1998 318i supercharger

[fangx]

Alright so i found myself a 400$ bmw, low kms at 110,000, with the lousy m43 4 cylinder and 113hp lol.

I ordered a tiny little supercharger for it, an AMR500 supercharger that displaces .500cc of air per rotation.

Im in the process of adding it to the car mostly out of curiosity;

And because of all the forum posts i've read regarding adding turbo or superchargers to a 318 is a waste of time and money. its better to just swap to bigger motor, they might be right but wheres the fun in that?

So this will kind of be a build log, and im open to feedback, criticism or suggestions.


So the car is a 1998, original Singapore import. its a RHD.

It looks pretty nice, has a few dings and stuff, but hey it was cheap.

I removed the stock air conditioning pump, and found that its idler pulley assemble can unbolt from the engine itself, this made creating a mount for the super charger pretty simple
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And heres the supercharger, and the mount i made for it. The charger itself was around 200$ shipped.. frakking cheap for a blower haha
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So at this stage im just waiting on some pipes to come in, i put a belt on and it blows! the pulleys lined up perfectly.

It can be seen here, first time i fired it up



Now the thing im uncertain about is how much boost the stock ecu will take before it will go into a limp mode, thinking there's something wrong with the motor.
Im going to be running a recirculating blow off valve, and im still waiting on a delivery for my boost guage and pipes,

once this is in ill try to tune the boost to as much as the stock ecu will take. And probably look into alternative fueling methods.

Its a budget project thats cost less then 1k so far..:3

[fangx]

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[MisterM52]

Well done. See how much boost have you seen with it so far? We have been working on a bolt on Kit for the AMR 500 and that motor, but ours go on the intake side. The blower you have there is 500cc, the M62 used by DASC was 1L. So far as I have done some research into tuning, the M42/M44 and M43 I guess will take 5PSI alright, which is all the blower you have there may be able to produce. To my knowledge most people just went with a rising rate fuel pressure regulator for these. For OBD I (M42) you can actually use the Ostrich II piggyback. For the M44 you have to do a flash of it. You can contact Barry at Midnight tuning as hes known to do these.

I wonder if you would like to try one of our setups to test it out?

here is the V4 M.O.A.B - It supports 4 different Superchargers on the M42/M44 engines.

[fangx]

That's an awesome kit bro, looks like good work. I wont really need any parts for this build as im just sourcing stuff locally. But i really like the way the kit is built. How are you planning to run piping?

im currently awaiting parts, your correct about the charger making about 5 psi.

Ive purchased an adjustable fuel pressure regulator for the car. an adapter for an m44 to hook up the regulator. but it should be compatible with my m43. Its an "FSE SYTEC fuel pressure regulator adaptor" Coupled with a SARD rising rate fuel pressure regulator from a skyline. reg.pngpressure reg.jpg

After these are in, i also plan to change out the injectors and do away with the odd vacuum injectors that came on the m43/ m44's. The only problem i encountered is that bmw used a strange stubby injector. I grabbed a set of 4 injectors from a 328i car, the Bosch pink tops, they are 23.8lb/hr 250cc/min. where as the stock injectors are 17 or 19 lbs. both operate on 3.5bar of fuel pressure.

The only issue is that the intake manifold has a larger diameter hole for the air shrouded injectors. So im ordering a set of injector adapters for the m44, which uses the same injectors as my m43
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these are the adapters i ordered https://store.vacmotorsports.com/vac...ors-p2454.aspx

they should be here next Monday, so i'll get all the fuel lines hooked back up, test it out with the larger injectors at 3.5bar and adjust the pressure untill it seems right.

[fangx]

Wheh so some got some updates. The injector adapters arrived, and they are a great product. For some reason VAC motorsports sent out two sets of these adapters by accident so ive got an extra set if anyone wants a cheap set to mod their m43/m44. Just pm me

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Fitting the adapters was pretty straight forward, they reuse the o-rings from the stock fat injectors, the pink top injectors required the little green cap and spacer to be removed, but once this was out the adapter collar fit nicely.

Next on was putting the fuel rail back in, and as stated the adaptors so fit them perfectly. the rail sits in its original position. I used a hammer and a block of wood to whack the injector rail back into place. Once fitted, i reattached my fuel inlet, and started working on placing the fuel pressure regulator.

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I used a Sytek fuel pressure regulator bypass for the m44 engine, but it seems most m44 pieces will also fit the m43 im working on. The above fuel injector adapters are also stated as being for an M44.

Ive also recycled intake pipe from an intercooler i picked up to use as an intake pipe, and a cheapo cone filter. Im not running a intercooler. mostly out of lazyness and lack of space to run piping to the front of the car. At least for now. I want to make it work first, and then later on i may add it.
Anyways so now its placing the Fuel pressure regulator and then putting the intake back on next weekend.
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[fangx]

SO got the intake back on, fuel lines hooked up. The Fuel rail was actually about 3mm taller then stock, so i had to sand down some of the plastic intake to make it seal correctly. I used longer bolts and a couple washers to space the fuel rail out farther, and then fit the intake. I blocked off the EGR port, It idles fine, drives decently. the maf seems to struggle a bit when theres no load on the car. Its picked up a bit of power with the bosch 21lbs injectors and the psi set to 3.6 bar roughly. im gonna play around with it a bit. The cars picked up a ton of power from 4000rpm to 6500rpm range. Ive still gotta install the boost guage to see how much its actually boosting. thats gonna happen the day after tommrow. Heres a video of it runnin.

[MisterM52]

Hey my man, really like that you picked up your project and thanks for your warm words. Well the Bosch 328i ones / m52 IIRC was 21.5lb/hr...the issue is unless you code these larger ones in, they wont run right, I suggest you put the old injectors back in and use the FPR, that will get you better "gains" and help with some better power low down. I suggest putting the FPR stuff far away from the engine and exhaust, put it near the headlamps, I have seen entire cars burn down from some of shady regulators. Dont take the risk.

Also as for tuning the OBD I M42 guys can do it using Ostrich II emulator/piggyback while the M44 guys need a flash on the OBD II. Midnight Tuning in Canada can help I believe, but start reading up. If you remember some of the older generation kits had not much tuning apart from a rising rate fuel pressure regulator and they ran lean up top!

Now, what I see is this setup lacks an proper BPV and instead is using a blow off one before the MAF. I know its before the maf but still go with a re circulation one, chances are you are letting go of more boost before its building up till the Blow off valve is closing under low vac / boost.

How you should do it is grab a BOSCH BPV from ebay, a original used one will be cheap and work great. Next do it like this Airfilter > Maf > BPV > Throttle Body > AMR500 > Boost Pipe > BPV > Manifold. You can also leave the throttle body where it is if you like since you have the space.

Here is some new video's of our AMR500 and SC14 Kit, the Eaton M45 and M62 kits are a bit away but still. Here they are and if we can be of some help let us know!

[fangx]

Cool Thank you @MisterM52 , i'll see how it goes with the bigger injectors, i don't want to go back to the air shrouded ones just yet. do you know if there is a bosch injector that is close to the original injectors capacity? I have a scrapyard nearby that sells parts for cheap. That is where I picked up the pink tops; I would rather swap them out then have to put the stock ones back in and plug them all and risk a boost leak. the hoses going to the injectors was really old and cracking. I could see it as a problem long term.

I was planning to put a bypass valve originally into it. but ebay shipped me the wrong one it was a 50/50 bypass and atmosphere one that they had sent. Im working on finding piping now.
I'll have to extend the MAF wiring to reach where i mounted the intake. shouldn't be so bad. Heres a rough idea of how i did my piping. And how im planning to modify it.
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[MisterM52]

I say go 100% recir, or you will have issues I am telling you, so work on that my man, next up I say put the old injectors back in with some new silicone hoses, vac line works long as its 6mm or a bit bigger IIRC..and then zip tie.. thats what I did, will last you long. dont forget your PCV valve either if you have one... I dont have experience with the tuning side of the 4 cylinder so cant say about injectors, the 318ti is a good place for asking that I say? or the local hatchback heaven here is good too under the 3 series section.. let us know once you got the boost gauge in there! I got a installation video up there thats live now. all the best.

PS: the way you have it in the plan will work great, I suggest putting the ICV after the maf too if you can... just like where you have the bpv before the sc recirculating, have it like there somewhere, so the engine will idle better.

[fangx]

Well, been working on piping today, relocating the maf and putting together pipes. I ended up ordering a turbosmart bpv it will work better with the parts i have. The whole setup is kinda jurry rigged, but at least it will be airtight! It uses some rad color "vacuum" hose !74525986_1848488665298006_7504178211169763328_n.jpg
Went off the plan a little, the filter + Maf wouldnt fit where i had it on the original setup, so i put it on the other side. but the positive side is i wont have to splice in longer wires to the maf sensor. Ive read that adding length to sensor wires can sometimes cause improper readings, and cause issues.

[fangx]

PS: the way you have it in the plan will work great, I suggest putting the ICV after the maf too if you can... just like where you have the bpv before the sc recirculating, have it like there somewhere, so the engine will idle better.

When you say ICV you meant the Idle Air Control valve right? Im a bit uncertain about this one its build into the TB and electronically controlled no? This is it here? Just on the left of the 90 blue elbow?abcd.jpg
On a different note, what does this part do? its a hose that comes from under the TB, and goes into a plastic pipe that seemingly goes down under the car somewhere. It was originally mounted on the airbox.

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[MisterM52]

You will be fine with extending wiring when needed, have done that a lot of times. No worries just eye the right gauge wire and its alright its the signal wire that counts, usually yellow. we will go into fine talk on that later.

that said, good move on the turbosmart, good unit the bpv. The ICV is indeed build into the TB, electronically controlled. how you go about it is you can move the whole throttle body before the sc if you like, you will need 2 dummy throttle bodies, one that goes in place of the factory original the other that mounts to the tb where its places for ease of piping. the alternate is to make 2 dummy icv mounts to move it but much work, see how it goes anyway. should be okay not perfect idle but will be fine.

that part in question is if I am seeing the right one, the evap charcoal canister, what it does is takes petrol fumes and when the ecu decides from the rpm's will open up and let those fumes into the system to be burnt, you can delete it, usually some resistors are used between the two wires (else it throws a code) but no issue, but ensure the part leading to the manifold is closed if you delete it, must be blocked on the manifold side.

[fangx]

Okay so update time again, just finished the piping on the car with the relocated maf and air cleaner, it seems to run well. at least well enough. Has more power, no idle issues. gets to 6500rpm alot quicker then it used to. and it sounds nice!
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[MisterM52]

Superb my man, well done following the tips I dropped, here is 2 last ones. Now move that Air filter down through the drivers side behind the bumper, you will have to move the horns and also remove a headlight adjuster but thats not a big issue if you want some better colder air. And 2. is thats the idle air temp sensor you got in the air filter, then move that one after the intercooler or to the manifold directly some how or just before so it will read better temps and may allow the car to run better.

Finally how much boost is it seeing, have the gauge setup yet? Ali express has some dragon gauges that are alright, else vdo or turbosmart or some other good branded ones will get you the right readings. And AFR wideband would be nice if you wanted to adjust the fuel mixture a bit, and maybe good idea to move that rising rate fuel pressure adjuster away from the engine, some place near the air filter, so incase it leaks, it wont cause a fire that fast.

Well done once more my good sir, hats off to you!

[BmwSw000]

The supercharger sound. Might as well upgrade the engine it sounds terrible lol

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[MisterM52]

Ah come on now sounds alright and cute to me, hes build something from scratch, no need for the negativity? Have some respect..
Coming from someone who has had a 540i and 318ti with a similar motor. Both great cars in their own respect.

Whats the boost there you are seeing?

[fangx]

Well its really just been a project to keep me sane on the weekends lol, something to to do in my free time. Its a cheap car with a cheap super charger, i have alot of fun just tinkering. I come from running N/A sbc chevies and things. so coming into FI was a bit new to me, and mostly just attempted this out of curiosity and to learn. Heck the cars an automatic, would be better doing it on a standard

I have a really cheap boost guage, im not even sure if its working correctly. but the numbers seem right, it says about 5-6 psi of boost.

I will try putting the stock injectors back in, i pulled the spark plugs and its definitely running a bit rich. had starting problems and cleaned up the spark plugs as they were black with carbon.

[PowerKraut]

I like it. We need some videos of it on the road, flyby sounds and so on.

Well, i think yo will have a hard time to dial fuel in with just mechanical adjustments and no stand alone or piggyback ecu. But who cares. Are you running an AFR at all? if not, get one soon.
BTW: Where did you get that charger and how much was it?


Keep this thread going. Very different and fun to watch

[fangx]

Def will do some fly by videos, see how she sounds under load. Tommrow i will try adjusting the fpr down a little, pull the plugs see how they look, and take it from there. the stock injectors will probably be the way to go. the ecu really does seem a bit picky when it comes to these larger injectors.
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Just referencing this stock google image that everyone who is curious about spark plugs coloration sees altough i never did pull the plugs prior to hooking up the FI setup. oh well.

The charger was really inexpensive for what it is, it came out to 197.38 USD shipped to my door. its a re manufactured unit from china. the exact auction i bought from can be found at this link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/AISIN-AMR50...72.m2749.l2649

and nope, i havent considered an AFR guage, would be handy though to dial it in. I'll try the old school method of just pulling the sparks and cleaning in between adjustments to check the coloration. it aint hard to pull the plugs atleast

[fangx]

Alright, so i bought a set of new spark plugs for it, put the stock injectors back in and that pretty much solved all the problems. i tuned the fuel to about 3.7 bar, just a little over stock. Shes a noisy one, would love to dyno it and see how much power its actually making, theres a place near my work i may bring it to. well see.

Here's an in cab video driving. love hearing the whine haha

[pbonsalb]

Are your plugs running lean or rich or just right? Are you checking them after every pass?

[MisterM52]

I love it, these wankle ag blowers have a nice whine from the cabin inside, gotta hear it in person though, everyday phones & cameras aren't the best to pick up the grumbling with the high notes. When I designed our HMW MOAB SC kits, my calculations dictated the AMR to cap off around 5 PSI. You are doing well. Keep it up, you did a great thing, ignore any haters. Thumbs up my man!

PS: safer to record if you grab a plank of wood, make 2 holes and put it between the seat head rest and seat, then grab a ebay cellphone holder for a buck or two, then you can record to your hearts content and be safe.

[fangx]

defintetly, it is an auto though okay to drive with one hand :P i took it on a test run to do groceries lol. the sound in the underground parking lot was pretty nice. it was only after i left i recorded this, I also wired up my boost guage, its a POS, and lags but it showed about 5.5psi of max boost. heres the video. thanks for the support guys i apreciate it!

[fangx]

Well sad news to report. but a bit lucky i suppose in the end.

Cars been running well. had no problems with it, but then i get an email from BMW new zealand, about a recall on e46 air bags produced between 1996 and 2000.. this car of course is from 1998.

It falls under that Takata airbag law suits..

So here's the story.

I received an email from bmw saying the 21 year old car may have a defective air bag, and at bmw's expense the car could be towed to the dealership to check if it had the faulty air bag and then it would be replaced. So i sent it off to the dealership this morning.

At lunch i was notified that my car did infact have the defective airbag and would needed to be replaced... but the representative said that a replacement module would not be available and could be upwards of a year before they even received it..so he offered me a rental car short term, also commented on the fact it was super charged and thought it was really cool. He said that bmw strongly reccomed not driving these cars untill the bags are replaced... and that his dealership was willing to make an offer to purchase the car since a module wasn't available.

So in a bit he talked to a guy who appraised the car, and i mean the cars rough dings in the doors, trim and paint were pretty junk. the only good thing was the low kms... so they ended up offering me 4200$ to buy it... I was like... dang sure lol. keeping in mind i paid 650 for this car. I then asked about the supercharger and performance parts.. and the rep said i could take my parts off the car aswell before siging it over and getting that 4200$..

So im going Monday to uninstall the SC, keeping all the parts. might buy another bmw, or something else fun in the mean time.. 4200 can buy a decent newer bimmer, maybe a v8

[pbonsalb]

That is a happy ending! Which cars are on your potential purchase list as the replacement?

I still have not gone in for the airbag recall on my 08M3 that I got a couple of years ago.