Supercharging n52 n51

[Greenday694]

Hello I recently picked up a 2008 328i. Need some work to get sorted out, and running proper again.
I plan on using it for two supercharger project.
First one will be installing a rotrex c38. It's a fairly compact centrifugal supercharger.

Second one, will be the Eaton m122 or 2.3 l TVS.

I will be developing these with Hyde motor works. Curious to see if anybody would be interested in either one of these? I know these are the last of the naturally aspirated inline sixes. And could use a little help.


Sent from my 2201117TG using Tapatalk

[Greenday694]

Looks like this project is going to take a little more work than I thought. Supercharging engine is not the problem. The engine is.
I bought the car from the second owner with problems. He bought it certified pre-owned from a local BMW dealer. Within a month he had lifter taps. Under warranty they supposedly replaced the exhaust side lifters, hydraulic valve lash adjusters. He had it back three more times for the same problems. The last time he took it back with the exact same noise, they called him and told him it has a rod knock. And it was going to cost quite a bit to replace the engine. He went to go pick up the car, and the engine was making way more noise than it ever did. You can still hear a lifter tap, and when you bring the RPMs up, you can definitely hear a rod knock. The rod knock noise was not there when he dropped the car off.
I bought it for a supercharger project. Either I will build the engine or replace it. I removed the valve cover and could not believe how chewed up the cams were. Especially after looking through the stack of service papers from the car. He never ran it more than 5,000 mi on an oil change. And had the dealer do the oil change each time. Plus he did not beat the car.
I also found some really strange colored oil sludge. Not water or antifreeze mixed. I did let the engine idle up to operating temperature, no white milky stuff. No overheating. No loss of coolant.
My best guess is the dealer dumped something in oil, and did the 5000 RPM lifter fix. And it did not work. Honestly they had nothing to lose, considering this would have been the fifth time returning for the same problem which would have put the car under the lemon law.
Really sad how shops and especially dealership shops will screw people over like this.

Sent from my 2201117TG using Tapatalk

[Greenday694]

Pic

Sent from my 2201117TG using Tapatalk

[et89]

Wow… that looks bad.

I’ve got a 325i N52 from 2005 that’s is ticking like crazy when it’s driven for short distances.

If the engine heats up properly every drive there is nothing wrong. I’ve read somewhere that the head design is pretty bad leading to the lifter tap/lifter tick issues.

[BimmerBreaker]

Hard to say but looks to me like there was water (coolant) or some type of other contaminant in the oil and it may have sat for a prolonged period allowing the lobes to develop what look like rust in some pitted areas on the lobes.

Given the cost of machine work vs the cost of a replacement engine I'm not sure I'd even bother spending any effort on it. I'd be sourcing a replacement.

[Greenday694]

Well I finally had some time to mess with this thing a little bit. I went to drain the oil, and as soon as I remove the drain plug I got about 3 quarts of crystal clear water. The cooling system has the blue BMW coolant in it. No idea where all this water came from. After the water I got about 4 quarts of oil.
I flushed the engine, drained it flushed it again and then finally filled it up and installed a new filter.
Still making a ton of noise, and cylinder four and five are missing. After running for a bit the catalytic converter started glowing almost bright yellow. Stepped on the gas a little bit and shot pieces of catalytic converter out the tailpipe.
I've been searching online trying to find a decent used engine. Low mileage seems to be around 3k.
This car is not worth that much to me. I think once I'm done working on the rotrex supercharger kit for this engine, I will pull it out and tear it down for a rebuild. As long as the block head and crankshaft are in good condition not cracked.

Sent from my 2201117TG using Tapatalk

[Greenday694]

I finally made some time to get back to working on this. I cut a little too much off of the top of the main mounting plate. I will fix that in CAD. But this gives you a pretty good idea of what this will look like once done. There will also be a custom inlet that will allow the factory MAF. With a separate port for the bypass valve. And for low boost, a custom charge pipe from the supercharger to the throttle body, with a port for the other end of the bypass valve.
In this picture that's a model of the rotrex c38.

Sent from my 2201117TG using Tapatalk