E34 540i/6 Turbo Build

[philly98540]

Beautiful welds. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

You wrapping the DP?

[DUDMD]

Yes, using exhaust wrap to wrap the downpipe and the crossover pipe for the turbo manifold.

[DUDMD]

And it's finally alive. Just awaiting for a new radiator to show up and a fitting for my clutch line. Otherwise should be good to start the basic tuning and working out the bugs.



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Finished the downpipe by welding on a brack to support the downpipe to the transmission. Should reduce stress greatly, so that the exhaust does not pull on the turbo/manifold/downpipe.
Wrapped the crossover pipe and downpipe both in exhaust wrap to prevent heat loss on crossover pipe and keep the suspensions parts and wiring around the exhaust cooler.

ECU wiring worked great, fired up no problems. Now that it's running, I can spend a bit of time cleaning up the engine bay a little bit and wiring/etc.

[Pit Bmw]

Impressive work

Everything comes easy to you

[jimmyz66]

What hp/tq numbers are you aiming for? Seems like a lot of work if under 900 rwhp, but very quality build IMHO.

[tptrsn]

What hp/tq numbers are you aiming for? Seems like a lot of work if under 900 rwhp,

Haha, what? Strange opinion coming from someone who has gone through what you have gone through to get the results that you have gotten...

[wazzu70]

Looks really good! Whatever the power numbers you achieve it is a great build. People say its near impossible to turbo a M6x motor, but you showed how it can be done. Seems to be a better bang for the buck than a supercharger setup too

[DUDMD]

I'm looking for 500whp on my dyno dynamics, which is around 650hp crank. Should be plenty for a stock m60.
I will be upgrading my SL65 AMG in a month or so with a Precision 7675 and shoot for 800-900whp on stock motor.

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Looks really good! Whatever the power numbers you achieve it is a great build. People say its near impossible to turbo a M6x motor, but you showed how it can be done. Seems to be a better bang for the buck than a supercharger setup too

Bang for the buck, probably not. Could've bought 2 supercharger kits for the price of this build. But if you add a clutch/standalone and a few other nice accesories, then yes. It will run similar cost to turbo/supercharger, and I'll pick the turbo any day.

[ltpickles]

Would it be possible to do this and keep the AC? Could the turbo be mounted under the car?

[DUDMD]

Would it be possible to do this and keep the AC? Could the turbo be mounted under the car?

Probably, just tougher to fabricate around it. But definitely doable

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[tptrsn]

I'm trying to keep the A/C in my e39 540 single turbo setup. I think it's doable, but I agree with DUDMD, it's a big project to get it all to work.

[ltpickles]

I look forward to your solution, lead the way!

[geargrinder]

Looks super sano Dima. Nice stuff.

People say its near impossible to turbo a M6x motor, but you showed how it can be done.

Yeah that's mainly in ref to doing it in E39 chassis, since we have seen the M6x turbo'd in swap setups before, but its not like the E34 is a Ford F150 engine bay either.

And tptrsn is working on a build very much like Dimas in an E39 so we'll see how that turns out. If he makes it it'll be a first for sure after countless fails.

[DUDMD]

Still waiting for the new radiator to show up. So that I can get it on the dyno and have some fun tuning.
Also ordered some 5psi waste gate spring, going to take the 10psi ones out. No reason why I shouldn't be able to hit my 15psi goal, but also have better traction and safer tune on lower boost for street driving. Boost by gear will be activated as well as ignition cut traction control.

Waiting to hear back from Weld Racing to see if they're willing to make me a set of wheels. S71B with 15x9 rear and 17x7 front.

Meanwhile got walbro 450lph fuel pump installed. Still need to install the hardwire 30amp relay kit to feed it more juice and not rely on the old stock wiring with a max of 15amp rating.

Redid my -4an clutch line setup, braided line is as short as possible. Bleeding is simple, and clutch pedal grabs right at the top now. Shifting should be much easier now. My old line was too long and I never got the air out of it properly. Now with a slave cylinder holder tool, and motiv power brake bleeder, no air in 20-30 seconds of bleeding.

Welded on a mounting bracket to the catch can and got that installed.

Also connected the 1/4" air lines to the waste gates/turbo/boost solenoid. Wired up the boost solenoid to the ECU and tested it. Used the generic molex type of connector for the boost solenoid temporarily that was supplied with the solenoid, got a pack of 2 pin delphi weatherproof connectors on the way to replace the molex ones.

Wired up the 2 egt sensors, and noticed 50-75c difference between bank 1 and bank 2. Probably due to placement of the probes. Bank1 has the egt in the log manifold right next to the exhaust port, while the bank 2 probe is further down about 1-1.5ft away from the head ports and after all 4 cylinders merged into one.

A few pics for now. Should be getting close to being done very soon. My friend is going to waterjet me a new bracket to securely bolt down the ICV, as I have it on zip ties temporarily for now. The factory rubber ICV mount I don't think will hold or last long with boost pressure.


Walbro 450lph fuel pump



Walbro 450lph on the left, stock e34 fuel pump on the right


Soldered the wires to the factory wiring. Pump set to same height as stock pump. Had to add a rubber piece of hose to make up for the smaller pump body, and it now holds well in the factory plastic mount assembly. Pretty easy install in my opinion.



Air lines hooked up to the wastegate bottom port, used some thermal insulation to protect the line from melting.




Cutoff the factory MAF connector. Perfect source of 12v, ground, and 2 wire going to the ecu. Reused the power to feed boost solenoid, and white/yellow wire to GPO3 on the standalone to control the boost solenoid. Made it too easy to wire up the boost solenoid. Tucked the extra ground/signal wire in case I need to wire up more stuff later and can repurpose those as well.

Simple little catch can. Hoping it does the job well enough and not too small.
My crankcase setup is simple. Reusing the factory oil separator valve in the block, output of that runs under the intake manifold. Then does a 180 and connects to the catch can vented to atmosphere.

[philly98540]

Nice progress. Getting close!

Is your fuel pump rubber output hose and spacer rubber rated for in fuel tank service? Also the catch can should work, but you'll get some PCV smell in the cabin.

Looking forward to seeing this go.

[DUDMD]

The rubber spacer piece I used will hold gas ok. The pump to lid fuel hose is the original stock hose.
Dont mind the smell, as I wont have to daily it or drive it much at all. All my cars pretty much sit and I daily the 335d.

Nice progress. Getting close!

Is your fuel pump rubber output hose and spacer rubber rated for in fuel tank service? Also the catch can should work, but you'll get some PCV smell in the cabin.

Looking forward to seeing this go.

[DUDMD]

Just curious.. what do you use for controlling ecu and boost? Are you going with original Bosch DME or some aftermarket controller. Thanks.

A few posts above. I'm using MaxxECU standalone. Hardwired into my original M60 harness.
Standalone will control boost, traction, fuel/timing, built in wideband, built in 8 egt inputs, flex fuel and a ton more.
The factory M60 DME is not even good enough to run a supercharger setup properly, always hiccups and 0 safety features and almost no datalogging options.

Standalone has nothing but easy datalogging, tons of safety features, 4bar map sensor. Should be much easier to properly tune the car with this ECU than the stock Bosch unit.

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Installed the charge pipes today.
Just waiting on the radiator now and new stainless cutting blade to show up so I can finish the exhaust.

[Butters Stoch]

Is the stainless cutting blade yellow and full of rage ?

[DUDMD]

Is the stainless cutting blade yellow and full of rage ?

Yellow, yes.
http://www.trick-tools.com/Evolution...FYF-fgod_IgBCg

[Butters Stoch]

Yellow, yes.
http://www.trick-tools.com/Evolution...FYF-fgod_IgBCg

I have one on the way as well. ; )

[chikinhed]

Do the blades last?

[someguy2800]

I've got a rage evolution 2 but never got a stainless blade for it. The regular blades last a long time but I can tell you from experience if you try to cut stainless with the normal blade it will be a goner in two cuts. I use mine mostly for wood now.

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Nice thing about the rage saws is that they don't fill the shop with dust like the abrasive saws do, but they do shoot little red hot chips everywhere including at you which is annoying. I use my portaband for everything I can because of that so the rage is pretty much on 2x4 duty outside.

[DUDMD]

I've cut plenty of mild steel, but after 5-10 cuts of stainless it barely cuts now.
So decided to get the carbide tipped one for stainless, that means it will eat through anything you want.

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[DUDMD]

If you got a chance would love to see a small video recording of MaxxECU program and your engine running or just a screenshot of live data/logging view.

My M60 540i/6 DME was 10/95 (484) and newer model as it used only K-line and had decent logging speed. Older generation used L-line and ADS cable which made logging very slow.

I'll take a few while on the dyno soon.

[Butters Stoch]

I'll take a few while on the dyno soon.

Awesome build. Unique and props for dealing with super tight area.