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M42 Turbo Build (Semi Budget, keepng AC!) No 56k

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    M42 Turbo Build (Semi Budget, keepng AC!) No 56k

    Well, thanks to Danny's misfortune (sorry man) I picked up most of his turbo "kit" and decided to go FI. I knew this would not be a true "budget" build as I planned on improving Danny's original kit as much as possible during the install process. This being mostly because I want it to be a rock solid install that is going on my daily. I am about a week and a half into this and must say the last couple of days driving this thing have been a blast @8psi. I'll like it better when I can clean it all up and put the hood back on, but I'll get to that later.

    Big thanks to my local turbo/MS experts Matthew and Mike who have helped me quite a bit during this process. And also to my buddy Eloy who drove down from Houston for a couple of days just to give me a hand with the fans and intercooler work. Also BIG thanks to Todd Glazier from DTM who was kind enough to send a base map for his turbo car because somehow the maps that came with the MS had been corrupted.

    GOALS:

    1. Keep AC!!!! (texas heat requires it)
    2. Keep Power Steering (it's a BMW, not a Jeep Wrangler)
    3. Keep daily driver capable (I love driving this car and it would kill me to not daily it)
    4. Put down 180rwhp on the dyno (because that would be awesome)

    Day 1 (Wednesday 5th)

    I was hoping to get the gauges in, wires in, and vacuum lines for the MS, wideband, and boost gauge. Also hoped to get the cams swapped out. I didn't quite make it to that part due to reorganizing a good bit of the garage on the same day. But here was the progress.



    Modified the boost gauge with amber lighting to semi match the rest of the car.



    Reworked the gauge pod. Could still use some work, but I will worry about that after everything is in and running. Will fiberglass the gauges on an angle facing the driver...

    I also got all the wires/lines routed through the factory grommets into the engine bay in prep for MS and boost. I was fairly pleased with the progress considering all the distractions.

    Day 2 (Saturday 9th)

    We didn't know how far we were going to get, but Matthew said from the beginning we were getting the turbo mounted and the engine running on the MS. I liked his enthusiasm! LOL we could have gotten farther were it not for the rest of our "mishaps."



    Prep table



    Intercooler and piping came in Friday, but we didn't make it quite this far.



    First order of business: camshaft swap. Back to stock from the Delta regrinds! Oh noes. Oh well, getting back some low end torque will be nice. Plus the regrinds and chip are already sold.



    LOL this set us back a couple of hours at least as he dropped one of the cam cap nuts into the engine. Thanks Matthew :D . Had to go get a new magnetic pickup tool to remove it as my last one had been misplaced.







    Here we are finishing up the cam swap... LOL the EPIC cam swap. Turned out well though... hand cranked just fine with no interference. And passed the test start as well, with flying colors even.



    Mmmmmmmm beer/soda fridge.



    Yep that's right... those are labeled, you wanna fight about it. That was part of the reorganization done earlier in the week.



    Got the turbo manifold on there (this sucked btw). LOL Matthew and I tag teamed the studs/nuts til they were all on there. Though if you ask him he got the raw end of that deal :D As you can plainly see the fender needed a little "massaging" to clear the turbo. LOL looks like it came from the factory that way. NOT!



    Danny's manifold needed to be rewelded as it wasn't quite up to par for my reliability and/or aesthetic standards (sorry to whoever did it first).



    LOL look how excited he is. :wub:

    Somewhere in here we also installed the 29lb injectors but neglected to take pictures of that process. Also rerouted necessary vacuum hoses and installed 1 way valve to prevent pressurizing through the cam cover. *NOTE* this was later changed as you should not rehook this line up to the TB even with a check valve. Vent it to air or if you are more ecofriendly catch can it with an oil breather on the output.

    ROFL, also no pictured is that after the cams were swapped and injector/intake manifold work was done... we went to fill her with oil. In our haste Matthew and I had forgotten that the oil drain on the new pan had not been plugged or attached to anything. HEHE, the carpet soaked up a good 1/2 qt of synthetic. Would have been a WHOLE lot more, but luckily Mike was wearing the white hat on this operation and pointed out our stupidity before we managed to dump all 5.5 quarts into the engine. :smack:



    Woah that's a bright oil pan you have there. LOL it did it's job though, I was able to trace ALL the oil leaks, and there were 4 of them. That's what happens when you don't have a gasket scraper. Needless to say, I dropped the pan again after buying a proper gasket scraper. Now, I have no more oil leaks. :thumbsup:



    True to his word, the turbo was in, the MS was installed (not pictured), and the car was started. She started right up and idled... pretty well anyway.
    "A good memory for quotes combined with a poor memory for attribution can lead to a false sense of originality."
    -----------------------------------------
    91 318is Turbo Sold
    87 325 Daily driver Sold
    06 4.8is X5
    06 Mtec X3
    05 4.4i X5 Sold
    92 325ic Sold & Re-purchased
    90 325i Sold
    97 328is Sold
    01 323ci Sold
    92 325i Sold
    83 528e Totaled
    98 328i Sold
    93 325i Sold

    #2
    Turbo Install Day 3 & 4 (Tues 12th & Wed 13th)

    These days were together because I only slept for about an hour... :glare:



    Charge pipe from IC to intake mani. This was completely changed later due to the piping kit only coming with 2 silicon elbows and needing one for the other side.



    Intercooler mounted up and looking sexy.



    Brackets... Not the prettiest, but not the ugliest either. They work well and ado their job.



    Rethought the use of the stock intake boot as it didn't do a good job of clamping onto the charge pipe. Ended up using a silicon jobbie Danny sent with the kit.



    New electric fan for the A/C condenser. Guess my measurements were pretty good because it fit great behind the intercooler. Flipped the blades and set it up as a pusher.



    Charge piping done... poor girl looks like she's being raped.



    Eloy helped out a bunch. Came down from Houston as he was hoping we'd be able to see it running and drive it a bit. That was unfortunately not the case. It's not running properly at all... need Matthew to take a look at it with the megasquirt. I think it's just duping fuel in. Puffs of black smoke are coming out of the turbo while she's running and she will not hold an idle. Funny thing is she did idle yesterday and ran ok with a HUGE oil leak. LOL when I had Esam reweld the manifold together he added an extra gusset. Well that gusset ended up pushing the cam cover off and blowing the gasket out of the rear. This left a huge oil/vacuum leak... don't know why she would run like that and then not run properly after we fixed the leak. That wasn't fun btw. We had to pull the turbo and the manifold to fix the issue. That's 16 of the hardest bolts/nuts to reach on the planet.



    Completed, except for the blow off valve. We needed to go buy snap ring pliers to accomplish that. If anyone is interested Harbour Freight has an 11 pc set for only $13.



    Intercooler looks sexy behind the air dam. Took the insert for the oil cooler off the 325i to use on this car as it makes more airflow.

    "A good memory for quotes combined with a poor memory for attribution can lead to a false sense of originality."
    -----------------------------------------
    91 318is Turbo Sold
    87 325 Daily driver Sold
    06 4.8is X5
    06 Mtec X3
    05 4.4i X5 Sold
    92 325ic Sold & Re-purchased
    90 325i Sold
    97 328is Sold
    01 323ci Sold
    92 325i Sold
    83 528e Totaled
    98 328i Sold
    93 325i Sold

    Comment


      #3
      Install Day 5 (Tues. 18th)

      Picked up the car this morning from the exhaust shop... they did a pretty damn good job. The guy only asked for $175, but I gave him $210 anyway because of how much work it was. He did alot of welding so it would stay mandrel on all the bends, and also made some nice reducers for my intake too as the ones I had blew ass. It's 3" ALL the way back from the downpipe to the muffler. Muffler is a Magnaflow. On to the pictars. Will get sound clips when completed.













      Now all I have to do is tune it and get it 100% normal driving. I drove it home from the exhaust place and it felt REALLY good. I got so much torque back from the cams and having an exhaust back on the car. I was just nudging boost ~2lbs at 3000RPM. That's perfect for me and exactly where I was hoping it would kick in. I'll keep this updated as I tune/get it running perfect.

      After everything is tuned, it all comes apart again and goes to Cradin for hot coating because this turbo adds some SERIOUS heat underhood. I don't even dare put the hood back on yet.
      "A good memory for quotes combined with a poor memory for attribution can lead to a false sense of originality."
      -----------------------------------------
      91 318is Turbo Sold
      87 325 Daily driver Sold
      06 4.8is X5
      06 Mtec X3
      05 4.4i X5 Sold
      92 325ic Sold & Re-purchased
      90 325i Sold
      97 328is Sold
      01 323ci Sold
      92 325i Sold
      83 528e Totaled
      98 328i Sold
      93 325i Sold

      Comment


        #4
        Been driving it the last couple of days under full (8psi) boost. All I can say is, I'm addicted. I will try to turbo as many of the future cars I own as possible. It feels like a totally different vehicle above 3000rpm and even has more torque below that. Plus I am still getting 20mpg while thrashing on it.

        Big thanks to Matthew for doing most of the tuning... I just got a very baseline to go off of and then he did 2 rounds of tuning to dial her in so to speak. It drives very well except for cold starts which was going to be a known issue due to the ICV being deleted. I am going to add it in later, but had to delete it to get it tuned and running. After the car warms up for 5 mins she is great.

        Install Day 6 (Thurs 20th)

        Got a custom AC line made up today at Alamo City Hydraulics. These are the same guys who did my custom oil line/t fitting to get the oil pressure sender and turbo feed on. I recommend them to anyone. Cost me $15 for the oil line w/ t fitting, and the CUSTOM ac line cost me 49.09. Can't beat those prices, I don't care who you are.

        Here are the pictures with final placement of everything except the coils as those will be deleted in the near future in favor of COP conversion.











        Got the AC line installed and looking as stock as I possibly could get it... using a couple of stock brackets. Couldn't fully accomplish this task though as I had the hose portion made too long at 2.5ft. But as they say, better too long than too short.

        Final step is to take pull a vacuum, and fill up the AC system (hopefully Mike is available tomorrow). Then I am going to bring her home and degrease/clean the SHITE out of the bay. Then I get to bring her back into the garage, jack her back up, and take everything apart again, with exception of the AC line of course. This is of course to take the turbo manifold, hot side of the turbo, downpipe, and cam cover to Cradin to be coated in whatever super duper heat coating they use.

        A full parts/expenditure list will be compiled tomorrow as well. ALMOST DONE!!!!!!!!!!
        "A good memory for quotes combined with a poor memory for attribution can lead to a false sense of originality."
        -----------------------------------------
        91 318is Turbo Sold
        87 325 Daily driver Sold
        06 4.8is X5
        06 Mtec X3
        05 4.4i X5 Sold
        92 325ic Sold & Re-purchased
        90 325i Sold
        97 328is Sold
        01 323ci Sold
        92 325i Sold
        83 528e Totaled
        98 328i Sold
        93 325i Sold

        Comment


          #5
          looks good!

          get a video clip up!

          Comment


            #6
            Subscribed.
            -Pierre
            1987 535is
            1988 325is

            Comment


              #7
              Sooo cool! I love the build thread, looking forward to some video clips and pics of the coatings :up:

              Comment


                #8
                Do want.
                Originally posted by z31maniac
                I just hate everyone.

                No need for discretion.

                Comment


                  #9
                  nice!

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Fantastic!

                    Also, the mani was my work, I just wanted it done. Joe was informed that this kit wasn't perfect from the get go so don't flame me lulz.

                    I think the ITE sensor wires to a purple/brown wire in the AFM harness.
                    Last edited by Danny; 08-21-2009, 12:53 PM.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      you're a waffleswaffleswaffleswaffleswaffles for keeping power steering.

                      just kidding.

                      this is much the same as i will be doing to my vert- i have all the necessary parts, just need to get a few wrinkles out of the engine first.

                      anyway, good work.
                      past:
                      1989 325is (learner shitbox)
                      1986 325e (turbo dorito)
                      1991 318ic (5-lug ITB)
                      1985 323i baur
                      current:
                      1995 M3 (suspension, 17x9/255-40, borla)

                      Comment


                        #12
                        I've always wanted to turbo/supercharge my m42 as opposed to s5x swap it. More so turbo than super. It's great to see another build thread that gives me hope that a reliable turbo m42 isn't just a fallacy.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          No problems Danny, you did pre warn me. I think I am currently putting down around 170rwhp @8psi. It feels great according to the butt dyno and actually puts you back into the seat around 3500rpm.

                          Thanks all for the comments/compliments. I will continue to update this until the bitter end... dyno results, videos, etc.

                          Power steering honestly, I could do without... but the wife wants it, so it stays. I drove it for a couple of weeks with the belt off to see and it was nice... I think simply swapping an e36 rack into it will be fine for me though.

                          Install Day 7 (Fri 21st)

                          Got the main efan wired up today. In conjunction with the little 10" one in front this thing moves some serious air across the motor. LOL I let go of a piece of terry towel about 2 feet from the grills and it got sucked straight onto them. Don't think I'll ever have a problem with over heating :)

                          I also got another fog installed as I had cracked one whilst cutting a bracket off the valence to make room for the IC. Final thing I did was degrease the engine top to bottom and I don't THINK I have any more oil leaks. Which is good... because I hate it when engines drip. Mine only has 44450 miles on it (rebuilt of course) and there would be no excuses for me to allow it to bleed.

                          Recharging the AC tomorrow... then will bring it back into the garage the next day to tear it back down to get everything coated and looking sexy. After that hood can go back on. I hate driving without a hood, makes me feel so ghetto. LOL although I do get alot of ppl asking about the car now. ;)

                          On to the pictars... I thought you guys would like some from under her skirt to see what was going on under there.







                          "A good memory for quotes combined with a poor memory for attribution can lead to a false sense of originality."
                          -----------------------------------------
                          91 318is Turbo Sold
                          87 325 Daily driver Sold
                          06 4.8is X5
                          06 Mtec X3
                          05 4.4i X5 Sold
                          92 325ic Sold & Re-purchased
                          90 325i Sold
                          97 328is Sold
                          01 323ci Sold
                          92 325i Sold
                          83 528e Totaled
                          98 328i Sold
                          93 325i Sold

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Here is a link to the first start vid with the turbo and everything hooked up... look how pig rich she was. LOL fouled 2 sets of plugs before I got it tuned enough to not do that.

                            "A good memory for quotes combined with a poor memory for attribution can lead to a false sense of originality."
                            -----------------------------------------
                            91 318is Turbo Sold
                            87 325 Daily driver Sold
                            06 4.8is X5
                            06 Mtec X3
                            05 4.4i X5 Sold
                            92 325ic Sold & Re-purchased
                            90 325i Sold
                            97 328is Sold
                            01 323ci Sold
                            92 325i Sold
                            83 528e Totaled
                            98 328i Sold
                            93 325i Sold

                            Comment


                              #15
                              very nice man. it is cool to see danny's kit in another car. very clean.

                              i read it is good to use hotter plugs during the first bit of tuning...
                              am i wrong?
                              sigpic
                              "The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten."

                              Comment

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