Another turbo M20 build

[jaywood]

Looks like a CXracing 21"X9"X2.75"

[redsubdivisions]

Jaywood is correct. I got it from CXRacing's ebay site. It fits pretty well, all you have to do is tap the apron out a few times with a hammer and two of the supports have to be eliminated (you will see what I am talking about when you do a mock up). Also the headlight brackets must be cut a little for 2.5" piping to fit, at least for later models. One thing I have to say is take out your fog lamps before you start hammering away. I shattered one of my lenses and had to buy a new fog lamp assembly.

[redsubdivisions]

Well, I am just about finished! All that is left to do is re-wire my GM coils and basically start her up.


Soldered coil drivers, which will also help me with launch control, anti-lag, and 2-step. That's if I need it. lol


Harness to plug and unplug the coils.


The way it sits now. Pretty much all ready to go!

Hopefully my next post is a video of me starting it up for the first time. This has been an entirely overdue process but in the end I really hope it was worth it.

[redsubdivisions]

another "awesome" update/delay:

In my first attempt to start it up, I had no such luck. More than likely my spark settings weren't correct. After examining what could possibly be wrong, I managed to stumble across two puddles of clean oil near the front. After trying to utilize the stock oil cooler with -8 AN fittings and a crazy contraption of fittings, it ended up being a waste. I just jumped on eBay and got some 90 degree fittings and a 10 row cooler.

Now I have to wait a few days for a new oil cooler to come through. This one will be a little bit thicker and taller but not as wide as the stock cooler.

My piece of advice for anyone that is taking any sort of notes from this is to either bend the stock lines like everyone else or just get a whole new oil cooling system. I've wasted a dumb amount of money trying to make the stock one work with zero success.

[redsubdivisions]

I've made some good progress since my last update:

I ended up getting another oil cooler that would fit my current -8 AN fittings. Worked perfect and is in place of the stock cooler.

Once I cleared that up, I tried to start her up again. Took the time to go over my wiring, triple checked everything and managed to find no faults. Loaded up a solid base tune from a friend of mine and cranked away. Sounded like it wanted to fire up. I checked the spark plugs and there was definitely spark. Something still wasn't right.

After pulling out the spark plugs to examine what was going on inside the cylinders, the one thing that puzzled me was that the front 3 were wet and the rear 3 were dry. Only one bank of injectors was firing and it was the 1st one. I had a friend come over and get a second opinion and he switched the car to sequential injection and although it ran like total shit, it was one step closer to figuring out what the issue was.

After searching quite a bit on google, I noticed that I wasn't the only person having an issue with this. It turns out that my wiring for my batch fire setup was incorrect. I originally had it at 123 and 456 (which I thought was the correct way for whatever reason), when it should have been 135 and 246. I figured I would give it a shot and the worst thing that could happen was my car wouldn't start and I would have to keep troubleshooting.

Well, I'm glad that I did because that seemed to be my problem all along. After hearing her roar to life, a mix of paranoia and relief overcame me. The car seemed to stay a solid idle, but not unassisted. My goal now is to get the car to idle on its own (I currently have no ICV, so cold starts will be a fun factor until I decide to put the ICV back in) and then get a solid base map down so I can go do a few pulls and get it to daily driven status.

[rhE-30]

cool build.

[redsubdivisions]

cool build.

It's pretty drawn out, especially since I have had so many life changes from nearly 3 years ago since I first started it. You would think I would be done by now! lol

[rhE-30]

It's pretty drawn out, especially since I have had so many life changes from nearly 3 years ago since I first started it. You would think I would be done by now! lol

At least your not giving up. Pfft turbo...sedan! Going its going to be sick.

[redsubdivisions]

At least your not giving up. Pfft turbo...sedan! Going its going to be sick.

thanks man.

I am now having an issue with it leaning out at idle pretty bad, so I am going to recheck all my wiring to make sure there is fuel getting to each cylinder. I pulled 2 spark plugs, one of them soaked in fuel and the other with barely a hint of fuel....which leads me to believe that for whatever reason, MS isn't firing a batch of injectors. That would probably account for my extremely shitty idle and running very lean at idle.

[redsubdivisions]

In a mad dash to get the project done, I have decided to basically start over with the wiring. I managed to get my hands on another M20 harness from a local BMW and Mini scrapper and use that and get a MS PNP from whodwho. This is something I should have done from the beginning to avoid any issues, but I decided to let my friend do a hack job. Combined with lack of communication from him and no prior knowledge of what the fuck he deleted and kept, I am chalking this up as a lesson learned for future applications, so I don't see it as a total loss. My engine bay looks like someone barfed out a bunch of wires, so that shit is getting 86'd real soon.

The project is at a halt for the time being as my son who was due July 7th was prematurely born this past Tuesday, May 20th. He is in NICU, so I have zero time to work on the car for the time being. It sucks, but the project will eventually get back on track and have a cleaner engine bay. Something tells me that the new harness and Megasquirt (compared to my outdated MS1 that I currently have) will solve some issues...but most importantly look nice and stock in my engine bay.

[redsubdivisions]

So...started the car up today! And just by switching to whodwho's PNP setup, the car fired up on the first try. I am pretty impressed with his build and his communication, so I recommend him for anyone wanting to go the same route as me.

Before I started the car up, I had a shitfest of a time figuring out why the MS wasn't communicating with the laptop. After installing, removing, and reinstalling drivers on a serial to USB cable I got from eBay, I ended up finding out what the problem was: the piece of shit cable I bought from China.

Word of advice? Shell out the extra money and get a solid cable. I went down to Radio Shack and shelled out $26 for a 6 foot serial to USB cable and it worked fantastic.

The night before, I ended up shelling $60 to download the full version of Tuner Studio. After reading reviews on the many more features, I figured why not. Plus the ability to do much more than the lite version seemed like a no brainer to me.

Upon getting the car to idle on its own, I drove it around the block. I didn't go into boost considering I still need to get a good tune in, but the fact that I was able to once again drive my E30 really made me feel good. I was paranoid the entire time but the car felt much smoother as I let autotune do its thing for about 10 minutes. It's bloody hot out, so I called it quits for the day. Hopefully I can get this thing dialed in so I can get it over to a dyno and see some numbers.

[redsubdivisions]

So, I can finally say my car is done. After 3 years of setbacks and a dumb amount of money, my E30 is finally boosted.

Was it worth it? Absolutely, but it was a big lesson learned. From selling the original shell to buying a whole new ECU and harness, the entire thing almost seems pointless from the beginning. but I am happy with the end result!

the last time I had a boosted car, it was haphazardly done and didn't last long enough for me to get it properly finished. the E30 was a completely different story and if there is one thing I can say I appreciate about this car, is the torque it produces. It's not a sudden, tire-spinning slaughterhouse. Although that would be awesome, it would kill drivability. Boost is addicting, that's for sure.

[redsubdivisions]

Going to give a nice update since I have been driving this car more often.

I was having an issue with breakup around 5k or so. I digged through to see if it was wires, plugs, coils....couldn't quite get it. Because I was running wasted spark, I was using a GM coil board from a 3800. That managed to take a shit and was only running 2 out of 3 coils. Picked up another one, gutted it and soldered connections in it, took it out for a spin and the car screamed all the way to 7k this time. Completely changed the car, so it seemed that was my issue all along. That's also when I discovered my car was making 14psi and not 9. lol

Driving off boost is actually quite clean! 2k in 5th cruises quite nicely (I'm running a 3.73 rear end). No pops, hiccups, etc. I highly recommend whodwho's Megasquirt Plug and Play built into a motronic unit. Without his ECU and assistance through emails, I would be back at square one. (Check out his stuff here: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=202653)

Another person who I would also commend for a very clean setup for a boost gauge is justrack; the boost gauge in place of the MPG is the most stealth and OEM looking gauge I have come across. Very accurate and affordable. (Check out his options here: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=291812)

I have learned quite a bit using Megasquirt. I really recommend getting the full version of TunerStudio. It's worth the $60 to be able to get your settings in quickly.