Northern's Sterlingsilber M52 Turbo 325is

[Northern]

^ I guess I never linked it, whoops
http://www.agpturbo.com/borg-warner-...1-12769095003/

so BW S257SX-E, 57/61, billet wheel, added their T3 .82A/R open to 3" Vband housing and a welded 90 degree elbow to the order (Couldn't believe the elbow+welding only cost $35)

Much better size for right now. May upgrade to something like an S360 in the future if I ever go for big powah, but this one seems to be good for 500-something whp, which is more than I'll need for a long time (Since stock CR and all... probably will end up around 350whp if I'm lucky)

[Northern]

Long time, no update...

August - October:

That oil pressure sender doesn't work (surprise, surprise), switched polarity on the wires and still doesn't work, so next time I have the intake off, I'm going to throw some solder on the broken spot to see if that fixes it. Otherwise I guess I'm buying another sender.

Turbo showed up shortly after my last post. Looked spectacular:


Installed it pretty quickly, hacked off the non-stainless bit of the downpipe from the old Holset...


Pretty easy to splice in another piece after that. Then wrapped it down to where the flex pipe starts.



babied it around for a few weeks and took a bunch of pointless logs, didn't change anything and it ran rich as hell, especially on cold start. Sometimes as low as 9.5:1 AFR.

Eventually I smartened up and zeroed out all the Catalyst Heating, and Catalyst Overheat Protection maps, which brought the cold start AFR back into check a bit, then I started messing with the base fuel map with the car warmed up to get it somewhat sorted.

At dead cold start, the car seems to be around 12.5:1 now, which seems more reasonable. Once warmed up, it like to fluctuate between 14.3:1 and 15:1 at idle.

I'm on revision 18 of my tune so far(really only like 8 of those are since I started driving) and I'm not even in the mid-range load/RPM yet.

Vanos is disabled for now until all the fuel/timing maps are solid, then I'll add it in and mess with the timing/fuel modifiers.

I also decided to ditch the "WOT fuel enrichment" since that's what everyone reccomends, and it looks like it would make tuning the fuel table significantly easier.
(Edit from the future: Don't recommend doing this because it causes other problems, easier to tune the main fuel table to 14.7 and change the "WOT Enrichment"/"Open Loop Enrichment" to add % fuel to meet your wanted AFR, and change trigger tables to lower TPS% (Like 30% TPS to trigger WOT). If you're editing stuff in romraider, this should make sense, feel free to PM me if this doesn't make sense)

Oil smelled like gasoline after all this, so I changed it with some rotella T6 that was lying around from when I was going to turbo the iX. The oil that was in there was Castrol GTX 20w50 from my leftover M20 stash, but for the turbo, I have a few jugs of liquimoly for the next couple changes.

Still didn't install those colder plugs, going to try to tune with the stock copper ones until I run into issues.

I haven't even done throttle over ~35% and my Mann Provent is already spitting oil into my turbo inlet, so I think I'm going to rip this off and dump to atmosphere. Not worth the few theoretical crank case vacuum HP to be messing with the AFR by trying to burn oil with stock CR. Also I'm not looking to buy another MAF anytime soon.

I started melting the beauty cover, so I threw the turbo blanket on the turbine housing. I've heard people say that I'll overheat the "oil cooled" CHRA by doing this, but we're going to find out.
Also made an aluminum heatshield that attaches to the beauty cover and wraps around the side of the valve cover.

Didn't put my fogs or brake ducts back in, so the car still looks shitty.

The old Holset just needs a new compressor wheel, and it should be good as new. I'm probably going to keep it for someday when I want a bigger turbo than this little BW.

[Northern]

And today's project was to fix this leaky oil feed:


I randomly decided to pop the hood as I parked the car to get to an evening class, and noticed oil all over the machined surface that the oil feed threads into. I cleaned it up, and tightened the fitting, but there was more oil there when I got home.

I bought this feed line used (I think from the old M20 turbo setup I bought.) Anyway, the 90 degree fitting wasn't aligned right when I went to install it, and since the nut on the hose was loose, it just backed itself off and started to leak.

Took it apart, tightened it all back to the way it should be, and I think I managed to avoid a nice fire.

[jph]

Nice update! My project is moving at a snail's pace. Heading to Korman Autoworks tomorrow to pick up my block from machining and hope to get busy soon on building up the motor. Car is going in for paint as soon as I get the word from the shop. It's a bare shell on jack stands right now and they are going to put it on car dollies front and rear and trailer it out for a full color change to San Marino Blue and then build-up can begin.

[Northern]

Nice update! My project is moving at a snail's pace. Heading to Korman Autoworks tomorrow to pick up my block from machining and hope to get busy soon on building up the motor. Car is going in for paint as soon as I get the word from the shop. It's a bare shell on jack stands right now and they are going to put it on car dollies front and rear and trailer it out for a full color change to San Marino Blue and then build-up can begin.

Nice. I'm eventually going to get to the point where I want more power than I can make on stock CR, and I'll need to build a long block. So don't feel like it's taking a long time haha, you'll end up with a much better finished product.

[Good & Tight]

Install looks great....! I ran a turbo blanket with no issues.

[ba114]

Good progress dude!

[Northern]

Install looks great....! I ran a turbo blanket with no issues.

That's good news for me then!

Good progress dude!

Thanks. How's yours coming? Any progress since the last post in your thread?




As far as the car goes, I removed the Mann Provent today in favour of venting to atmosphere. I used some M20 coolant hose that was big enough to fit over the OBD2 valve cover, something like 1" ID. Dumps down right in front of the driver side engine arm for now.

The thing with the Provent, is that the inlet is filtered, and the oil eventually needs to flow through the filter to go anywhere. I don't understand why it works this way, but I read about someone who gutted the check valve and ran the hoses the opposite way, and surprise, it seems to work better when the outlet is the one that's filtered.

Also deleted my antenna today. It's been unplugged for ~3 years anyway (wouldn't go up the last step, drained battery when car was off.) I don't know where the cap came from, but with a few layers of electrical tape, some lube and a quick smack, it popped right in.

Best/worse thing I did today was do a boost leak test. Found out my old shitty ebay BOV is shittier than I thought. Leaks massively all the time. New one ordered just now...

[ak-]

I haven't even done throttle over ~35% and my Mann Provent is already spitting oil into my turbo inlet, so I think I'm going to rip this off and dump to atmosphere. Not worth the few theoretical crank case vacuum HP to be messing with the AFR by trying to burn oil with stock CR. Also I'm not looking to buy another MAF anytime soon.

This really bothers me.
It looks like the only 2 success stories of people I know of who didn't dump to atmosphere are using vacuum pumps with a pressure valve routed to the exhaust. A guy with an m20 turbo and an e36 M3 turbo.

[Northern]

https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/pro...estion.588697/

^ That's the thread where the guy flipped the input and output and gutted the check valve. I'm going to give that a shot at some point down the road.

Also, I opened the lid before I removed it, I was surprised to see a few cc's of water sitting in the top of it (it's flat inside, but it was tilted ~10 degrees, so it pooled on that side)

I think if I gut it and install it again, I'll be running a clear hose down under the car with a valve in the end to collect whatever drains out of it instead of routing back to the pan, I'll check it and drain it when I need to.

[ba114]

Thanks. How's yours coming? Any progress since the last post in your thread.

Nothing other than fitting the 135i msport steering wheel. I'm over in Japan on holidays at the moment, but the head is being machined, valve seals done and valves lapped in back home while I'm here.

Have to order another cutring gasket this week and then its reassembly time!

Been helping another local with his m52 swap. Getting some good practice with revising his tune with romraider so will be set with mine when it's ready.

Also ordered a slot style maf from a 350z that I'll build a proper maf table for with a resistor that should get it to about 2200kg/hr readings which will hopefully give a cheap alternative to the HPX for the community.

[Northern]

That sounds good. I'd love to have a cheaper option if I ever have to re-do anything.


I keep having bad thoughts about buying a rotten e39/e36 as a beater and throwing all my leftover shit on it. Just take the cheap route with everything and see how long it lasts. Flip OBD2 manifolds and weld them to a T3, ebay wyntonm wastegate (or ebay turbo + internal gate, and stock maf+ resistor, use a hammer to install everything, etc.

See if I can do it for <$1k r3v style.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

As far as the car goes, I removed the Mann Provent today in favour of venting to atmosphere. I used some M20 coolant hose that was big enough to fit over the OBD2 valve cover, something like 1" ID. Dumps down right in front of the driver side engine arm for now.

I had a feeling you would. Most any catch cans combined with boost and plumbed to the intake seem to not pull enough vacuum and or suck oil into the IM. I had that issue even on my NA motor.

This really bothers me.
It looks like the only 2 success stories of people I know of who didn't dump to atmosphere are using vacuum pumps with a pressure valve routed to the exhaust. A guy with an m20 turbo and an e36 M3 turbo.

Check out this thread I started a while back from bimmerforums: HERE. Lots of good ideas and thoughts on the topic. Basically what it came down to were two solutions. Either dumping to atmosphere with or without a vented catch can, or utilizing the exhaust evac kit in conjunction with a pressure activated vacuum pump (seemed to be the best solution - pulling vacuum and no smell/mess)

I would at least stick a good vented catch can (moroso makes some nice ones) on the end of the hose instead of just straight dumping to atmosphere so you catch some of the heavy oil and just let the vapor vent rather than letting it all drip out

[Good & Tight]

I've routed the catch can as follows:
Valve cover to catch can to turbo inlet.

[ak-]

I had a feeling you would. Most any catch cans combined with boost and plumbed to the intake seem to not pull enough vacuum and or suck oil into the IM. I had that issue even on my NA motor.


Check out this thread I started a while back from bimmerforums: HERE. Lots of good ideas and thoughts on the topic. Basically what it came down to were two solutions. Either dumping to atmosphere with or without a vented catch can, or utilizing the exhaust evac kit in conjunction with a pressure activated vacuum pump (seemed to be the best solution - pulling vacuum and no smell/mess)

I would at least stick a good vented catch can (moroso makes some nice ones) on the end of the hose instead of just straight dumping to atmosphere so you catch some of the heavy oil and just let the vapor vent rather than letting it all drip out

Man I've been through the ins and outs of that thread and almost every other CCV thread in the f/i section of bfc haha. That's actually the one I was referring to. Everyone who did a check valve to the exhaust never had success - only the guy with the Dakar m3 in Irvine who ran a vac pump had tremendous success with it. His video is so cool.
Another guy with an m20 turbo did the same with the handle e30ordie on Instagram.

I've routed the catch can as follows:
Valve cover to catch can to turbo inlet.

I've never had luck with this setup :( ruined my octane rating and damaged my first motor long time ago from the cumbustion contamination.
What's your secret? I think I remember your hose from the catch can is just hovering in front of the turbo inlet rather than being directly plumbed into it on an elbow?
Does piston ring gap have anything to do with this? Like, if the gap is expanded from heat to be almost fully sealed for little to know blow by to pass through, I imagine you can directly plumb the line into the inlet with no ill effect?
Almost every single turbo 2jz engine I see is like this and it makes me mad jealous.