N62 Z3 Part 10: Finishing Wiring & Fabrication Preparation

Welcome to part 10... it's been a long time coming!

So the first thing to do was to get the the fuel pump in the car working. This is how it ran it to get it to start the first time, with the fuel pump powered directly. They aren't touching like it kind of looks like they are

This was really a super simple process after figuring out the wiring diagrams. That process took just a bit longer than it should have because the diagram for the N62 X5 fuel pump were labelled incorrectly. The diagram indicated that the fuel pump relay output is on the engine harness itself. As it ends up, it was not. When I found what the correct harness and pin was I realized this was actually related to a mystery IVM "power supply" wire I had troubles with earlier

On the N62 cars this power supply feeds a few things - e-box fan (which is how I eventually wired mine) and fuel pump relay among them. The Z3 powers this from the engine harness directly and there is a plug in the DME box which feeds to a fuse and then to the relay. So it was simply a matter of connecting one side of my meter to the fuse and probing the other side until I hit gold

And gold I did hit. Some of you may recognize this harness from earlier. This red/white wire is the one that feeds to the fuel pump relay. I had previously ran a male plug into this harness to tap that green/white wire. So all I needed to do was crimp the corresponding terminals onto a length of wire and click it into the corresponding spot in the harness. Easy. No hodgepodgery, no cutting, no splicing. Just good ol' crimps, the way BMW intended

The e-box fan is currently unpowered (I de-pinned it's wire from the IVM to make room for the above wire). The e-box fan is DME controlled by ground though, so I should be able to give it any 12v power supply and it will work fine. I could also tap into this line if I wanted to, just crimp a new wire with an extension going to the e-box fan positive. Not a big deal at all

With it all wired in, it's time for another start. I did not align the DME-EWS this time

It is running completely self-contained! This is really great because it means the fuel pump relay is now working AND the DME-EWS have been aligned successfully and it ran long enough for the "rolling codes" to align. Basically the DME and EWS are best friends now. And the Valvetronic DME is an awkward third wheel. I'm going to try to stop anthropomorphizing engine management computers now

And, only 10 errors in the DME, all of which are accounted for

Also, I am not sure I have noted this before, but I think it's weird the N62 uses mechanical tensioners

Also, just *cough* a slightly related observation

E39 frame rail width, about 30"

E60 frame rail width, about 30"

I just can't shake the idea of an E39 wagon with a 4.8is drivetrain in it, including the 6 speed auto. Just seems so cool. Gonna finish this build first but I'm actively on the lookout now for E39 wagons to buy for that swap

Alright, back to this build...

So, what's next?

Obviously it needs fabrication work. One important question has come up. Should I learn to weld and do 100% of this project myself?

Or plan B: basically buy my fabricator a Ferrari because jeeez this is gonna add up quickly

...I think I'm going to learn fabrication and welding myself as those are skills I am going to need going forward and skills I would just like to have in general. In the meantime I threw the radiator core support in place to get an idea of how much room I have to work with

It's hard to get an idea of the perspective here but there is about 7-8" of clearance between the front accessories and the edge of the radiator support, which has everything but the radiator installed. It seems like there will be plenty of room to fit a large radiator and the intake system

The first thing I will need to do is set the engine height to establish the correct driveline angle

Once that is done, I will need to determine if the shift linkage will fit or if the transmission needs to be dropped down to allow for clearance. If it does need to be dropped down then I will have to re-adjust the engine height to set the driveline angle

With the engine set at it's final height, I need to get the engine mounts made. To do that I first need to modify the subframe - it looks like the oil pan will just barely rub the rear 1" or so of the stock subframe. The oil pan is angled steeply here so I will try to match the subframe to this contour to maintain as much of the original subframe structure as possible

Then the subframe can be bolted into place and engine mounts can be fabricated

From there, I can work on the rest of the stuff in no particular order

This is basically a running list I am creating for myself as reference and will share here just for posterity's sake

Fabrication - Modify front subframe (after doing all of the above)

- Engine mounts

- Fill/plug the SAP ports in engine heads

- Clearance both frame rails for clearance (alternator/tensioner bolt)

- Driveshaft - thinking of a few options here but not sure on anything yet ...E60 front paired to E46 custom shortened rear? E60 front customized to have a Z3 style center spline joint? I think there are many ways to solve the driveshaft problem

- Shift linkage - stock E60 carrier and selector rod with the length modified should work fine

- Headers and steering shaft - this is the big one, my main concern is the driver's side header and in particular the clearance around the steering shaft. I have seen some people drop the steering shaft down the firewall ~5" or so, which seems a better solution to me than adding an extra U-joint in the system. I will need to investigate this further to see how things look once the engine is in place (*note from later on - it looks like dropping the steering shaft location down the firewall will cause interference at the chassis where the framerail meets the firewall

- Obviously after headers comes exhaust, I am thinking I will run an aftermarket Z3M rear section and then I will just need a custom fabricated mid-pipe from headers to the rear section

Cooling System

- Verify cooling system routing - first I need to just sit down and figure out what goes where on the N62. Most critically is knowing how many engine inlets/outlets there are and where they go

- Radiator - thinking I will start with a stock S54 radiator and run the N62 oil cooler lines to an S54 style oil cooler, like the stock S54 configuration

- Lower radiator hose - needs to be modified for the N62 coolant temp sensor

- Heater core hoses

- Expansion tank hose routing

Chassis

- Fuel pump

- Manual pedal installation with lines and etc, as car is originally an automatic

- Clean up wiring a little bit - re-route electric pedal and ignition wire through firewall

- Remove stock accelerator pedal and install electronic pedal

- Diff swap - maybe a complete rear-end swap? I have a spare 3.0 rear-end which is quite a bit beefier than the stock 2.3 stuff, so I may try to find some time to install that, although I could just swap the diff for a less crazy ratio (stock is 4.10) and swap to 3.0 stuff later, depending on how long the rest of the stuff takes

- Paint engine bay with engine out

Engine

- Positive engine harness cable - run a positive cable to the starter and the alternator from the battery (currently the starter has jumper cables powering it directly)

- Intake

- Refresh - valve stem seals, coolant transfer pipe, alternator bracket oil gasket, engine gaskets, clutch kit

It's a lot - but when I write it all down, it actually feels like less than it did when it was just floating around in my head...

I am sure though that there are as many things I am forgetting that are not on the list, as there are things on the list. I think these are the big things though

Just need to start at step one!

So the beginning of the fabrication began with one last test start... I just can't believe this thing runs sometimes. Started right up. So, OK... let's yank the engine out

Then I decided to go ahead and drop the front suspension and subframe out, since I know where everything is sitting in relation to one another and where to start fabricating things

I also removed the trans tunnel insulation, the rest of the firewall insulation, some of the heatshields, the A/C line and the brake booster/master

So the next step is modifying the front subframe, then reinstalling the engine, determining the driveline angle and then fabricating engine mounts. At that point, the engine will be removed, steering rack installed to the subframe and steering linkage to the chassis and then that will be test fitted with the engine/headers

First thing was to take the pedals out. Look Ma, no pedals!

Next was to remove the throttle cable and pop out the little grommets for the clutch hydraulics

From the engine bay side... (the upper grommet does get popped out too, for anyone wondering)

And this little X will be drilled... this location and a spot directly across it. The reason for all this is to re-route the pedal wires from the engine bay to where they belong in the footwell

So... I still feel dumb for having cut out this bit from the firewall., I did this awhile ago thinking I needed the clearance for the intake which it ends up, I did not. I will be repairing that soon, I will talk about that a bit later. But it did make routing these wires a lot easier - as you can see they run into the windshield wiper cowl area

I was very paranoid they would get caught in the wiper mechanism so I was careful to secure the wire to the plastic at several points here, especially close to the motor

And then I ran some grommets to clean everything up...

And the finished product below... looks nice as far as the grommets and everything but overall its a little silly to be honest? I may end up just opening it up a little bit (to prevent the wire from snagging if it ever needs to be pulled through) and welding a "pocket" around it. But then I start to worry about scope creep, because I was also noticing while doing something else that boy, this chassis could really benefit from being continuously seam welded from the looks of it... and it would look really cool if it was wire tucked and shaved wouldn't it?

Back inside, the wire lengths looked like they were just the right length... a little close for my comfort even though I thought I cut them very generously! I did do a little concentric twisting on the wires though, which used more wire, so maybe that's why

And electronic pedal mocked up in place... it looks like this one may work, I will get the bracket out of one of my parts cars and see about installing it and finalizing that in place

I also tried to install the clutch pedal. I think I had mentioned many moons ago that I had a spare clutch pedal assembly I had bought and never used. Well I dusted it off today and was very disappointed

It looks like someone got halfway through swapping their pedal assembly and gave up - the pedals were correct, but the hardware was not correct for the manual assembly - notably the bolt for the slave was too short/missing and various bushings and clips were missing. That wouldn't be so annoying if I didn't pay for a complete assembly (bought it for another projectI like 2 years ago? haha). Oh well. I already have a replacement ordered

Then I went ahead and worked on those transmission tunnel studs used to mount the insulation. You may be able to tell the top two are bent a little bit, due to the transmission hitting them. Maybe it will fit even nicer now with those removed - occasionally it did seem to snag on something I couldn't see

This was just done with my rotary tool, I will probably buy a little finger grinder to finish those off and prep for a nice primer job, even though this area will eventually be covered in heat rejection wrap

I have cleaned this car before but it sat outside for a little awhile during some inclement weather and definitely picked up the worst of it. Believe it or not - it had already been washed with my pressure washer in the below pictures. From here on out it will only be washed by hand so I also went ahead and did some masking

I ran out of masking tape and will need to go back with some bags and aluminum foil to finish covering rest of it - but most of it is masked at this point - obviously I will need to find a way to prop those brake lines away from the chassis while spraying but happy with where it's at so far. I did go ahead and pull back out the throttle cable I routed yesterday as well and the DME box is now resting on a chair so it isn't putting tension on the wires while it's out of the engine bay

Then I wet some rags with water and ran over the surface along with a little elbow grease to lift up that embedded dirt. Next I sprayed liberally with normal engine degreaser, being very careful to avoid any masked areas

Mmm. Caustic

The whole engine bay will eventually see this process repeated multiple times before painting, but only the first time is really visually interesting to look at. There was a ton of grease that came off that passenger side frame rail...

I didn't get a before area of here specifically but there was a ton of grime here before too...

I decided to see about getting some assistance from a welder and that fabricator came through the next day to help me with the subframe, on to Part 11!