325i Mtech-II Euro import *Turbo Project*

[alpinaseeone]

Been a minute since I updated this! Trying to get to catch up to myself so that posts are current:

Did a complete front suspension refresh - used only OEM / Lemforder / Febi parts as managed to get a discount from someone selling NOS parts for his sold project car. Threw on the front coilovers to make the car now entirely adjustable with thankfully now no blown shocks on the entire car, and springs which weren't decades old.


Of course one of the LCAB bolts snapped in the frame which added extra stress to what was supposed to be a 48-hour weekend job.


Very sketchily drove the car with only 1 bolt on the passenger side LCAB to my buddy with a welder so he could tack a nut to it and get it loose, but finally had a car which felt so much tighter in the front end.
Note to self - invest in a welding course for sometime soon.

Here's how she was looking after I finsihed: (had to raise the coilovers up a little as the Toronto streets would've eaten my tech 2 valence up before I even got home)

[alpinaseeone]

Now here comes the fun part:

A turbo motor came up for sale on one of the local Facebook groups with very little history and no real information on the build.
The pros were: MLS head gasket, ARP studs, came with an RSI V1 manifold, cheap (but still working) Chinese turbo, intercooler piping which supposedly already fit an E30 and all the provisions for oil feed/drain already worked out.
The cons - I didn't really know anything about turbo'd cars, nor did I have too much experience with engine internals and the seller didn't know if it was built or not.

I figured the chance to learn about something I'd dreamed of doing, and at a cost which wouldn't keep me up too much at night if it went wrong was well worth it. I picked the motor up and started to investigate a bit more about exactly what I'd got myself into:




Supposedly the car ran on this setup with the stock ECU that I got from the seller although when I pulled it apart it didn't look like it had been chip-tuned as I would've expected. No rising rate FPR or other signs of an early stock ECU turbo car didn't give me much hope, however, I ignored my intuition and continued searching for parts I deemed absolutely necessary to try start this thing.



With the chance to pull my old tired motor and refresh lots of the worn components, I gave the whole top end a refresh of gaskets excluding the headgasket. After a few coats of paint to make it look a little nicer, she was ready to be dropped into the car. I'd checked the cylinders with a boroscope and all looked good. Stock 2.5 motor and pistons, no sign of a different cam so confirmed that it was a stock 2.5 with the head and block decked for the MLS.



As the car was still my daily, I'd planned to schedule the entire engine swap process for a long weekend we had coming up. Head to my friend's house on the Friday after work, get the motor pulled the same day / early morning, set up the clutch and gearbox with the new motor also making provisions for the intercooler/turbo and then drop it back in on Sunday, leaving Monday for any unforeseen problems.

A solid plan? right?

[Panici]

Looking good so far!
Sounds like we're about to get a twist from that cliffhanger.