'89 318i 6 speed m50b32tu turbo swap build

[ba114]

So the e46 coupe is still occupying my time. Got the car running on stock dme, however very quickly discovered a blown head gasket.

Pulled the head last weekend and its getting machined and pressure tested at the moment.
I'll be running an aluminium spacer, athena cutring gasket and raceware studs on this build too as its proven a good combo in the e30.

Hopefully the head will be back by the weekend so i can start reassembly and get it up and running again. I have a 3 day weekend so fingers crossed all goes to plan. I'll also be rebuilding the vanos before refitting.

[ba114]

I've been neglecting the e30 lately because it's in a state where i'm pretty happy with how its running until i finish with the engine build.

I'm the sort of person that has to be tinkering/building/fixing and the e30 hasn't been fulfilling that need lately so i've resorted to other projects.

Back in Feb/March i bought an e46 330i sedan for a steal. It needed a LOT of work, but luckily i had plenty of spares in the garage. Ended up replacing body panels, entire cooling system (except radiator), various interior bits, valve cover gasket etc etc which set me back just over $2k, then flipped it for a tidy profit.

I then took that profit and made another purchase. Another e46 330i, but this time a coupe....with an added bonus being a turbo kit fitted.
The PO had a shop fit up a haltech ecu, which following some dyno time (270kw) then fried. After having the car shipped down to me and examining the DME box, im not surprised; they hacked it to pieces and had exposed wires all over the place.

I've so far wired in a new body side x60004 connector which they had cut off, and received the replacement engine, coil and o2 harnesses in the mail which will now allow me to restore it back to stock DME, and commence tuning that.

I've already developed a base tune for MS43 with the 60lb injectors and the same slot style MAF i used on the e30 so i should be setup to get it going over the weekend once i replace the harnesses.

And here it stands in all its "bumper held on with rope" glory!

[jeenyus]

460hp is no joke. I'm sure you can get even more out of it as well. Great work. love this build.

[ba114]

And do yourself a favor and get a TIG machine and practice practice practice. You will despise MIG after you get the hang of TIG ;)

The mig went in the garbage last weekend actually haha. Still on the search for a decent mid-level tig setup.

[jph]

And do yourself a favor and get a TIG machine and practice practice practice. You will despise MIG after you get the hang of TIG ;)

[jph]

Update time:
Started purchasing parts for the m50b32 build.
JE 297170 9:1 Pistons have arrived.

I was originally going to run these with the m50NV rods i have lying around but it's recently been revealed to me here that apparently these wont fit without modifications. Can anyone else confirm?

If so i'll have to decide what rods i want to run instead.

Your build reminds me a lot of mine. I'm not sure about M50NV rods. I went with Molnar rods and am very happy with them. The weights were extremely close to one another and the tolerances were spot on. They have been holding up just fine against 596 whp for around 1100 miles on my build.

Someone clued me in to the fact that Supertech (generally known for valve train components for the 24V motors) is also in the connecting rod business. Never used them, or known anyone who has, but might be worth a peek.

Keep up the awesome work and let me know if I can help you out along the way when you begin to build your motor.

[ba114]

Update time:
Started purchasing parts for the m50b32 build.
JE 297170 9:1 Pistons have arrived.

I was originally going to run these with the m50NV rods i have lying around but it's recently been revealed to me here that apparently these wont fit without modifications. Can anyone else confirm?

If so i'll have to decide what rods i want to run instead.

[ba114]

Dont have a scope, but actions would be similar anyway.

[pazi88]

Could you use scope for seeing how the signal looks like? For example cheapo dso138 will be enough to see how the signal looks like. It should be 0-12v square wave.

[ba114]

Been trying to work out why i cant get the correct speed signal to the DME. This is important for VANOS control in MS41.2 as it's speed and RPM dependent instead of just RPM dependent as in ms41.0.

At idle/stand still, i record speeds between 21km and 31km. when driving, the signal differs far from the actual speed and is potentially having a big effect on my low RPM power and torque as the VANOS would be operating wrong.

I've adjusted the tune to account for the different in teeth on the diff trigger wheel but there is apparently a source of noise being introduced somewhere.

To focus my troubleshooting, the first thing i did was completely externalise the speed signal from the chassis. So i ran a wire straight from the brown/red wire at the diff, straight to the engine side of the harness and cut the signal through the C101. This immediately fixed the issue

The speedo on the cluster reads correctly when driving which would imply that the wiring from the diff to the cluster is fine (although there may be enough signal dampening in the cluster to filter the noise). Speed comes into the cluster through pin 12 (brown/red) on the white plug (C2). It then exits the cluster through pin 10 (blue/yellow) on the white plug (C2) and runs to the c101 plug.

My next test will be to run a wire from pin 12 on the cluster directly to the engine side of the harness. If this works, then the noise is introduced through the cluster/speedo, or through the blue/yellow wire that connects pin 10 in the C2 plug to the body side of the C101.

I'll then remove the cluster and bridge pin 10 to 12 on the white plug and see what the result is. it will either:
- read correctly and indicate the cluster/speedo is the source of the issue, or
- read incorrectly and indicate there is an issue on the blue/yellow wire between cluster and c101.

[ba114]

Fitted the LSD last saturday. Its so nice not to be instantly pointing towards the side of the road when i put my foot down!
I then spent the late night putting the new polisher to the test before a show on sunday.

The paint was in really poor condition, very faded pink, white chalky type finish but i managed to bring it back pretty well for the first time using a proper polisher.

I also had started respraying the bonnet as the paint was destroyed, but i ran out of paint. As a temporary measure i wrapped it (poorly) with some carbon wrap i had lying around.

Made it to the show with a few spirited runs on the way, then as i was about to enter, i lost fuel and stalled. Very strong fuel smell, immediately know there was a leak somewhere.
Popped the hood and one of the injector orings (cyl 3) had popped down and out of the rail. i can only assume that perhaps the ID1050x adapters aren't quite long enough, and when combined with the fact that there arent slots to use the factory retainer clips along with not enough pressure clamping the rail down resulted in the leak.

Pulled the rail, re-seated the injector and continued on my way.
On the way home, same thing happened on the same injector. Have yet to do a full analysis but i think i should be able to lower the rail by flipping the adapters for fitting m52 rail to M50 manifold. That should get me the required clamping force and remove ability for anything to pop out.

[ba114]

Latest updates:
Bought a 2.93LSD from the states.
Haven't fitted it yet as I've been pretty busy with my most recent project...

[ba114]

I have the diesel box currently.
I know first and second are different to the bz version but perfectly usable with my 3.15 final drive.

[pazi88]

I wanted a 6 speed box. I knew these could handle torque as diesels make plenty, and if cost far less that a petrol 6 speed.

For the seats I moved the body side mounts.

Have you driven the diesel 6 speed gearbox? The gear ratios are different and don't work very well on petrol engine. The first gear is almost useless in practise.

[ba114]

I wanted a 6 speed box. I knew these could handle torque as diesels make plenty, and if cost far less that a petrol 6 speed.

For the seats I moved the body side mounts.