It's mapped!

[Turbo-Brown]

Well, just got back from a fraught day at Emerald.
Me and me mate Stu got up at 4:50 this morning to make the 150mile trip up there, got there for around 8:45 with Mr Walker arrived shortly after.

Anyway, he did some check on what had been done before to the mapping, found that the software version on the ECU wasn't up to date and also that the map sensor wasn't quite right either but he sorted that all out in about 10mins and then started the car up.

Turns out that cylinder 5 wasn't running, a compression test revealed about 100psi and a leak down test said 12% (whatever that meant)

Things starting to look bleak by this point!

Anyway, he said he could do some mapping, just not with much boost until the leaking was resolved so off it went.

Turns out that the Mi16 injectors I'm using aren't quite big enough for the engine which made 270bhp@6250 rpm with about 240lb-ft of torque and all at the minimum boost setting of 7psi.

SO, need to get some bigger injectors, fix an oil leak which was blowing onto the exhaust system and billowing smoke out and sort out whatever's leaking in the engine before going back for more boost

Also had a heart stopping moment of the return journey when the "Engine Oil" light came on. Pulled over immediately and checked the dip-stick which confirmed the oil was missing (lowest mark). So, emptied 4 litres of oil into the engine, checked the light was out, made sheepish progress to the nearest Halfords for more oil. Checked the oil there and it was well and truely over the full mark!

God knows what was going on there, where was it all hiding?!

[Ant]

What did Mr W have to say on what we'd done previously Alex ?

Good results mate, the injectors were always the limiting factor though, hence we all got greedy and went a few sizes over yours.

Torque is lower than expected, I guess the engine sees the twins as one large turbo, should be good for 400 bhp on some more boost bigger injectors

Gutted I could not make today mate, work demanded I had to earn some £Â£, but I was there in spirit.

Oil stuff is very weird though , WTF ?

[e30_Turbo]

Alex, I tried to call all morning dude, only got your answer phone tho, even made up a fictitious company to go visit

A few more bits to do and get the injectors ordered quick!

How much of a change in the engine is there since Mr W has payed with it?

[Turbo-Brown]

Hey Ant, tried to reply to that text but have run out of credit (also working today by phone to some architect bloke)

I asked him about the FPR being disconnected and he said it absolutely must have it's signal line plugged in or the boost pressure would subtract from the effective fuel pressure.

Unfortunately that meant that all of your hard work getting me that far was a bit out the window cos all the fuel pressures were different. He did raise a bit of an eyebrow when I mentioned my forray into 1bar land though

SO confused by the oil! It was leaking a fair bit on the RR which was all being kicked up by the fans:


And of course I shit myself when the light came on, so I was bloody surprised to see it well over the top mark when we stopped again!

Alex, I tried to call all morning dude, only got your answer phone tho, even made up a fictitious company to go visit

He he, would've been cool to have some more spectators, but on the other hand I was not a happy bunny when they told me it might kill the engine if it was mapped with a blowing exhaust valve or something.

In terms of a change, it's not all that different really, the boost comes in quite smoothly rather than the hit in the back, and of course I can floor it and take it up to 6krpm now with reckless abandon, but other than that, Ant did a fantastic job!

[Ant]

Hey , all cool then Alex !

thats a lot of oil, that the turbo still dripping onto the lower one as before ?

Agreed on the vac ref, but given a lot of variables, less is more , it did the job either way lol !

another milestone passed though mate, kudos to you, 270 bhp to, beat your own estimate

[Morat]

So hangon... is that a standard 325 (plus megasquirt?) to get those figures with only 7PSI boost?
Impressive power, that...

[Turbo-Brown]

Hey , all cool then Alex !

thats a lot of oil, that the turbo still dripping onto the lower one as before ?

Agreed on the vac ref, but given a lot of variables, less is more , it did the job either way lol !

another milestone passed though mate, kudos to you, 270 bhp to, beat your own estimate

Yeah absolutely! Tis a bit like those MAP settings I guess, varys pretty randomly. Will have to have a look at what they did with the MAP in the end too!

Doesn't seem to be leaking from up above, more like the external oil system from what I can see. Think I'll have to clean it all down and then see exactly where it's pissing out of!

So hangon... is that a standard 325 (plus megasquirt?) to get those figures with only 7PSI boost?
Impressive power, that...

Yeah, it's a standard early 9.7:1 compression M20B25 with 6 throttles, 2 intercoolers, 2 turbos and an Emerald ECU controlling the whole shebang.

I am well chuffed with 270bhp, and it was still climbing pretty steeply when the injectors ran out of injectyness (97% duration when they shouldn't really go much above 80%)

[maxfield]

Thats very good for the amount of bosst well done what will you crank the boost up to with bigger injectors?

[lentec]

Good work mate thats some good numbers downer on the oil tho, is that with the oil cooler still in?

[Turbo-Brown]

Hopefully with bigger injectors about 10psi should see off 300bhp. The torque curve should also be inflated a bit once the lower boost is mapped (it's just the mechanical wastegates controling the boost at the moment)

Very vaguely speaking, it looks as though a 10% gain for the use of throttle bodies and a 47% gain ontop of that for 7psi looks like the numbers pan out, although the torque is only about 43% up overall.

However, I'd like more revs and more boost! (done another post on this self same subject)

Took the oil cooler out in the end Len, really can't seem to find out exactly where it's all coming from, although it is leaking less than it was with the cooler in.

Does seem that the oil pressure doesn't go much below 25psi on a forking hot idle without it though so that's not so bad.

[Simon13]

so u can turbo on standard compression or am i missing something?

Alex u need to pop out to a meet and show us all your handy work!

[Kos]

so u can turbo on standard compression or am i missing something?

correct simon, thats what my m3 was, standard comp with turbo.

basicly just limits the amount of boost you can run having a high c/r

[Andy335Touring]

Well done ! Nice numbers

Whats the most likely cause of the low compression in that cylinder ? Valve seat or Valve clearance to tight ?

Thats what i like about Dave, gets straight in there and try's to sort these little problems out if he can, most places would either charge the Earth to do the same or told you to take it away and fix it your self.

Did you get a power graph ?

[Turbo-Brown]

Exactly what Kos said Simon, the CR of the early engines is pretty high too at 9.7:1, but we should be able to turn the wick up a little bit. Would be nice to see 300bhp from a fairly low boost setup

I'm pretty much 100% sure it's a problem with the inlet valve Andy, so if I'm lucky it'll be the valve clearance and a 20min fix, if I'm not, it'll be some corrosion on the seat or something that needs the head taking off to fix. I'd guess (meaning hope upon hope) that the relatively small leakage would rule out a bent valve but ya never know.

Dave was incredibly helpful about the whole thing, guess he sees it all the time but it doesn't stop ya feeling like a numpty when something's wrong

Did get a graph, will try and scan it in and pop it up

[lentec]

Could it be a lump of swarf sitting on the seat?

Also any chance of a copy of your map will be interesting to see your ignition numbers

[Morat]

an E30 has got to be one of the cheapest and most fun ways to get to serious power. This is fantastic

one day... one day...

[Turbo-Brown]

Could it be a lump of swarf sitting on the seat?

Also any chance of a copy of your map will be interesting to see your ignition numbers

Could be anything I guess, just hope it's not too serious!

Will e-mail you a copy later on today, haven't downloaded it from the ECU yet so I'm interested to see it myself.

Turns out that boost solenoid problem was that the software version on the ECU was out of date so they took it upstairs to load it with the latest version, pluged it back in and lo-and-behold, the solenoid went mad! So that works

[lentec]

Cheers