Author Topic: BMW 325 Compact - M50B25 Non-Vanos  (Read 13756 times)

Offline KaliE36

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BMW 325 Compact - M50B25 Non-Vanos
« on: November 08, 2008, 08:07:42 am »
Existing hardware:
M50B25 Non-Vanos engine, fully rebuilt with new/ brand new stock spares
Modified ported and polished cyl-head, 3 angle valve job, lighter valves + retainers, double valve springs
Thicker head-gasket, leading to a CR of 9.3:1
Ebay tubular exhaust manifold (TIG re-welded - is still holding after 6000miles), T3 flange, external wastegate
Garrett T3/T4 stage 3, 60 trim, .82 a/r, oil cooled + Garrett oil feed and oil return lines
HKS replica external wastegate (ebay), 50mm tube, free vent
Ebay intercooler + 60mm intake tubes + samco silicone couplers + Forge BOV
63lb Siemens Deka fuel injectors + 255lph bosch fuel pump, Beru coils, Nippon Denso K24 spark plugs
This engine achieved 302HP/ 395Nm with a 0.7bar (10psi) intake pressure - with ciptuning (selfmade)
Unfortunately, even after 5 months of calibrations, the engine is still not working properly using the stock ECU/ MAF based
So I decided to move forward to VEMS stand-alone solution, and I get a unit including:
VR/Auditrigger (on M50 NV engines both crank and camsync sensors are VR - the 3rd wire on stock harness is just a shield)
WBO2, Knock + EGT, boost control support (including sensors/ solenoid)


Offline KaliE36

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VEMS installation - step by step
« Reply #1 on: November 08, 2008, 09:02:09 am »
After I get the V3 harness (that looks very professionally built - in my opinion):
A - identify every sensor wire and label it accordingly.
On V3 harness, just 4 of injectors (1-4) and WBO2 sensor are properly hooked up, the remaining sensors and the coils must be wired and couplers to be installed.
so, I will describe what sensors I was identified, in order, starting with the one next to EC couplers:
1. TPS , 3 wires, black - ground, yellow - +5v (for TPS only), green - TPS signal; TPS coupler must be installed (the TPS sensor can be find on M50 engine on the right/ lower side of the throttle body); the OEM coupler to be used is also 3 wires (brown-ground, brown&black-signal, red&white- +5V); the brawn&black wire is in the middle and is the signal wire, depending how you will connect the ground and +5v input, you will get a rising or a falling signal when throttle kicked (so, the green wire should be wired in the middle)
2. IAT, 2 wires, black - ground, blue - IAT signal; IAT sensor on M50 is on the right side of the plastic intake manifold, just next to the throttle body; OEM coupler is 2 wires (brown - ground, brown&white - signal)
3. MAP, 3 wires, black - ground, green - MAP signal, white - +5v common; considering that I do have a unit with built in MAP sensor, I will not use this coupler;
4. FAN, 1 pink wire (+12v); is easy to be identified, being a thicker wire; If you already have a electric fan - you have to wire this pink wire together with a ground (basically on OEM harness, most of grounds are brown)
5. CLT, 2 wires, black - ground, yellow - CLT signal; the CLT sensor is on intake part of the cylinder head and is easy to be identified being the only green or blue; the coupler is also 2 wires, and is also green or blue colored (the OEM wires are: brown - ground, brown&red-CLT signal); attention: the close by black coupler with just 1 brown&white wire is the warning signal for engine overheated and is directly connected to the dash board - after you will remove the OEM harness, you have to re-wire this temp probe directly to th dash board;
6. Crank sensor (VR1), 3 wires, black - ground, brown - VR1 signal, white - +5v common (not used for VR sensors, just for HALL); the OEM sensor can be find under the water pump (or viscous fan) in the left side of the trigger wheel; the stock harness have 2 couplers for this sensor: one close to the sensor, and the second one - just under the intake manifold, very close by the ICV (actually there are 2 couplers in a plastic holder, one in top of another - one is the crank sensor, and the other is the camshaft sensor); I will recommend that the V3 harness to be linked with this 2 sensors on the 'middle' couplers, the wires from these couplers to the sensors being very strong and high temp resistant. attention: there is a 3-rd coupler with 3 wires and the same shape as crank and cam sensor couplers - this is the ICV coupler; unfortunately I never knew which is which and alway i was installed these couplers by 'try and miss' ...
7. Camsync sensor(VR2), 3 wires, the same as the crank sensor; the difference on the V3 harness is that the crank sensor wire have a red label on it; In this first VEMS installation my aim is to make it work waste spark and semi-sequential, so the camsync sensor will not be hooked-up in EC coupler (btw: in the V3, the sec trigger is not hooked up in EC, but is labeled, and you can install this later)
8. a yellow coupler with 2 wires - exactely as the injector coupler - that i don't know yet what is doing ... i suppose that is the knock sensor ...
« Last Edit: November 08, 2008, 10:11:27 am by KaliE36 »

Offline KaliE36

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VEMS installation - step by step - Injectors
« Reply #2 on: November 08, 2008, 10:10:22 am »
In order to properly connect all 6 injectors we have to do 2 small modifications in V3 harness. The fact is that just 4 injectors out of 4 are hooked up (namely A, B, C, D - labeled on V3); in order to be sure that all injectors are hooked up correctly, I checked with a DWM:
Inj A, 2 wires 1 connected with EC36-7, 2 connected to +12v (check at the main +12v relay exit)
Inj B, 1- EC36-19, 2 - +12v,
Inj C, 1 - EC36-8, 2 - +12v,
Inj D, 1- EC36-20, 2 - +12v,
Inj E, 1 - EC36-9, 2- +12v,
Inj F, 1- EC36-18, 2- +12v
Please note that the injectors E and F drive wire is not hooked up in EC36 connector in V3 harness (must be done manually); The injector E drive wire is gray - to be hooked up in EC36-9 and the Inj F is violet, to be hooked up in EC36-18 (we can find these 2 wires labeled "Injectors 5-6-7-8" next to EC36 connector); Both EC36-9 and EC36-18 are already taken by :
EC36-9 - green&black fuel pump relay wire - to be moved on EC36-15
EC36-18 - purple&black coolant fan relay - to be moved on EC36-4

Offline KaliE36

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VEMS installation - step by step - Ignition
« Reply #3 on: November 08, 2008, 10:25:27 am »
So here I am now - with all sensors couplers hooked up and injectors.
In the first phase I intend to use the VEMS unit wasted spark and semi-sequential or sequential injection - which do you think that will be better? if I will fire the injectors sequentially, but without camsync, I will fire either in air stream entering the engine or against the closed inlet valve (depending by how the engine was stopped last time ... will not be there a difference ?)
The injectors can be fired in pairs - as the coils ?
about the ignition, the M50 engine was built with COP and I do have 6 very good Beru coils ...
The firing order for M50 engines is: 1-5-3-6-2-4, and i will want to fire the coils on pairs of 2 - how do you think that will be the best to wire the coils : all six as per sequential and to be fired in pairs, or to be wired 3x2 ?
what difficulties i will face if I will try to go straight to full sequential ?
Thank you for an input on this ..

Offline KaliE36

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VEMS installation - step by step - Misc
« Reply #4 on: November 08, 2008, 10:37:32 am »
Other things to do for a complete installation (application specific):
considering that the OEM harness will be removed, some functions will be to be maintained:
1. alternator and starter wires (both are thick red wires on stock harness - can be just detached from and installed in the original position);
2. a strong +12v input in the main relay unit (driving everithyng but the engine: lights, power windows, etc)
3. tachometer - is there a wire on V3 harness that is outputting the tach signal, but i didn't identified yet ...
4. a +12v ignition key power
5. fuel pump wires (can be wired directly on the stock relay input)
6. some gauges on dash board: coolant temp, oil pressure .. i don't think that the econometer can be kept.
7. WBO2 sensor
8. boost control and knock sensor (optional)
there are other things that i didn't think about ?

Offline goxxy

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Re: BMW 325 Compact - M50B25 Non-Vanos
« Reply #5 on: November 08, 2008, 07:27:55 pm »
This will be great help for me because I have same engine with similar setup just waiting for VEMS.
Try to be so detailed like you started and please write down everything you do with this installation.
Thanks!

Offline gunni

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Re: BMW 325 Compact - M50B25 Non-Vanos
« Reply #6 on: November 08, 2008, 09:29:59 pm »
you can run your engine easily running the injectors sequentally

it´s not going to run badly one bit, look for E30 m20 info on this forum for the wiring info.

ignition wise without running wasted you can run 6 ignition outputs in dual out mode so that two ign outputs are always firing at the same time.

Keep injectors and ignition outputs separate if you can as if one goes you can always disable it and still run the engine on 5 without problems.

look at the E30 325i settings on the forum they are fairly similar except the ignition bit and base timing possibly.