Glad to see this info is useful...great thread. If 4-core intercooler housing were to be produced, I would definitely buy one or chip in for casting. Looks aside, I like Steve's design because of the M50 gaskets and serviceability of the intercoolers.
AA has been very helpful, but I don't think they ever anticipated supporting a 10-year old SC platform. Most of their documentation is geared toward installation and assembly of the unit, not long-term maintenance. That said, they do have some spare parts.
O-Rings and Spacers
I contacted BAT about the intercoolers, and they said to reuse the spacers and get new o-rings. They sold me o-rings to match the intercoolers. I have the cores wrapped in temporary storage as I prep other parts of this installation, so I can't confirm the diameter right now. I could pull one out on the weekend and take measurements.
Here are some more pictures to give some context about how the parts fit together.
Here I am removing the o-ring. It is the outermost component, once the end-cap is removed.
After the o-ring is removed, I eased off the spacer...look at that gunk underneath.
The gasket is situated under the spacer, and is the last piece of the assembly to remove, before extracting the intercoolers. Here it is after I took it off the housing.
Metal spacers, ready to be cleaned.
Intercooler "brackets." these separate the intercooler cores, and also are connected to the end-cap bolts (reason for 8 bolts one stage 2 end-cap)
Relative positions of intercoolers (1-3) and brackets (a-b). I intend to reassemble with each intercooler and back returning to the previous positions...probably doesn't matter.
After cooler/Heat Exchanger
I looked at ways to optimize the cooling system for the twin screw. I had played around with a larger coolant tank. Considering the flow rate of the pump and the tightness of the engine compartment, I chose to stick with the AA coolant tank and will position it using Randy's M-Coupe method.
However, I am working on fitting a larger, dual pass heat exchanger . I'm sure this will give me headaches, since it is substantially wider than the AA unit...But I'm a glutton for punishment and want to increase the area of the cooling surface. I will need to create modified brackets (at the very least). This heat exchanger includes 1/2" NPT fittings on the end. I plan to install it with the fittings on the driver's side (HE rotated 180° on Z axis), and will make some modified mounting brackets. If all goes well, I will place the pump on the driver's side and attach everything with AN fittings and braided hose, running roughly under the intake track. Basically, I plan to use the Eurosport approach to hose routing.
Not really. I was working on it quite a bit last year while I was working away from home. New job over the last few months has been ridiculously immersive and demanding, so I have not done much lately.
Intercooler capacity will be increased by nearly 100%. And the design will have a lot more fundamental flexibility with hopes to not require any expensive tooling. Not worth any real investment.
When I built the prototype kit and put together the pre-production kit currently in my car, I used one of two types of gasket material - either very carefully and thinly applied RTV, or a Gore gasket "tape" material. Don't recall specifics, but I still have some of it.
The cores are the 39.5mm cores.
The center section extrusions were purchased from Laminova. On my original first generation prototype, I even used the end housing sections that Laminova supplied. However they resulted in a much larger/thicker space claim for the manifold. But it got me through the initial prototyping and testing stages with less machining capability and less investment to prove the concept. That was back in late 2002/early 2003 if I recall correctly. Of course I now have an additional 15+ years of engineering, manufacturing and operations experience under my belt, and could and would do many things differently these days.
And yes, the cramped space requires some significant additional compromises to fit more cooling capacity in the manifold. I am not confident that you would be able to keep a throttle body location such as the Eurosport setup with a higher capacity manifold without defying some laws of the universe.
It is certainly great to see these things still alive. To this day, I get a big smile and great enjoyment driving my car with the kit on it. And sometimes it amazes me how awesome the E36 is with the character of the twin screw. The technical result of all of that effort far exceeded my wildest expectations. The business side? Not so much!
Steve
Have you been Screwed?
Dammit Steve, I wish you still lived around the corner!
BTW, you WOULD NOT BELIEVE how many new subdivisions have been built between where you lived and where I am, and thousands more homesites have already been approved. Still haven't built any more stores or restaurants yet, but an Autozone recently opened on 301 north of the Silverleaf Publix (that's something...).
[/hijack]
I went for a drive today in my 99 ES TS and everything was running perfectly and while sitting at a stop light I glanced at the temp gauge (out of habit luckily) and noticed the needle was nearing the 3/4 mark. I turned up my heater and started moving again and the temperature came back down to normal for the rest of the trip home. I got home shut the car down and later checked the coolant level and is was a tad bit low, but not much. Topped it off and started the car, let it get to temp. The aux fan kicked on after idling for probably 5 mins and it never got hot at all.
Thermostat? Air in coolant lines?
According to maintenance records - Water pump, radiator and expansion tank (zionsville) was changed roughly 15k ago, intercooler water pump 30k ago (didn't know that was a thing), don't see anything for a thermostat. Thoughts, suggestions? Thanks in advance.
What he said. Thermostat failure is not uncommon, I had the one on my '99 M Rdstr fail to open properly and it had pretty much the same symptoms as you described, except I wasn't stopped at the time, though opening the heater valve__something not often done in SW Florida__allowed me to limp the few miles back home.
,
Hehe ya, full blast heater in SW Florida would be brutal, it was bad enough here in the PNW. Thanks for the replys, that gives me some info to work with.
Another question - Do you think a regular euro auto shop that primarily deals with factory cars would be competent enough to diagnose and work with the ES setup or should I seek out a shop that works with FI bmws etc.
You'll have to ask them. With more and more cars coming from the factories with forced induction, they'll need to learn to work on them to stay in business.
All the information (installation instructions) is available for these units, so that should put the cars in reach of most techs to troubleshoot them. Underneath the compressor, it's all still the original car...
That's a good point, BMW and most modern performance oriented cars are FI now. I took it into the shop today (Euro tech in spanaway) and the short of it is, they could not repeat the overheating event. He said everything is working as it should be and noted that possibly the fan did not kick on. I dunno.. I was only out a hour of labor and now I'm back on the road to enjoy the stretch of nice weather with peace of mind that my car is good to go.
I finally got tired of the TS pulley slowly rubbing the upper rad hose. The one and only piece that never returned from the 2.1l upgrade was the little upper rad hose holder that screwed into the nose cone.
Anyway, I fab’d up a personalized solution. From the T-stat is the original TS hose, which I think is from a E34 M5. From the rad is a piece of the original E36 M3 hose. In the middle is a 120 degree piece from CX racing.
Test drive complete, no interference at temp.
William
20190709_181550 by William Wallace, on Flickr
Motor: Hurtig/AA custom 2.0l TS OBD2 AA tuned 444whp/384wtq SAE 470whp/400wtq STD
Exhaust RMS headers, Maximum PSI custom exhaust, magnaflow mufflers
Driveline E46 M3 6 SPEED, 2.93 LSD, Rouge SSK/tranny mounts, UUC Ultrasmooth /LTW steel flywheel. CDV delete, UUC clutch pedal bushings with GSP pedal
COOLING: Stewart WP, 78* thermostat, S54 radiator, Euro/S54 oil cooler, ES TS oil cooler adapter, M3 power steering cooler
HANDLING: MR M CAR SF reinforcement, TCK D/A CO 450/500, TCK Camber Plates, Rogue RSM, Ireland SFB, Dinan STB. CCW classics, polished lip, brushed centers. P295/30/18 P245/35/18.
THE SHOW: Stygar Z8 Nozzels, Leather Z armrest, Z8 push button start, chrome door handles, OEM FOGS, BMW Traffic Pro.
Monitoring: PLX Wideband, VDO vision boost/VAC both with custom chrome trim ring.
COMING SOON: custom intake
Nice job William, totally professional looking!
what size was the coupler?
2.1L Eurosport Twin screw on the 98 m3. Please send tires.
A couple of updates for the ES/TS crowd, though the site-glass fittings will work equally well on the AA version (or any other Opcon standing flat or on its side).
Bypass hose @ back of manifold. Previously I had listed the bypass valve (from a Buick GNX), this is a hose that connects it back to the intake manifold.
Advance Auto# C72485 SKU# 10574628
You'll need to trim both ends shorter, but the 90* and "kick" are exactly right.
I was stunned when I saw it on the rack! You'll have to reuse your anti-collapse spring (or make a new one from some 316 SS filler rod__EASY to wind it if you have a lathe, but by hand works too). Make sure that you've bent the springs inward, and blunted their ends, or THEY WILL find their way through the hose!
Sight-glass fittings
2) SS9059-0404 90° Elbow: 1/4" Male JIC x 1/4" Male BSPP Adj. Stainless Steel ("steel" is about 1/4 the price of SS, as an option)
https://www.hydraulicsdirect.com/Sta...-p/ss-9059.htm
2) SS-318-04 - 1/4" JIC (7/16"-20 thread) 37° Tube Nut
https://www.hydraulicsdirect.com/SS-...s-p/ss-318.htm
2) SS-319-04 - 1/4" JIC (7/16"-20 thread) 37° Tube Sleeve
https://www.hydraulicsdirect.com/SS-...s-p/ss-319.htm
a/r 1/4" clear/translucent tubing (the GOOD STUFF, not left-overs from an ice-maker installation kit)
I've take a some pictures of both subjects, but haven't downloaded the camera/put 'em online yet...
Does anyone know the part # or model PCV/CCV hose for the Eurosport? Mine is leaking at the connection under the TS.
2.1L Eurosport Twin screw on the 98 m3. Please send tires.
Hard to grab a photo, but I have oil all around and on the corrugated hose going to the PCV. It's leaking at the connection under the supercharger. I think the O-ring inside that slide on connector has failed. I was thinking of just buying a new PCV hose, taking out the ends and using some silicone/fuel hose to make up the body of the hose for the time being.
Thoughts on that?
2.1L Eurosport Twin screw on the 98 m3. Please send tires.
I may have one of those...see photo below, is it the hose on top?
DSCN0883 by William Wallace, on Flickr
Went out to the parts box.. is this what you are referring to? If so the part# is 11 15 1 703 775
IMG_20191202_214127 by William Wallace, on Flickr
Last edited by Tanks95; 12-02-2019 at 09:47 PM.
Yeah, that is definitely the one I was referring to. Seems odd though as I ordered one and a rough test fit showed it wasn't long enough. I may have to try it again if I pull the supercharger this winter.
I still can't find someone who will service/re condition the supercharger and am curious what gasket is used on the manifold of the 2.1L. I think its the o-ring style, but am not sure as everything I have dug up says the 1.7 and 2.1L are different in a few ways.
2.1L Eurosport Twin screw on the 98 m3. Please send tires.
Okay Randy, here ya go...
IMG_20191203_194337 by William Wallace, on Flickr
Truman, i wish my memory was better...but i "think" the hose in the picture below is a hybrid of two of the OEM 775's (if that makes sense). I believe there is a plastic center section that serves as an extender. Hope this helps. Either way, it seems that Randy is about to pull one, so he will know for sure. But, in the picture below is definitely looks longer that the OEM 775.
20150525_100018 by William Wallace, on Flickr
Thank you! While I did get the compressor, et al, removed, I didn't remember I wanted to measure it (face palm). I can confidently say it's longer than that shown in your picture.
When I did this installation 2-3 years ago, I must've replaced the corrugated section with some Pro-Lite hose, reusing the BMW ends and cinching them with Oetiker clamps.
I will try to remember to measure it tomorrow...
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