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Turbo M50 Vert Build Thread

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    #31
    Turbo Goodness

    So (as promised) here is a nice little 2nd-4th gear pull clip. 3rd and 4th are shortshifted. I haven't really been taking the car up anywhere near red line since everything isn't totally worked out yet. It would suck to blow something up now. Excuse the camera mount and the ongoing BOV, I still need to adjust it. These pulls are on 5-6psi and although they are on low boost. Enjoy;)

    (I believe embeded YoutTube videos no longer work due to R3v being a secure site now. Actual link below)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKJKgE-liXY
    Last edited by NEOe30; 11-08-2017, 08:23 AM.

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      #32
      Glove Box Clean Up

      Small little update, just doing a couple things while I'm waiting for my megasquirt. Just ordered the MS3x on Friday so hoping to have it delivered early this week! Just sorting out some wiring and things in the glove box for my sanity. The black item on the left side of the box is my 3bar map sensor plumbed into the boost gauge line for when the ecu arrives. I get bored easily and look for things to do on the car so here is a before and after! It's all about the little things.


      Last edited by NEOe30; 11-08-2017, 08:22 AM.

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        #33
        Boost Leak Testing

        So, as I (im)patiently wait for the mailman to arrive each day with my MS3x, I find small projects to do on the car. Today was a $10 DIY boost leak tester. The tester consists of one rubber plumbing end cap (sized appropriately to your turbo compressor inlet) and a valve stem. Total parts cost was around $8.00 plus some JB weld I had at home. Pretty self explanatory and I'm sure there's already a thread for it, but I thought that including it couldn't hurt.

        At first when I was boosted I thought the HX35 turbo was too large until I fixed my manifold exhaust leak, and then my mind really changed. Obviously I was leaking a large amount of boost. Today while testing I wasn't even able to take the compressor off of the valve stem and measure the pressure before it hit zero. I located two boost leaks, both intercooler piping, and plan on looking for some more tomorrow. Since I plan on getting tuned in the near future I figured this was worth the $10, and would recommend it to anyone else that is boosted. Hell, I didn't even think I still had leaks. Make sure if you use this method to add compressed air slowly since you're not monitoring the current pressure inside the system. For example, my wastegate spring is 6-7psi so I am aiming for an 8psi test. Do NOT pump up the system to say 20psi just because you want to see if it will hold. If the headgasket pops under boost during driving, why wouldn't you be able to shift/unseat it during testing? Only test for the amount of pressure you will be running or just above.

        Now for some pics and a disclaimer ;)

        *Not responsible for any damage caused to personal property or one's self due to following test procedures, these are simply recommendations and how I went about testing, as always use precaution when working on your car because every application is different*


        Last edited by NEOe30; 11-08-2017, 08:20 AM.

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          #34
          Turbo M50 Vert Build Thread

          I disagree, you should test your system to the maximum pressure your couplers are rated for.

          Cylinder pressure is much higher than 20psi, if that blows your headgasket you have bigger problems..
          you shouldn't be pressurizing the manifold to check for leaks in your piping. All your pressure will go through the icv, valves and out the exhaust, regardless of crank position, some valves are always open. that's why it's dropping off. If you test the manifold you have to plug the exhaust as well.

          Normally you cap off your intercooler piping where it enters the throttle to ensure no air is escaping through open valves and into the exhaust.

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            #35
            Originally posted by pandaboo911 View Post
            I disagree, you should test your system to the maximum pressure your couplers are rated for.

            Cylinder pressure is much higher than 20psi, if that blows your headgasket you have bigger problems..
            you shouldn't be pressurizing the manifold to check for leaks in your piping. All your pressure will go through the icv, valves and out the exhaust, regardless of crank position, some valves are always open. that's why it's dropping off. If you test the manifold you have to plug the exhaust as well.

            Normally you cap off your intercooler piping where it enters the throttle to ensure no air is escaping through open valves and into the exhaust.
            I do understand that some air will slowly bleed off into the exhaust, ICV, etc, but this method should allow you to locate larger boost leaks within the vaccum system of the car as well.

            As for the headgasket, you may be right, it does make sense that cylinder pressures are much higher, however my initial thought was that pressurizing the system past say 10/11psi (risky numbers for stock headgasket and head bolts) would be increasing the risk of shifting the gasket. I could be wrong in this thought, but figured I would cover my ass just incase.

            Finally, I disagree with testing the system to its absolute limit, even if my logic was incorrrect. If I'm only going to be running 7/8psi (for now) then why test for anything much more than that and just risk creating more leaks? You could argue that it will show weak points in your system, but if it's not broken don't fix it?

            Thanks for chiming in about the actual pressure though, as I was unsure of the absolute limit when testing.

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              #36
              Oh No! My poor picture thread :(

              Small update, I just got the MS3x wired in and I'm working on getting the car running..

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                #37
                Hey man, just wondering, but I'm looking at m54 3.0 swapping my cabrio roller and I'm wondering if that's a good motor to swap or not? I don't really know anything about the motor.

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                  #38
                  Originally posted by GunnarE30 View Post
                  Hey man, just wondering, but I'm looking at m54 3.0 swapping my cabrio roller and I'm wondering if that's a good motor to swap or not? I don't really know anything about the motor.
                  Hey,
                  I wish I could tell you more about it, but I don't know much. There should be pleanty of information and people willing to help you in the 24v swap subforum

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                    #39
                    Can you update the picture hosting? All the pics seem to be broken.

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                      #40
                      Originally posted by eThirtyAaron View Post
                      Can you update the picture hosting? All the pics seem to be broken.
                      I planned on doing so soon, big update next post! Thanks

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                        #41
                        Mega update!!!

                        So, after all of the hastle with the ECU Master Det3 piggyback, I decided to opt for the MS3x. I hadn't spared any expenses up to this point so why start now?
                        Here's a picture of the MS3x installed in the glovebox (a clean job if I do say so myself) along with a picture of my LSx ignition coil coversion. Mint!





                        So after installed the MS3x, the ignition coils, and got the autotune software, I was off to the races.... almost.
                        I had used the autotune software to get a road tune and dialed in my idle all on my own (insert pride and overconfidence here). During all this and what I had read on the forums, I dialed my boost into about 10-11lbs and started to play with timing. That's when things got funky. I was having an absolutle blast tuning the car and pulling power out of my new setup. I was having weird idling issue and backfiring so i pulled my plugs to find this....NOT pretty.



                        After swapping the plugs out, the car felt even better (insert more confidence here) and was pulling like a madman. I was breaking traction in 3rd with my 4.10 LSD. Time to upgrade that too. So I did what anyone else having traction issues would have done. I aired out the tires to 25psi and threw 50 extra pounds of cement in the trunk. The car hooked, felt amazing, pulled like all hell, and sounded even better. We even did this to a cheep-o intercooler coupler a few times.



                        I was more concerned with keeping boost down not to pop the headgasket when I should've been more conservative with timing...
                        The car started to burn some oil and lost power so I decided to run a compression test because replacing the HG was inevitable right? Well here's the results...uh oh



                        It was definitley time to pull apart this motor. I was actually kind of excited to get the experience and dive deeper into the build. Here's some pics of the teardown and something that made my heart drop when the head came off. The pieces of metal next to the penny were found when draining the oil pan.







                        So I melted the piston head. Oh well. Currently I'm at school away from home and that's how she sits in the garage. When i come home for thanksgiving break I am going to pick up a used block and get an MLS gasket and ARPs for the holidays. I'm hoping to have the car back together and tuned by mid-January if the weather allows me to get to a tuner for the weekend. I'm definitley bummed it's not just the headgasket, but I plan to clean up the engine bay a bunch, and replace some clutch components when I pull everything anyways. Also, I have another surprise coming within the next few days so stay tuned! Sorry it took so long to get this thread back up (thanks photobucket), I do want to document everything here though so I can look back on it.

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                          #42


                          More goodies for the build! Even though I'm off at school it's always a good day when my parents send pictures of parts that come in. I will be home around thanksgiving time and plan to pick up a new block then and possibly remove the engine/trans from the car if I have time, but family first.

                          Also, sorry about the pics still being inactive. I thought I had fixed them. i'm planning on sitting down for a few hours this evening to revive the thread.

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                            #43
                            This picture thread is officially BACK FROM THE DEAD!
                            Here's some bonus shots for fun. Glad to (finally) fix all the picture links.


                            Last edited by NEOe30; 11-08-2017, 11:21 AM.

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                              #44
                              So now that I am home for Thanksgiving break I picked up an engine hoist, engine stand and a new (used) block for the car. She's pretty dirty so I am going to do some cleaning and disassembly this coming weekend so that I can send it off to get machined! Good news is that this block still has very good crosshatching in the cylinders. It may have been honed at some point in its life. Pics of that to come.



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                                #45
                                whats with the rocker moldings? is that something only convertibles have as I have never seen them before
                                Boris - 89 E30 325i
                                84- E30 323i

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