M50 Turbo Winter Project

[SirMaxximus]

Alright guys! It's been awhile since I've updated this. Car has been up and running awesome for the last couple months, retuned it and have it set around 16psi!

But as far as updates go heres some stuff you missed:

-New brakes all around
-Ebrake now works good!
-Switched from a Electronic boost controller. ditched my MBC.

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I quickly found out that my 7lb spring in the wastegate doesn't like to hold much higher than 14psi... pretty typical. If anyone is curious the Tial springs do fit and are pretty close in pressure rating if you fit them in a wyntonm ebay replica.



doing some testing and basic tuning.








So... I know how much everyone loves husco's.... I drive this car pretty regularly in the summer, to and from work and on the weekends especially. And the lack of armrest and cupholder has really been an annoyance to me.

But I honestly cant justify paying 200+ for a husco.... So i've been wrapping my head around different idea's. I have some friends a few hours away that work on volvo's, they basically have a volvo graveyard full of parts cars. I chatted with them about old volvo armrests/cupholders and we found a few that might work in an e30....

I ended up taking one from them from a 1994 volvo 850, and making a custom bracket to fit. I have more pictures of the process and will post a build thread of it so it can help others who wanna do something similar, but heres the finished product. Big shout out to my brother chris who did most of the bracket design and building. And to Tom and Sara who helped out from the volvo graveyard and hooked me up with it!
















In other news, I started at a new shop a few months ago, we do bmws / audi's / mercedes / lambo's and see alot of performance stuff. But as its been becoming summer we've seen alot of project cars and each tech is getting at least one project car each week. This was mine last week, 1980 VW rabbit diesel. I loved this car and thought it would share it! Hadn't ran in two years and it was just a gem to drive around!





Thanks for all the comments and help, stay tuned for more updates. Right now I'm just enjoying the car for the summer! i might still go do a dyno this year and see what its making power wise.

Next years goals: fatter tires and getting her more planted to the ground on launches.

[SirMaxximus]

Okay... its now the end of January and its absolutely freezing here in MN. -30f before windchill the last few days. A few new things in the last couple weeks.

1st: new condor motor mounts seem to give me slightly more space near the strut tower! all is good!



I re-wrapped my exhaust manifold.... but I used a little less up top which I now realized how close to my coil wires the exhaust is!.. So I made a quick heat shield.









Also! bought myself a new steering wheel! Renown 130R motorsport. Honestly I just disliked how large my old mtech1 felt... I really like how this one feels so far!



Before:


After:

[SirMaxximus]

From the looks of your old gasket it looked like it was just about to blow anyways so this was a good call. Keep up the hard work

Thanks mate!

Slapped everything back together and did the first start up this weekend. Ran good, no problems! Ran it through a full heat cycle and burped all my coolant! All seems good No more timing cover leak which I'm very happy about!

Then I took the valve cover back off and did the retorque on the head since its recommended to do so after first heat cycle.

Since I had my leakdown tester home from work already I decided to do a quick leakdown just to see how healthy everything was still. I'd estimate this motors mileage over 200k, but everything looked pretty good visually when I had it apart.

And results were fantastic, less than 10% leakage from any cylinder!



I know I'm gonna have to advance the ignition timing a little bit now with lower compression, the question is how much really? going to start by adding a few degrees and going from there, my old ignition map was a conservative guess really. But I think most of these things start out that way! lol

[Pootis]

From the looks of your old gasket it looked like it was just about to blow anyways so this was a good call. Keep up the hard work

[SirMaxximus]

Things are coming back together, cams + timing + vanos are back in. Hopefully gonna do a quick start up this weekend and let the car go through a heat cycle so I can re-torque the head again.

Also got myself a new shift knob!

[SirMaxximus]

The tolerances of these cut-rings was MUCH tighter than I expected... getting them all to squeeze together and stay in their spots when setting the head down turned out difficult.

[SirMaxximus]

Havn't worked a ton on the car lately. But got a few things done.
Block + head ready to go back together. Cylinder walls look great! only concerning thing I found was some light scoring on the cam's + caps, but we're gonna send it, she was pretty quiet up top before so I dont expect much different.



So something I knew but decided to pretend didn't exist: My downpipe ran dangerously close to my strut tower. There was maybe 1/8-1/4 of an inch clearance there. As it turns out it that was not enough... Here's some proof:





No harm done and all in good fun right!
-So I invested in some condor motor mounts, I figured less engine movement would help minimize this downpipe issue, I really dont want too much viberation, after some research I landed on doing condor engine mounts and leaving the trans mounts stock. I've heard this is an acceptable mix. we'll find out. My old motor mount on the passenger side was getting pretty slouchy anyways.





also! ran E-brake cables! I havn't had an e-brake in this car since I owned it and its been on my list for a long time!

[SirMaxximus]

Back at it: The E30 held pretty solid at 10 psi all summer long! It's now winter and we are back at building it!

I want to turn it up the boost to about 14-16psi, then do a dyno-tune session next spring and have the car pretty much be done motor wise. I've thought alot on the different options, E85 / headgasket spacer / meth... honestly I think any of these could probably get me where I wanted... I decided to do the headgasket spacer, I think this is the most simple answer as I wont have to go out of my way for e85 stations, and I also want to fix a timing cover leak thats been giving me trouble and I think this will be the most future proof answer as well....


So here we go:

A few pics I snapped before parking







Cams come off







I've never timed a bmw i6... seems pretty silly to have to hold the chain up but I didn't have a much better answer, I used a zip tie on the plastic guide to hold it.



Head is off:



So it looks like the gasket has been replaced before! I can still see the words victor reinz on it, pretty surprised by this.











That's all I got accomplished tonight, off to the machine shop!

[SirMaxximus]

Could you send me your .msq file? or your fuel/ignition maps? Please lol Just to bridge off of for my own project. I'm pretty much running the same set up as you on a non vanos engine. Trying to push 8 psi max for now.
My email is b.couben@gmail.com if you decide to send them, thanks.

I sent you an email with my msq file. Hope it helps mate!

[notsolocal]

Could you send me your .msq file? or your fuel/ignition maps? Please lol Just to bridge off of for my own project. I'm pretty much running the same set up as you on a non vanos engine. Trying to push 8 psi max for now.
My email is b.couben@gmail.com if you decide to send them, thanks.

[wworm]

time for some burnout clips!

[SirMaxximus]

Well guys.... as you get more and more comfortable with a car and push it harder and harder its inevitable that you'll find the weakest link. I snapped an axle last weekend! Feels like true race car problems! lol

Luckily my buddie Justin was nearby and was able to gimme a pull in his ever so dependable Volvo


Also my buddie Gabe was nice enough to let me steal his garage for a week while I found a part, towing all the way back to my house would have not been very easy. Good to have friends.


was told by a few e30 drift guys to not even bother with an aftermarket one as they hold together even worse than a used crusty OEM... so hopefully I was just a bit unlucky and here goes in another used OEM one I got from my local guy this week.


In all truthfulness, I was trying to be a bit of a show off and fishtailing around a corner when this happened, I think the tires just bite at high enough rpm to cause enough shock to the driveline.... but in hindsight, its nice to know the rest of my build is holding together under some abuse.

[SirMaxximus]

Congrats on getting everything ironed out. Very nice work.

Appreciate it mate!

[TheWipprSnappr]

Congrats on getting everything ironed out. Very nice work.

[SirMaxximus]

Been tuning and adjusting things the last several days. tune is feeling very very solid. Megasquirt is truly awesome! really pleased with how much control I have over everything. I upped the boost to 8psi today, it will stay there for awhile. Car feels absolutely great, idles perfect, rev's out perfect, and pulls like a freight train, really happy with how the cheap ebay wastegate is holding up as well. Got the front bumper/apron trimmed to fit the intercooler and mounted up.



also put my ES badge back on... gotta remain loyal to your roots