"160i" 6.0l Motor Swap Build - @ls1series

[highbrowed]

UPDATE: 12/5/25 - Originally when I was building the car I was focused on just getting it running, so I opted for a rather bland exhaust setup:

• OEM Camaro exhaust manifolds
• 3" secondary pipes to 3" Y-pipe
• Vibrant resonator
• 135i Berk Street muffler

The sound was great with no rasp, and only a little louder than a stock LS3 car, but I couldn't help but think that I was leaving horsepower on the table with the restrictive Y-pipe.

Earlier this year I opted to replace this design with a more free flowing setup:

• True long tube headers with 1 7/8" runners for each cylinder
• 3" X-pipe
• 3" dual exhaust piping
• Dual Vibrant resonators
• BimmerWorld exhaust tips

Since the 135i has the single hot side going down the passenger area, there were several changes that needed to be made to accommodate the headers and true dual exhaust setup:

• Installation of custom heat shielding on driver side of engine bay and transmission tunnel
• Power steering high pressure line conversion to stainless braided line and relocation away from header runners
• Clutch line conversion to stainless braided line and relocation to transmission tunnel, away from the header primary
• Fuel line conversion to stainless braided line and relocation along the driver frame rail behind the heat shielding, away from the header primary
• DEI thermal hose jackets for AC, power steering, clutch, and fuel lines.
• Deletion of the charcoal filter system, with custom fuel tank vent line with rollover valve and filter, vented to atmosphere near the gas cap
• Deletion of the battery tray, replacing with a custom black aluminum panel
• Relocation of the battery to a passenger side trunk cubby area, an unused area of the e82 that can just fit an H5 battery. This required extending the OEM battery cables with copper welding cable, OEM-style heavy duty copper crimps and waterproof bulkhead connectors.
• Installation of battery vent tube exiting out of the cubby to under the rear bumper, utilizing existing OEM plastic passthrough
• Installation of custom exhaust hangers utilizing OEM nut-serts and existing OEM bolt holes in the subframe and trunk floor
• 1M style rear bumper conversion with OEM 1M diffuser

As you can tell, this was a lot of work. I started this exhaust modification journey in February 2025 planning on having is completed by April for my 40th birthday as a gift to myself, but with a small toddler running around, I only got a few hours every other night after everyone was asleep to work on the project. This caused the project to span until late July, when it was finally completed, and man am I happy with the results.

Cold starts are mean. Not "Neighbor call the HOA" type mean, but it certainly rivals the startup of my next door neighbor's CT4 BlackWing. The exhaust note is crisp, and has just the right amount of rasp when accelerating to sound like a true performance vehicle, and the light weight aluminum flywheel really changes the dynamic of the acceleration and deceleration of the car. When decelerating at traffic lights I get a wonderful subtle burble. Its a pretty sweet setup that gets lots of thumbs up whenever I am out and about, but isn't annoying like the overdone "burble tune" that you hear everywhere. This is natural, healthy burble.

All in all, I started this project wanting everything to be "OEM+" - AKA build the car that BMW never did: a large V8 in a small car with a short wheelbase. I wanted to maintain an OEM level fit and finish with increased performance and reliability, and I think I was successful. There was a heavy attention to the details to make sure that all changes were implemented in the absolute best way possible for cleanliness and longevity. They say that "perfection is the enemy of progress" and this is definitely true, but with steadfast determination, I was able to get everything I wanted in this NA build.

I will be upgrading the various systems to support a single turbo sometime in the future, which will require a new fuel system, as well as some valve train upgrades, heavy duty clutch, and possibly a Ford 8.8 rear end to get the power to the ground. I'm also considering switching the 6MT transmission to a ZF 8HP.

My wife just had baby number 2 so ill be enjoying the car in its current form for a while, but stay tuned for more mods in the future once things slow down.

Here are some pictures of my recent adventures:

View post on imgur.com

[houtan]

Incredible job.

Really interested to learn more about the stainless steel power steering lines. I’m sure you’re busy with a newborn but when you have time, would love to learn more about how I can do this.

[highbrowed]

Originally Posted by houtan

Incredible job.

Really interested to learn more about the stainless steel power steering lines. I’m sure you’re busy with a newborn but when you have time, would love to learn more about how I can do this.

Thank you. To convert the power steering high pressure lines to AN you'll need the following:

• 1 M16 to AN banjo fitting
• 1 M14 to AN banjo fitting
• 4 New OEM BMW crush washers (2x 07119906464 and 2x 07119906463)
• 2 New OEM BMW banjo bolts (32416781261 and 32416781666)
• Earls power steering hose
• Earls power steering hose fittings
• Heavy duty hardened (and very sharp) hose cutting shears
• Table vise for hose assembly

I don't recall the Earls hose fittings I ended up using. I think it was a 90 degree and a 45 degree, but unfortunately this is the only picture I have. The line in the front is an OEM low pressure line (32416780586), the line in the rear is the Earls high pressure line I made.



Here's a link to the schematic and part numbers which may be helpful to you:
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=32_1650

[highbrowed]

Originally Posted by ShocknAwe

Actually since your post I've been reading about this again. My biggest problem before was my feelings about stock LS sound. Just don't really like it. Found some LS swap vids with absolutely killer sound so let's say I'm back to 50/50 on LS vs S65. It's definitely less expensive by far and will be a far easier job for me in my garage. I'd like to have my E82 back up and running in 6mos or less.

Did you ever find a solution for cruise control?

What final drive ratio are you using?

Any thoughts on under hood temp control that wouldnt require louvres? I love your valve beauty covers. Would definitely want to look into a very unassuming BMW styled engine bay.

What was wrong with the stock engine mounts? I have IS mounts and really hated solid mounts, then again that was with the N54.

I read through your AC adventures. I see that's now as available through LSe9x.

Any custom things that aren't going to be made available? I'm not an engineer.

I believe that the updated LSE90.com CANBOX integration does now allow for cruise control, but I am not 100% sure of that. I'm fine without it personally.

Right now the final drive ratio is 3.08, as I am currently utilizing the stock 135i differential. This would need to change in the future if I add a turbo to the mix. At that point I'd probably consider using either an M3, M5, or 8.8 differential.

Honestly the hood louvre may not be totally necessary. I didnt see any major issues with coolant temps rising above what is considered normal prior to adding it, it was more of a peace of mind thing since the L96 engine is an iron block and i currently reside in South Florida (hot as hades in the summer) with lots of stop and go traffic. I think if I were to run a lower thermostat, e9x M3 fan, and use water wetter, I might ditch the louvre for a cleaner look and get a carbon hood. The vented look has grown on me though, and people can tell when I appear in their rear view mirror that this isn't just some run of the mill 1 Series.

The stock engine mounts are OK when they are new, but on the e82 platform they are rubber with a gel filling to reduce NVH. The 135is/1M are an exception, where they do offer a solid driver side mount, however its only available on the driver side. The passenger side mount is still the gel filled mount that the 128i/135i uses. Basically the OEM mounts deform over time due to the gel, and it causes the engine to settle closer to the steering rack than I am comfortable with. I could probably have gotten away using some shims on top of the mounts, or shaving the steering rack, but I didnt like either of those hacks as a solution. The poly mounts I'm using don't deform over time like the OEM gel filled mounts.

I did encounter significant NVH when I had both poly engine and transmission mounts, to the point the transmission gears would rattle at idle. I have since switched to OEM rubber transmission mounts, retaining the poly engine mounts, and NVH is gone and back to the stock level.

Yes, you no longer have to fab your own AC lines, those are available pre-made on LSE90.com. I talk to Mike from LS390.com every once in a while and try to give ideas for new products he can offer in his store, such as the power steering high pressure lines. If you have any other ideas you can let me know and ill pass them along to Mike.

[ShocknAwe]

Sounds awesome. Glad to hear you're still at it.

I'd love more info on the rear battery tray delete you did. Did you do any brake line work?

[houtan]

Thank you. Very helpful.

How does the Earls hose connect to the factory power steering reservoir?

[highbrowed]

Originally Posted by ShocknAwe

Sounds awesome. Glad to hear you're still at it.

I'd love more info on the rear battery tray delete you did. Did you do any brake line work?

I did replace the rubber brake lines with BimmerWorld stainless lines all around. I used a pressure bleeder to flush all of the old brake fluid out of the system, then used INPA to bleed each individual caliper to be sure I got all of the air out of the system.

The battery tray delete is diamond plate aluminum custom cut to match the hole in the trunk floor. I used rubber trim to seal it to the trunk floor once bolted in with the OEM hardware to keep out moisture out, simulating the seal thats in place on the battery tray. The trunk interior pieces all fit back in perfectly with the delete installed. Took me a few tries to get the measurements exactly right but was pretty straightforward.

[ShocknAwe]

Did you do anything in particular to join the battery cable extensions?

I've been wanting to put my antigravity lithium battery in the passenger side well for quite some time.

Think there's any chassis reinforcement possible in that battery tray location?

[highbrowed]

Originally Posted by houtan

Thank you. Very helpful.

How does the Earls hose connect to the factory power steering reservoir?

The power steering lines on the reservoir are both low pressure lines, and I opted for OEM BMW lines here. The Earls hose replaces the high pressure power steering line.

• There is one low pressure line that goes from the reservoir to the power steering pump to feed the pump with fluid.
  
• From the power steering pump there is a high pressure line feeding the steering rack (this is the line I replaced). The OEM high pressure line was unnecessarily long, since it runs the length of the steering rack and back. Part of this OEM line ran pretty close to the header on the driver side so I opted to replace it.
  
• From the steering rack there's another low pressure line that routes back to the power steering cooler. My OEM 135i return line (non-active steering) was also too close to the header for my liking, so I swapped it out for a 128i/135i active steering line (32416780586) that had better routing tucked along the front driver framerail.
  
• From the power steering cooler there's another low pressure line that routes back to the power steering pump.

The power steering cooler connections are OEM-specific, some sort of metric push lock that I have not been able to find an adapter for. None of the standard (nonmetric) adapters iIhave found will fit correctly. If you can find one that does fit, please let me know, because this is what's holding me back from converting the power steering system to full AN.

If you look at the this link you can see the routing differences between the active and non-active steering line configurations. All of the hoses between the two are interchangeable, meaning the connectors are the same but with different routing.

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/par...5i&mg=32&sg=20

[houtan]

Ahhhhhhh. I understand now. Thank you.

I upgraded to the 1M reservoir and relocated the power steering reservoir with the Turner coolant relocation tank. The factory low pressure lines have a bunch of bends in them that do not align with the current location of the reservoir and I would like to replace those as well. It’s not critical like yours, but one day I’m hoping to replace all of it. Thanks again.

[highbrowed]

Originally Posted by houtan

Ahhhhhhh. I understand now. Thank you.

I upgraded to the 1M reservoir and relocated the power steering reservoir with the Turner coolant relocation tank. The factory low pressure lines have a bunch of bends in them that do not align with the current location of the reservoir and I would like to replace those as well. It’s not critical like yours, but one day I’m hoping to replace all of it. Thanks again.

The line that goes from the reservoir to the power steering pump is nothing special, and can be replaced with any standard same diameter power steering tubing.

The other line that goes from the oil cooler to the reservoir is going to need to be a BMW specific line, since at this time I have not located an adapter for the BMW power steering cooler. You might be able to check realoem.com at different e8x and e9x models for one that has the routing you are looking for, grab the part number, and order that hose.

[mySlow1]

What a great project, and I appreciate the detail on parts etc.

I have a boring question, can you explain how come you used OEM 1M diffuser with the Bimmerworld M style rear bumper (which seems to include a diffuser)? Thanks

[highbrowed]

Originally Posted by mySlow1

What a great project, and I appreciate the detail on parts etc.

I have a boring question, can you explain how come you used OEM 1M diffuser with the Bimmerworld M style rear bumper (which seems to include a diffuser)? Thanks

I had already had the OEM 1M diffuser laying around, as I was planning a full 1m rear end conversion at one point, but the fenders became pretty cost prohibitive. The diffusers are functionally identical but the overall quality of the OEM diffuser was better.

[cky751]

Awesome Job! I love the attention to detail!

[AWCR1MC]

Originally Posted by ShocknAwe

Did you do anything in particular to join the battery cable extensions?

I've been wanting to put my antigravity lithium battery in the passenger side well for quite some time.

Think there's any chassis reinforcement possible in that battery tray location?

Wondering the same thing.

I’m in the process of deleting my battery tray and charcoal canister, in preparation for my la swap.

Do you have any pictures of how you ran the vent hose?

[highbrowed]

Originally Posted by ShocknAwe

Did you do anything in particular to join the battery cable extensions?

I've been wanting to put my antigravity lithium battery in the passenger side well for quite some time.

Think there's any chassis reinforcement possible in that battery tray location?

I used a hydraulic cable crimper and copper butt connectors, which i then covered with marine grade heat shrink tubing. The cable used was copper welding cable.

Theres probably some possibility for chassis reinforcement, but the trunk floor is pretty thin metal as it is, so im not sure what benefits you'd get, if any.

[e80two]

The BMW engine covers