Budget M42 turbo build

[Danny]

Did you call Todd?

[gearheadE30]

I didn't get a chance to yet, although I'll probly give him a call tonight and see what useful information he has to offer. now, though, it is more just a matter of getting the tune right, and with the help of ACS's .msqs, it shouldn't be terribly difficult.

[e30guydownunder]

Are you using one of ACS' map's? if so how do your injectors compare to his? I'm guessing much smaller, hence the car is lean. You probably just need to change teh req fuel value to correct the whole map and it would be close to right!

Good you got it going though. Great work! AFAIK MS has always being setup to fire the coil drivers as 1234 / ABCD. You just need to match up the coil driver with the appropriate spark plug, this could be via the spark plug leads as you have done or via the electrical wiring to the coils. Either way it doesn't matter, all that matters is the end result of 1234 = 1342 on the engine :)

Now comes the easy part, add boost....oohhh wait :p

[gearheadE30]

I'm not using them yet, but I probably will load the 30lbs one up with my req_fuel and see how it works. tunerstudio can also mass-alter the VE map when changing injectors if I need even more of a change.

Yeah, I've got the coil thing figured out. As soon as I realized that it was wrong it was really easy to fix; I just never thought about it before that hah. Right now the coil leads are just switched, but I'm going to actually change the leads on my adapter board so I can put it all back together and make it look stock.

hopefully boost will come very, very soon...don't worry, I'll keep everyone updated :)

[gearheadE30]

Well, MS is now getting very close to where I want it. It idles solidly at about 900 rpm (I'll probly pull that down later) runs consistent and accurate AFRs where expected with no steps in the map and basically no driveability issues, and it pulls strong all the way to 7000 revs. I still need to dial in a little more advance at the high end, but now I'm ready to start with boost! Turbo rebuild kit came today, so I'll snap some pics of that later

[agile30]

What part of indy are you in?

[gearheadE30]

I'm in Fishers, which is about 45 minutes to the northeast of Indianapolis

[Schnitzer318is]

Updates!!! ;)

[e304me]

Any updates on this? I am most wondering about the megasquirt. Are you using a MAF or MAP? or both? A DIY writeup in the MS install would be amazing.

I've got my supercharger running pretty good. I ditched the RRFPR and tuned the DME with tuner pro, but the lag of the AFM creates a momentary lean condition when I floor it and a momentary rich condition when I let off the gas.

[gearheadE30]

haha sorry about the delay, I've been really busy. I just picked up a set of bosch green tops (42lbs) from Ford Racing (they are flow matched to below 3ish % error from what I've read) for $112 on Ebay. I was stunned at how cheap they are, and they should be in the car (no turbo yet....) in a few weeks. If anyone wants a set of 27lb custom, flow-matched Bosch style injectors, let me know hah.

its been a really long time since I posted....So I did run the car at Putnam Park a few weekends ago, and the car was very, very strong the entire time. 14ish MPG on track isn't too shabby either :). I datalogged 3 of the sessions and my AFRs were 12.2 to 12.5 at WOT from 4k to 7k rpm, with AFR targeting turned off B)

I did make a temporary heatshield before the trackday, which I'll have to get some pics of. A heat gun, Plexiglas sheet, and copper pipe insulation works beautifully, so I'll probly end up doing the same kind of thing once the turbo's in.

The turbo is also now completely rebuilt with new seals and bearings. This was faaaar eaiser than I expected, and there is no slop at all even though I didn't replace the turbine shaft.

I also made room for the intercooler by removing the aux fan (I have the Volvo electric fan mod, hooked into the factory harness for the aux fan). The cooler has a 3.5" core, so its a tight fit, but it should work. Final placement will be about where the oil cooler normally is on 325is's.

I figured it was about time to reinforce the subframe, so I purchased the AKG reinforcement kit and welded up a spare subframe. This kit is great, and is made of thicker sheetmetal than the Turner kit. New OE engine mounts ($68!!!!) also went in, as they are a bit stronger than any of the other options, short of solid or poly. When I pulled the old subframe out, I discovered that at some point someone had not tightened the engine mount nuts all the way. The holes for the studs were about twice the size they should have been and had broken through into the holes for the alignment pins. Pics to come of that one, heh. Chunks of the engine mount ears were breaking off in my hand....

Oh, and in the first session at Putnam, my transmission mysteriously lost 1.5 quarts of fluid. It still works now that I've refilled it, but it's noisy as hell. I have a line on a low-mile replacement, though, and i will probably do an M20 flywheel at the same time. So far as I can tell, the breather had clogged, causing all of the rear seals to spew fluid. It ran the next 3 sessions without losing any fluid at all (two sessions were run in my dad's M5).

So yeah, that's where I'm at now. I need to buy some gauges and have some bungs welded into my oil pan (picked up a spare from Danny-thanks!) and make some intercooler brackets. Probably the next thing on the list is relocating the coil packs to the battery tray (not enough funds to go COP just yet), and I'll probably run an intercooled non-turbo setup for awhile just so the car doesn't have much downtime when I go to install the turbo. Once that is done, I will relocate the washer fluid reservoir (e36 reservoir, e30 pump) to above the ABS pump, but I can't do that now due to the filter being in the way.

e304me-I'm running the MAP currently. It's working far better than I expected. I will probably do a writeup once the turbo is installed, with diagrams and such. I just don't have the time right now, what with finals and everything else. I acutally had a similar lean/rich condition under throttle changes, but that's fixed now. The AFM itself actually creates a little bit of that lag, according to some of the logging I did. That barn door, although it isn't terrible as far as restriction goes, creates an unbelievable amount of turbulence in the intake.

Pics to come, and I'll try to keep this updated a bit better. Progress will be picking up significantly once school ends (june 5th)

[Schnitzer318is]

^You've got MS running MAP... why do you still have the AFM on the car?

[gearheadE30]

^You've got MS running MAP... why do you still have the AFM on the car?

I don't. I had it on there for about 2 weeks while I was trying to decide how I wanted to hook up the MAT sensor, and I used the sensor built into the AFM as my temp sensor. I also wanted to keep the stock airbox for awhile so that I could document the change in power/tune and such when I went to a cone filter. Don't worry, its not on there anymore, hah.

[gearheadE30]

42 lb/hr Ford Racing injectors showed up today. I will be installing them tomorrow; should be interesting to see how well MS does with giant injectors on a small engine...

[e30guydownunder]

Should be fine....I have 1000cc (~96lbs) injectors tucked away waiting for me to finish the build and switch to E85. Should idle perfectly too :)

[Emre]

Oh, and in the first session at Putnam, my transmission mysteriously lost 1.5 quarts of fluid. It still works now that I've refilled it, but it's noisy as hell.

When I was running my M42 on the track, the transmission gave me constant trouble. It was a major weak point of that drivetrain and is the main reason why I finally gave up on it and swapped in an i6 engine & drivetrain.

I miss the lightness of the M42 engine, but the rest of the drivetrain (including rear diff) just didn't seem to hold up to serious track use.