325ic Calypso Euro Conversion - Houndstooth & dbilas now, MT1 & MM 3.2 stroker coming

[robrez]

Big things in store! Good luck Brad.

[bradnic]

Thanks Rob.. almost picked up that heated seat kit you you had on eBay for my IX... then I realized I had a couple of heated seats in the attic lol.

I pinged the bimmerheads guys for advice on tuning my 'stage 1' ITB setup (just the dbilas, keep AFM or switch to MAF and reuse it later...). Don't want to plunk for $350 for a dbilas chip when I know I'm gonna do MS... Just not sure I want to go MS right away. I'd like to drive this car in the summer, not have it taken apart..

[bradnic]

Tight fit.:up:

yeah but I really don't want to cut the heater core pipe. gonna brainstorm a bit and see what I come up with. once everything's all set I'll pull it all apart and go over everything cosmetically. can't stand rusty stud bolts on my ITBs, and have an unhealthy zinc chromate fastener fetish.

this is a 29 year old, 1987 68k mile M20. that's what I want my engine bay looking like.

[bradnic]

My dbilas setup came with some $500+ worth of sweet upgrades, but I can't use them until I stroke out the motor and switch to MS. So I swapped in the OEM fuel rail, injectors and TPS and put the upgraded bits aside for future use.

Not crazy about the braided lines and color anodized bits anyway - it's got to be OEM+ man!

M30 TPS (6 wire connector, clicks at WOT).


nuke fuel rail with mustang injectors


aeromotive adjustable FPR (seriously pricey bit!)


Using standard m20 injectors may limit my options short term, but that's ok. when I get MS going I'll have the mustang injectors to go with. Crazy thing is the caps off two of my injectors were gone when I pulled the manifold! they must have fallen off somehow, and been burned off. Freaked me right out. I had some extra injector rebuild parts so all's well.

As to the core dbilas bits, the AFM side of the intake boot is too large...


It's part number 13-71-1-707-767, realoem shows it's for an E34/E32 M30. Didn't think I was gonna need to swap the AFM.. Obviously I don't plan to keep it but I'm at a bit of a loss here. Don't want to just do a MAF conversion either if I'm not going to need it with the supercharger. After checking out r3v classifieds, if I can find a tune that will work with an M30 AFM I'll probably just do that.

[bradnic]

Still sorting through the supposedly easy install instructions. I put an order in with dbilas for the loose bits that were missing, shown in their pic here


pretty sure the long hose on the right is for the ICV, and there's a vacuum fitting on the bottom of the plenum, but the hose end is too big for it. bracket on the lower right is for the dipstick. cable at the bottom extends the tps connector harness.

Here's the itb setup with OEM bits installed.


The hose arrangement and valve underneath are from the previous build and will be replaced by whatever I end up doing with the booster and carbon canister valve hoses.. The dbilas instructions tell you to remove the booster hose, but then don't tell you to put it back in lol. They do explain where to reconnect the carbon canister "pulse valve" hose. Maybe I need to keep a hose arrangement like the previous build's shown above to act as a manifold for the 3 pairs of throttle bodies? we'll see


Here's the fitting on the bottom of the plenum


The other thing is the cruise control - there's no provision for it. Seems like the cleanest way to add it is to position another cable reel on the throttle mechanism and modify the mounting bracket the cable goes through. Alternatively some sort of 2:1 cable arrangement with either the throttle or cruise cables pulling the reel. I will ask dbilas - these things have been around for more than 10 years... someone must have figured this out by now!

holding up the oem bracket - it sits flat of course and the ITB throttle cable mechanism sits vertical.
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/W9AB3S]

the fuel injector harness also needs to be routed under the center ITB or it will rub


that's why a 2nd cable spool mounted to the same armature is probably the best option.

[bradnic]

as she sits

[jeffnhiscars]

I love a good jig saw puzzle.

[bradnic]

haha indeed. just make sure you solve it before you get on the road right?

just snagged a rebuilt M30 AFM and an M20B25 tune for it. We'll see if it works. If not I'll put it back up for sale.

[digger]

I just cut the pipes for heater back and rerouted the heater hoses to make it work. I never got any leaks and I never swaged the lip. I did fit some hose that was quite tight and double clamped it

[burkey001]

Is that seriously the quality of the casting on runners 3&4?

Was it cast by a monkey using the local playground sandpit? Yikes, I would have expected better.

besides that, cool project :)

[bradnic]

Is that seriously the quality of the casting on runners 3&4?

Was it cast by a monkey using the local playground sandpit? Yikes, I would have expected better.

haha nah.. it's just an old part that oxidized over the years and was resprayed without proper prep. most of the paint has bubbled off there. I'll take it apart and sand blast the housings at some point, assuming I'm confident I can get it back together and align/tune everything properly.

besides that, cool project :)

thanks! Aussies and ITBs just go perfectly together. As soon as they RHD boys have a plenum ready I'll be taking a look :-)

[bradnic]

I just cut the hoses for heater pipe back and rerouted the heater hoses to make it work. I never got any leaks and I never swaged the lip. I did fit some hose that was quite tight and double clamped it

sounds good digger. those hoses are all new so I'll try to find some used ones off one of the cars to hack up haha...

glad you stopped by man! I've had read way too many of your posts lol. I'll be reviewing everything again once I start the stroker phase of this project.

[bradnic]

Gonna try working with Jesse and the sssquid.com folks on this stage of the project.

http://sssquid.com/v2/shop/bmw/e30/e30-325i-with-m30-afm/

[bradnic]

M30 TPS (6 wire connector, clicks at WOT).

per http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=347961, this is an automatic transmission TPS. apparently the manual M30 setup uses a 3 wire TPS, so I should be good with the M20 TPS I retrofitted.

@blackjackT7 had a rebuilt M30 AFM and an sssquid M30AFM/m20b25 tune. Unfortunately it was for a 153 DME but he made me a great deal. THANKS Jack!

I also went ahead and ordered a stage 1 M30 AFM flash upgrade from Jesse @ squid. He suggested I go with the mustang injectors so we're doing that. Also sticking to stage 1 and not stage 2 b/c I don't have the headers in yet. When the chip gets here I'll send it out for reflash and we should have something workable.

[bradnic]

WANT.. Frank had 2 of the new Racing Dynamics long tube hearders left last year and I passed. I'm on the list for the next batch of 6.
Note his old dbilas plenum on the top of the pic :-)



re the inevitable midrange torque drop, i'm thinking the SC + MS combo will allow me to completely flatten and raise the torque curve. We'll see next year.