1987 BMW 325is going VEMS, then turbo

[danmartin]

I'm a bit late to the scene, but I'm finally starting my project thread. Ben's the one with the camera, and time to put into it, so expect most of the info to come from him.

On with the show.

[danmartin]

Here's a little background. I had an Acura RSX, and had some work done to it. It was quick, but I got sick of the FWD (especially with no LSD) and how plane it was. I wanted RWD, and character. I found a *mint* e30 BMW on eBay a while back, and grabbed it for $5,500 which is a steal. I've since lowered it with Ireland Engineering stage 3 race springs and Bilstien sport dampers. I've got some OZ racing wheels on there (I'm a big fan of the high spoke count wheels) to clear bigger brakes that will be going on soon. After a lot of thinking, I've decided on some sway bars, so they will go on soon.

The car is ready for some power. The idea is to get VEMS working, and then install a turbo. I'm looking for 350 HP or so at the beginning. I'll be buying things in preparation of 600 HP though. I will be building a block on the side, which will be dropped in, and then the boost upped from 1 bar to 2, without having to upgrade anything else.

I have VEMS right now, and a lot of wiring has been done (I'm removing the factory harness and making my own. After taking off the stock manifold, I decided it was never going back on again. Too much of a hassle. So I ordered up some parts from 666 fabrication.



While I was at it, I got a turbo manifold very similar to the one you see below, by the same guy.



It is split pulse, T4 flange, but mine has dual 44mm wastegate pipes.


Next came an order to www.full-race.com for a Turbonetics F1-35 turbo:

http://www.full-race.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=214_698&products_id=1844&osCsid=622826b180b382c545e6f1b874c7ff78
This is the best picture I could find of the turbo. It shows the difference between a true T4 flange, and a T3 adapted to T4.



Tial 50mm blow-off (bypass) valve:



Two Tial 44mm wastgates:





I've still got a bunch of things to grab, but I'm on my way.

[BenFenner]

We're still waiting for the intake manifold to arrive before we can really get into this VEMS install. It should be coming soon, so get ready for more VEMS action from our side of the pond.

[rob@vems.co.uk]

Looks good!  I have some Full Race goodies to go on my SR20 engine when it gets back from the engine builder.

[gox]

Good luck with the project

Doing same here...but first foinf NA and VEMS then turbo.
http://www.vems.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=225.0...

I finished harness going to try starting my car tonight (need to wire injectors and set all up).
What turbo are you going to use?
More info on hardware,project plans?

/Gogi

[BenFenner]

Dan'll be N/A for a bit with VEMS before going turbo. So very similar to you.

Good luck on your car. We've been making very good progress since Dan's intake manifold came in the other day. I've got pictures I'll be posting soon.

The turbo Dan is going to use is listed in his second post. If you missed it, here's the link:

http://www.full-race.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=214_698&products_id=1844&osCsid=622826b180b382c545e6f1b874c7ff78

I'll be posting more pictures and information about the project if you're interested.


Rob, what have you got for your SR20 from full race? I would kill for one of their exhaust manifolds. =]

[rob@vems.co.uk]

Rob, what have you got for your SR20 from full race? I would kill for one of their exhaust manifolds. =]

Pro-street top mount:
http://www.vems.co.uk/200SXWiki/index.php?pagename=Main.FullRaceProStreetManifold
For my GT30R
http://www.vems.co.uk/200SXWiki/index.php?pagename=Main.GT30RTurbo

[BenFenner]

If my transmission weren't so weak, I'd be all over that stuff. I'll be stuck with 275 HP or so unless I do something drastic.

[danmartin]

Yeah I got my manifolds in Wednesday. The intake is flanged for a Mustang 5.0. However I seem to have picked up a throttle body off the only years of the 5.0 that don't bolt up  . Ben and I went to the junk yard and picked up the IAC and TPS off a proper year and I ordered a new aftermarket 75mm TB from summit racing and some universal throttle cable.

Hopefully that will be here early next week as well as all the rest of my turbo stuff. I have pretty much finished up the wiring and am just needing to drill a few extra holes in the firewall for wires and I will then start configuring my sensors and get the timing dialed in. Hopefully it will go uneventfully unlike Ben's install.

The plan is to run like 5-7 Pounds until my clutch is totally fried  . Then the plan is to order a 6-puck and a Sachs 618 Pressure Plate. Many BMW guys get metric blue head bolts to replace the factory stretch head bolts. However I will be ordering some ARP head studs and once those are in crank up the boost to a bar or so and watch the tires burn.

Pics will be up tonight!

[danmartin]

Well thanks to Ben and some hard work we got a lot of things done! Here are some pics of the parts I got in:

Intake Manifold:







Exhaust Manifold:





Install!



Wiring Fun!



Giant Fish with tiny fish.



Throttle Body (75 MM Mustang)



Intake in



Fuel Rail in and makeshift Intake



Headlight modification




to allow fitment of 3 inch charge pipes off a 24x12x3 inch core intercooler




We installed a universal throttle cable and we are going to make a bracket for mounting the throttle cable today as well as finish up the plumbing for vacuum tubes. We are also going to clean up the wiring and hopefully get this thing running soon. Stay tuned.

[BenFenner]

We just finished another full day of work. I just wanted to point out what a stellar job we did plumbing the intercooler.

Most E30 guys plumb this specific intercooler (it's very popular) one of two ways. They either put the outlets towards the bottom of the car and run 2.5" pipes back under/around the lower radiator support and then into the engine bay. This takes up the room for the fog lights, so they are deleted.

Others put the outlets towards the top of the car, run 2.5" pipes back directly into the engine bay through the inner headlight assembly spot. This obviously loses the inner headlights.

Dan and I managed to plumb 3" pipes (!) under the headlights, into the engine bay. This means we got to keep both sets of headlights, the fog lights, and we've kept the A/C. This is a first we believe, as no one at www.e30tech.com seemed to think it was possible.

It's 3:30 am. right now, so I'm gunna catch some "Z"s before we do it all again tomorrow. Bare with me while I get my act together with the pictures. I've taken a lot, I just have other pictures that are taking priority right now. Once I post those (not here) I'll get to the car pics.

[danmartin]

Well I'm excited to say we got the car started and running tonight. We also finished up the intercooler plumbing. Most of the night was focused on fabricating a bracket for the throttle cable.





Ben's mad fabrication skills with only a side grinder and a hammer.

Hood clearance was an issue with the manifold and TB so the throttle cable needed to be fished from underneath. I ordered up a new oil cooler and plumbing for it tonight so that should get here mid week and we will be able to re-assemble the front end and get the cooling system back together.

We got the timing dialed in and I have some base maps that I can work off of for tuning, but until everything gets put back together we are taking a well deserved break so stay tuned.

[BenFenner]

I thought I'd give an update even though picture's aren't uploaded yet. We buttoned up the front end, and put the hood back on Dan's car last night and took it out for a spin. Even though we're pretty sure the idle control is disabled, it idles and runs surprisingly well. After a short VE tuning session we decided it was to the point where he could drive it daily, and he could stop driving his other car around. It should just be tweaks from here. We're not finished yet, but the car is looking to be in terrific shape.

[danmartin]

We fiddled around with the VE Learn today. It seems to do a pretty good job, however I wasn't able to find much documentation on it, has anyone had experience using it? Ben and I are pretty new to tuning and we think we have been doing in right. Perhaps I will post my tables and get some feedback from you guys soon.

[BenFenner]

After some VE learning, we went back to the old fashioned way and did 20 or so WOT 3rd gear runs trying to get those parts of the VE table in good order. We believe we've got the 100 kPa VE settings throughout the entire rev range in great shape. We've also got cruising stuff down (30-60 kPa from 1,500-3,00 rpms) to something close to optimum.

I'll describe what we've been doing, and maybe Rob or someone else can tell us if we're going about it correctly. We have what we think is a great spark table already, stole from someone else who's done a hybrid of stock and dyno tuned values. Then I went ahead and just sort of made a best guess as what the lamda table should be. I'll post that soon. After those two were set, we've modified the VE table values up or down using the EGO Correction as our guide. We have EGO Correction set to Lean % of 7 and Rich % of 1.

First we logged runs, and took care of any lean situations as best we could.

Then we attacked the rich situations, so when EGO goes to less than 96% we've been lowering the VE table numbers.

Right now under WOT and cruising the actual lamda holds very true to the target, and the EGO correction is around 98-100%, so not doing much.

Is this the right way to go about things? And, once we're done, is the goal to turn EGO correction off, or should we plan to have it on for normal driving?