Northern's Sterlingsilber M52 Turbo 325is

[Northern]

I know I already posted wheels and tires on the last page, but I found something on facebook marketplace I couldn't pass up.



The exact same 15x8 ET25 Konig Dekagrams that I bought (except in black and ceramic coated) wrapped in 225/50R15 Toyo R888Rs with a handful of km on them.

The guy selling them had them mounted on a late 325i cabrio. Front fitment had a lot of poke, but I'm hoping camber plates and more roll/pull will make these fit.

The price was the same as a new set of R888R plus mount&balance. A couple nicks on the shoulder from clearance issues, but I still think it was a steal.

Here's a comparison shot of E30 diameter 225/50R15 R888R vs Miata diameter 245/40R15 CR-1 (now called CR-S)



Overall the CR-1 are barely wider than the R888R, but the tread is much more square.
Funny how much difference the ~5% diameter undersize makes.

Edit: Tacking a knee update onto this.
I've been doing physio twice a week since the new year and it's come a long way.
Probably 60-70% recovered now. Not quite the extension of the other, and only 130deg max bend, but that's still a massive improvement.
I can walk with only the slightest limp, I can do stairs up & down (down took a long time).
I switched from a knee brace to just a cheap knee compression sleeve a few weeks back, and ditched the sleeve last week.
I can't carry/lift anything or crawl under a car, but I've been getting some stuff done around the house.

Garage still planned for April, site prep isn't as progressed as I thought it would be, but I still have time.

[Northern]

...And the pipe for the turbine housing was 1.5" Schd 10 T304 SS from Vibrant + a flange also from ebay.

[Northern]

Is that a Tial MV-S? 1.5" output tubing?

Where did you source that flex section of pipe? I've been looking for a set of them for when (if?) I recirculate my gates.

MVR and the tubing I think is 2". Instead of fitting in the recess of the vband, it is basically flush with the OD of the non-clamp surface on the vband flange (if that makes any sense lol).

Here's the link to the flex, which helps the 2" theory

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/333713838369

[Panici]

Is that a Tial MV-S? 1.5" output tubing?

Where did you source that flex section of pipe? I've been looking for a set of them for when (if?) I recirculate my gates.

[Northern]

How do you like the Nankangs? Thinking something like that for a steer tyre for my e36

Can't say yet, I didn't even test fit them, they're still taking up space in my basement. Hopefully I'll have a chance to see how they fit in April/May. The widths on the front will likely be a problem, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it.

[econti]

How do you like the Nankangs? Thinking something like that for a steer tyre for my e36

[Northern]

maybe i missed it, but how did you end up routing your wastegate dump? nice score on the s52! I see s50/s52's pop up locally from time to time and boy am i glad I got mine when they were "cheap"

Man, I can't believe I didn't post any pics of that lol. The only pictures I seem to have, I found in my instagram story history?

[s14brent]

maybe i missed it, but how did you end up routing your wastegate dump? nice score on the s52! I see s50/s52's pop up locally from time to time and boy am i glad I got mine when they were "cheap"

[Northern]

Have you fooled with the MS41.3 yet?

I've been testing/running MS41.3 on this car since 2020.

The features I use are:
Extended fuel/ign maps
MAP and AFR datalogging (Bosch 3bar MAP and Innovate LC-1 that feed 0-5V into the Bank2 pre-cat and Bank1 post-cat O2 sensor inputs)
CEL Flash on knock event
Load based Open Loop Enrichment (stock is TPS threshold)

The newest update from Jan 2022 added some logic to natively support more than 1024mg/stk of load. Before I had 1/2 my MAF scalar to make the ECU think it was only getting half the air to basically double the load range.

It also added the ability to feed a 0-5V wideband O2 signal to my Bank1 O2 input and use that for STFT.
Basically it means I can ditch the original narrowband O2 sensor/wiring and change the inputs I use to be WBO2 on Bank1pre, MAP on Bank2pre because pre-cat logs faster.

I haven't run the car on that version yet. I updated the ECU, read the partial, and updated probably 75% of that to match + undo all the load halving BS, but I need to double check everything.


Future:
I doubt ethanol will ever be a thing here, but would be cool to use the flex fuel logic.
Would love to implement traction control with some sort of unit like bmwman91 created, and have it feed into the old ASC inputs to toggle the "Ign Retard Limiter"

Only issue I've had with it the entire time was when I flashed an older version 41.3 partial onto a new 41.3 full flash and the car wouldn't idle. Shake sorted me out quickly/reminded me that I had to use the partial that comes from reading the updated full flash.


Nothing to report on this car otherwise. Didn't move all year, then I broke my leg around the same time the GFCI plug for the battery tender tripped and the battery is now toast.
Need to start/move it before April to have a garage dropped in, so I guess I'll be figuring out a battery sooner than later.
Also needs diff pinion bearings still, but that'll be after April and I'll probably just drop the diff and bring it somewhere.

Would love to get this sorted this year, but it has a lot of competition for my free time (New cottage, garage interior finishing, Bath & kitchen renos, 4dr e30 beater, R56, Outback, CBR repair to sell, etc.)

[moatilliatta]

Have you fooled with the MS41.3 yet?

[Northern]

No real progress to report since last week.
I reinstalled the turbine housing and checked the WG to make sure it fits like the 3d printed part that Sunday, then had the working day cut short by Mother's day plans.

The following tuesday, my wife tested positive for the 'vid so she's been home and I've been WFH while preparing to catch it from her.
Almost a week later now and that hasn't happened luckily.

After WFH, I didn't have energy to do real work on the car this weekend.
On the other hand, a friend of a friend who is an E36 guy, is moving and has been trying to move his '95 M3 and all his spare parts.

One of these spare parts is a disassembled S52 that came from a local "dealer" that imports used JDM/German/Italian cars used to have a race team with 2 E36 M3s.
Apparently this was a spare engine for one of the cars that they tore down to build/rebuild, but then bought a complete 11:1 S52 from VAC.
This guy and my friend worked on that car, which is probably how he ended up with this engine.

I went to look at this engine a few weeks back but only left with a spare set of S52 lifters/springs/valves (since 2 of my M52s have corroded lifters)
Everything seemed in good shape - some typical scoring on the cam journals, a couple scrapes on the piston skirts and cylinder walls, but nothing you can feel. Tiny specs of rust on the edges of the lifters, OFH and engine beauty cover were missing. Engine otherwise is very clean.

When I looked at it, it was clear we had different price expectations, so I didn't make a real offer.
I expected someone to make a real offer (like someone who races an s52 car?), but two weeks later we talked and struck a deal.



No idea what I'm doing with this yet. No plans, just couldn't pass it up.
It's just sitting in bags flooded with fluidfilm until I get some bad idea or need a new engine.

[Northern]

What brand of exhaust wrap and turbo blanket did you use? Would you recommend them?
Going to try and not cook my fresh paint; so far everything test fits very tight. Even some precision hammering won't get the downpipe far enough away to use it unwrapped.

First wrap(the black/grey matte stuff) I used was just some ebay stuff, the nicer looking/gold stuff is just the amazon "Titanium Exhaust Wrap":

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0181QFHBG/

Happy with it, it's held up well except for where it rubs on the firewall heatshield and the strut bar.
Fibers come off it as you apply, so I used gloves and a mask while wrapping. I misted water on it as I wrapped because somewhere I read said to do that instead of going in dry or soaking the whole roll.

The turbo blanket is some no-name ebay T3 blanket. It works alright, and I managed to get it off in one piece so I'll try to cut it and reinstall around the WG.
Once it gives up the ghost, I think I'll spend the extra for a nice PTP blanket.

Started at page 1 and looked at all the pictures. Did some reading as well.

haha some reading for sure, I've done a lot of long winded rambling in here.
I'm trying to be better with remembering to take pictures and let them do the talking

[Panici]

How have I not seen your build thread before?!
Maybe you should add it to your signature or something. Subbed for updates.

Started at page 1 and looked at all the pictures. Did some reading as well.
Like seeing the turbo M52 as I'm actively going down that rabbit hole myself as you know!


What brand of exhaust wrap and turbo blanket did you use? Would you recommend them?
Going to try and not cook my fresh paint; so far everything test fits very tight. Even some precision hammering won't get the downpipe far enough away to use it unwrapped.

[Northern]

Can't believe I put this off so long

lol.
Well, almost a year after that post, I started the work today.

Turbo blanket off


Some SCH 10 304 stainless pipe


Paper towel template and some grinding later


(Video)
VID_20220507_141225

AGP housing off after marking location and checking hood clearance


Mark inner cut line


after a holesaw and some carbide burr action


hot metal glue gun go brrrr


I'm letting it cool overnight, then reinstall/plumbing WG into downpipe tomorrow hopefully.


In other news, I just spent far too much money having a my roof resheathed and reshingled. To be fair, this should've been done years ago - basically as soon as we bought the house, a chunk of the roof came off in a hurricane, and it's been downhill from there.

The roofing company wanted the cars out of the driveway, so the night before, I started the e30 up and moved E30, Outback, and R56 onto the street. That made for a good opportunity for some pics






I was going to wait until these were on the car, but here's the new E30 wheel/tire setup...

Drove them to get fitted in the R56, only 3 tires fit across the back lol


Mounted



Wheels are (surprise) Konig Dekagrams, 15x8 ET25. 12.5lb per wheel.
For comparison, TRM C1s are listed as 14.6lb per.
Sparco FF1 (what I've wanted for a year or two) are 12.5~12.6 as well, but harder to find and TWICE the price.
Basically identical (including colour) to the R56 wheels, except offset/diameter.

Tires are Nankang CR-1 245/40R15. 200TW tire, but supposedly same compound as the AR-1, just "cheater tire" 200TW marked. The price was right too.
Not sure how well they fit, and haven't decided if I'm going to run these full time or only for autox.
All I know is I want to get rid of the ESM CCW reps because the rear offset is wrong for meat, I don't like how the car drives with them, and 225 options in 16" are few and getting worse.

[Northern]

yeah there's a guy i follow on ig "bzdrifts" who had wastegate boost creep issues as well and had a tial flange welded directly to the exhaust housing. it turned out really great fitment wise imho and it fixed all the issues. its not very far down on his profile, oh and he kept a screamer pipe if thats the route you want to go!

I just took a look and that's pretty much where/how I want to mount my current TiAl, just minus the hood dump.
If I can sneak it past the downpipe without cutting the downpipe up, I'll do that to keep the screamer pipe. It's pretty damn tight so it'll probably end up getting plumbed into the existing downpipe

Can't believe I put this off so long