M30 OEM Turbo project

[CorvallisBMW]

The car is still inop as it waits for a rebuilt turbo, electronic boost control, and a new wastegate setup. I'm looking at $1500-2k in parts, so I'll be saving up. I refuse to use credit or dip in to savings for a 21-year old hoopty lol

[Streichholzschächtelchen]

Updates? Just picked up a bunch of m106 stuff and read the whole thread, what a journey!

[CorvallisBMW]

Send it to TCD and get the upgraded turbo. Wonder what went wrong.

edit just saw you were sending it to other guys for upgrade maybe i should read better lol

I've heard TCD does good stuff too. I'm sure both companies are competent.

Anyway summer term of grad school wraps up next week, which gives me a ~2 week break to fiddle around with the car. So I'll pull the turbo out and check it. It's also a good time to prep my downpipe for ceramic coating, and possibly measure the exhaust housing for a PTP turbo blanket. Gotta do what I can to keep these temps down :cringe:

[bradnic]

Holy cr@p an update

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Send it to TCD and get the upgraded turbo. Wonder what went wrong.

edit just saw you were sending it to other guys for upgrade maybe i should read better lol

[CorvallisBMW]

Well, I've kind of been neglecting this thread...

Turns out the return line was plugged INSIDE the fuel tank somewhere, and the only solution was to install a new tank. So that got done back in early June.

e30 picnic went off without a hitch, had many beers, hung out with lots of great friends, etc etc etc.

Then proceeded to not drive it for roughly a month, for some reason. Dunno.

Then a couple weeks ago I decided to dive in to the carbon cleaning/walnut shell blasting on my 335D, which takes several days. So I DD'd the 'vert for a whole week, which kind of sucked, because it's a terrible commuting car. Noisy, rough, etc. But it did give me a chance to finally work on some of the MEgasquirt driveability issues I was having, like erratic idle and throttle response. Too bad it was like 95F for 3 days in a row, and I can't use the A/C when stuck in traffic

Then, this last Sunday, I drive home in the evening, shut the car off, and I can hear *tick tick tick tick tick* after I shut the car off. The ticking starts fast and slows down to a stop over 5-ish seconds. I realized it's the turbo... either the exhaust or compressor wheel is hitting the housing :(

So, time to tear it out and rebuild it... I must have fucked something up. I'm going to send it to these guys. They specialize in these old KKK turbos: http://gpopshop.com/

They do a full rebuild with a billet compressor wheel upgrade for ~$700. Should drop spool-up by about 1000 RPM :evil:

[bradnic]

^ this

[AndrewBird]

What's even scarier is the fact it wasn't caused by bad maintenance/old fuel lines. The situation was completely unavoidable.

[Good & Tight]

Close call, good thing it didn't catch fire, raw fuel spraying under hood + turbo car = ass pucker.

[Kershaw]

You're very lucky your car didn't catch fire. That's how my red IX burned down. :(

Glad everything is together and it's still fixable.

[rzerob]

I am going to have to invest in a fire extinguisher with all these horror stories popping up recently. I am glad your car is safe. Too much time and effort in it to literally go up in flames.

[CorvallisBMW]

Man, that really sucks. Glad your car didn't catch fire!

Glad your work didn't go down in flames. Scary!

Ya, thank god the car never really got up to operating temp, things could have gone south very quickly. I do carry a 10lb CO2 extinguisher in the trunk, and I'm even more thankful for it now

[TimeMachinE30]

Glad your work didn't go down in flames. Scary!

[cleanasse30]

Man, that really sucks. Glad your car didn't catch fire!

[CorvallisBMW]

As far as I can tell, something came loose in the fuel system and plugged up the return line; whatever it is, it has to be downstream of the filter (obviously). The FPR o-ring was really chewed up and had big chunks missing, but it's on the inlet side and IDK if it could actually pass through the regulator?

Anyway, I doubt either the turbo setup or the Walbro 255 LPH had anything to do with it, though the power of the pump definitely contributed to the massive over-pressure exploding haha.

For now I will bypass the clogged section, and in the winter I'll fit a new tank. Works for me.