Project cheap and tearfull underway!

[driftmonkey]

Right bit of an edit, project cheap and tearfull has started.

Car is an 89' 325i se 4 door, so far have a stainless exhaust that the previous owner had made up as a new exhaust from bmw was silly money, a k+n filter(warm air induction!) and koni adjustable rate suspension.
The plan is to see just how far you can go with ebay parts, is it really a cheaper option or is in just going to end in tears!

Turbo kit ordered from america http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-E30- ... 0311272190

has turned up but not been home to check it out as I'm 2000 miles away!

And last night ordered a plug and play megasquirt from www.diyefi.co.uk

will be putting up pics and a report of the kit next week, plan is to start at xmas time.




ebay turbo kits, anyone had any experiance with them? Cant tell what the make of the turbo is, probably some last 5 mins copy, and the manifolds, well look good in the pic but cant see thickness of material or quality of welds.

You get all the bits in one package tho which is handy, I'm looking at starting my conversion after xmas so trying to get the bits together now, just mindboggling reading thru all the info!

[ImysE30]

Are you talking about this Turbo Kit on eBay, if so i have been looking at it as well

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=023

[Phill172]

Going on most turbo kits i can garentee it wont bolt on!

But as it goes, i bought a exhaust manifold, which apprently was a 'real' one not the ebay copies, but to be fair i cant tell the difference, the welds are good the thickness of the material is good.

Alot of people say they rust, and alot have said the crack, however i havent found a picture of a cracked one yet! They do need supports made up for the turbo though!

Hoping that you are talking about the 6 pot!

As it goes for everything else, iv seen on e30tech alot of people run there turbo system through the standerd motronic, I dont see why though,

so ontop of that price you have got to look at the mangement side of things and also fitting and tuning it.

Not trying to piss on anyones fire, but friend of mine runs a company www.autobarn.org.uk and he does alot of engine conversion, many of which i help with, and the last 'turbo kit' bought from a manufucture had to have to so much work. It fitted dry with the engine out of the car, but getting it to fit in the car was another story.

So stop me blabbing on but......

for all its worth, alot of people who have done turbo conversions buy second hand if parts are in good condition.

But first off you need to decide what you want power wise....

7psi on a stock engine is fine (correct me if im wrong!) bearing in mind its in very good condition, but a rebuild yourself isnt going to cost the world and is a good basis to start.

From there 240+whp @7 psi shouldnt be an issue on standerd injectors running on megasquirt as such.

I have been doing my own conversion now for about 3 months, mainly due to funds its taking time, but it all depends on how much power you want! And as everyone knows you always want to turn the boost up!

Hope this eassy helps!

[Turbo-Brown]

Don't think you'd make 240bhp on standard injectors Phil, they're too small.

The ones on the TBs you've got are a fair bit bigger than standard and they'll only just support 270bhp

[Phill172]

ooo...hahaha, ok my bad!

What size are they then on the tbs?

Hows the civi?

[Turbo-Brown]

They're 214cc/min I seem to recall, whatever 205GTi injectors are anyway

[Jon_Bmw]

6 mi16 injectors might support a bit more then if needed later on down the line?

If you do go this route I have 3 spare, so once you have found a set of 4 on ebay, give me a shout for the other two.

[Turbo-Brown]

The 205GTi and Mi16 injectors are the same part number Jon, I had 4 from one engine type and 2 from the other

[ImysE30]

Is this turbo kit any good or would you recommend something else?

[e30_Turbo]

I'd say make a list of the parts you need and start hunting down as many cheap ones as you can, like ebay intercoolers are cheap cheap, then work off the list till you've got it. Those kits have most of the bits but not all, also no guarantee the kit will fit the other parts you need.

There's so many conversions to read about to fine tune your setup, just pick your goal, research the bits you need and pick up as many tips as you can, there's plenty of little issues you need odd bits for but everything has been solved these days

[driftmonkey]

its not that kit, theres another one a grand delivered, come with intercooler, oil cooler, oil lines blah blah, but as its from the US of A will be for LHD anyway so pretty dogwank

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/390-HP-N ... 0286843544

i just thought would be easy to buy that kit and have pretty much all the bits within afew weeks, other than having to order bits from all over the place, a fitting here, there, gasket blah blah.

Im not after big power just cheap and cheerfull turbo toy, its not my daily drive so not worried about it being reliable.

i might just buy one try it and find out exactly how shite it is!

[fuzzy]

i would be interested to hear exactly how good these american kits are from someone that had actually tried one. everyone say/assumes they are sh1t but ive not met someone with first hand experience of them yet. could either be a bargain or a very expensive lesson learned

[e30_Turbo]

just cheap and cheerfull turbo toy

It doesn't work that way, once you get hooked you'll get the hunger, then it gets expensive. If you start with tried and proven parts you've a much better chance of getting an awesome and reliable toy.

I'd suggest swapping to standalone first to see how that goes then you're ready to do the nuts and bolts at a later date, that way you'll get a few extra ponies for the time being and spread the cost of the project

[fuzzy]

cheap and cheerful? expensive and tearful more like.

[e30_Turbo]

cheap and cheerful? expensive and tearful more like.

You've been at this way longer than me dude, I think this is about as far as I can go, current climate and all that. Just glad fuels dropped, can enjoy some boost a little more now

[driftmonkey]

a quick one, anyone know if the usa manifolds are anygood for rhd? going to buy a kit tonight!

[e30_Turbo]

tcd ones must do, ask gunni, gstuning, he's uk rep.

[BadDave]

a quick one, anyone know if the usa manifolds are anygood for rhd? going to buy a kit tonight!

I've just got an Exotic Speed(canadian) one but haven't bolted it on yet so can't say for certain if it's ok or not

[ImysE30]

I'd say make a list of the parts you need and start hunting down as many cheap ones as you can, like ebay intercoolers are cheap cheap, then work off the list till you've got it. Those kits have most of the bits but not all, also no guarantee the kit will fit the other parts you need.

There's so many conversions to read about to fine tune your setup, just pick your goal, research the bits you need and pick up as many tips as you can, there's plenty of little issues you need odd bits for but everything has been solved these days

Cheers for the info
Not sure weather i want a turbo set up or completely change engine to probably a M30. Going to be next year if i choice one anyway.

[Gunni]

there will be a very good top mount / rhd turbo manifold from TCD hopefully this winter,
last design didn´t work out, my remade one will be the "prototype"

[driftmonkey]

well ordered this kit last nite, http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... &viewitem= £650 delivered, plus what ever import tax I get stung on might turn out to be a waste of money but its only money. Right fuelling side next, guess I'll have to start a project post, project cheap and cheerfull aka ebay turbo tat special!

[Phill172]

Do it, want to see how this comes on!
you should have got them to send it as a gift then you dont get taxed!
Where abouts are you based?

[ImysE30]

Yeah let us know how you get on with it. Might interested in the kit when i have enough funds.

[driftmonkey]

Well the car is near portsmouth down on the southcoast, but I'm over in Italy on a contract working, hence the extra cash to waste on the car! I'm back at xmas and depending on how the job is going will either be back out to Italy after xmas, if that happens will be moving the car to a friends garage in Switzerland as he is starting to restore and tune cars, and its cheap flights from here to there, or will be back in the uk working and the car will stay there.

Just trying to get most the bits sent home so when I'm back at xmas can start playing about, now looking into megasquirt, sure I saw a guy who sells them set up in the standard motronic ecu box, so nearly plug and play, few other sensors to use but the main stuff is done. But cant find the link now!

[Phill172]

http://www.diyefi.co.uk I think this is the one your after.......

Well if it does stay in england im not far from petersfield so if you need a hand, not that i will be any good, but need a hand with anything let me know, also if your looking for someone to do the work, very good friend of mine does engine conversion/performance in Basingstoke, we recently built a twingo with a 1.6 on tb's, mainly specailises in the German bits. So I can give him a shout if you like, and also getting good ties with Xsport who race E30s!

[driftmonkey]

well as the car is a 4 door I'm still not sure if the engine is staying with the car, but with the prices of getting a nice solid 2 door i might just end up keeping it in the car, its just the rollcage being different that maybe a concern.

xsport are down ringwood way arent they? seen the golf that they did in some mag before.

[Jon_Bmw]

Basingstoke IIRC.

[Phill172]

Yea, they have just moved up to Basingstoke and Roy @ Autobarn (mates place) hes just managed to get some tie between them with work.

Iv its a cage your worried about x sport build an fit for not much compared to the ones you have to buy and then still do the extra work to fit!

4 door make it super sleeper!

[driftmonkey]

Well the turbo kit has turned up in blighty, but i'm in italy still! Flying home for the weekend a week tomorrow so well get some pics and report on the quality of the kit, going to be ordering up one of those ready built plug and play megasquirt ecu's in the next week or so aswell. Going to be a busy xmas and begining of jan!

[ImysE30]

Good luck, be sure to get some pics up of the kit

[driftmonkey]

Megasquirt ordered, some egay special strutbraces aswell, and now looking at brake options, ive already got a pair of powerdiscs that I never got round to fitting, but not sure they will be good enough, so looking at cheap 4 pot options.

[Phill172]

im looking at the same side of things on the brakes, i maybe going down the BMW 740 4 pot brembos on the tt disks, ill get the mounts from 300.de, theyll fit under my 16" compomotives too....

[BadDave]

im looking at the same side of things on the brakes, i maybe going down the BMW 740 4 pot brembos on the tt disks, ill get the mounts from 300.de, theyll fit under my 16" compomotives too....

The calipers may need a "slight" modification to get them to fit and you may have to cut off one of the mountings for the shit plate as well

I've just checked the TT pad size and it looks like there's enough material on the disk for the 4 pot pads to fit


HTH

[driftmonkey]

Well I had a flying visit back to the uk, didnt get any pics tho as I'm lame!
The diyefi plug and play ecu looks ok and arrived fast, the turbo kit tho......... you get what you pay for i guess haha, packaging was abit shit and the manifold gasket was all creased up, the manifold it self looks ok but you can see why they crack, thin material and no support for the turbo, at the collector part before the turbo flange there is just 2 little bits tacked on to reinforce, unlike others ive seen with big triangle bits seem welded on to strengthen them.
will need to make a brace for the turbo on it will crack within weeks id say.
The oil cooler and relocation kit looks ok, the dump valve hahaha think it came free with a pack of cereals!
the intercooler pipework is the usual stuff you get off ebay, need to get myself a pipe beading tool, or make one as they are bloody expensive for what they are. The silicone hosing was actual ply stuff, which makes a change, the clamps are the copy mikalor ones, not bad, the oil feed/drain fittings are pretty shocking, so cheaply made, and massive.
the rad fan, cheap looking, turbo timer, uber cheap looking, bleed valve, usual tat, dump valve take off pipe, heafty bit of kit.
the turbo is an internal wastegated one, so the installation will be easier, not sure i need an external wastegated turbo and wastegate anyway, not at the low power figures im after.
intercooler looks good, but after seeing how big most of the turbo e30's on here have.... it looks small! do i need a massive intercooler really? im going to be using water injection and a water spray kit anyway.

all in all I think for the money, not a bad kit, but until i actually get round to fitting/using the bits wont really be able to tell, but you can tell its all cheap stuff.

oh and got my strutbraces, the rear looks pretty good, but says e36 on the label so not sure if its going to fit, the front on the other hand.... the mounting plates are soooo thin and flimsy looking!

i bought an rs turbo stainless exhaust for 70 quid delivered so will be using that as the basis for my exhaust along with the exhaust off my r5 gt turbo im not using.

I know this is useless without pics before anyone says! But will get them at xmas when i'm home next.