E30 Touring Turbo

[ak-]

Small update: yesterday had a tiny bit of spare time so drove into the shop and pulled the intake and got ready to pull the head but ran out of time before I could actually pull it.

On another note, I'm wondering whether I should just keep one of the turbos I have to get me up and running. This setup is essentially getting the car up and running but I want to build a proper motor for it, upgrade my MS and put a different turbo in there. The turbo I currently have is an old-school NOS Garrett 60mm turbo, effectively the predecessor to the current twin scroll 60-1. It has the RB style 2-bolt inlets and outlets on the compressor side, a .60 a/r compressor housing and the divided T4 1.15 a/r turbine housing with provision for a 3" dump. What are opinions on running this on a stock motor M20b25? It seems a bit too big to me but also don't really feel like buying another temporary turbo when I have a couple of these laying around. Any experienced turbo-ers have any thoughts?

A T4 1.15 AR on an m20 is really big and you're probably going to not like the charactersitics of it. I had a New Precision turbo that was a T4 .63 AR and hated it - had the shop remove it the same day it was installed after I saw the dyno graph.
Granted I didn't know the exducer/inducer measurements on yours vs. the one I tried, but I think it will be a similar experience.

With that said I'm extremely interested in seeing how your BW S256SX does on your motor. I forget his name, but someone used it with a 2.7i bottom end, a 731 head, with e85 and he was hitting full boost near 3k which I think is fantastic - but we all have variables in our systems so I don't know.

Didn't get near as much done as I'd wanted this weekend, essentially just sand blasted my dirty ass ugly oil pan that I bought that was painted green so that I can take it to have the return fitting welded on tomorrow. I also ordered most of the remaining stuff, all the oil lines, fittings etc. So we're getting close!

The whole engine is coming out right? Tap the block for the return man. I can't tell how low your car is or have an idea of how bad your roads are, but using the block as a return vs. the oilpan is one of the things I'm most proud of considering I've blew a few pans before.

[stanhayward]

Hey guys, this is still alive. Have almost all the parts now, got a return fitting welded on an unrelated-smashed oil pan, have the gaskets, the Gates timing belt, UUC clutch and their braided clutch line, all the hoses, flanges and fittings for now. Still waiting on exhaust manifold gaskets but with tomorrow off I'm hoping to get the head off and get the oil pan on there.

I haven't looked at the flywheel yet, but if I had it resurfaced ~7500km ago do I, in theory, need to resurface it again?

[stanhayward]

Didn't get near as much done as I'd wanted this weekend, essentially just sand blasted my dirty ass ugly oil pan that I bought that was painted green so that I can take it to have the return fitting welded on tomorrow. I also ordered most of the remaining stuff, all the oil lines, fittings etc. So we're getting close!

[stanhayward]

Small update: yesterday had a tiny bit of spare time so drove into the shop and pulled the intake and got ready to pull the head but ran out of time before I could actually pull it.

On another note, I'm wondering whether I should just keep one of the turbos I have to get me up and running. This setup is essentially getting the car up and running but I want to build a proper motor for it, upgrade my MS and put a different turbo in there. The turbo I currently have is an old-school NOS Garrett 60mm turbo, effectively the predecessor to the current twin scroll 60-1. It has the RB style 2-bolt inlets and outlets on the compressor side, a .60 a/r compressor housing and the divided T4 1.15 a/r turbine housing with provision for a 3" dump. What are opinions on running this on a stock motor M20b25? It seems a bit too big to me but also don't really feel like buying another temporary turbo when I have a couple of these laying around. Any experienced turbo-ers have any thoughts?

[stanhayward]

Where can i get same as that manifold? need some pics of the fitment on car

I think they're NLA. F34R did a group buy on twin scroll manifolds for M20s and M30s and I bought the first one built but it seemed like it didn't take off because of cost or whatever. You may be able to contact Brandon and see if he still has jigs for it or is still communicating with the guy that actually welded them up and see if they're still being made.

[sayed ali]

Where can i get same as that manifold? need some pics of the fitment on car

[stanhayward]

I figure it should be fine for me. If I ever decided to bump up the power I'll just add a second one inline. IIRC two together inline will support 700hp.

[AusScare]

Very nice project!

Do you think the Walbro 255 will be ok for the job? I've got one too, hoping it'll handle up to 500hp like the specs sheet says...

[stanhayward]

Hey guys it's finally time to start a legit build thread for my 1990 325i Touring. I've been waiting for this and putting things together and buying parts and planning but am ready to start.

So I bought the car roughly 2 years ago in Toronto and drove it back home to Edmonton. It's a Japanese import and when I got it it had an AC Schnitzer S3 body package (essentially just badging and wheels), had already been converted from auto to manual, but had a couple issues. I sorted the suspension, lowered it with an H&R Race cup kit, installed UUC sway bars, a Mason Engineering x-brace and skid-plate, and then Ireland Engineering 310mm Wilwood brake kits front and rear and their front strut tower brace. I left the engine basically stock, only IE headers and exhaust and a Miller MAF conversion. Rocked the car like this for a while. Pics at that time:



Then came the addition of these puppies:

Rotiform ROC 3-piece race wheels and then installed them with KA Motors ultra-wide flares:




After that I aquired this bad boy from Brandon's (F34R's) group buy that never took off so I think I have the only one.



It is a divided T4 flange with twin 38mm wastegate flanges. I regret making one a two-bolt: I had a spare at the time but have since used it elsewhere and have two MVS v-band wastegates as well as a Tial Q BOV.

I bought and sold countless turbos (still selling some) trying to trade my way up to the perfect turbo but have now resolved to buy a new Borg Warner S256SX divided T4 0.83 a/r unit.

So then today it was time to finally put everything into action so I pulled the motor (I'd smashed the oil pan last spring and had this car sitting because I never winter drive it). Pics of that:





And in case you're wondering, that beautiful 1984 Volkswagen Vanagon is my brother's. That thing is such a dope daily.

Okay so plans. The plan is to turbo this motor, I have almost everything I need or it is coming in the mail soon. Hoping for roughly 360-380hp at 11psi and have this as a fun summer toy car.

I already have:
-Megasquirt tuned for 11psi, 30# injectors and single coil
-ARP headstuds
-Goetze head gasket, new VC and oil pan gaskets, rear main seal etc.
-Oil filter sandwhich for turbo feed (ordered)
-Misc fittings (ordered and have)
-UUC clutch (the 500hp or less full face one)
-Gates timing belt. Only the belt because I did the water pump, timing belt and tensioner, thermostat blah blah blah ~7500km ago
-Tial 38mm wastegates
-Tial 50mm BOV
-CX Racing intercooler
-Awesome intake manifold and valve cover that I picked up locally. The intake with extra vacuum nipples welded on and the VC with a fitting to run a catch can
-ATP Turbo aluminum catch can
-Garagistic power steering delete (ordered). I already had the PS belt removed because I like manual steering better, but I'm just going to clean it all up and properly remove it while it's convenient. I also am deleting AC because it didn't work and I'm not sure the manifold would clear it anyway. Also by removing the AC cooler I will have space for an electric fan, the intercooler etc.
-16" Spal electric fan

I still need:
-Turbo oil lines
-Fittings, lines and cooler for a new oil cooler setup
-Charge piping, couplers and clamps
-Turbo
-Exhaust piping to make downpipe
-Turbocharging Dynamics ignition wires and MSD blaster coil
-CA Tuned in-tank Walbro 255 fuel pump
-Probably some other shit and I'll add some new aspects to the whole build so we'll see

I think that's it for now, I may have some progress this week but most likely not until the weekend. Stay tuned!