1987 BMW 325is going VEMS, then turbo

[gox]

That idle setup realy is pain in the ass with that stupid solenoid.... 

Have you expirienced any Trigger Errors?
How did you wire VR? Black wire to VEMS EC36 Pin27 and yellow wire to Sensor Grounds?
I`ll try to replace the VR to see if it helps...i hate this kind of stuff

[BenFenner]

Yes, Dan wired his VR sensor that way. Black wire was signal, and yellow wire was ground.

He hasn't seen any trigger errors, but I have. In a log I did, I noticed it had a warning about trigger errors. I don't know how often it's happening, but it doesn't seem to be causing me any problems.

[danmartin]

Yeah I didn't ground the shielding myself, I assumed the factory did, but i did ground the yellow wire to sensor ground. I suppose luck is on my side for now...

[BenFenner]

Dan and I went out the other night to do some more benchmarking.

We had three cars that were the same exact speed before we started our VEMS projects. The cars are:

Car                                Modifications                                          Owner

1987 BMW 325is                 Stock                                                    Dan Martin
                                      93 octane
                                      170 lbs. ballast (passenger)

1994 Nissan Sentra SE-R     Short ram intake                                      Ben Fenner
                                      Base ignition timing advanced 4 degrees
                                      93 octane
                                      170 lbs. ballast (passenger)

1994 Nissan Sentra SE-R     Stock                                                    Dan Fenner
                                      87 octane



Now we can use my brother's SE-R to benchmark our cars, and see how our WOT tuning is going.
We did a run last week with Dan's car against my brother's that did not go very well. Dan's car was marginally slower than it should have been, and seemed to lose ground at the lower revs, and never made it up towards the top.

We re-evaluated his air/fuel ratio, compared it to stock, and decided he was much, much too rich. After leaning him out, we did another run last night. He managed to pull a little bit on my brother's car until 100 mph or so when his poor aerodynamics must have taken over, and he dropped back behind. Dan's pretty satisfied with the results. We'll see if he wants to do anything else. My guess is once I race him with my car and pull on him, he'll rethink his decision to leave things alone. =]

I have a video of both of those runs that I may post, but it's very dark (of course) so we'll see if I get around to it.

Check my thread for my results.

[BenFenner]

Dan is satisfied with his current settings. His car is running very well. It is reliable, the gas millage is decent, and the power is comparable to stock.

He has taken the car off the road in preparation for turbo installation and does not plan on dyno-ing the car before turbo installation as it seems to be just as fast as stock, no faster.

Stay tuned for turbo madness.

[gox]

Hey guys,hows its going?

Whats up with the idle stepper? I didnt set mine yet....also my cold start sucks a lot...need to hold throtle for a few minutes then its ok....i`m very very rich at idle... lamda 0.87-0.90 but thats the only way i can keep it idle about 800rpm...

Any sugestions?

[danmartin]

You should configure you idle solenoids. I am running a mustang 5.0 throttle body and idle solenoid so mine is completly different. I have been lucky with my idle, it just seems to work.

[danmartin]

Just to give an update, I've been on a parts buying frenzy. I have a Sach 618 Pressure Plate and Clutchnet 6 puck unsprung clutch on the way. Also the exhaust has been sourced and I'm going 4 inches from the turbo back. I will be using two Dynamax resonators and a Magnaflow mullfer. The exhaust it going to be interesting to say the least (hopefully I will retain SOME ground clearance). Im starting to plumb the oil and water for the turbo. The oil pan needs to be dropped for tapping, but this requires dropping the front subframe and steering rack. Also new motor and tranny mounts will go on. And finally some 63 lb/hr injectors. The original plan was to go slow, but i am tired of being slow.

[BenFenner]

These are Dan's settings:



He's changed the Crank Cold PW value from 3.0 to 6.0 I believe as he started to have some issues with cold start finally now that it's a bit cold. You should look into your cold idle settings during cranking as well. You might want to raise it. Also take note that cranking threshold is very important. A value too high (like 500 rpm) won't allow the engine to get into "afterstart" as I've just found out recently.

[danmartin]

Got some pics...


Resonator







My friend Jacob thats has agreed to weld up the exhaust for me...



Some of the exhaust pieces, they are flipping huge...



I'm now ready to drop the oil pan and tap it for oil return, but I don't really know when I will get around to it, maybe after finals in early December. I really want to get this done by 2008.

[danmartin]

Some more pics...

[danmartin]

This is my last lamda table before I took the car off the road and before I moved to 14x16. Also if I remember quickly I tuned to a little bit leaner than this.

[danmartin]

Called Clutchnet today asking about my clutch, they say it ships tommo so... Originally last weekend I had planed to do the oil pan but something came up and I had to drive to Chicago. I am now down an RSX, but up this:









So I don't know if its the same in the UK but stateside the S13's only came in the 180sx style front end. This car apparently is 'hot shit' because of the JDM front :shrug:  Also we get the KA24DE only. Well thankfully this one is swapped...



Greddy Intake



GT3076R





Some Issues



I guess when they tucked the wires and slammed the cars they didn't realize that stuff would rub.


Anyway the car is a good start for another project. The exhaust is a bit loud for my taste and the 3" piping is crush bent so that needs to go. Needs a headliner, and little stuff. Also something to note the car runs AEM EMS. They put in a boost controller and they told me that it was tuned with progressive boost to go from 10-14 PSI. Well after looking at the settings, I felt the solenoid wasn't doing anything so I unhooked it and ran the car. Guess what boost creep from 10-14 PSI. I chuckled. The car is tuned poorly and floods like a mad man at low rmp and high throttle. Also the car has super rich cruising AFR's. Anyway EMS doesn't seem hard at all. I really want to get the BMW up compare the two.

[BenFenner]

Any reason you didn't post the money shots?

[danmartin]

Oh man it's been too long. We got the new clutch in and the oil pan, got the manifold wrapped and mounted, and finished welding up the downpipe. We ran oil and water lines for the turbo, but am waiting on some fittings to get the oil supply finished. They came in today but I've yet to install them. We need to make one more wastgate dump pipe and the car is ready to be started! I'm excited, its been a long time comming. Hopefully updates and pics soon.