'89 318i 6 speed m50b32tu turbo swap build

[pandaboo911]

Could also be your PCV system. Are you venting to atmosphere? You'll have more oil blowing past the seals if you don't have crank case vacuum

You shouldn't need a restrictor on journal bearing turbo if you got a 10AN drain

[Northern]

Just a little oil, lol

[ba114]

Definitely an oil issue... started up today briefly and then shut down due to smoke.

Pulled the downpipe and was greeted with this

[ba114]

Yes I know what coolant smells like based on previous experience. I'm pretty certain this is not it.

Videos on YouTube of blown turbos smoking looks pretty similar.
This one is pretty much identical:https://youtu.be/qwX49_bNhZ4

[pazi88]

It will be blue smoke if it's caused by oil burned in turbo. Did you smell that smoke? It will smell like coolant if it's caused by coolant leaking to cylinder.

[ba114]

Resprayed the valance the other day and re-fitted it yesterday actually along with the bumper.

Had the car just idling in the garage for about 10 minutes to dial in the idle tune when it started blowing thick whitish smoke...

Pulled the valve cover and plugs and put a borescope into the cylinders. They look fine. Drained the oil, no coolant in it. Likewise for the overflow. I've had a few headgaskets blow in the past and this didn't present the same symptoms at all.

I have a suspicion that the turbo is being over fed with oil and is the cause behind it. I'll need to try and re-route the drain so it's more direct and vertical and try a restrictor in the feed to see if it fixes the issue.

[Northern]

Nice! Still need to fit the valence?

[ba114]

Had to make a minor adjustment to the rear carrier support bushing. The driveshaft bolts were lightly tapping the shifter in 2,4&6 gears.

Fixed that through cutting the locating holes off the carrier support bushing and notching it further down. Then bent it so that the bolt would still line up with the body mount. This raised the carrier by about 4mm which was enough to clear the driveshaft.

Drives perfectly now!
Re-fitted the bonnet and gave it a bit of a clean. Thanks to IG filters for making it look better than it does



Time to tune!

[greyis89]

Looking good!

[Jjaniiii]

Nice build!

[Northern]

Looking good!

[ba114]

And now on the ground. Finished the exhaust today. Not doing that job again. It fits, it works, but it hangs too low. Oh well.

Guards being rolled tomorrow

[ba114]

Testing fitment.... guards need rolling and minor pumping.

[ba114]

Didnt spend too much time with the car this weekend so only go minor things done.

I modified the coil wiring harness so that it exits out of the beauty cover instead of next to the downpipe. Was pretty simple, just opened the wiring cover, cut a groove directly opposite where the existing plug exit was and put it back together.
Then just cut the beauty cover where it exits. Not the cleanest example, but should work well.



I also wired up the wideband display i bought from george graves. All went smoothly and easily enough. I used the radio switched 12v, ground and illumination wires and the ground and 5v from the innovate lc-2 controller grounds.

All works well however there is about a 0.1 to 0.2 AFR difference between the innovate gauge and this one; nothing major.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzi7LViB3DA

[ba114]

Couple of minor updates:
- Finished building my new shift carrier. I'm not setup to weld aluminium unfortunately so a combination of JB weld, then fibreglass will hopefully be sufficient. Had to Bash it pretty hard when trying to get the bushes in and it's holding up easily
- Found a place to mount my catch can. The mishimoto bracket slots into the space on the coolant reservoir with only minor mods
- Welded a new flange to end of my downpipe so i can mate it to the rest of the exhaust
- New tyres arrived for the ESM-002Rs. I went with Nankang NS2R semi-slicks in 205/45/16 for the front and 225/45/16 for the rears. Will get them mounted next week and see how the fitment is.