SNAFU; high performance 318is build that lives up to the name, Turbo M42 ➞ Turbo M20

[varg]

My water pump saved my engine. It was squealing so I bought the parts to do the timing belt and pump after the end of my semester and found this:





The belt has been rubbing for who knows how long, and I doubt it would've lasted until its change interval which was around 20,000mi away. The tensioner didn't have much play in it, but its bearing was pretty dry. It's a shame there's no easy way to inspect the timing belt on an M20, no inspection cover. The best you can do is pull the cap and rotor, which I will be doing periodically from now on to make sure my belt hasn't started rubbing again.

what megasquirt are you running? I'm running a simple wastegate setup but wouldnt mind trying an electronic setup if the MSPNP supports it.

MS2 kit build. No idea if your PNP supports it, depends on who built it.

[driftxsequence]

what megasquirt are you running? I'm running a simple wastegate setup but wouldnt mind trying an electronic setup if the MSPNP supports it.

[varg]

Found a suitable line for my oil filter. It isn't a perfect solution, but it was free, and it eliminates the risk of that aluminum elbow cracking due to the weight of the filter and line vibrating away at the end of it.

[varg]

Life took some turns this week, but I managed to get my car back on the road in time for spectoberfest. I wound up shipping the turbo to the shop via UPS to avoid having to carry it around campus and ride to Hialeah on my motorcycle with it, and got it back on Friday. Removing the header is a pain in the ass, the bottom rearmost nut was impossible to get a wrench on in the right angle because of the bellhousing and firewall, and the clearance between the nut and the tube was too small for any of my sockets to fit. I wound up grinding a cheapo deep socket down and hammering it onto the nut which got it off and on just fine, but taking the header off took at least an hour. I welded the 4 cracks with my fluxcore wire and had it ready for the turbo on Thursday night, and installed the freshly rebuilt turbo Friday afternoon with an nice big oil filter temporarily placed inline. I don't like how it's hanging off of an Aluminum AN fitting and I'm waiting on a short 4AN line so that I can place it between the existing line and the turbo in a way that isn't in danger of cracking and falling off.




Other than the spec E30 crowd the E30 turnout at spectoberfest was unfortunately very poor, only a few showed. The convoy in was short, I led 2 other E30s down bumpy, foggy roads around Lake Okeechobee, taking a different, shorter route than in previous years. I don't think the other guys appreciated it in their lowered cars. Got a nice ride on the track in the beautiful M20 swapped 318is track car that I tuned earlier this year, the highlight of the trip for sure.





Got a nice sunset on the way back too.

[varg]

My cylinder head to header hardware is OEM stuff, either the studs back out or the nut loosens, I think the header flange is not flat and the heat cycles cause the fasteners to back off as it moves. I put bolts on the turbo to header due to studs backing out like they're bolts anyway after they rust together. As for IC piping, all pieces aside from one have a bead rolled in, that one piece has a "bead" crimped in with a modded vice grip. Anyway, it's the t-bolt clamps which were causing leaks, even tightened down they would leak where the bolt threads through and in every case except one a worm gear clamp fixed the leak. Haven't really blown any hoses off aside from the throttle body hose a few times.

Yeah it would be nice if you were a little closer, it's the out west part that makes it so far, 20min to get to I95 then another 45 to get down to where your shop is. I'm probably going to be riding down to broward county tomorrow after class to have my turbo rebuilt by one of the shops down there, it's unfortunate that they won't do it while I wait and I'm going to have to make 4 hour and a half trips

[ForcedFirebird]

Use studs on the header. Over the years, I have never had luck with aluminum heads and header bolts. Studs with stover nuts has been the choice.

Also, if you bead roll or put a weld bead on the end of your pipes, you will eliminate coupler leaks. (I have also seen the "poor man's" strap where they put a strap from pipe to pip over the coupler to keep them from popping, sorta like this...



Too bad you moved so far north. I probably have a CHRA you could borrow and/or a stock exhaust so you could go to Spectoberfest. :/

[zwill23]

Even "doing things right" can result in some trial and error that are setup dependent. If you've put nearly 40k miles on the current setup with that few problems I would call that damn reliable. Tying up those last couple loose ends would push it into "bulletproof" territory.

I believe Stage 8 makes generic locking header bolt kits that may resolve your loose header bolt issues, seems like the going rate is around $50, but if it resolves a recurring issue it might be worth the expense.

[varg]

sounds like its time for a v8 :)

I'm accepting donations

[wworm]

sounds like its time for a v8 :)

[varg]

Update: my spare turbo bearings are for a T3 and they don't fit this T3/T04E shaft, so I'm screwed. At this point it's either wait for bearings in the mail and do a crap rebuild (no blasting, no balance) or drive over an hour to a shop which will rebuild and balance it, drop it off, drive back and pick it up 2 days later, spending $250+ in the process. Maybe more than $300 if they tell me the compressor wheel needs to be replaced. Either way, chances of this car being at spectoberfest 2018 are approaching zero. I'm leaning towards a shop rebuild despite the huge pain in the ass that it is, it would be nice to have a nice new turbo. Plan is to buy a bigger 4AN inline filter than the tiny one I have which would clog so fast if anything came down the oil line that it would starve the turbo before I finished my drive and had a chance to check. Going to have to check the filter every time I check the dipstick. Not fun but feeding unfiltered oil to the turbo (sandwich plate or oil pressure sender fitting) has its risks as followers of my build have seen.

are you just going to weld it up and throw it back on?

Probably. I hate to splatter my awful fluxcore welds all over this pretty stainless steel rapid spool header but it's probably my only option at this point.

bravo for daily driving a turbo M20. Ive honestly been thinking about ^^^^^^ this guys ^^^^^^^ kit for a while, but Ive managed to resist the urge and am in process of sourcing the parts to rebuild an M20, likely doing an NA 2.8

Well my recommendation with turbo cars has evolved over the years; if you don't have the budget to put a bunch of nice new parts on it, don't do it unless you're ok with having some problems once in a while. Honestly the M20 has treated me well, but I'm sick of dailying turbocharged cars that weren't supposed to be turbocharged. The cheap power is nice but I have found myself not getting full boost a couple of times per year, consistently, even doing things "right" like buying a header that wasn't ebay junk and a friggin brand new turbo. The charge piping is so long and has so many joints with this setup that something always seems to be leaking, I've trashed my t-bolt clamps because they suck and gone to worm gear clamps which eliminated a lot of leaking at the joints. Now it's just exhaust leaks, header bolts are always coming loose on this car and I don't know why.

Dude, that oil cap is bad ass.

Thanks. It gets a lot of comments.

[KIRIEIW]

Dude, that oil cap is bad ass.

[2mAn]

bravo for daily driving a turbo M20. Ive honestly been thinking about ^^^^^^ this guys ^^^^^^^ kit for a while, but Ive managed to resist the urge and am in process of sourcing the parts to rebuild an M20, likely doing an NA 2.8

[efficient]

are you just going to weld it up and throw it back on?

[varg]

Haven't been getting full boost lately, and it builds slow and sounds like there's an exhaust leak so I took it apart.




Wonderful news. Turbo bearings are hosed. This is the used replacement to my dead turbo which I brought brand new and ran on the M42, that turbo was immaculate, killed when a piece of engine deposit found its way into the turbonetics factory oil inlet filter and starved it of oil. This one was in good shape but not perfect, and now it needs a rebuild. Luckily I have a spare set of brand new bearings laying around, so hopefully the CHRA isn't bored out and they fit properly.



As for the exhaust leak, the turbo flange bolts were loose, as were quite a few on the header, so at first it didn't seem so bad. But wait, there's a bigass crack in my header, running across a joint in the collector and down two tubes. I haven't pulled the header so I don't know if there are more but I'm hoping not. I was really hoping this wouldn't happen, the header was so solid and confidence inspiring when I bought it. It has been on the car for a little under 2 years at this point (was back on the road after the swap in November 2016), and has seen many thousands of miles since I put something like 20,000mi on this car in the past year, but unfortunately all of these miles and heat cycles took their toll on it.



Spectoberfest 2018 is right around the corner and at this point it's doubtful I'll go. My last turbo issue occurred almost precisely a year ago.
SNAFU

[varg]

NOT true!!

My goal for the Car of the Month is to feature cars that the owners have built for themselves. Its not about the fancy paint, fancy wheels, stance-scene. This car checks all the right boxes and there will be some shiny paint cars thrown in too, but at this point the youngest E30 is still 25 years old so its hard to find those survivors and really, these cars should be enjoyed, not packed away in some climate controlled garage.

I'm glad there are others who appreciate my priorities and I appreciate the recognition.

I love this car. That volvo turbo badge is so rad haha. Is the "cool" badge below it also from a volvo? Also what are your tire specs?

Yeah the 'cool' is from an 'intercooler' badge which I bent while removing from a Volvo 740 Turbo. They're 225/50/16s. I love these tires. The car is easier to break loose than with the star specs, but it does so much more gently.