M30 OEM Turbo project

[CorvallisBMW]

Turbosmart hybrid 25mm BOV arrived


Along with a big box full of intercooler and intercooler parts


Basically it will end up looking like this. Just need some time to spend on mocking it up and building brackets. Oh there's a long weekend coming up? Perfect...

[HennaE30]

M30 OEM Turbo project

Turbosmart hybrid 25mm BOV arrived


Along with a big box full of intercooler and intercooler parts


Basically it will end up looking like this. Just need some time to spend on mocking it up and building brackets. Oh there's a long weekend coming up? Perfect...

Why does it need that bend in it? Can you just run from the turbo into the right side of the inter cooler (left in the picture) and then just straight up from the other side?

Edit: never mind, forgot about the shape of the M30 manifold.

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[CorvallisBMW]

M30 OEM Turbo project

Ya, m30 manifold as the TB on the same side as the turbo, definitely makes for tricky pipe routing.

In other news, I spent a good amount of time last night trying to fit the intercooler. Things went well, and I was able to get it to fit after some massaging.

The first thing I had to do was cut off this small bracket that was used to mount the factory aux fan. It stick out past the radiator core and interfered with the IC. You can see the sliver of bright silver where it used to be.


Next I test fitted the IC behind the valance. It fits quite well actually, as you can see in the photos.


There was one problem though: it sat so far back that there was zero clearance between the back of the IC and the core support. While it's important to have good clean airflow going in to your IC you also need somewhere for all of that air to escape to! An IC with a blocked outlet won't work at all, it would be more like an air dam. So I had to do some tweaking to the valance in order to shift the IC forward. Here you can see the IC sitting right against the core support, zero clearance. Not good.


After some inspecting, I noticed that my valance was slightly bent up and in, causing the lower end of the IC to push back in to the core support. After some tweaking of this lower lip, I was able to get the IC to shift forward by about 1/2", so now air passing through the IC will have somewhere to escape to!




I also made up a bunch of 16ga 304ss strips at work in preparation for mounting this bad boy, but when it arrived, I noticed it already came with brackets! Oh well, I'll hang on to them for other projects.





Finally, I had to replace this 180* bend with a sharp 135* and another 45* bend. The elongated U-shape hits the frame rail end where the bumper shock mounts, and wouldn't allow for the IC to sit in the right position. So some new 2" silicone bits are on the way. With all of the other leftover and new parts I have, I'm hopeful I have all the bits & pieces I need to get it buttoned up. Initially there will be a lot of silicone couplers/bends, but my hope is to take the car to my welding guy this spring and have him make hard aluminum tube for most of it. Tube doesn't flex under boost, reduces the number of joints (chances for leaks) and wont chafe if it rubs on something. Plus it looks cleaner and is simpler to service.


I get all my stuff from www.siliconeintakes.com, they have a great selection and good prices.

[downforce22]

silicone intakes is a local shop in colorado springs. they don't really have a store so much as a warehouse here but you can still pick up parts vs having to ship it across town. They have good couplers and stuff but I did not have very good luck with their oil fittings for my oil cooler so I removed it all together.

[CorvallisBMW]

M30 OEM Turbo project

Update time!

I finished mounting the IC using the supplied brackets. I hate to drill 2 small holes in the lower core support, but other than that it was mostly a bolt-on affair. Here you can see the brackets. They look a little chintzy but are far stronger than I expected. The one in the background is bent only because I did it on purpose while experimenting with the fitment; I fixed it later.


And here is the IC centered in the valance:


Then of course I had to pull the IC back out to fit the cross pipe. I used a 135* elbow and a 45* elbow in order to get to the required 180* total and keep a lower profile than the big 180* bend I had in the previous post. That large 180* bend hit the front of the fram rail where the bumper shock mounts, and wouldn't allow the IC to sit high enough.


It took some wrestling to get it in place, but you can see the pipes exist at a pretty good place:


And finally another 135* coupler and 2' section of pipe let me connect the turbo discharge to the IC inlet.


I'm still waiting on a few more parts in order to get the IC discharge routed to the intake, it has a pretty tortured path and will not be easy. My hope is that once I have the car up and running and tuned in, I can have most of the silicone bits replaced with custom aluminum piping. It will cut down on the chances for leaks, the complexity, and any possibility of chafing/rubbing cutting through the soft silicone.

[E3o's_r_us]

whenever i get working on my car i never really stop to take pictures i completely forget about it until i am actually done

[CorvallisBMW]

Same. I have to force myself to stop once in a while and take some photos.

I did a couple other things related to the vacuum system as well. Essentially it boiled down to this:

BOV: 1/4" line, coming from where the evap canister normally purges in to the intake manifold just below the throttle body (reduced down from 5/16"). Evap canister now has no purge function, but I'm guessing that would be the case anyway with the Megasquirt ECU.

Boost Gauge: 1/8" line, coming from a small breather line that normally tee'd off the large vent line between the valve cover breather and intake. Since I'm routing my valve cover breather to a catch can, I had no need for this small line anymore.

Boost Controller: 5/16" line, coming off a nipple that is part of the stock 745i intake tube that I was able to re purpose and re size.

I still need to drill+tap the manifold for the MAP sensor, and figure out where to locate the IAT sensor. But since I don't have them in hand yet, I don't know what sizes I'll need.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

When do you plan on switching to MS?

[CorvallisBMW]

As soon as I hear back from whodwho on when he'll have the next back ready.

[CorvallisBMW]

M30 OEM Turbo project

Intake piping update!

After ordering a few more silicone parts I was finally able to button up the pipe leading out of the IC and in to the engine. It's a tortured path, leading out of the valance, behind the A/C compressor, up past the exhaust, around the turbo intake, and finally to the pre-throttle body intake tube.

This is really just a temporary setup. Once I have the car running well on the new MS2 setup, I'll take it to my exhaust guy to have him replace most of this section with hard pipe. It will look better, have fewer leaks, and be less prone to heat damage.

Here's a shot from the top of the engine. You can see the factory intake tube and coupler, fed by a couple of 45* pieces and the OEM Saab pipe I got from the junkyard (where the BOV is attached). Extra BOV vacuum line is coiled up for now, just in case I need it later.




Here you can see the piping heading down (looking upstream with regards to airflow). It's fairly close to the exhaust manifold, no two ways around that. Once this is finished in hard pipe I'll have it ceramic coated and then wrapped in fiberglass, just like the turbo inlet pipe; should help keep temps down. I'll also likely extend the exhaust heat shields down at 90* so that they form a barrier between the hot manifold and the piping.


Here's a shot from below where you can see the long, straight pipe coming off the turbo, and the shorter pipe which goes up to the engine.


Finally, this is what the inlet/outlet to the IC look like. I won't be able to run my brake cooling duct on this side, but since this car doesn't see super aggressive driving, I'm OK with that.

[ak-]

I put my IAT on the cold side piping downstream near the intercooler. Different for you, but my objective was to put it somewhere that wouldn't heat soak.

What a headache he charge piping for m30's is lol, but good job you've got it down.

[CorvallisBMW]

Good point about the IAT sensor placement. I might try and have a bung installed on the piping just after the IC exit. It will be roughly behind the foglight area and should be less prone to heatsoke than just about anywhere else.

[ZenitramNaes]

I wouldn't worry about heat soak on the iat too much. I have it right in front of my throttle body and over the valve cover and I have zero issues.

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[CorvallisBMW]

Well I still need a port to mount it, so I can put it pretty much wherever I want. I just have no idea what size it is, I'm still waiting on my whodwho MS2 box which, AFAIK, comes with the sensor.

[ak-]

Kieth didn't provide me one, but the one to use is an OPEN ELEMENT GM IAT, just like DIY AutoTune provides for their MS kits and also what Kieth recommended.
The threads are 3/8" NPT and you can get one at a local AutoZone for $17 I think along with the pigtail for $12 or so. It's less expensive online though.

GM #25036751 IAT
GM #12102620 Pigtail