Silver Bullet's Birth - welcome another TT Stg II

[JuCo]

Hello my fellow board members, if you aren't in the loop of “the know,” I’m about to fill you in. My car search began early last year, I was looking for something that was reliable, powerful, and handled like a dream. In August of 05’ I found my pride and joy, a 99’ M3, low miles (45k), all options, and color/interior/rim combo that I so desired. I bought my beautiful baby that day and drove her home with a huge smile.

Fast-forward; so now it’s just a little over a year since I bought my baby, the fun is about to begin. I love everything about my car, well almost everything. When BMW designed the M3 they weren’t thinking that 10yrs down the line every “average Joe,” would have a family sedan with 240hp. Well times have changed, and so has the design of the newer BMW’s, unfortunately I don’t like the newer styling of the current models, so I kept true to the lines I fell in love with, and asked myself what can I do to keep up with the times. I have been planning to turbo a M3 for about 7 years, and I’m finally about to embark on the install of many a’ years dream. Now I know the “purest,” will get out the pitchforks and get the fire ready, but it’s too far to turn back now.


There aren’t many options for turbo-charging your BMW, so I had to select something I felt would be a good medium as this is my daily driver. I needed something that could be installed quickly and would be reliable. Now everyone knows AA has been in the F.I. game for a long, long time, but with a car as old as mine, the “price to play,” that they are asking is a bit much for me. This left me with a few other options, now I know all the DIY’ers will say you could make so much more power, or you could save so much more money had I gone another route. While this may be true, I don’t have the time to spend building my motor (yet), to support an insane amount of power, and of course this being my DD, I don’t really need all that much.

I looked at all options (*Techno’s kit was not on the market at the time), TSI was cheap, but included no tuning. Midnight Autoworks (buyer beware) came along, and seemed like a diamond in the rough, but alas things that seem to be too good to be true are usually, to good to be true, and that was the case in this scenario. So after doing all this research, I finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. I was introduced to “Technique Tuning“, by none other than the wonderful guys in this F.I. Forum. I’ve read thread upon thread of how great this kit is. So I looked into the pricing. Let me tell you this, it may seem pricey to some, but I am a firm believer in, “ you get what you pay for.” Nick G’s tuning of the stock DME alone is worth a great amount.

Now I just don’t rush into buying something without checking into it. I lucked out having someone local who had already installed one of Nick G’s kits (Stg1). You forum users will know him by the name LynxZ3r0. I chatted with Jake online, and met up with him 1 day, to go for a spin in his turboed roady. Let me get straight to the point. I was amazed. The install was so clean; it looks like its stock. Nothing gave away the fact it was turbocharged. Moving on to the feel of the car. It starts up with a nice low burble, putting it in gear and driving at slow speeds you’d never be able to tell it wasn’t stock. Then comes 3200 rpms, full boost is reached and we are off! This car moves! I was sold right then and there. It was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Perfect I thought.

So this week my TT Stg II install begins, I’m joining the brotherhood. Soon I too will have joined the darkside. Happy Boosting!

I also purchased a digital hard-drive camera to capture some footage for you guys.

Cam- get ready to add me to your “Tried & Tested list!”

-Pictures of progress to follow shortly.

- A few for now...enjoy!

Wushu - I loved yours so much, I also didnt want to grab attention.
[IMG]http://www.justinnash.******.org/tt%20stg%20II/intercooler.jpg[/IMG]

Pretty turbo...
[IMG]http://www.justinnash.******.org/tt%20stg%20II/T60.jpg[/IMG]

UCC - ultra-cerametallic
[IMG]http://www.justinnash.******.org/tt%20stg%20II/STG4.jpg[/IMG]

-Justin

[mefunny]

Nice and congrats! Man this makes me wanna go FI so bad. Nice pics of the intercooler. That's gonna be one hell of a sleeper.

[Bud Brown]

UCC - ultra-cerametallic

yours came in like a mint box, my uuc clutch looked like it was thrown off the truck on the highway!

[Goofynick6]

Interesting..a precision turbo..any specs on it?

[dmb882]

nice! congrats!

[jrhaile]

Where did you get that intercooler from and how much? how much HP can it handle?

[97alpineM3]

Have fun with that... they are a great set up.

Les

[Julz69]

sooooooooooooooooooooooo luckyyyyy

[JuCo]

Interesting..a precision turbo..any specs on it?

Not to sure, turbo supplied with kit, I did see on the exhaust side it said .82 tho.

Where did you get that intercooler from and how much? how much HP can it handle?

Also supplied with kit.

Thanks guys, I'm really excited myself.

[wushucivic]

Wushu - I loved yours so much, I also didnt want to grab attention.
[IMG]http://www.justinnash.******.org/tt%20stg%20II/intercooler.jpg[/IMG]

Sweet!!! you're going to love running it stealth. a lot of my boosted friends who knew that i went turbo still have to get within 1-2 feet to get a decent look at the intercooler. on the road no one knows until you stomp it . you're gonna love the kit.

it's funny i feel like stage 1 guys are a dying breed hahaha. next year i will definitely have to go stage 2.

make sure to keep us updated with your progress

[Geno325is]

Turbo looks like a 60-1hifi or a T04e with a 60-1wheel

[e36'n]

Welcome and congrats on a great decision.

[highboostingm3]

Cam- get ready to add me to your “Tried & Tested list!”

I was so impressed with how long the write-up was that I added you before I read down to this point.

Nice write-up and congratulations! You did a great job researching everything. I hope that my thread helped you!

[m3j0n]

anyone know what coating that is on the intercooler? i made a post about doing that to mine last week w/o any good answers.

[wushucivic]

anyone know what coating that is on the intercooler? i made a post about doing that to mine last week w/o any good answers.

i assume the reason he referenced mine was that he had his anodized too. if you do the same make sure to get it hard anodized because the soft anodized coating will degrade slightly over time if it is exposed to a lot of sunlight, at least that's what one of the places i looked at getting it done told me.

[JuCo]

I was so impressed with how long the write-up was that I added you before I read down to this point.

Nice write-up and congratulations! You did a great job researching everything. I hope that my thread helped you!

Thanks Cameron, I was so happy when you made that thread, it made searching so much easier. I honestly believe anyone looking to go FI, must read through it to atleast gain some idea of what they are looking at.

Can't wait to see your finished product too.

anyone know what coating that is on the intercooler? i made a post about doing that to mine last week w/o any good answers.

Anodizing, electrolytic oxidation of the aluminum surface to produce a protective oxide coating. They add dye to change the color.

[Juicy Double]

Anybody got more info on the precision turbo?

Is this a first for the TT kits?

[m3j0n]

does the anodized finish effect the efficiency?

[JuCo]

does the anodized finish effect the efficiency?

minimal if that, It doesn't matter what you coat it with it simply can't increase the heat transfer. However; it can help prevent corrosion.

[Z3speed4me]

yea i dindt think nick was using precision.... has something changed?

[Shuasha]

Yeah, I'm confused too...

[JuCo]

yea i dindt think nick was using precision.... has something changed?

Anybody got more info on the precision turbo?

Is this a first for the TT kits?

Yeah, I'm confused too...

This also puzzled myself.

[byron]

ggreat buy. lots of fun a head for you

[NickG]

Guys, no need to get confused or excited about the compressor cover. The turbo was made using a Precision compressor cover, as that was all that was available at the time. No big deal.

[Goofynick6]

So still a gt35r then?