Northern's Sterlingsilber M52 Turbo 325is

[Northern]

Holy shit. Every time I've touched this car in the past month, I've found another problem with something.

Snapped a stud off my oil pressure sender sort of, so I don't know if it'll work. -update it doesn't, but I don't think it's related.
M20 silicone intake boot I have is too small.
My ICV hose is rotten
Try to buy the MaximumPSI silicon ICV/Intake boot kit but they don't ship to canada - EDIT: just needed to email them.

Decide to just use a 3" SS elbow with couplers
My 3" silicone couplers I bought in january are more like 3.2" so they're useless.
Can't find any 1/8NPT to 3/16" barb fittings locally anywhere, so I had to order them online and they're taking forever to ship

There's a lot more too, but that's my rant off the top of my head.

The 5 day a week rain that's been going on since winter ended doesn't help either.

[Northern]

Still not sure if that Oil pressure sender is going to work, but on the upside, I think I can get at it without removing the intake.

MaximumPSI Intake boot and "Boost Proof" ICV hose setup is here.
New 3" couplers and 1/8NPT to 3/16" barb fittings showed up for gauges and stuff, and I picked up an early E39 M52 fuel rail to clean up my fuel lines a bit.

Hopefully get all that thrown on the car today, getting real sick of driving this mazda.

[jph]

Need more updates!! And oh by the way…PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't let your photos turn into red X's for another year or so! You're doing almost exactly what I am and this is great having your progress to use as a reference. Love the pics and the progress, keep it up man!

[Northern]

Thanks! Hopefully Photobucket, Flickr, and ig all keep their shit together and don't break my links.

Since June:

Maximum PSI intake boot, and "Boost Proof" ICV setup arrived. A little on the pricey side to get it paid for/shipped (If you're outside the US, they're not currently set up to take payments by credit card, paypal, or EMT, so I had to pay an extra $30 to do a wire transfer - probably something I should have found an alternative to)


Picked up an early E39 M52 fuel rail to move the feed to the rear of the intake, hopefully now I can leave the rail attached to the lines when the manifold comes off. Flared the ends a bit to run regular fuel line instead of the push-to-connect stuff.


Cleaned/scuffed/glued/lockwired the crappy clip-in thing to the manifold, apparently this is common practice for boosted cars. Don't judge my awful lockwire.



Pretty much how the ICV ended up, Used to have it attached to that threaded insert on the manifold between runner 2/3, but this icv hose is much shorter than the old one I threw together.



Didn't have a dipstick bracket and realized last year that the dipstick tube pulls out of the sump before it lets go of the dipstick itself. Figured now was the time to fix it, so I made a bracket to mount it to the manifold. Then I questioned why the hell I wanted something else to slow me down while removing the manifold, so I tossed it and made another that mounts to the block.


manifold, throttle body, intake boot on. Almost looks like an engine again...


Made a charge pipe from compressor to fmic. Mild steel for now, aluminum one in transit.


MAF/charge piping/BOV installed(ish)


MAF spliced in, BOV vacuum done, looking for where to place the Mann Provent.


After finding Aux fusebox terminals online for insane shipping amounts that were probably another month out, I called BMW to order one. I figured, Hey - It's listed for every single car they've made since like 1960, of course they'll have some around. Apparently not. Ended up being like $4 per pin. Sounded good to me, then they told me it was a special order part that would have to come from germany, and the minimum order QTY was 25.

That probably would've been a problem if I didn't have the fusebox from a parts car in my shed. 5 minutes with a stolen bobby pin produced some good results:


Running wires for LC-1, OBD2, Switched +12v, and oil pressure through the original loom because it seemed like the easiest way to go.


Took the flash I made last year (MS41.1 328i maps stuck in a 41.2 M3 file for the different decel/revlimiter/vanos maps/methods) and made a full flash for a 2048kg/hr MAF (Stock ECU is artificially limited to 1024kg/hr, but there's a workaround that essentially works as a multiplier to the MAF scalar table) and transferred the MAF scalar values from the PMAS HPX maf.

Then I re-scaled the RPM axis for my 7200RPM limiter, and the load axis to 1200mg/stk (almost twice stock) for all the fuel/timing tables, magic'd up values for all the "new" cells, scaled all the fuel tables for the 60lb/hr injectors, added a chunk of fuel and pulled some timing, turned vanos off (easier to tune fewer changes at once imo, it'll be turned back on again later) inserted my 328i knock tables, changed to single O2 sensor, and a bunch of other stuff.
Big shout out to ba114 for the patience to walk me through all of the stuff, as I asked roughly a million questions while trying to do all of this.
Flashed it to an ECU:


Still not a huge fan of the Innovate LC-1. Seems to be the most popular wideband with the MS guys, and that's what I originally bought it for ~4 years ago. Between the need to frequently calibrate the sensor, the strange headphone jack separate input/output cords, the weird capping plug + headphone to serial adapter, and the need to buy and use a Serial to USB adapter (well, it's not 1995 - when laptops came with a serial port) which is always finicky by itself at the best of times. This combo seems unnecessary, and ends up being about 20ft long:


And then you have to troubleshoot why it doesn't connect to anything:


So your easiest choice is to buy a different $50+tax serial to usb cable:


And that works, so now I'm torn on whether I keep it, or buy a bunch of $2 ones off ebay until I find one that works right...

Managed to sleep through all my alarms, so I took the day off to get to the point that I was "done" enough to drive...

Still waiting on parts to switch to aluminum charge piping, non-"jdmaf" air filter, and some other bits.

SO I went for a drive...
The car had next to no fuel, so the first thing I did was baby it to a gas station to throw some 91 in the tank. Then I cruised around at low throttle for a bit and watched how the AFRs responded. My logs from this are garbage, because the LC-1 decided to spit out a "custom" value instead of AFR or anything normal.

Went home, fixed the weird LC-1 issue by resetting it and changing the signal it spits out back to AFR.

Then I went for another cruise while logging some more. I decided to give it something around half throttle up a hill, while watching the wideband gauge.

It was pretty rich, 10.0 -11ish, and I get to something like 3500 RPM when I hear a loud pop and a sort of wooshing noise. The car dies, and I pull over. I restart the car, and figure something I didn't tighten had popped/fallen off... Then I notice the big snap ring that holds the compressor housing on was just sitting on top of the center section. The snap ring had popped off and the compressor housing had sagged forward/down a little - just enough to do this:


I came back to the car later, threw a filter in front of the maf, and removed the compressor housing to limp it home. The compressor spins freely, but it has some play now, and doesn't spool at all. I think the shaft snapped. I have one large chunk of compressor to find, hoping it got caught in the FMIC and didn't make it all the way through everything into the engine. Seems to still run alright right now with all the charge piping bypassed.

Googled it, and I found out the big compressor housing oring that comes in the HX35 rebuild kits isn't supposed to be used unless you have an HY35 or whichever varient uses the bolt-on compressor housing... so the massive HX35 snapring wasn't actually seated. I could tell this before: it was a massive asshole to install, way worse than I remembered, and it looked like it wasn't seated as much as it should be. I felt weird about it, but figured I was just being a bitch and decided to just run it. I guess that was a bad idea.

End of the day, it's another $300 to rebuild this. Then I'm stuck with a turbo that's too big for my goals, Old, and has a huge hotside housing (16cm/~1.13A/R). Sure I could buy a Bullseye Power .70AR housing and run this thing, but that's another $300.

I don't want to rebuild this thing again either. I really want to try to spin this into a positive, and buy a Borg Warner S257SX-E with a .82A/R hotside, which should be much better overall. I've seen a few people hit more than 500whp with one as well, so I don't think I'm gimping myself too much if I ever go for an MLS or CES spacer/cutring setup. Originally I was looking at a PT6062, but that's $2500+ and this BW is half that amount.

And to end on a positive note:
New NGK BKR7E plugs showed up (x12.) One step colder than the -6E, and copper top over iridium because this isn't an economy car.

[jph]

Nice update. Seems to be one thing after another with a full build like this. At least you're staying positive about it and powering through.

Quick question...after running with the oil drain tapped into the block would you recommend this route or have a bung welded into the oil pan? Any reason to choose one over the other?

[Northern]

Nice update. Seems to be one thing after another with a full build like this. At least you're staying positive about it and powering through.

Quick question...after running with the oil drain tapped into the block would you recommend this route or have a bung welded into the oil pan? Any reason to choose one over the other?

I like the block tap as long as the engine is out of the car. Too hard to get a drill in/straight, and guarantee you're not leaving swarf in the oil otherwise. On the plus side: Shorter drain line, guaranteed above the oil level and there's not a lot of space on that side of the pan because of the engine tilt anyway. Most OEMs seem to return to the block vice the pan, so it seems a little less ghetto (to me at least) If you ever need to drop the pan, it's also one less thing to disconnect.

If you do the pan, I would get an aluminum bung welded to the pan.
If you do the block, I'd tap the hole and cut down a union to sit flush on the backside, then either braze or JBweld it on. I put mine in with loctite and it didn't seal it, so now it has a fillet of RTV around it.

Really though, I think it's just personal preference in the end.

[Good & Tight]

I agree, the compressor snap rings is a whore, I welded main cap bolts at the ends of the rings to install it.
You should be able to replace the compressor wheel fairly cheap, doubt the shaft snapped, possibly bent, but doubt it, Holset's are really tough.

[Northern]

I agree, the compressor snap rings is a whore, I welded main cap bolts at the ends of the rings to install it.
You should be able to replace the compressor wheel fairly cheap, doubt the shaft snapped, possibly bent, but doubt it, Holset's are really tough.

I just don't understand why the compressor spins freely by hand, but is completely still when I rev the engine. I think something happened. There's some radial play now as well.

[Northern]

Ordered a thing




Picking up a 2"-2.5" silicone reducer as well. Ideally they could weld a 2" to 2.5" 90 degree elbow on the turbo, but I think that's a little unrealistic. Also grabbing NPT-AN unions to keep my feed/drain the same. Worried about what sort of vband flange the AGP housing uses - I know the Borg housings require some weird "Marmon" vband flange that looks more like a single flare, but they look different in pictures than the AGP stuff

[ba114]

Excellent progress mate. Good informative post for those that may want to to similar things.

New turbo is .82 A/R should do great things!

[Northern]

I guess I didn't post some pictures I took while putting the car together, so here they are


Looking like the biggest air filter I'll be able to fit, at least it's not that "jdmaf" HKS mushroom filter. Going for something similar to Kam's last M20 turbo setup with the silicone 90 cut to fit, with a port for the crank case vent stuff.



In progress pic of moving the car out of the yard and into the driveway after the car tent came down. Headlights and 2.5" silicone 90's in place, fits with room to spare.



Valence fits nicely.
Cleaned up a lot of rust from the fender attachment points, and the lower wheel well edges.
Cut holes for fitment and fmic airflow, including removing upper/middle valence brackets.
Added captive nuts for quick release fasteners for the bumper side brackets.
Backside covered with Ardrox AV15 that time expired (TX'd) at work, and I managed to get like 6 cans through scrap hand out. Sprays on as a very thin liquid and penetrates well, then hardens up to a barely sticky wax that's somewhat self-healing.


FMIC clearance RHS



FMIC clearance LHS



Bumper/lip/grilles on:



Slot in bottom of bumper and holes in valence: ends up being almost big enough to fist, but not visible unless you're almost almost level with the bumper

[kensol20]

I guess I didn't post some pictures I took while putting the car together, so here they are


Looking like the biggest air filter I'll be able to fit, at least it's not that "jdmaf" HKS mushroom filter. Going for something similar to Kam's last M20 turbo setup with the silicone 90 cut to fit, with a port for the crank case vent stuff.



In progress pic of moving the car out of the yard and into the driveway after the car tent came down. Headlights and 2.5" silicone 90's in place, fits with room to spare.



Valence fits nicely.
Cleaned up a lot of rust from the fender attachment points, and the lower wheel well edges.
Cut holes for fitment and fmic airflow, including removing upper/middle valence brackets.
Added capacitive nuts for quick release fasteners for the bumper side brackets.
Backside covered with Ardrox AV15 that time expired (TX'd) at work, and I managed to get like 6 cans through scrap hand out. Sprays on as a very thin liquid and penetrates well, then hardens up to a barely sticky wax that's somewhat self-healing.


FMIC clearance RHS



FMIC clearance LHS



Bumper/lip/grilles on:



Slot in bottom of bumper and holes in valence: ends up being almost big enough to fist, but not visible unless you're almost almost level with the bumper

Its looks good keep up the good work .what kinda numbers your looking to pull with this setup?


Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

[Northern]

Probably 350whp best case.

I have two big things working against me:

1. 91AKI is the highest octane I can get around here. On top of that, Nova Scotia gas is reputed to be crap compared to the rest of the country (Which most of that gets 94 octane pump gas, and spotty amounts of E85 around western/central canada)

2. Stock compression ratio doesn't do me any favours either, but I'll probably eventually go ARPs+MLS or CES cutring/spacer to bring that down to make a little more. I think this new turbo would be good for 500 at least with lower CR.

[varg]

What are the dimensions of that intercooler? Looks like a decent piece. That engine is going to have a good feel when you get it going, that high compression 2.8L with a HX35 should spool nice and quick and have plenty of low end torque.

[jph]

I'm going to steal your idea of cutting a chunk out of the front bumper to get some airflow to the intercooler. I might try to see if there's a way to mount some kind of angled piece in place of the cutout to direct the flow to the intercooler/radiator when the car is moving. Might not be worth the effort but I'll see what's what when I get to that point.