My e30 M50b25tu OBDII turbo build

[ba114]

Thought i'd introduce myself as i've been lurking a while. Name's Murray, i'm an aussie and over the past 12-18 months i've been slowly building my e30. Had a few hiccups along the way, such as an aluminium b28 block pulling the timeserts out and cracking the head on torquing, which has resulted in a lot of re-work and additional cost, but i'm finally now at the point that it's running, driving and ready to be dialed in.

The intent of this build was to do everything myself except the turbo manifold. I lack the welding ability and equipment to do that properly so left that to the professionals. I'm happy to say that i've succeeded (mostly) with this goal.

The engine is a bit of a bastard build. I originally was supposed to be dropping an M52b28 (aussie's got the aluminium block) into the e30, but per above, that engine didnt make the cut. After that mishap i decided to start with the best base possible and grabbed a whole car with a m50b25tu so i could use the iron block. While i had this one open to refresh everything, i also picked up an m54b30 intake cam and got nutzy to machine down the vanos gear.

I'd already gone to the effort of wiring the OBD2 harness into the car and learned how to tune/modify the OBD2 DME so it made sense to simply run the m50 on obd2. I've started to try and learn disassembly too so that i can add some features into the stock ECU. I've already got it reading boost and AFR for logging, and am currently testing out my implementation of AFR safety and boost control.

On to the car:

Engine Management/Electronics
Self tuned Siemens MS41.2
New BOSCH coils
New crank sensor
New cam angle sensor
Retrofitted trunk mounted battery
E36 328i wiring harness
E36 battery distribution block mounted in engine bay on M3 wiring cover
Diagnostic port mounted in stock location
C101 plug hard wired to m52 harness (x20 removed)
OBD2 port wired to ashtray
One-touch indicator flasher
Innovate LC-2 wideband controller and gauge


Block
m50b25tu stock bottom end
E34 oil pan and pickup
Pan tapped and fitted with 30degree -10AN fitting for turbo drain
Oil pump shaft drilled and lock wired through nut
e28 M5 green engine mounts
new rear main seal
all belts replaced
all tensioners replaced


Head
m50b25tu head
m54b30 intake cam (240 deg) - 5mm shaved off vanos gear for fitment
m50b25tu exhaust cam
CES 0.68" copper spacer
Cutring gasket
Raceware head studs
New valve stem seals
Stock valves lapped
3rd coolant port plugged
Stage 3 Vanos rebuild
Aluminium thermostat housing
Vanos bolt drilled and tapped for -4an turbo oil feed
Wrinkle coated valve cover
NGK R5671A-8 Spark plugs


Cooling
80 degree thermostat
e46 diesel clutch fan
m50 spider hose replaced with m52 metal piping
deleted throttle body heating
new water pump
eBay aluminium radiator
late model 325i overflow bottle retrofit
80/88c radiator temp switch
Parallel flow A/C condenser
Full A/C refresh (dryer, expansion valve, o-rings)


Intake
m50 intake with new gaskets
m52 throttle body - metal plate used between m50 manifold gasket and M52 TB gasket.
Nissan 350z MAF in 3" tube with honeycomb "air straightener"
450x300x76mm FMIC
2.5" piping from turbo to MAF
e34 525i throttle cable
Tial Q BOV
3 bar MAP sensor


Exhaust
n52 exhaust studs
Good n Tight 24v E30 T3 turbo manifold
Precision 6262 0.82 a/r journal bearing turbo
Tial MVR 44mm wastegate
3" downpipe
Full 3" exhaust
high flow cat
12" resonator
Straight through 8"x5" muffler with twin 3" tips


Fueling
E39 m52 fuel rain with integrated FPR and rear feed and return
Siemens DEKA 80lb injectors
stock fuel lines


Driveline
GS6-37DZ 6 speed gearbox from e46 320d
Clutchmasters FX250 clutch
Clutchmasters Steel Single Mass Flywheel
Custom transmission brace
E21 transmission mounts
Aluminium transmission mount cups
Custom shift linkage
Custom shift carrier
e36 325 automatic driveshaft
3.15 diff with redline 75w90 GL-5 oil
UUC (copy) short shifter


Steering and Suspension
e46 330i steering rack
custom steering linkage using flaming river unions and DD shaft.
New control arms
New tie-rods
New steering boots
New sway bar end links
upgraded to 51mm housings
Lowered springs (unsure of specs as it came with them)

front.jpg135wheel.jpgengine.jpgside.jpg

[someguy2800]

looks nice, I bet that is fun

[ba114]

looks nice, I bet that is fun

Thanks! Not at the fun point yet unfortunately. Dialing in the fueling is taking up a lot of time and a lot of re-flashing but i think i've nearly got the idle, cold start, warm start and lean cruise fueling sorted out. under boost it's still a little all over the place while i work on the transition from closed to open loop.

[Gmfwd]

Very cool.

Excited to see you using the ms41. How much power are people supporting with that Nissan MAF? Blow through?

[ba114]

Very cool.

Excited to see you using the ms41. How much power are people supporting with that Nissan MAF? Blow through?

I haven't found anyone else that's using it yet. I had to work out the MAF scaling through digging through nissan rom dumps. In theory its capable of reading around 1100kg/h of airflow in a 3" tube. However with an added 2.2k resistor it would max at around 2600kg/h which would should be around the 700hp mark.

[ba114]

Melted my beauty cover the other day. Took out the plastic housing for the coil wiring with it so waiting on replacements for that now. Ordered a carbon fibre beauty cover which wont melt at least. Also got some gold tape to try help as well.

From a tuning perspective, i've hit a limit in the DME from a load perspective that i'm going to have to figure out a workaround for as i hit it around 2700-3000rpm and is not good as it causes a lean condition.

[a32guy]

From a tuning perspective, i've hit a limit in the DME from a load perspective that i'm going to have to figure out a workaround for as i hit it around 2700-3000rpm and is not good as it causes a lean condition.

How much boost are you making at that rpm? And what are MAF readings like? Got a datalog of this happening?

[ba114]

How much boost are you making at that rpm? And what are MAF readings like? Got a datalog of this happening?

boost is around 16psi based on the peak hold function on my gauge, but that could be a slight spike.
None of my logs capture it effectively due to response times the highest logged value has been around 1100mg/stk before it hit the cut.

I've made a workaround now by halving my MAF scalar and halving all the load values in the different tables.

[busterhax]

Thanks! Not at the fun point yet unfortunately. Dialing in the fueling is taking up a lot of time and a lot of re-flashing but i think i've nearly got the idle, cold start, warm start and lean cruise fueling sorted out. under boost it's still a little all over the place while i work on the transition from closed to open loop.

If you have megalogviewer HD, I can show you a good method for dialing in closed loop fuel in like an hour tops.

[ba114]

Yep i've purchased MLV HD so would be interesting to see your method.

Generally my approach has been to perform long logs on the highway at alternating loads and rpm.
Then i open the logs and remove any rows that are open loop or closed throttle.

Then i do some calculations to the load and rpm columns to get the logged values close to the defined values in the map, make a pivot table and average out the ipw value per rpm/load.
This has got me pretty close to where i want to be from an STFT perspective. I dont have LTFT enabled.

[ba114]

New beauty cover and coil harness are on route to be delivered today. Will fit them up on the weekend and get back to tuning. Have a dyno day in a few weeks so i'd like to get it all dialed in by then.

[ba114]

Fitted the new coil harness and a carbon fiber beauty cover that won't melt. Put some gold tape over it to hopefully lower the temps under the cover too.
Now I can get back to tuning!

[wartex11]

Nice to see an/another Aussie build,

Did you retain AC?

I have the barina steering shaft, hoping no clearance issues with a 3" dump (same manifold)

Any photos of the 450x300x76mm FMIC being mounted in the e30?

[ba114]

Got the car back together yesterday and flashed my new bin with the MAF table halved and all maps with a load reference halved as well.
While the car was down i also fitted a AEM copy 340lph fuel pump to replace the stock in tank one.


The result? Well the max logged load is now 1040 mg/stk, i have stable fuel pressure to redline and an easy wheelspin in 3rd gear.


IPW needs to be re-done for closed loop fueling areas again as STFT are a bit off, but overall the results are very positive.

Nice to see an/another Aussie build,

Did you retain AC?

I have the barina steering shaft, hoping no clearance issues with a 3" dump (same manifold)

Any photos of the 450x300x76mm FMIC being mounted in the e30?

A/C is fitted but not plumbed in yet. Fits fine with the manifold. 3" dump doesnt quite fit without ovalling the tube slightly.

FMIC fitment pics

[ba114]

took the car for a quick test ride the other night. All is working well but was severely over boosting.
Have since replaced the springs with a large black and small red which claims to be around 10.1 psi. Testing this afternoon saw roughly 11-12psi so about where i want to be.

[stealthbeam]

Awesome work man, looks great

[ba114]

Car has developed a tick/knock lately. Potentially did some damage when i was overboosting prior to switching the WG springs.
Best case = lifter tick, but doubtful
Worst case = bent rod(s)/spun bearing(s)

Have a m54b30 block waiting for me to collect it from the depot, so worst case is actually not so bad as i'll be building my spare NV block with the b30 crank, NV rods and 9.0cr pistons

[rajicase]

Does the tick/knock get better or worse/increase with rpms?

[ba114]

hard to tell at this point. I've only had it idle lately and when revving it kind of gets masked by the exhaust.
It's not a HARD clunk, but definitely a knock/tick noise that didnt exist before.

[ba114]

Didn't have much luck on the weekend finding the source of the ticking noise. After a drive i couldn't actually notice it, however it was back again the next time i started it so it may infact just be lifter tick.

Did some other work on the weekend including wiring in my MAC solenoid to the TEV (charcoal canister purge) wiring for use as boost control.
Also fabricated a heat shield for the downpipe which will hopefully further prevent chances of melting anything else in future.
20170702_173712.jpg

[someguy2800]

Its pretty easy to tell the difference as the names lifter "tick" and rod "knock" would suggest. If it sounds like a rock hitting a piece of concrete its a lifter. If it sounds like someone hitting a piece of wood with a hammer its a rod knock or a collapsed piston skirt. The fact that its intermittent suggests its almost certainly a lifter. If you have some hours on your hands it pretty easy to rebuild them and clean them out.

[Butters Stoch]

Also, pop the calve cover off and take a screwdriver and push on them. You should feel the give a little. Obviously roll the crank around so the cams are not opening the valves. Takes an hour to check them.

[ba114]

it's definitely more of a tick, than a knock so i'm inclined to lean towards lifter tick.
I'll probably leave this engine alone now. It's been my proof of concept process to get the turbo up and running on stock DME in my e30.

going to start saving funds for another head that i can build up to go with the m50b30 block and just swap the engines around once ready.

[ba114]

Fixed some exhaust leaks. Had lost two nuts off the manifold flange and the rest had loosed enough to cause some leaks.

The turbo flange had also loosened enough to blow out the crappy gasket that came with the manifold so replaced that with a steel one and all is well again.

Also had a dyno day last friday to see how its running. I'd managed to implement boost control using the evap purge output and a MAC valve thanks to some help from mrf582 at romraider and it worked flawlessly; holding boost perfectly!

End result was 309kw (415hp) on a mainline dyno. We dont have dynojet over here in Australia however it appears that mainline is upto 20% lower than dynojet which *could* mean if i tested in the US, i could be around 500hp.
Unfortunately i didnt get external video of the power run, only the first complete run however it was still wheelspinning on the dyno. To get the final run in they had to sit a person in the back seat and two people in the boot.

Dyno Video

Unfortunately i also maxed the DME load limits once again which resulted in a lean condition at the end of the run. Obviously i could never get to that limit on the road so never expected i'd hit it again after implementing the first workaround. I've since halved the MAF and load references again so now that issue is addressed and i should NEVER max it again.

I was very pleased that my open loop fueling was pretty much where i wanted it to be (around 11:1) throughout the run prior to this though.

[Maad325]

Sweet build! Very similar to what I'm going to be doing with my M52 swapped e30 although its a stock engine but will be running flex fuel and some other goodies. How is the response with the 6262 on the GoodnTight manifold? A 3582 is in my reach is why I ask, also what gauge setup is that in your vent? looks mad