'89 318i 6 speed m50b32tu turbo swap build

[ba114]

Finished doing the wiring tonight.

Ran the wiring for the battery relocation to the boot, fitted the e36 remote terminals on the m3 wiring cover in the engine bay.

Diagnostic port is in the factory e30 location next to the fuse box and all wires under the 318i harness covers.

Much happier with the new fitment.

[ba114]

I'm liking this.

Any thoughts on timeserts for the headbolt holes in the block? I think it's fairly common, but pazi88 on youtube (he has a build thread here as well, just can't remember his username) ran ~1.2bar on stock bolts without issue, so I doubt its a requirement.

Romraider is definitely coming along nicely. Just need a better MAF and a few changes to uncap the artificial flow limits in the ECU.

In the process of time-serting the block at the moment. I tested the threads before hand and they held torque fine, but given the power and the boost I intend on running I didn't want to have to pull it down again until the bottom end needs doing.

[pazi88]

I'm liking this.

Any thoughts on timeserts for the headbolt holes in the block? I think it's fairly common, but pazi88 on youtube (he has a build thread here as well, just can't remember his username) ran ~1.2bar on stock bolts without issue, so I doubt its a requirement.

Romraider is definitely coming along nicely. Just need a better MAF and a few changes to uncap the artificial flow limits in the ECU.

Maybe the username is the same ;) Yes no problems using stock headbolts without timeserts. Next Engine Will have timeserts but that's only because the threads in alu-block seemed to be in bad shape.

I'm also planning to change to the stock ms41 also and tune it it for turbo setup using romraider. I'm already using it to tune my e36 daily with lots of NA mods and some customer cars and it's really easy to use.

[Northern]

I'm liking this.

Any thoughts on timeserts for the headbolt holes in the block? I think it's fairly common, but pazi88 on youtube (he has a build thread here as well, just can't remember his username) ran ~1.2bar on stock bolts without issue, so I doubt its a requirement.

Romraider is definitely coming along nicely. Just need a better MAF and a few changes to uncap the artificial flow limits in the ECU.

[ba114]

Nice work! This thing will put down just a bit more power than that ol' m40 :)

Thats the plan!

Anticipating it should be good for 450-500hp

[CorvallisBMW]

Nice work! This thing will put down just a bit more power than that ol' m40 :)

[Good & Tight]

The 6262 with .82 is a great turbo choice, will spool very quick.
Nice work on the steering shaft for down pipe clearance. Would be great to see some pics with wastegate clearance.

[ba114]

Wasn't happy with the previous efforts at fitting the wiring under the existing covers, and needed to cull it down to fit the additional M3 wiring cover.

started pulling it all apart, trimming unnecessary length, re-routing common wires together etc. While i was at it, i mounted the diagnostic port for the new harness in the stock e30 location next to the fuse box. This pic is the work in progress.

[ba114]

Fitted up my steering shaft and union joints tonight. These were some parts from flaming river, full credit must go to Nutzy for putting the details up after doing do this with his, it allows much more room for a downpipe.

[ba114]

Today I decided to fit the Renault Clio booster. This is pretty much a straight swap, however the clevis on the clio booster was about an inch too short.

To fix that I just took the clevis off the E30 booster and welded it to the Clio booster at the required length.

I also had to cut some of the insulation off the firewall to enable the booster to fit all the way in, the mounting bolts were shorter than the stock E30 so this was require to enable enough thread to poke through the firewall.

Finally the rod from the booster sat 20mm inside the booster compare to the rod sitting flush in the e30 booster. To fix this issue just cut a rod of steel to the missing length and put it inside the master cylinder.

After that it was all done. No need to bleed the brakes, and the lines just needed a little bending once installed.

[ba114]

The head is currently off getting machined, stem seals replaced and valve re-seating/re-grind.

I did yesterday however finish the e46 steering rack pipework. For the low pressure I used the stock one that came from an e36. Any model will do. For the high pressure pipe I re-bent the stock e30 325e pipe to fit in the new position. The high pressure pipe from a 318i is not suitable, don't bother trying.





Just waiting for the new boots for the rack and my flaming river union joints for my custom linkage and it'll be complete.

[ba114]

Bought a 325e for $500 for the sole purpose of getting the 3.15 diff out of it. Ended up stripping the whole car and selling off most of the other parts for just over $1200 so a worthwhile investment.

[ba114]

This is the schematic i made for my 318i c101-x20 harness.

[ba114]

on Wednesday i started with the wiring. Stripped out the old engine harness and commenced sorting it.



Started with the e36 harness for the new engine as well, and unfortunately found it had been rather butchered at the DME end. At some point a very old Unichip has been fitted. i thought it would be as simple as just removing it and matching up the wires that had been intercepted and rejoining to the main harness.....not quite. There were multiple cuts, different wire colours used in various place for the same sensor etc.Had to bust out the multimeter and do some tracing with the pinouts for the dme connector but eventually had a restored to stock harness.

Then i commenced laying it out in the engine bay, trying to figure out where all the relevant wires need to be placed, i.e passenger side, drivers side etc. This took a little time and the e36 harness places certain wire bundles together that do not make sense/work work in the e30 such as the diagnostic port and the coil power connector are bundled together, however the diagnostic port needs to go where the original e30 port was next to the fuse box, but the coil connector needs to be over on the drivers side in order to be able to reach the coils.

After getting it all sorted i trial fitted under the stock e30 wiring covers and was pleased to see it all fitted relatively well.

[ba114]

Started stripping the engine bay last sunday in preparation for pulling the old 4cyl out.
Took the bonnet and lights etc off first, then got to work on the accessories.



Then i spend what seemed like an eternity on my back, under the car disconnecting the driveshaft and removing the transmission mounts. Eventually i got there and ended the night with the engine resting on its mounts and the gearbox on the jack. It had to sit like this for a couple of days till i could get the engine load leveller from my brother in law.



On Wednesday i collected the load leveller and the crane and got to work!





Without the leveller it would have really been a struggle. i managed to get there in the end after a few adjustments. An extra set of hands would have been handy, but managed on my own.



Old engine is now completely removed!
Next up i'll strip out the old e30 steering rack and replace with the e46 rack i have. Will be much easier to do this now. All the bushes, control arms, tie rods etc will also be replaced with new components ive collected over the months.

The engine is still a couple of months off from being ready to drop in so while im finishing that i'll also get the wiring done in preparation.