Hey guys, I just got home a little while ago after a long, yet smooth and uneventful drive home from Brian's. It has been one hell of a weekend, but we got so much stuff done and very little stress. I'll likely post up some pics once I get them from the others that took them .
Saturday was the day the majority of the progress was made, but we still got a ton of stuff done today, including doing a cluster swap on an e53 X5, DSC module swap and coding on Auaq's M5, Evo3 and DSSR installation on my buddy Stephen's 2002 e46 330i, as if doing an engine, transmission and drivetrain swap, rear suspension overhaul, and wheel bearing replacement wasn't enough for a planned 2 day weekend, LOL. We also got the shop all cleaned up and ready for Brian to do his work this week, which is basically how it was when we got there Friday night. The difference is now we were able to disassemble the 525it engine and transmission and remove all the suspension arms and such so that it takes up a lot less shop space now. He now has 2 M54b25 engines in the shop (1 sold and 1 available), but at least they're kind of hiding in a corner.
The, now, "530it/6" has the M54b30, S6S-420g, 3.15 540it differential and axles, refreshed front and rear suspension, Koni Struts, new diff mount bushings, and a new driver side rear wheel bearing. Everything bolted up properly and we actually had all the hardware we needed this time . The diff mount bushings gave us the most issues, mainly because we didn't have the proper BMW tool and weren't able to rent it by this weekend (next weekend would have been the earliest, but that wasn't going to work). We followed theshafro's idea and used a bottle jack and a few pieces from a standard press tool kit to press out and reinstall the new rear diff bushings. We plan to buy the proper tool and rent it out for future diff mount bushing jobs, because it makes the job a 30 minute job instead of a 3 hour job.
I'm going to start a new build thread for the car, likely when I have more pictures of the swap, so look forward to that . All in all, we spent a total of 19 working hours on just the 525it/5->530it/6 conversion this weekend, which I believe is the shortest full drivetrain swap we've ever done. I guess you could add about another 2-3 hours if you include taking the M54b30 out of the 530i a few months ago, but still, not too bad.
To all the guys who helped, I can't thank you enough for all of it. We wouldn't have completed nearly as much as we did if it wasn't for you guys. Brian and I have gotten pretty quick at this stuff, but there's no way the two of us alone could have accomplished this in just a couple days. Shoutouts go to Redshift, Auaq, Reefin' Dude, BimmrMeUpSnotty (so nice to meet you dude!), and my Charlotte buddies (Stephen and Jeff). You guys are awesome! I also want to thank Brian's family for putting up with having a bunch of car guys hanging out all weekend, once again .