IMG_1551.PNG
IMG_1552.PNG
IMG_1553.jpg
They should be towing it back to my house in the next day or so. Most likely will be parting it out after I asses it all.
e70 x5m vrsf downpipes and turbolabs turbos - current
e34 540 turbo take 2 - sold
e34 540 turbo - crashed and burned
DAMN!! Apparently you did quick work to get the flames under control, when cars really start to go, they go hard and fast.
Do you have any idea where the fuel leak happened? If it was anything but a freak occurrence, I want to avoid it! Not sure if E34s share the same fuel system components as E39s, or if you were even still running the factory fuel system.
Also, I probably was already planning to slap a fire extinguisher in my car for driftardation (driftardedness?), so maybe I will just move that item up the to-do list!
As far as selling the turbo system goes, if you think it might come close to fitting an E39, you might want to make it known on the E39 forum that it's available. There's a fairly significant contingent of people on their who are at least interested in various forms of F/I for E39 540s. So far only the centrifugal S/C guys and JimLev with nitrous are getting very far, but a couple others of us are making a push currently with different options. There is some interest from others who might want to join in the fun.
Not 100% sure. When I left off the throttle after a 3rd gear pull, it popped and backfired a little as per usual, then there was a really loud bang. That's when the smoke started.
I think what happened is that the big injectors flowed so much extra fuel that the TPS decel hadn't had time to adjust yet (I was less than a mile from my house). This left a huge amount of excess vapor in the intake manifold, basically a giant bomb. And when it backfired, it ignited. A piece of charge pipe blew off the throttle elbow.
I had primed it several times to check for leaks and had it running in my driveway for a few minutes before I set off.
Deff advise an extinguisher. I've posted in several groups and the FI for sale section. Idk if it would fit an e39. My guess is probably? Or at least really close. I have a buddy here with a 540 so maybe I can test fit to confirm. Should have the car back tomorrow then everything will be up for grabs. Really sad to see this come to an end so early on. Just had gotten the tune looking good and sorted out. Pulled really hard even on 4psi.
Damn, that's rough...
Maybe you can just kind of take a little bit of regroup time, and look for another 540 to transfer the good parts to? What all was destroyed by the fire?
Damn, just when this was getting interesting! Sorry for your loss man. Get another and continue this!
Thad- get that extinguisher in place now.
98 540i 6, 525 whp, 120 mph 1/4, V3 Si S/C'er @16 psi, W/A I/C, Water/Meth, Supersprint Headers, HJS Cats, 3" Custom Exhaust, UUC Twin Disc, Wavetrac LSD, GC Coil Overs, Monoball TA, AEM FP, Aeromotive FPR, AEM Failsafe AFR/Boost, Style 65's w/275's, M5 Steering Box, Eibach Sways, M3 Shifter, Evans Coolant, 85 Deg Stat, PWM Fan, 10" Subs, B.A. speakers, Grom Aux/BT, Still Rolling as my DD!
That's what I'm starting to lean towards. Plus insurance is really trying to screw me over so I doubt I'll walk away with much. I have a line on another 540 I would proba swap the motor/engine bay things over from and keep my chassis...real m sport so it's got the nurburgring package (big floating rotors, thicker sways,etc.) and all the little trim bits, plus I've done a ton of suspension work already. Don't really want to have to swap all that over haha.
Not entirely sure how extensive damage is. getting it back today so we'll see. There was a piece of charge piping that blew off the throttle body elbow, soo it was quite the violent event. haha. my guess is all the wiring, most plastic things. Not sure what to think about engine internals...
Working on it! haha. +1 to extinguisher. That'll be the first thing I do on whatever the next car is.
e70 x5m vrsf downpipes and turbolabs turbos - current
e34 540 turbo take 2 - sold
e34 540 turbo - crashed and burned
If you have a relatively complete turbo setup for a 540 e34 I'd be interested to talk numbers
Bump from the dead
So I ended up getting another 540 last June. Quite the story actually. I found a car in Raleigh, older guy owned it, lower miles, etc. I had a friend Brian (my future best man) go check it out, since he was local and it all checked out. We agree on a price and he agreed to hold it for me because I was getting married like 2 weeks from then, honeymoon, etc. there was just no way I was making it up there. Sidebar - I was planning on using my dad's '65 Austin Healy 3000gt as our exit car. So my now wife got all sneaky, sent Brian the money for the car, and had him drive it down and hide it. We did a first look/exchanged gifts prior to the ceremony, and she had the key wrapped up. Major surprise. I'm not crying, your crying, it's just allergies, shut up. Fucking keeper. End up leaving in it and it was incredible.
Since I had bought the toaster car back from insurance, ended up swapping over all the brakes, suspensions mods, msport trim pieces, etc. and (the point of this thread) the turbo stuff. had to redo a lot of wiring and other things, but whatever.
At this point, car is running great. Better than the old car. DUDMD gave me a hand with the timing table, fuel is well sorted, it idles happily, i'm a happy camper for the most part. Currently on 42# injectors because the SD 60s melted haha. Also picked up one of the Angry Ass Solutions PCV delete plates which helped clean up vacuum lines and stopped the crank case pressurizing. Still only running 5psi, but there's a local dyno day coming up so I'm going to turn it up for that.
Going to try and do a better job of keeping this up to date as this project evolves. Long term plan is to cage it, harness and seats, and start tracking it. Road courses and 1/2 mile events. But for now, I just want to drive it. Anyway, enough words...here's some pics and boosty boi noises.
IMG_1690.JPG
IMG_1673.JPG
IMG_8922.JPG
IMG_2673 2.JPG
e70 x5m vrsf downpipes and turbolabs turbos - current
e34 540 turbo take 2 - sold
e34 540 turbo - crashed and burned
Drove to the parts store (for stupid mercedes parts) yesterday and got on it a bit. Still ultra rich up top. Like, AFRs in the 9s. If feels like it hits a wall and looses a ton of power when it gets that rich. It pulls hard when it's mid 11s-low 12s. I want to keep it safe, but it seems like even below 11.5 it's leaving a lot of power on the table. I'm still only seeing about 4.5 psi at most, so I'm wondering if I should even bother pulling fuel, or just up the boost and let it eat...
What sort of AFRs are you low-boost guys targeting?
e70 x5m vrsf downpipes and turbolabs turbos - current
e34 540 turbo take 2 - sold
e34 540 turbo - crashed and burned
Glad to hear you are "back in the saddle", and yes your wife's differently a keeper for sure! I am also in the process of converting my s/c 540i to turbo by way of member Vollosso. I hope it works out because I need more than high hp near redline. well, good luck with the tuning side.
22RPD Tuning '95 540i/6 custom turbo mit Borg Warner S400sxe/Rebello Racing 4.9L M62/JE pistons/Arrow rods/custom cams/S62 crankshaft/Darton sleeved/Focal custom stereo
Porsche 996 Turbo Evosport GT 700-[700hp]-my daily
Nice to see it working.
Are u going to have a bumper on the car eventually.
it will denfinetly hit the wall in the 9’s. Give it mid to high 11’s and it will go crazy especially if you add some boost. Boost levels are different for centrifugal supercharger compared to turbo. im nudging close to 1bar with the blower but u will need 60lb/hr injectors. Assuming fueling is good not sure how much boost u can run with a standard m60b40.
BMW’s
90 E34 M5
84 E24 M635csi standalone ecu with coil on plug
94 E34 540i/6 SC 5-17psi Flex fuel/standalone ecu
97 Z3 2.8
97 E36 M3 euro SC still u/c
OTHERS
11 Audi S5 APR stg2
19 Volkswagen Amarok V6
Thanks guys!
Short answer, yes. However, it won't clear at the moment. I previously had cut up the m-sport bumper on the green car because it was already in bad shape, and it "fit". But the blow off valve is very in the way of the stock 540 sport bumper. I really need to decide wether or not to keep AC. Currently, everything is still intact, I just need to make new lines to get around the turbo stuff. Or, I could ditch AC, and tuck the intercooler and get the bumper on no problem. Given that this thing gets driven to the gym a few days a week, cars and coffee saturday morning, and eventually on the track, AC isn't a must. But it would be nice.
Fuel wise, I'm currently running 42lb injectors, Aeromotive 340, and have a Tomei adjustable regulator waiting to go in. I had some SD 60s, but they melted. RIP. At what RPM are you seeing 14psi? I'm wanting to step up to 8-10, but with a pretty small charger it lights up early, so I'd imagine I'd have 10psi for a wider range than with the supercharger.
Last edited by motorokr718; 06-05-2018 at 09:28 AM.
e70 x5m vrsf downpipes and turbolabs turbos - current
e34 540 turbo take 2 - sold
e34 540 turbo - crashed and burned
14psi right at the 7000rpm cutout. I don’t see any boost to about 3000rpm then it builds fairly linear fashion from there.
One if the the good things about this is it’s pretty drivable. Behaves like a nice NA motor to 3000 rpm then by about 4500 it starts to get exciting.
BMW’s
90 E34 M5
84 E24 M635csi standalone ecu with coil on plug
94 E34 540i/6 SC 5-17psi Flex fuel/standalone ecu
97 Z3 2.8
97 E36 M3 euro SC still u/c
OTHERS
11 Audi S5 APR stg2
19 Volkswagen Amarok V6
Bookmarks