The official turbo build thread.

[PiercedE30]

Nice progress. You're working fast. Are you just going to cut out the cat and replace it with straight pipe?

[So Live]

Thanks dude! Yeah i hear ya on getting the ar running first. I had my car running m50 for about a year and got most of the bugs worked out. Im hoping i can get the muffler area and the trunk painted for real tomoro or the day after. That way i can get the trunk re wired and the exhaust hung and some tips made up. Im hoping to drive this thing to a friends house in Jersey this saturday!! Maybe ill have MS installed and he can help me tune it hahaha

Me driving it to jersey is more a matter of the tail light lense getting here on time.

[e30325ic]

Glad to see that its coming back together. I am going to hold off on my turbo for now and just get my car running. I should have it together in a week or so. I pulled the m42 and installed it an another car last Sat. I still plan on gong turbo in the near future. I still plan on trying to get about 400hp when I am finished. Right now I just need to get it on the road. Good luck the the repairs. Looking forward to seeing it back together.

[So Live]

Im just going to spray the outside with this cheap single stage enamel for now. Blend it in the best i can. Im going to take a few weeks this sumer and base clear the whole car because i finally figured out that its never going to be as nice as i want it unless i do it.

So basically my summer is going to be... work, get the car nice enough and running well, work some more, fix my broke ass dirt bike, work, buy a decent tig welder,work, paint my car, work, bank some $$$$, work, school. Mm sounds like fun....

Stripped valence:


Muffler area:


Trunk




The "cat" section:


Notice the discoloration from the cat igniting fuel hahahahaha...

[e30325ic]

Good to hear you are still trying to git it back on the road. Good luck with the repairs.

[So Live]

So, finally an update!

Today was a big day. Stripped the quarter inside and out, stripped the whole rear valence. Cleaned the snot out of the area around the muffler. Pulled all 50-60lbs of trunk tar out of the trunk. Scuffed up the inside of the trunk Killed all the small rust spots.

Sprayed some primer on the inside of the trunk and above/ near the muffler area.

I screwed up the mix in the trunk so its kinda screwed up but the muffler area is mint. All in all, not so bad for my first time spraying anything out of a 'real' gun.

Also picked up a 12cm^2 turbine housing instead of the 21cm housing i have on at the moment.

Im waiting on a caliper and need to buy a tail light lense and im all set on parts though.

MSnS is about 5 wires away (idle control stuff) to being ready to try!!!!!!

Pics tomoro or monday. Not sure if ill have time before i head up to limerock...

[So Live]

Well, the cool thing with the non-vanos motors is that they got a six pin hot film maf. The vanos motors (all of them) got a 4 pin hot wire maf. Aka i cant jsut throw a 3.5 euro or 540 maf in! It kinda sucks.

Well the dude who i was supposed to get the voltage clamp for my MAF from never responded this weekend so that never happened.

I got some stuff done but not much. I had to take the manifold off to do a little massaging :) . I welded in another o2 sensor bung in the down pipe this time so hopefully ill get a more accurate reading. I cut the cat out and gutted that biotch. I kinda reworked where the muffler sits cause it was a little too high. So when i left to go to mothers day dinner, i was fitting the gutted cat back in the exhaust. I had to cut like an inch out and it still doesnt fit. I guess i moved the muffler quite a bit!

I rewrapped the wastegate pipe and the downpipe again.

Thats about it. This week and next week are finals so im probably not going to work on her this weekend.

The 21st is time to do work.

[KangamangusDriver]

Housing change should make quite a difference!
Along with the MAF working properly

[e30325ic]

Good luck, keep us posted.

[So Live]

So a little update.

I paid for the wiring harness, the turnk seal, the tail light bulb holder, the tail light controller, and the brake line I need to get the car driving again. :)

Im also going to pick up a voltage clamp this weekend. When it sees 4.9 volts from the MAF, it keeps the voltage there so the ECU doesnt freak out. It should solve my little missing problem at 5500 rpm.

Also just bought a 12cm^2 turbine housing for the holset. It should make for a little more fun than my 21cm housing :) Right now im getting my max boost of 5psi at 4500 rpm in 3rd gear. Im excited to see how much different it gets with just the housing change.

[So Live]

Not really. But it was friggin pooring here. We got like 2 inches of rain in a few hours. And i was driving in it of course :) I think the first thing im gonna do is put the head light backing things in :) Im gonna figure out how to run a engine cover too. My buddy dan might be making an aluminum one so well see how that works out.

I gotta get the exhaust back together with out the cat i guess. Time to order two more v band clamp kits :)

[PiercedE30]

Damn dude. I have had to get water out of my spark plug holes before. I left my hood in the unlatched, but not opened, position. Rained over night and blamo, had ignition problems. Did the car ever sit outside while the hood was off or open between changing plugs?

[So Live]

K so i started taking shit apart today. First thing was to do a compression test. The numbers were great. 205-210 psi across all 6. So the motor seems healthy. Took the turbo off and apart. Everything looks cherry. All the fans are in great shape. No contact with the housings nothing.

While taking the plugs out, the last 4 plugs were covered in water. Like enough water in the plug holes to submerge the plugs. HMMMMMMMMMM WTF!!! apparently the spark could have been arcing to the head and not into the chambers aka my fouled spark plug sensation before the fire. The motor would obviously keep dumping fuel into the motor cause the injectors dont know any better. So the exhaust was full of fuel. The turbo was probably igniting it and melted my cat. The chunks of cat either got stuck in the muffler which i find hard to believe or they caught my rear valence on fire because i had no exhaust tips....

So i think i have a handle on what went down. I need to get the exhaust back together and check the coils (see if they spark all the plugs) And put the bitch back together and see if it runs right.

The cat.. is completely ruined its amazing lol. The trunk pannels are seriously fucked up. Its amazing.... The trunk lid got pretty warped so im gonna have to pick up a new one of those. Im really impressed the spoiler didnt get ruined. That made my day!

[Kwaaahhh]

Can't wait to see you get her up and running again! :thumbup:

[So Live]

So i just finished all the coil wiring and about 98% of the MS to BMW wiring harness adapter.

I have like 5 more wires that have to deal with the idle board and i have to cut the hole in the case for all the coil wires. I need to make the tach circuit too but thats no big deal.

MS is almost done.

I think im going to try to paint my car. Ill do some base clear so i can screw it up a few times :) i might need a new trunk lid as it looks pretty warped :( I do need most of the trunk interior parts and the trunk seal and the wiring harness from probably the rear seat back.