E30 Zone

Hello all,

Just wanted to let anyone interested know that I am going to Supercharge one of my 318is's. I have done a few conversions on mainly Suzuki Swift GTi's which can take 125% more power on stock internals. I am unsure if the M42 will do the same, and I will be increasing boost from 7psi upwards over a period of months to see how far it will RELIABLY go.

I am going to use a Rotrex Supercharger which is a centrifugal type. It increases boost with RPM and doesn't feel quite like a turbo, but a much bigger NA car. There is no lag whatsoever with these chargers.

I have already bought an E36 318is front pulley kit (ie. PAS pump, Alternator with bracket, tensioner, water pump pulley and front crank pulley/damper with crank sensor to suit) These are all polly vee type pulleys and are needed to run the supercharger. While I am there I will fit the E36 PAS rack with pipe work for that to match. Should be a pretty straight forward conversion.

Intercooler is going to be the widest and highest I can get, but I like to keep it pretty narrow for optimum cooling. I will also be fitting an oil cooler for the engine and Supercharger. The Supercharger has its own special oil supply so I'll get some reserviors made up. I will also be getting a catch tank made to cope with any excess crank case pressures! These will go where the battery is currently fitted. The battery will go in the boot in the M3/325i sport position. Will also counter ballance the extra weight of the SC moving the battery into the boot.

I will be fitting a larger radiator and will removing the viscous fan and moving the rad further back towards the engine. This will give a little more room for the intercooler. I will also fit a slimline electric cooling fan similar to Matts car (Appletree's)

EMS wise, I will be keeping standard with exception to mapping using the Uni-Q which I already have fitted. I have also fitted this to limit the max revs which the Evolve chip has removed. I expect max power to be over 7000 RPM, so will need to play this one by ear. I will also be removing the AFM and fitting an inlet temp sensor. I will also be fitting a charge temp sensor and use this in conjunction with the UniQ to compensate the fuel and ignition maps if temps get a little warm. I am expecting the charge temps to stay well below 40C though. Again, I will need to play this one by ear.

Power wise, I don't know what it will give. I am expecting a safe 200-225ish with 6-7psi, but I will be increasing to 10-12psi eventually. But I am not going for all out power, just enough to put a grin on my face and to be able to take a pounding on track days. Remember the idea of leaving the M42 internals standard. This may change as I am thinking of fitting ARP head bolts/studs and big end and main cap bolts?

I am thinking about using a boost controller to obviously control the boost. Basically set it to say 6psi and anything over just dump it. This will allow me to get the SC spinning at max capacity at max revs. This will obviously make the SC boost more at lower RPM's. Also the boost controller will make it easier to adjust boost in the future without the need for getting different sized pulleys made up for the SC.

I need to say thank you to a few people... James at Beemer-Redeemer for the E36 parts Tim_S for the info on the front pulleys and Appletree for the info on the Pistons. Cheers chaps

I will post up pics as and when the project starts and throughout the work being carried out. I am not expecting this to take too long and I won't be doing the fabrication unfortunately, I am crap at things like that!

Good luck paul , make sure you keep notes and pictures dude ,

should make for a nice driver once its done ,

I really like the idea of keeping everything standard internal wise there seems to be a lack of this and just people going for ill change this i will change that,

good luck ...

...also i only sound like i know what i am talking about thanks to talking to tim loooool

agreen wrote: ...also i only sound like i know what i am talking about thanks to talking to tim loooool

Thanks dude, but who told you Tim knows what he's talking about?

agreen wrote:

...also i only sound like i know what i am talking about thanks to talking to tim loooool


Thanks dude, but who told you Tim knows what he's talking about?

Hmmmm now you come to mention it looooooool , i hope he does lol ,

... he said you told him that a man told you that his sisters mom's dad said a super charged is would be coolio , i think

Blimey

Anything Tim doesn't know about the M42 isn't worth knowing

Will also be watching this with bated breath.

Sounds like a proper route to more juice from the M42.

Like the N/A part too.

Anything Tim doesn't know about the M42 isn't worth knowing

He does not know mine is really an m40 with an "is" badge lol He soon will

Nice cant wait to see this get going!


LOT and LOTS of pics for me please!

Cool ill be keeping an eye on this so want to s/c my IS!! a diffrent slant than appletree's but will be intresting

all the best with it

Thanks guys, yes it is a different type of supercharger, but it is expensive. For me who can't or don't have the patience for detailed fabrication like Matt and his dad making up everything, this SC will be easier to install and the brackets, pipework and intercooler are being custom made by a guy who built the kit for my Swift GTi.

I have 2 Rotrex SC's, one which is for engines upto 4ltr and the other which is on my swift which does upto 2ltr. I am fancying the larger one But I want to keep my piston top rings intact

How's this going?

It's certainly a very good engine to supercharge, you know how tough these little buggers are. The onlt thing that might cornern me would be how much torque the little 240 gearbox and small case diff would take?
I don't see why a well built M42 wouldn't deliver 230 bhp - it's got all the right bits inside (forged crank etc).

Sounds good mate - do you think my engine will be up to some SC induction?

Q

Go on Q, you KNOW you wanna

Paul, some inspiration for you fella

I do wanna - only thing is - ive had so much issues with my engine in the past - im afraid that it wont even reach 4k miles!!!!

LOL

How will my high comp engine cope (eta crank - not forged!!!)

Q

Thats all in the past dude, onwards and upwards

Cr is 10.4:1 iirc ?? she'll eat 10psi with mapping to suit, no issues, be like having 4 Litres to play with

I want to supercharge my S50 now.. Oh for god's sake.

Actually I have a spare old M42 kicking around here.. That'd be nice with around 250 brake of FI from one of them. Might require new pistons and a load of other stuff but a fun project I used to LOVE tha handling of the car with billies, M3 suspension and the M42.

Ant wrote:




Go on Q, you KNOW you wanna

Paul, some inspiration for you fella

Audio clips to come midweek.......



S50 in E30, no problemo ! complete new intake plenum supplied, clears all known servo combinations.... no IC used on that one, its water/methanol injetced instead

I can't afford either just yet!! LOL. Why the new plenum on the S50 Ant? I know the rubber boots and plastic trumpets look weak but I seem to remember seeing mega power turbocharged S50's on youtube that use them.. I think the boots puff up a bit though. I kinda like the idea of running an intercooler with the cahrger in pretty much the location of the M20 one in the picture.. I spose 400-450 brake is a reasonable power figure with a healthy dose of torque? Would run a larger charger to keep it efficient and hopefully keep the charge temps down so no need for new pistons or headgaskets.

Sorry to go O/T!!

hello... i'm tryin to do a the same type of fit with a m45 to an m42... sort of the same as matts but i got an intercooler from an jeep cherokee 2.5tdi and im going to keep as much of the intakemanifold as i can.... this is my first big project... so hope you don't mind me taging along... cheers... smith... oh and best of luck...

Sweet - liking the look of this. I wish I'd gone for a rotrex rather than eaton.

Me to hoshy! but as there was little or no info on how to supercharge a M42 i didnt want to put to much money in to it incase it went pop.

Looking back it would have been 10 times easyer to use a rotrex

Yeah I hear you matt. And I'm not even half way there yet. I reckon I'll finish it as is for now though. I'm sure the flat torque curve will have me crying out for a >4pot by the time I'm done

Still - Paul's should be another entry for the little Ultimate BMW shootout

what do the rotrex Supercharger C15 cost new?
amazing compact little charger

jaistanley wrote:I want to supercharge my S50 now.. Oh for god's sake.

I keep looking at the big empty space where the aircon pump used to be and the spare crank pulley and my mind turns to supercharging. Would prefer turbo, but having bought the BTB manifold, turbo isnt really an option.

Ant wrote: S50 in E30, no problemo ! complete new intake plenum supplied, clears all known servo combinations....

Supercharged S50?? More info please

jaistanley wrote:Why the new plenum on the S50 Ant? I know the rubber boots and plastic trumpets look weak but I seem to remember seeing mega power turbocharged S50's on youtube that use them.. I think the boots puff up a bit though.

Yup, 800-900bhp with the standard plenum and rubber boots - although they do 'puff up' as you say under boost.

Jaysus, I've missed abit in here while since I was last in the Engine swaps and FI section!

I'm between too minds if I want to supercharge or turbo my track car...
Supercharging would give more useable power I suppose especially if I want to use it for drifting too.

Could do both

dlatch wrote:what do the rotrex Supercharger C15 cost new?
amazing compact little charger

They are cheaper than they used to be, mine was nearly £1400! But I understand they are a good few hundred less than that now and have the ability to boost 25psi !!!

Mine is a huge charger for the 318is, much too big for the boost I want to put through it, but it'll be controlled with a boost controller somehow and atleast I will have more flow with less pressure keeping intake temps lower too

Project has stalled a litttle as I am waiting to get an E36 steering rack, I want to do all this in one hit

hows this project comming along shep?

thanks for the info shep i spoke with ant about them very attractively priced and a cracking charger.
will keep an eye on this see how u go with your conversion.

Onz wrote:hows this project comming along shep?

Soon, soon! lol... I'm just trying to get another car back on the road so I can have this one off for a couple of weeks. Need to get the E36 rack, pump, pulleys on before fitting the charger

I was actually wondering about about scrapping the PAS on one of these and fitting the charger in the PAS pump position. Any regular inspection would pass for standard and the air inlet pipes would be more conveniently placed. Do you think it would work in that position?

Onz wrote:I was actually wondering about about scrapping the PAS on one of these and fitting the charger in the PAS pump position. Any regular inspection would pass for standard and the air inlet pipes would be more conveniently placed. Do you think it would work in that position?

I dont see why not mate, also you could run PAS sill, just fit an electric pump from a corsa or P106/Saxo

The other advantage of that place is less heat. But there is alot less room if I remember right

Paul

This looks like a fun project! I'll be sure to keep an eye on your progress

ShepsEvo3 wrote:

Onz wrote:I was actually wondering about about scrapping the PAS on one of these and fitting the charger in the PAS pump position. Any regular inspection would pass for standard and the air inlet pipes would be more conveniently placed. Do you think it would work in that position?

I dont see why not mate, also you could run PAS sill, just fit an electric pump from a corsa or P106/Saxo

The other advantage of that place is less heat. But there is alot less room if I remember right

You'd be better to move the alternator to the other side and use a second alternator bracket or the block mount to mount the charger kind of like an a E46 supercharger kit