M54. Let the foolishness begin.

[hoveringuy]

It felt just like a stock but with tons of power.

That's what Daniel said. He said my car looks so stock that no one was noticing it, that's why I had to put an "M54, OBD1" sign on it so folks knew what it was.

Next year I will have all the popular Bling to get noticed.

Chalkboard hood, thumpin' stereo, fake e46 vents, "Hello Kitty" exhaust tips. Maybe an M badge or two.

[Danny]

And a roof rack ;)

[e30s52]

That's what Daniel said. He said my car looks so stock that no one was noticing it, that's why I had to put an "M54, OBD1" sign on it so folks knew what it was.

Next year I will have all the popular Bling to get noticed.

Chalkboard hood, thumpin' stereo, fake e46 vents, "Hello Kitty" exhaust tips. Maybe an M badge or two.

Yeah I was looking around the lot and I was wondering where it was. I only found it because you were next to it.

[hoveringuy]

Back to the motor...

I finally got my dedicated circuit card back from fab in Malaysia. The problem is that they made EXACTLY what I sent them in the CAD file so of course it was screwed-up. I didn't expect to just drop components in and go but the thing has fought me every way it can. Some wrong drill sizes, wrong connections, layout, etc... It does work and it's smaller, so I'll run it for a few weeks and then correct the CAD errors and order another set of improved boards. The ultimate goal is suface mount technology and the whole thing will be the size of a domino.

They deliver really nice stuff and for $60 I have cards at my door FedEx from the far East in a few days. I want to start integrating it directly into the ECU case to clear up my wiring jungle.



On deck: electric throttle body! I've been playing with the throttle body and finally bought a matching electric gas pedal. The throttle body can go from fully closed to open in like 1/2 second. It's pretty cool.

The point is that this TB is 20% larger than the OBD1 unit I'm using now and will mount cleaner since it was meant to go with the motor. It would be easy to design an interface for it, but I need to keep all the fail-safe stuff in mind. I will also have the ability to give it different response profiles and have a "Sport" setting!

[madformx5]

I haven't read the entire thread yet but I am bookmarking it so I can. I was wondering why you decided to go with the M54 verses the S50/52 route. The earlier engines would have been easier wouldn't they?

[kristov]

Are you planning to do the drive-by-wire as a stand alone unit or integrated with the ecu?

[hoveringuy]

I haven't read the entire thread yet but I am bookmarking it so I can. I was wondering why you decided to go with the M54 verses the S50/52 route. The earlier engines would have been easier wouldn't they?

The M54 just fell into my lap. I bought it for parts, really, with no idea of where it would go. An S52 would have been much, much easier for sure. That said, the M54 absolutely rocks and has some compelling advantages over the S motors:

1) Thousand of mom and pop BMW's have M54b30 motors with relatively low miles. The last S52 was built around 10 years ago.
2) Aluminum! 50 to 60 less lbs on my front axle.
3) An extra 7.5 degrees of intake VANOS makes more torque.
4) DISA. See #3. I've been shocked at how effective it is. The intake is just awesome.
5) exhaust VANOS. I'll find what it's good for eventually...
6) This is a training project for the OBD1 N52. There. I said it.
7) It's a technically sophisticated engine that's cheap.

Now that I've figured the motor out it's basically the same as any other OBD1 swap. I'm sure the first e30 S50 swap was hard, too.

Are you planning to do the drive-by-wire as a stand alone unit or integrated with the ecu?

Stand alone. I'm using an OBD1 TB right now with a throttle cable. Works great, but the original M54 TB flow 20% more. It will only integrate with the ECU in that it will still provide a throttle position signal.

I'll use an 18F series PIC with 4 A/D channels. The throttle pedal and TB each have 2 independent potentiometers and I'll do some major fault tolerant development on it before I trust my gas pedal to electrons.

[kristov]

Would you be willing to build an extra for my S54 swap?

[hoveringuy]

A good day at the dyno!

I had a good day at the dyno!

Things have been coming together since the last session, which was a little disappointing but very enlightening. I only made around 187 whp the last time, but since then I've been more aggressive with the VANOS advance, I've upgraded to an M3 muffler and I've enlisted TRM for help with the tune. TRM was clearly the biggest help here. They have never tuned an M54 before but the initial guess was close and the second revision that I took to the dyno made some nice gains.

The chart shows my new figures compared to the last dyno session. I was hoping for 210-215 and I will call it successful (if I decrease smoothing to 2 it says 210.05 peak, so there!).



For comparison, here is a stock S52 on the same kind of dyno, similar conditions:



As luck would have it my latest revision of the VANOS controller came in the day before and it's looking nice. It's working well, too!



For a stock motor I'm happy as it is (for now)

On deck: some more tweaking from TRM and euro S50 headers. My goal is 220 whp without getting too radical. I would say that I'm probably at around 240 crank hp right now, but the real story is the torque curve. I'm loving it!

[jrdeamicis]

Do you ever plan on selling these :)

[Court M3]

Yeah got to ride behind this car today and watch it take off leaving my poor m20 behind. :( Real tidy install though and total sleeper status. Congrats again.

[hoveringuy]

Do you ever plan on selling these :)

I need a Beta tester first!

Despite my success with the motor there just hasn't been that much interest in it yet. At the next e30 picnic I'll need to give away beer to get some interest in it. It just doesn't look exciting.

I have 10 extra boards that came in this batch that I could easily stuff with the components. The M54 swap is just an OBD1 conversion with 2 extra circuit boards and if TRM keeps it up they will have a great off the shelf tune for it. I'm shooting for a 220-225 hp aluminum motor once I get the tune nailed and uncover the mysteries of retarding the exhaust cam.

E throttle alone should add 3hp, maybe more with a larger MAF. Then there's the ZHP version of the motor with hotter cams, good for 10hp. Headers? 5-10 more hp.

I think 5-8 years ago the M50 swaps were really rare, too. I think M54's will catch on as they start flooding the junk yards.

By then I'll have an N52!

I've also been driving with the first Race Skids front subframe X-brace. I will need to review that soon, too.

Edit: I take it back. Daniel makes it exciting. On his hood, the virtues of 20 degrees of variable VANOS vs 12.5 on/off.

[jrdeamicis]

I need a Beta tester first!

Despite my success with the motor there just hasn't been that much interest in it yet. At the next e30 picnic I'll need to give away beer to get some interest in it. It just doesn't look exciting.

I have 10 extra boards that came in this batch that I could easily stuff with the components. The M54 swap is just an OBD1 conversion with 2 extra circuit boards and if TRM keeps it up they will have a great off the shelf tune for it. I'm shooting for a 220-225 hp aluminum motor once I get the tune nailed and uncover the mysteries of retarding the exhaust cam.

E throttle alone should add 3hp, maybe more with a larger MAF. Then there's the ZHP version of the motor with hotter cams, good for 10hp. Headers? 5-10 more hp.

I think 5-8 years ago the M50 swaps were really rare, too. I think M54's will catch on as they start flooding the junk yards.

By then I'll have an N52!

I've also been driving with the first Race Skids front subframe X-brace. I will need to review that soon, too.

Edit: I take it back. Daniel makes it exciting. On his hood, the virtues of 20 degrees of variable VANOS vs 12.5 on/off.

I am a fan of the super geeking making stuff work.

As soon as I button up my project. I will be in search of a M54. And you can send me a board and we shall unite our efforts.

[hoveringuy]

Joy!

[lifeiskaos]

NICE! i love those headers