Fitting the Motor Part 1 - August 16, 2006

By 7pm on Wednesday 8/16/06 a group of car nuts had gathered in my garage for the install of the LS1/T56. It started a little late becuase my LS6 valley cover and new PCV parts arrived and I spent the first part of the evening performing that changeover.

Snag #1 - With the motor suspended in the engine bay, there was no room to install the headers. We tried lifting/angling the package to create enough clearence...but nothing worked. We had to remove the steering shaft, install the motor mount, then install the header. Both sides are tight, but the driver side is ridiculously tight and the headers are made to wrap around the steering shaft to make everything fit.

Snag #2 - Now we've got the headers on the motor and everything is almost sitting where it needs to be and I realize I should have wired the starter before we got going. There is so little room from side to side with the motor installed that the design of the headers really need to hug and snake around to make everything fit. So.....out with the package again, wire up the starter and do it over.

Snag #3 - Somewhere during snag #2 we realized that with the Z3 the headers can stay on the motor while it is removed/installed, whereas everything I've read about these conversions into e36 cars requires you to remove them. So now that the starter is wired up we're going to slide the entire package in, we get the motor lifted up, angled down to allow the t56 to slide into the tunnel......BAM! Snag number three, motor oil starts rushing out from the bottom of the bellhousing.

Snag #4 - OK, at this point it is very late and even though we know everything needs to come out, we still want to see the motor sitting in the car completely. We slip everything in, rest the motor on the mounts, the transmission is supported by a jack and we realize....the shifter is 5" or so short of the shifter hole. Again, another difference from the e36 cars, where the shifter actually comes out 1" too far back and you need to extend the shifter hole a bit. On the Z3 we're extremely short, however a call to McLeod reveals that they offer a shifter relocation kit that may just do the trick.

1 week later I get the time to further inspect this oil leak problem. With the motor out of the car I pull of the headers, pull of the starter, and then realize that there is a hole I overlooked earlier in the process. This hole is in the side of the block and is made for the crank sensor which is missing from the puzzle. A closer look at the starter reveals a light oil stain made from oil escaping through the sensor hole, running down the starter and into the bellhousing.

Mark and I pulled the transmission to get a closer look, and I really lucked out. Only a few teeth on the flywheel were oily, it looks like the oil hit the flywheel ran down to the bottom of the bellhousing and leaked out....leaving the clutch bone dry!