My E30 Rehabilitation! ft. Boost Noises

[Mpolito3355]

The car is looking awesome!! I have the motor out of my car now planing.....but one of my biggest things was m20 cooling with a/c and intercooler so please let me know how it stays cool with a/c on etc ! But very nice again

[zwill23]

Still at it and edging ever closer to turbo dreams...

First off, I finally replaced my headlight that I cracked on my first road trip to New Orleans. I think I had a replacement for something like two years... one of those back burner projects, ya know?

Pulled off the outer ring of the cracked offender:



Removed the broken lens and picked out as much of the factory sealant as possible. Also, lightly polished the reflective element with a microfiber towel as a bit of dirt and dust built up on it.



Used silicon to re-seal the headlight, I'll try something else in the future if this doesn't prove to be a long lasting solution.



Reinstalled!



After I got the AC working a while back the only piece of the system I hadn't replaced with new was a condenser fan. Well the bearing went bad and it chewed a hole in my last parallel flow condenser dumping all my refrigerant into the environment. Sorry world :(

New parallel flow condenser with slim Spal fan:



Next I moved on to some more boosty bits and got my boost controller installed. I chose a cheap MAC Valve (35A-AAA-DDBA-1BA) to handle that.

First step was getting power to it, so I picked up a double leaf spring contact (#61131370691) and wired that to switched power in the auxiliary fuse box.

Double leaf spring contact:



Added a 5A fuse for the connection, the boost controller power demand is very low so 5A should be plenty.



Ran that wire across the firewall to the boost controller that I tucked away on the battery tray. I plumbed the boost controller based on the "Second method" below, which in a nutshell provides greater wastegate control resulting in slightly better spool.

https://www.enginebasics.com/Advanced%20Engine%20Tuning/3%20port%204%20port%20boost.html

Moving on, I had a friend tig the beginning of my down pipe, and temporary "hater pipe"



Welded and installed on the car. Again, don't fret this is only a temporary solution:



Next, I started on one of the more difficult parts of the install. Packaging the front-end consisting of a condenser, aux fan, oil cooler, and intercooler. If I still lived in PA I would have ditched the AC for simplicity, but down in Texas this decision comes with great consequence.

Crafted some simple brackets using existing through holes in the radiator support to mount the 10-row oil cooler. I ended up twisting the brackets a bit to angle the 90 deg fittings as far inward as possible to facilitate intercooler install height.



Satisfied with the oil cooler position I moved the intercooler as far upward as possible and crafted another bracket with home depot bar stock. I used a bench vise and 5lb sledge to get the 90 deg bracket angles. Note the 90 deg fittings on the oil cooler tuck slightly behind the intercooler bracket, this is why I twisted the oil cooler brackets.

I drilled a hole in either frame rail to attach the intercooler bracket to the car. The frame rail nuts are accessible after removing the bumper bump stops(?).



The intercooler is lower than some setups, but I was able to get it in-line with the bottom of the radiator support. Feeling pretty good about that, and the beef boy skid plate is still the lowest point.



Pulled the brackets off and shot them with some Rustoleum:



Feeling content with the front end packaging, I made some AN lines, which was surprisingly satisfying:



Installed and routed under the headlight



The mess of oil feed, drain, and cooler lines. I protected the frame rail with some edge guard so the lines don't chafe.



Added oil feed line:



Bled the oil cooler, what a god damn mess:



With the oil lines installed and the turbo oil feed checked it was time for a first start!! Fired first try, this old machine is eager to hit the streets.

(Click me!)



Next, no one told me how stressful drilling holes in your car would be...

I understand this path isn't for everyone, but realize this car was left to die before I found it and isn't a "clean example" by anyone's definition. I view it as my testbed to hone my wrenching skills and learn something new, all while maximizing the fun factor.

Boosting down the road in Texas summer with AC cranking is the goal!

Intercooler pipe provision #1:



Pipe routing:



Intercooler pipe provision #2:



Another perspective:



Final product:



All the intercooler piping has some jiggle so I'm hoping for no issues from engine movement, but ya never know!



I picked up a valence a while back from Conrad311 that was in much better shape than what was on my car, albeit red! I straightened the dings out of it the best I could and got to chopping to fit the intercooler brackets and intercooler.

Final install and chop:



I cracked a beer to celebrate the death of this valence immediately following it's dumping:



Anddddd looking like a car again! Next step is have an IAT bung, ICV barb, and BOV flange welded to the intake tubing. Then exhaust and tuning are the only things in my way of making cool noises.

Like lipstick on a pig

[zwill23]

I just checked out Stim Tech. Dang they got some cool shit! That carbon fiber kick panel is now on my "to purchase" list. Carbon the e30!

Right?? I was real impressed with the rear suspension setup they’ve been working on too.

[jeenyus]

I just checked out Stim Tech. Dang they got some cool shit! That carbon fiber kick panel is now on my "to purchase" list. Carbon the e30!

[zwill23]

Just read through this whole thread, awesome work! You've sure come a long way from towing it home. Good luck on the turbo project, it's fun stuff!

Thank you! It's had a lot of ups and downs, but I'm most excited about this next chapter

[CorvallisBMW]

Just read through this whole thread, awesome work! You've sure come a long way from towing it home. Good luck on the turbo project, it's fun stuff!

[zwill23]

Cars looking awesome!! Been reading your build for a while ! And just curious on the manifold where did you source it ???

Thanks!! I ordered the manifold from Mint Performance, it’s a really solid piece. All schedule 10 piping and the design is a lot more compact than others I’ve seen. But dealing with them has been a nightmare, wrong wastegate flange welded on initially, lead times much longer than initial estimates, the owner has been dodging sending me a shipping refund for over a month now over a mistake on their end.

So, just keep that in mind if you decide to place an order. I’m planning on leaving a review with my experience, but want to hold off until I actually get the refund (if I ever do).

[Mpolito3355]

Cars looking awesome!! Been reading your build for a while ! And just curious on the manifold where did you source it ???

[zwill23]

Progress is looking awesome. You bewsting to RADwood?

I wish! GoldE is demanding some time and money at the moment so it's hampering my funds.

Once that's taken care of I'll be back at it!

[rjmcdermott81]

Progress is looking awesome. You bewsting to RADwood?

[zwill23]

So funny, because that is the exact turbo I spec’d out when I was planning on going turbo. I still wish someone made an affordable twin scroll manifold, the BW stuff loves TS.

Hah! Great minds? I'm happy to not be going the usual holset route

Decent M20 turbo manifolds seem hard to come by in general whether it's boost creep issues, flange warping, or cracking. That's the reason I went with the mint performance manifold, they've been a nightmare to work with but I'm real happy with the quality at least.

If the old twinscroll revshift manifolds were still around I may have tried to go that route, but the reduced complexity is nice at least.

[AWDBOB]

So funny, because that is the exact turbo I spec’d out when I was planning on going turbo. I still wish someone made an affordable twin scroll manifold, the BW stuff loves TS.

[zwill23]

Extra info on my turbo selection:

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/forum/e30-technical-forums/engine-drivetrain/forced-induction/9861664-turbo-selection-advice-borgwarner-s252-vs-s257

[zwill23]

So stoked for turbo! What is your goal for power and whatnot? Also, what turbo is that- S200sxe? That manifold vacuum block looks great.

Me too! Been dreaming about it for the past four years haha.

I'm hoping for 300hp with a max boost of around 12-15 psi. It's a great running engine, but I only have ARP head studs at the moment so I don't want to push it much further than that.

Yep! It's the S257 from the S200sxe series. I used BW Matchbot to try and size the turbo properly with early boost response in mind. I haven't seen any M20s running one of these yet, hopefully it works out well.

[AWDBOB]

So stoked for turbo! What is your goal for power and whatnot? Also, what turbo is that- S200sxe? That manifold vacuum block looks great.