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.
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.
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