K24 e36

[vollosso]

I’ve been a bit busy over the last 4 years. Haven’t been active at all. I think this is the first time I’ve logged in since 2019 or something. Sorry if i missed any of your pm’s box has been full for a while.

Finally built another boosted e36 and it’s very different so I wanted to share.

I ended up getting a free k24 a year or two ago and last year my friends were hassling me to stick it in an e36.

We’ll long story short we stuck it in.



Fabbed up a custom subframe and two custom engine mounts. Stock trans brace, driveshaft, shifter, etc. Engine hits the hood if you don’t do subframe work.

We used the PMC trans adapter kit.

I made a custom manifold and exhaust. 3” exhaust.

G30-770 turbo with vband in and 0.6 ish turbine housing. turbosmart 45mm.

4” inlet and 3” chargepiping.

Used a treadstone 1235 and our intercooler mounts (22rpd).

We planned to take the car to sema and so we pie cut everything and made it flashy. Not typically my style but it turned out nice I think. I don’t weld as much as I used to but I made it happen hah.

For the sema trip we did bare minimum to the k to get to 9k rpm.
-full gaskets
-fresh bearings
-arp
-4p oil pump
-bc rods
-bc valve springs
-gapped rings
-ati damper

I wired the whole car up with a custom harness and a maxx ecu. Fantastic setup.

The remainder of the parts:
-maxx ecu race
-Audi r8 coils
-Skunk intake
-skunk fuel rail
-custom tensioner setup
-1000cc injectors
-China thermostat adapters
-welded up AN conversion for the radiator

We basically started the build a week or ten days out from sema. Ended up tuning it between 12-2am the night before leaving and it put down these numbers. With VTC totally off. 488whp /353tq. Pretty happy.




It survived the 2000+ mi round trip. Which is surprising considering the average speed we managed.

It did blow a clutch up a few miles outside vegas. The input shaft bearing failed totally causing the disk to fail and we needed a tow to a friends house down there for a quick clutch job.

A picture outside Area 51.


Fast forward a few weeks post sema after we returned. We went out to some local races and upped the redline to 9500rpm. The clutch would slip and the thing would rev hard into the limiter. By the end of the night we dropped a valve. Tore the stem right off.

We tore the motor down and found nearly zero damage. Everything looked great. But we enjoyed the swap so much we anted up.

Head went off for bronze valve guides and ferrea treatment.

We honed the block and dropped in a set of low comp wisecos. 8.8:1 I think.

Smacked the thing back together.









That gets up to about current. Just wrapped up the rebuild this week.

Machined a custom water pump pulley to overdrive the waterpump and keep temps in check.
Re-painted the valve cover.
Removed the thermostat.
Finally made the CAN gauge work.
Put the new JDM wheels on it to complete the look.

I probably missed a bunch but if you have any questions or want to see the new dynos let me know.. I’ll post them next week.




For those interested in some candid action this is Ian on the right who helped a lot with the heavy lifting on the rebuild. And DOM on the left, he was just hanging around.



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[Sio2crew]

Hows this compare to , say, a turbo 2.5 m50? Or any m5x e36 set up?

Power delivery?

Handling ?

Even if you dont see this question, its still a Great build ! Big thumbs up

[vollosso]

Hows this compare to , say, a turbo 2.5 m50? Or any m5x e36 set up?

Power delivery?

Handling ?

Even if you dont see this question, its still a Great build ! Big thumbs up

Overall I like it very much. It handles fantastic but its also on 3-way adjustable coils, sways, and full busings. The coils are way overkill but the ride great and we have them dialed in. It feels a bit more nimble I’d say overall than an iron block

I prefer the k24 powerband over a m50b25 turbo. It makes more Hp/psi and spools about the same. The head ports are more comparable in design to the s54. wringing it out to 8k++ is nice.

The overall drivability/mannerism of the i6 is probably a bit nicer. Smoother and quieter operation. But when it comes to turbo I’ve never enjoyed the m5x @ 2.5L. You can’t rev them out enough and they don’t come on early enough to be worth it. The 2.8 is much better but I wouldn’t build less than a 3.0L m5x for myself, and in any case I’d definitely run a real cam.

I think the k24 is an advantageous option for a lot of people. Anyone with an m4x or a blown m5x. It’s probably comparable in money and you don’t have to go over the top like I did. Plus building k’s for reliable 800hp costs sub $2000 which is hard to scratch on an m5x.

It’s all about what you like and want. Both are worth owning and or driving. Imo.


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[PiepPiep]

What an amazing looking setup.

If there wouldn't be some good subframework, there would probably a market for this, but it's a lot custom fab.

For 4-500whp and the average dude, you can't beat the M5X platform in terms of reliability, smoothness, availability of parts. Do a spacer/cutring, lightly rebuild the head and run that thing!

But the K24 has it's advantages and I bet it handles great and I just love the sound of K Series

[vollosso]

What an amazing looking setup.

If there wouldn't be some good subframework, there would probably a market for this, but it's a lot custom fab.

For 4-500whp and the average dude, you can't beat the M5X platform in terms of reliability, smoothness, availability of parts. Do a spacer/cutring, lightly rebuild the head and run that thing!

But the K24 has it's advantages and I bet it handles great and I just love the sound of K Series

I’m planning to make a front subframe kit and mounts to facilitate this into a diy task. I already scanned everything we made. We will see though time is in short supply.


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[PiepPiep]

That is great news! I can imagine some guys will love it on the race track with the lighter front end and all the revs.

Keep us updated and if you can find it: the last dyno graph would be very interesting with the G series

[GG///M3]

Love seeing this kind of stuff. Keep up the kool projects.


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[NOTORIOUS VR]

The K series is really, really, really good - they make a ton of power, they're stout and they're available.

Nice setup!!

Love that it has a MaxxECU in it - such an awesome ECU

[vollosso]

Retuned the car finally on the new motor.

Still on pump gas. 18psi.

Car is amazing.




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[GazM3]

Cool project and one of the advantages is the weight will be lower and the engine is almost behind the front struts. Decent power coming out of the little Honda engine also.

[samaroo]

I'm doing this swap right now. What did you do for the cooling system? I bought the togue factory e30 k24 cooling swap kit and figured it wouldn't be too hard to make it work in an e36 and would like to atleast keep the heater. Did you end up keeping it or did you bypass it?

[328iFun]

Nice work, wild build!

[vollosso]

I'm doing this swap right now. What did you do for the cooling system? I bought the togue factory e30 k24 cooling swap kit and figured it wouldn't be too hard to make it work in an e36 and would like to atleast keep the heater. Did you end up keeping it or did you bypass it?

Yeah heater works fine. I don’t know what the togue kit is. I bought a few billet parts off the internet.

I welded an fittings onto the rad and made full an radiator system.

You take the heater core return to the back of the thermostat. And you feed it from the back of the head.


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[vollosso]

Nice work, wild build!

Thanks.

It’ll be at a car show on the 23rd if anyone is around this area. (Seattle)


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[vollosso]

Revisited the dyno with 1800cc’s of fuel per cylinder and a tank of e50.

Set the boost to 25psi and let the little Honda sing.

The 3d printed plate I made to make it to vegas and back is starting to fail. I did 680whp one run but I think subsequent runs has slight leaks and the turbo is at its limit.






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[circuit.heart]

This is so peak Honda, I love it. I'm in the middle of K20C1 -> E34 for a different purpose, but always gonna look up to people throwing huge turbos on the older K's and dealing with the consequences as they come.

[vollosso]

This is so peak Honda, I love it. I'm in the middle of K20C1 -> E34 for a different purpose, but always gonna look up to people throwing huge turbos on the older K's and dealing with the consequences as they come.

It’s brilliant. I’ve had more fun in it than I deserve.


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[milKt]

A novel idea,
made functional.