Turbo 325es: Now with videos

[Kershaw]

Why are you apologizing so much for making shit happen? Good job.

[Regnar75]

um so i did this.

this build is not for everyone, and I understand that, please don't tell me to move to MS or buy a HX35-40 etc. this setup currently runs and hauls bacon. Also I did this on college student budget and outdoors in the winter after class.

This setup is the daily driver

1990 m20b25
low boost (currently 8psi internal wastegate)
3.73lsd (for now)
motronic 1.3 SSSquid chip
m30 AFM
Begi RRFPR 2025
T3 .60 AR compressor .63 AR turbine
ebay manifold
stock Sachs Clutch
30lb bosch ford racing injectors
2.5 inch charge piping
2.5 inch exhaust straight pipe
m42 Radiator
Spal Electric Fan
ebay BOV
Intercooler
VSO gauges (mostly)
AEM wideband o2 sensor
HFP-342 255LPH fuel pump


Started Degreasing, hitting it with a wire brush and tearing the motor down

Fresh coat of engine block paint


I like the Idea of a weak link to help protect parts that are more difficult to replace, so a stock elring head gasket will do.


Ford Racing Bosch 30lb @3 bar Injectors


skipped ahead a bit to this. unfortunately this (free) Garrett had a little too much shaft play for me to use it as is, and even though its small I really want to rebuild it and give it a try.



some may not like this method, but I dont care.



a side by side between the two turbos, the Garrett on left is a 42A/R and 48 A/R turbine. which was ideal for my plan of a low boost instant spool setup but get this on the road i went with a cx racing turbo with a year warranty, which should give me plenty of time to work out the kinks and fix the garrett.


did a little mock up of the intercooler and piping location, seems like this will work nicely





got some exhaust tubing in the mail. this is my rough idea for exhaust down pipe, but more on that later.



the old motor coming out

while removing it one of the bolts had snapped its head off and the engine became hanging quite precariously, so we used some nylon tow straps around the motor mount arms and a come along to help balance and hold the weight.




decided due to budgetary reasons and expectations of boost levels id stick to stock flywheel (single mass ETA) thats been resurfaced fairly recently

Just a little trick for tightening the flywheel bolts while the engines on the ground


new motor is in and ive begun wiring the oil pressure sensor, oil temperature sensor, relocated the AFM wiring and routed the oil feed for the turbo.


Now im not great at wiring, so this jumble is something i threw together. I eventually realized the errors of my ways and used heat shrink and changed up the whole wiring mess, this is more to show you how ridiculous i can be when I do new projects unsupervised i also forgot to take pictures of the finished wiring.



I decided to use the backing plate off my 2.7i which had two vacuum line adapters on it. i mated a T into each side and have this side supplying vacuum to the boost gauge in the cab and the BOV.


This side supplies vacuum to the Fuel Pressure Regulator and the BEGI Rising Rate Fuel Pressure Regulator


unfortunately the charge pipe interfered with where I was running the BEGI but I just bent the mount slightly and gave enough room for the piping to go underneath.


here's how it looks at this stage.


the Heart of the motronic operations is a SSSquid m20 turbo chip, tuned for m30 AFM, 30lb injectors, and BEGI RRFPR


I received some silicone elbows in the mail for a great price and started mounting up the turbo and the m30 AFM. since i've removed the AC it almost seems like this car was designed to run the AFM here haha. yes thats my Air filter location.





Charge piping, RRFPR and BOV


Here's how it looks at this stage. it became obvious that the oil feed line would need a 90 degree fitting




received a Spal electric fan which fit between the intercooler and the radiator, which i mounted to a switch in the cab. yes I am aware that this is a puller fan, but I will make it work because I will also be running the stock clutch fan. so i mounted the spal to pull through the intercooler into the radiator. while sitting at idle in traffic I tested this set up out and am pleased to inform you all it lowered temperatures by about 1/4 on the temperature gauge



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
anyone know why a stock eta cooling system wont work with a 325i motor? there's no where for the coolant expansion tank to feed to....so on to the m42 radiator

Also need to make some cuts to fit the hoses.


not that I'm too worried about bursting a rubber boot at 8 measly PSI but i figured some zip ties could not hurt, figured instead of pushing out to the point of the boot ripping, it would push out against mostly zip tie, I would really like to find the silicone boots.


the valance wouldn't fit with the intercooler, or i should say it would fit behind the valance but two of the mounting tabs would not fit to their locations, so i broke them off.


and put the grills on to see how it looked...kinda like a sleeper



Finally on to the exhaust! working with some pieces I bought, a little bit of tape and cutting for length

clearing the control arm, firewall, and exhaust manifold.

here is the downpipe all mocked up ready to be welded

and the exhaust itself ready to be welded....which is sure to piss off some neighbors.


I marked the down pipe angled pipes so that they would be aiming the right directions


downpipe welded up, with two o2 sensors (had to make sure they were in the right location, i chose right below the battery tray and there is very easy access.

And the exhaust is up, and looks good, ill add a cheap extended tip that will angle the exhaust away from the car later


going with some basic 8inch spark plug wire covers. the wires sit VERY close (by that i mean they touch) the turbo housing (compressor side)


got the 90 degree fitting in, took a picture that I thought just looked good


Gauge plate also came in, i think it was 15$ on r3v

Voltmeter was the same seller, something like 12$


SHES TOGETHER!!!!


but shes dying a lot..... so after some diagnosis I found that the fuel pump was dead, so i went to put a 255 high pressure pump in as a single in tank replacement and remove the exterior pump all together. This isnt well documented for the early model dual pump set ups, mostly the later model setups. so here's what i ran into. The housing for the early model lifter pump (in tank) has two tubes, one is a pick up tube that goes directly into the fuel pump, the second is a return tube that allows fuel to come back from the engine. you can see the two basic lines in this picture. Make sure to replace the Low pressure (soft soft line) fuel line with a high pressure line or you risk rupturing it later on.
(just clamp the end of the high pressure line to the end of low pressure line so when you remove the other side of the low pressure line you can pull it out from under the car, and at the same time pull the high pressure line along the top of the tank to where you need it. simple)


When you put in an aftermarket pump chances are the pump is too tall. unlike the late model pump housing which you can just cut the bottom to attach the filter, the pump is actually too tall for the gas tank (at least mine the pump attached to the pickup tube makes the bottom of the pump too tall that you hit the bottom of the tank and cant mount it) I took some measurements and you can cut 1 inch off the bottom of the pick up tube and it'll give you just the right amount of clearance in the tank.


while i know this build isnt for everyone, its been a fun learning experience so thanks everyone for making it to the end.

[Regnar75]

everything went good, no the parts i pulled from the junkyard didnt have the manifolds or the exhaust so i just kept what i had (eta exhaust) but it feels fast and is a blast. originally had the 2.93lsd and it was fun shifting out of 2nd at 70mph but i moved to the 3.73lsd and its a great time.

[KrautnotRice]

Very clean e30!
Looks like you did an e2i conversion there...
How did everything go?
Did you swap exhaust manifolds too?

[87'325e]

Looking Good!

(Ninja Edit, thought this was a new thread)

[Regnar75]

[ATTACH]93836[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]93838[/ATTACH]

[Regnar75]

[ATTACH]93831[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]93832[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]93833[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]93834[/ATTACH]

[Regnar75]

.

some random ones

[Regnar75]

run some 17"s!!!! lol

Lol no thanks. I really love the look of the 15s and the tire size on them. A little bit of meat.

[808e30325i]

run some 17"s!!!! lol

[Regnar75]

Thanks guys. I got a slight bumper sag a bit but its coming along. Bilstein sports eibach sports, full refresh of sway bar links/bushings. New control arms, M3 offset bushings, upper strut mounts, mark D chip, under steer ssk, etc its coming along.

Oh and the wheels are ESM 002r 15x8 on falken 912's 225/50r15

[808e30325i]

Very nice, reminds me of my very first e30. Keep it up.

[yeaseth]

Looks GOOOD!

[///Bimmerfan]

Ryan G splitter. He doesn't seem to advertise the early model ones so much bit he still makes them or had it lying around.

Oh ok thanks!

[Regnar75]

Car looks clean! What splitter are you running on the front valence?

Ryan G splitter. He doesn't seem to advertise the early model ones so much bit he still makes them or had it lying around.