased a 160K mile S54 that will go into my E36 track car. I am planning to rebuild it. Goal is - hpde/tt track car only. I am doing all the research currently and your build thread in helping tremendously. Thank you for documenting your journey.
I do have a few questions. If you could share your knowledge and feedback that would be great. (Forum does not allow me to send a PM hence a post here)

1. What is your overall feedback for Lang Racing? I am in CA and am 2hr drive from them. Would you recommend? Overall support/service and quality of work?
2. Bore to 87.25 - would you still do the same?
3. Head work - was stage 3 worth it? It is pricey.....
4. Rods and pistons - I see a few different brands - are you happy with your selections?
5. How is the motor holding up to date?
6. And lastly - what would you change is you would do it again?

Thank you in advance. Feel free to PM me as a response back if youd like

Anri is in SoCal and did this full rebuild - https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...o-build-thread

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/main-forum/e46-2001-2006/234038-another-one-and-another-one

[F1Dryvr]

Hi F1Dryvr, I am sure you get many messages about your S54 build but I thought id ask a few more anyway
I have just purchased a 160K mile S54 that will go into my E36 track car. I am planning to rebuild it. Goal is - hpde/tt track car only. I am doing all the research currently and your build thread in helping tremendously. Thank you for documenting your journey.
I do have a few questions. If you could share your knowledge and feedback that would be great. (Forum does not allow me to send a PM hence a post here)

1. What is your overall feedback for Lang Racing? I am in CA and am 2hr drive from them. Would you recommend? Overall support/service and quality of work?
2. Bore to 87.25 - would you still do the same?
3. Head work - was stage 3 worth it? It is pricey.....
4. Rods and pistons - I see a few different brands - are you happy with your selections?
5. How is the motor holding up to date?
6. And lastly - what would you change is you would do it again?

Thank you in advance. Feel free to PM me as a response back if youd like

Lang was great with me. Responded to all questions(himself) with unexpected promptness. I did spend quite a bit of money with him, pretty much all the major spending points on the build. He was great and had great advice and guided some of my purchases were there were alot of options. Def would go with him again.

87.25, yes. I believe the issue with the bigger bore is that there is very small space btw the cylinders as well, you can go bigger but if u have any issue and need to re prep the block u still have room to upsize to 87.5. Starting at 87.5 thats about all shes good for so ud need a new block after that. Difference in displacement is tiny like 29 cc or something by my calculations so not much gained with the. Bore. Much more power available with the stroker kit… but thats more complex than i was wanting to make it.

i have no comparison to say stage three is worth it. Def pricey and probably not worth it for any appreciable power gains. I wanted higher performance parts for supposedly higher reliability. But theres no guarantee there.

happy with the selections of rods and pistons. Very nice parts, (pricey too). Lighter than stock, i forget by how much but it was significant, and likely the source of the extra power it made along w the slight increase in compression that they give… again, no information for comparison.

engine has run beautifully. It really sings on track. Smooth and sounds amazing when running hard and high rpm… so very happy with how it turned out. It did have one cylinder with a leak that never seemed to close up, and it may be burning a bit of oil there so i didnt get it perfect, but its still doing its job very well considering my zero experience!

to do again id probably buy more of the precision tools from more reputable brands instead of amazon/harbor freight. Bore guage and ring compressor, as well as ring files and micrometers.

if u keep the stock clutch look up how to reset it for reinstall, bc mine failed a couple events later and i think not doing that was the cause.

let me know if you have other questions and good luck!!

[bmwvsevo]

Anri is in SoCal and did this full rebuild - https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...o-build-thread

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...nd-another-one

Thank you, reading through these right now. I am new to S54 world hence a lot to learn still (S52 in my current track car, and E92 M3 weekend car - those took up my attention for years)
Also, send an email to Anri, since I can not send PMs yet.

[bmwvsevo]

F1Dryvr

Lang was great with me. Responded to all questions(himself) with unexpected promptness. I did spend quite a bit of money with him, pretty much all the major spending points on the build. He was great and had great advice and guided some of my purchases were there were alot of options. Def would go with him again.

• Thanks for the feedback, I will definitely contact them. As well as Anri, mentioned by "Slideways" in the post above.

87.25, yes. I believe the issue with the bigger bore is that there is very small space btw the cylinders as well, you can go bigger but if u have any issue and need to re prep the block u still have room to upsize to 87.5. Starting at 87.5 thats about all shes good for so ud need a new block after that. Difference in displacement is tiny like 29 cc or something by my calculations so not much gained with the. Bore. Much more power available with the stroker kit… but thats more complex than i was wanting to make it.

• I am definitely not looking for power gains here. So removing as little as possible (if needed) is what I am after. Hence 87.25 sounds like the max I would go for (if block condition allows)

i have no comparison to say stage three is worth it. Def pricey and probably not worth it for any appreciable power gains. I wanted higher performance parts for supposedly higher reliability. But theres no guarantee there.

• I will consult with Anri as well. Would like to hear opinions on head rebuilds for reliable track use without going all out (if it can be avoided)

happy with the selections of rods and pistons. Very nice parts, (pricey too). Lighter than stock, i forget by how much but it was significant, and likely the source of the extra power it made along w the slight increase in compression that they give… again, no information for comparison.

• I am still doing research here. Mahle, JE, CP/Carillo - many piston options. Looks like Molnar is a good rod option that I read about....

engine has run beautifully. It really sings on track. Smooth and sounds amazing when running hard and high rpm… so very happy with how it turned out. It did have one cylinder with a leak that never seemed to close up, and it may be burning a bit of oil there so i didnt get it perfect, but its still doing its job very well considering my zero experience!

• Great to hear you are enjoying the engine on track. I hope I get to do the same in the near future

to do again id probably buy more of the precision tools from more reputable brands instead of amazon/harbor freight. Bore guage and ring compressor, as well as ring files and micrometers.

• Good points. As far as the ring compressor, Ive been reading people steer towards the option to piston size versus the universal ones. But I am also a rookie at this so no real life experience from my side

if u keep the stock clutch look up how to reset it for reinstall, bc mine failed a couple events later and i think not doing that was the cause.

• Interesting, Ive never heard of this. I am keeping my 5 speed ZF transmission from E36 and current clutch combo..... Will have to search this reset issue.

[bmwvsevo]

F1Dryvr, as far as rods and pistons - did you go with the following part numbers?:
Pistons - https://store.langracing.com/product...on-set-bmw-s54
Rods - https://www.bimmerworld.com/CP-Caril...t-SCR5162.html

Thanks