The LS swapped E91 BMW Wagon is finished and John and Ryan head to Holley's horsepower party in Bowling Green Kentucky LS FEST! LS Fest is an annual event that where Holley hosts any vehicle with an LS/LT swapped powerplant with drag racing
00:00 This time on Car Craft Video we bring our 2007 BMW to Holley's LS Fest.
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00:36 Here we are in LS Fest in Bowling Green, Kentucky with our LS Swap 2007 BMW.
00:41 Now this thing had an N52 in it, which is a good engine, but they get kind of expensive keeping on the road with over 250,000 miles on it.
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00:51 You can make power with BMW V8s and 6-cylinders, it just costs a lot more and there's a bit of a ceiling with those.
00:58 So to combine the two, domestic V8 powertrain and a European chassis, nice BMW 3 Series chassis, it's a winner.
01:06 We started our engine swap with an LS 6-liter we got from eBay Motors.
01:10 Because we never heard or saw the engine running, we spent some time cleaning it up before we put some parts on it.
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01:24 To get to our goal of 400 horsepower, we installed a stage 2 Brian Tule Racing camshaft, a set of freshly rebuilt 243 Cathedralport heads, and an LS 6 stock throttle body.
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01:39 Now in addition to doing this awesome V8 swap, we're also ditching the automatic transmission and going with a 6-speed manual.
01:46 We picked up a Tremec 6-speed for an F-body application.
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01:52 With all of our new parts bolted on our engine and our transmission mounted up, we dropped our V8 into our E90 and bolted everything up.
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02:02 Favorite part about this car is just how, the extra power, honestly.
02:13 I like BMWs, they're a good sized car, I love the front engine, rear drive layout.
02:18 But they never make that much torque, I mean the newer ones with turbos make a little bit of torque, but as far as naturally aspirated go, I don't know.
02:25 This is the best of both worlds.
02:28 You get all the power, all the torque, a great V8 rumble, and a nice chassis to work with.
02:33 And I'm sure you could surprise a few people out on the street too, aren't expecting your BMW wagon to have 400 plus horsepower.
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02:48 One of the great parts about attending Holley's LS Fest is that everyone can sign up for the Dyno Challenge.
02:57 That is a great way to find out how much horsepower your car makes at the wheels.
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03:32 Dude, 382 torque, 322.
03:35 Our LS swap BMW makes 322 wheel horsepower and 378 pound feet of torque.
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03:44 Now one of the questions we got is what to do with the radiator, condenser, how to get the AC to work, all that stuff.
04:01 Well it's the factory radiator, the factory AC condenser, and the factory electric fan, which is pulse width modulated.
04:06 You can't just throw 12 volts to it and expect it to work.
04:08 The Holley system can control that by using one of the outputs.
04:11 Coming into the Holley system is an AC on request coming from the BMW,
04:15 and it can convert that signal into something it can use to turn the AC compressor on and to control the fan output,
04:21 and make sure this thing stays nice and cool.
04:23 Another question we got in the comments was what manifolds did you use?
04:26 And when we put the engine in the car initially, we used Holley's cast iron LS manifolds,
04:32 and they didn't fit. They were real close, but they didn't fit,
04:36 and they would have required a little bit more work than we wanted to take on.
04:39 So we replaced those instead with a pair of Flowtech headers for an LS6 application.
04:44 And those fit perfectly because basically they just come out of the exhaust ports and dump straight down.
04:50 We were able to build an intermediate system that connected to the stock exhaust pipe that was on the car.
04:55 I love hearing the V8 noises coming out of this car.
04:59 One of the best parts of LS Fest is walking around and seeing all the different types of cars that people have LS engines swapped into.
05:17 I found this 1989 Porsche 944 Turbo that's got an LS2 cam and head upgrade,
05:23 feeding through an upgraded torque tube into the original Porsche transaxle and independent rear suspension.
05:28 I like this car a lot. I've always liked these cars, and I think the LS engine makes it that much better.
05:34 The 944 Turbos had a different front bumper than the stock cars, than the non-turbo cars did.
05:39 And so they're kind of distinctive looking. I like the front end.
05:42 Looking at it right now and seeing how clean it is, it's giving me some ideas for maybe a future project car for myself.
05:48 Walking around the event, I came across this E46 BMW from the early 2000s.
06:04 This thing's pretty slick, man. It's got an aluminum block 5.3, two turbos because one's just not enough.
06:09 It's got a custom Ford 8.8 inch solid rear axle in this thing, custom widened wheels,
06:14 and probably about a million hours of work in this thing.
06:17 It's controlled by a Holley EFI system, and this guy's making well over 900 horsepower.
06:21 This thing is really slick, really clean, and it's got a ton of time in it.
06:25 So when we started working on the car, it had high mileage, it had an aftermarket suspension on it that wasn't that great.
06:36 The ride was not very good. We swapped all that stuff out with an air ride suspension.
06:41 Now we also wanted to upgrade the brakes on this car.
06:43 And rather than just go with larger rotors and more aggressive pads, we swapped in the M-specific steering knuckles on this car,
06:48 which is going to allow us to go to those bigger brakes, but also give us some stiffer bushings on the control arms that go with it,
06:53 and more performance-oriented steering geometry.
06:56 Now M for BMW just stands for the Motorsports Division.
06:59 It takes the regular cars, improves braking, handling performance, and of course power, making it more fun to drive.
07:06 The other question we got from the comments section is, "How are you controlling the air ride suspension?"
07:11 And it is an AccuAir suspension kit.
07:14 It's fully adjustable, and I can control it with my phone.
07:21 Yeah, it's definitely one of the lowest BMWs I've been around.
07:26 It's not one of the things that's part of my day-to-day life, but it looks great, sounds great.
07:30 I am chomping at the bit to get behind the wheel and row some gears in this thing.
07:35 It's really cool. It's a really unique car.
07:37 A little BMW wagon slammed on the ground, V8 power. Sounds good. I'm ready.
07:43 I'm ready.
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08:14 Not too bad.
08:15 Would have been better if I knew where the course was, but it's still good fun.
08:18 This thing's a beast, man. This thing's a beast.
08:20 This thing makes big power, and pretty easy to steer with the right foot.
08:24 Big fun. Big fun. That thing is awesome, man.
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08:43 That wraps up our time here at Bowling Green LS Fest.
08:47 And I think we had a great time. It's awesome turnout here, too.
08:51 And there's so much stuff to see. You got to drive the car on the autocross.
08:54 Rally racing, drifting, car show, V8s everywhere. It's tough to beat. Good event.
09:00 So, thank you, Ryan, for helping out with this.
09:02 I really appreciate your expertise.
09:04 Thank you, man.
09:05 Yeah, we had a lot of fun.
09:07 And maybe we'll do another German car V8 swap sometime in the future.
09:10 That about wraps it up for our LS swap BMW.
09:13 Thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you all next year here at LS Fest.
