# My E30 325i turbo project



## ingus (Oct 28, 2008)

Hi. My name in ingus. I'm new in this forum.I'm mechanic my self and loved cars all my life. The reason why I'm wrighting in this forum is that I need some help from BMW enthusiasts! Cause I'm on middle to boost my 1990 325i m-tech project car.

And now I'll tell short story about my project
6 month ago After full respray and interior job:


Suspension and brakes wasn't too god so we decided for brand new (I got them almost for nothing***61514 


A nightmare for 3 days. 


We had to respray inside cause there was some rust and scratches.

My friend spend lot of time to do wires 

I replaced all gaskets and oil seals(I didn't do head gasket) New ignition,w p and t-belt kit.


This was tricky cause of fresh paint everywhere

Pirate lol***61514; 

After 6days and lots of red bull ***61514;




I was so happy that local tuner magazine put it in to next issue!

So now after I drove car and felt that engine power was too week for my new brakes and suspension . (oh and I smashed sump over bump last week***61516; ) . I desided to boost it cause it is cheapest power for the money. 
There is my exhaust manifold I got it from e-bay yesterday***61514;. Looks prity good job. Turbo charger what I'll use is T3/TO4E A/R-50. I've to weld pipe from manifold to external 38mm wastegate. 


Plan is to get front mount IC, bigger radiator, electric fan, bigger fuel pump, injectors etc. 
I really want to use Megasquirt cause it is DIY. Or there is some better and not very expensive options for ECU? Is there any one who have some experience with similar setup?
How much boost will take stock bottom end? Or it is safer to lower the compression (with thicker MLS gasket and arp bolts)? Where I can found metal head gasket if there is some on market?
How about engine heads do they give trouble? 
I this is my first boosted BMW so I'll appreciate for any help.
Thanks


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## boofsmb (Aug 18, 2008)

e30tech.com will give you lots and lots of answers


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## Carbon (Nov 3, 2008)

looks very nice mate......top job:thumbup:


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## [email protected] (Nov 21, 2008)

looks like a very nice project, I love those wheels. Are they real Alpinas?

The BMW engines generally respond well to moderate amounts of boost. I would think 8-10 psi would be safe for stock internals.


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## Black-Out (Nov 1, 2008)

Hey Ingus, Might I start out by saying you have, by far one of the cleanest e-30's I have ever seen,you do excellent work! 

The bottom end on your car should be able to support up to around 1 bar of boost provided you pull a generous amount of timing when it needs to be pulled. 
Although it's a good way to raise the detonation threshold of your engine you don't have to reduce the compression, but doing so would allow you a greater margin of safety durring tuning and also allow you to run more boost to compensate for the drop in V. E. (volumetric efficiency) 

The stock compression on your engine should be ideal in my oppinion as it's already 9.0:1 which gives the best of both worlds, good low end power (how your car runs right now off boost should not be changed) and the ability to run fairly high boost (1 bar) 

If your going to use the Mega squirt with the management make sure you get Mega Squirt Plus Spark, which is the complete system and will allow you to adjust ignition timing on boost as needed along with injector pulse width.

The turbo you selected should be good for a tic under 380rwhp which is more than enough to get the attention of newer BMW 3 series owners on the road. I dont know how much power your aiming for, but the 50-trim O4-E is a good turbo for mid range and top end without taking a decade to spool up, so your set up is real good. Your basicly setting up a car that you could do track events with, and still have fun on the street.

Once you begain tuning, start out with 0 ignition advance, and then tune your fuel maps to 12.5:1 a.f.r. Try not to go leaner than that, and try not to go below 11.8:1 a.f.r. unless ofcourse the car keeps making horsepower.
Some cars will do that because of the way the cylinder heads are designed. 
Make sure you tune your fuel maps under full throttle near the highest boost pressure you plan to run. 
Once the fuel map is set up and your at the desired boost pressure, then you may begain to add ignition timing to the boosted axis on the map and you should do so 1 degree at a time untill you start picking up noise from the knock sensor on the lap top or you stop making horsepower. Then once you've gotten to this point you can do two things:

1. Start cleaning up the cruise portions of the mapping for smoothness and fuel economy

2. Start pushing the boost pressure envelope and see how much power you can wring from the engine.

As far as I know, there is no MLS gasket available on the market for your particular engine (we ran into the same thing on our shops 91' 535i when we twin turbocharged it) 
All you can really do is either have one custom made or use a fresh factory gasket along with the ARP head stud set. We are not having any problems right now and we are producing 350rwhp @ 6psi boost through an automatic transmission.
Other than the head gasket the cylinder heads are perfectly fine for a reasonable power out request (400hp) so I wouldn't worry with it just yet.
Save your money and time.

Sorry I hadn't responded to you sooner, I hope I'm not too late to help you out!
Good luck with it Ingus:thumbup:


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## junkyarddesign (Nov 21, 2009)

*ebay turbo*

i have used an ebay turbo it works great only issuie is that there turbo is only oil injected no coolant. but im running 12lbs and its a rocket , i have another motor to put in when this one tanks out. but its been on for over a month no sign of wear. i drift it hard. im trying to see how long it will last. i have a m52 . motor to put in . has anyone turbo ed one of these????


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## mdarosa54 (May 20, 2011)

junkyarddesign said:


> i have used an ebay turbo it works great only issuie is that there turbo is only oil injected no coolant. but im running 12lbs and its a rocket , i have another motor to put in when this one tanks out. but its been on for over a month no sign of wear. i drift it hard. im trying to see how long it will last. i have a m52 . motor to put in . has anyone turbo ed one of these????


are these turbos just bolt on i have a stock 2.5 e30, im good with toold but im no mechanic is there any major mods i will have too do , ccan i still keep my a/c


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## mdarosa54 (May 20, 2011)

ingus said:


> Hi. My name in ingus. I'm new in this forum.I'm mechanic my self and loved cars all my life. The reason why I'm wrighting in this forum is that I need some help from BMW enthusiasts! Cause I'm on middle to boost my 1990 325i m-tech project car.
> 
> And now I'll tell short story about my project
> 6 month ago After full respray and interior job:
> ...


are these turbos just bolt on i have a stock 2.5 e30, im good with toold but im no mechanic is there any major mods i will have too do , ccan i still keep my a/c


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## GG///M3 (May 14, 2011)

Car looks frikken great dude. Which exhaust manifold did you use?


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## outlaw225 (Jan 8, 2014)

*Turbo kit*



junkyarddesign said:


> i have used an ebay turbo it works great only issuie is that there turbo is only oil injected no coolant. but im running 12lbs and its a rocket , i have another motor to put in when this one tanks out. but its been on for over a month no sign of wear. i drift it hard. im trying to see how long it will last. i have a m52 . motor to put in . has anyone turbo ed one of these????


DO you remember which turbo kit you got? and how long did it last?


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