turbo update

[Ant]

yesterday we removed Fozzy's sump to replaces his knackered gasket , thought we may as well fit his oil return pipe, couple of hours later and shes oil tight and ready for the final bolt on ... Wohooooo !

3 weeks and counting til MS hits the doorstep !

[Turbo-Brown]

Sweet!

Any piccies of the new additions to the sump?

Be interested to see how you did it as I'll have to do the same at some point

[Ant]

didn't take any mate, sorry, I'll take some of where mine is fitted for ya when I come back of holiday

we used the oil return piep from a landrover freelander TD4, chopped about 50mm off the end and she spot on dude.

prefer that to the Merc fitting I have used TBH, more bling

[CiLK_WuRM]

Ant, a little late to the party... are yout turbo'ing the Monstersport?

[Matt]

now that you have fitted 1 fitting yours will be easy

[Ant]

No Sam, I bought a 325 Se facelift after selling the sport dude. Still missing it a bit TBH

Matt, my pipes on you tart you've seen it remember ???

[CiLK_WuRM]

Damn, I loved that car...

Are you running a separate oil cooler for the turbo?

[e30_Turbo]

I've ordered my MS at the weekend, maybe 3 or 4 weeks till I have mine....then..WOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSHH CHIRP!!!

[buster]

hi guys,
whats involved in the ms set up.Is it a diy job ? Full instructions etc ??
then who can tune it to run right ?
I was looking at this on the jim naff site,it looked to me you would have to make the boards for the ecu yourself.
Important last question,how much ?
cheers
andy

[e30_Turbo]

hi guys,
whats involved in the ms set up.Is it a diy job ? Full instructions etc ??
then who can tune it to run right ?
I was looking at this on the jim naff site,it looked to me you would have to make the boards for the ecu yourself.
Important last question,how much ?
cheers
andy

Buster,

As I understand it, it works like this.....

The MS plugs into the loom and takes control of the injectors and monitors fuel pump, TPS, coil, MAP and O2 sensors.
The kit can be bought in part form for DIY when you get it, but Jim is selling complete kits, ready to go straight in and garunteed to be the right bits as he's already running it on his.
The system is can be fully adjusted from a laptop that plugs into the main box and you can tune as you drive, no need for rolling roads again!!
So as far as I am aware you have to fit it into the loom and fit the sensors that are supplied and that should be that.
There are full 'how to' instructions at www.megasquirt.com , but I'm not gonna lie to you, it's doesn't look easy to tune as there are sooooo many factors to take into account that I have to admit I have no idea how it all works yet, will take some time and re-read that website for sure before it arrives.
Price, well I paid $605 for mine, including shipping etc, so when you compare that to MBE or EMERALD it's rather a good buy really. Best bit is that it's gonna have additions to it soon that will give even more control and possibly over more systems too.
Here's a quick overview:


HTH, Mark.

[buster]

thanks mark,looks a bit tricky.I would need a laptop for starters !!
I think im going to have to have a good read of the ms site

[pete69zx]

thanks mark,looks a bit tricky.I would need a laptop for starters !!
I think im going to have to have a good read of the ms site

Andy lemme know if you are in need of a laptop, i can assist you with mine (sorry i cant give you it though, it's the wifes )

[buster]

cheers pete m8
Congratulations by the way.

Mark
What head bolts you using ?
Ive been trying to get hold of some but i don't want to order the blue ones from the states ,id rather get some from the uk.

[Jhonno]

you can map mbe/emerald/dta on a laptop also..

[Turbo-Brown]

I thought you needed Megasquirt'n'spark for it to do ignition too?

Things might've moved on since I last heard though

It's definately possible to map Emerald etc in car with a lap top, although from what I gather you really need a wide-band lambda sensor to do it properly, and also a rolling road does help as you can hold the same engine speed for any throttle opening.

According to Dave Walkers book on engine management, even after having the thing set up on the rolling road, the last bits of tweeking need to be done in real world driving conditions.

It also has some words of warning such as running the engine rich / retarded isn't necessarily a good idea as if it's too rich and/or the ignition too far retarded, the gasses will still be burning as they exit the chamber and the exhaust valves take the heat, with the possible consequence of the heads falling off!

[e30_Turbo]

cheers pete m8
Congratulations by the way.

Mark
What head bolts you using ?
Ive been trying to get hold of some but i don't want to order the blue ones from the states ,id rather get some from the uk.

Andy,

I've been readin up that we should uprate the to the Metric Blue grade 12.9 Head bolts, but I have read that the later M20's had these anyway, but Ant has been quite confident that the std ones will hold for what we're gonna start with. I believe these can be bought from the stealers, but I haven't really looked into this that much yet. I'm hopeing we can get away with what we have for a while and the upgrade when we wind the boost up a bit more, or it pops first! I know my headgasket is about 4/5 yrs old so I should get a bit of use of of it first. I just hope that when it was done last time and it seems the head was skimmed, that they didn't fit the oversize gasket as that will be weaker than the normal one. If you do decide you get some then let us know how much and where from as I'll prob get some just in case.

Alex,

what headbolts are you using? I take it you have installed new ones with the rebuild, did you get the Metric Blue grade 12.9 Head bolts?

Thanks,

Mark.

[Turbo-Brown]

All this head bolt talk is scaring me now.

I had the 12.9 grades on my engine and the new set I got are Torx type.

I'm not concerned about the grade, but are they interchangable?

[e30_Turbo]

All this head bolt talk is scaring me now.

I had the 12.9 grades on my engine and the new set I got are Torx type.

I'm not concerned about the grade, but are they interchangable?

I think (not always a good thing ) that the main upgrade was from Torx to the 12.9 blue bolts as the Torx do stretch. But....I need to check this info again to be sure.

What plugs have you got then Alex?

[buster]

bmw changed the hex bolts to torx bolts but they are still stretch bolts.The 12.9 grades are just a higher tensile non stretch bolt,eg ARP bolts .I have ordered the ones from the states last night.

[e30_Turbo]

bmw changed the hex bolts to torx bolts but they are still stretch bolts.The 12.9 grades are just a higher tensile non stretch bolt,eg ARP bolts .I have ordered the ones from the states last night.

How much were they?

[Turbo-Brown]

Hmm, not too sure about plugs (you're talking spark plugs right).

Last time I got standard ones they said they were a funny heat range, not sure if that's hot or cold.

Any idea how to find out?

[e30_Turbo]

TBH..not a clue mate...but I have been told to use colder plugs...so that must make the std ones hot then I've got a set here so you can have numbers if you like?

[Turbo-Brown]

Yeah might be worth it, the one's I got from BMW have Bosch Super R1 162 written on them. No idea what that relates to though.

From what I gather, the heat range of a plug is determined by the amount of insulation on the centre electrode. These look like the insulation is miles deep (about 8mm measured with a straightened staple )

I'm guessing the colder the plug, the shallower this will be?

[e30_Turbo]

NGK 3923 BPR8ES plugs. Their 3 degrees colder than stock. gap them to .025", thats what I was told anyway.....I'll have a look at them later and see if there is a noticable diff in that insulation.

And have you any pics yet of how yours is coming on?

[Turbo-Brown]

Blimey! Hadn't reallised you could get the temps down to the degree, will have to hit the books this weekend to see exactly what's what

There's not really all that much to show in terms of piccies!

All I've got is the engine on a stand in the kitchen, the turbos in a box, the body on the drive and the flanges for the manifold on order.

Next step is to fit find some and fit these Landy oil returns, refit and fill the sump, prime the oil system and fit the timing belt.

Then it's engine and 'box in the car by which time the flanges should've turned up (I hope).

Plan for the weekend is to make up the throttle bodies if the material turns up, then once the engine's in, I can make the exhaust manifold.

Might also have a crack at wiring the Emerald up if there's time at the weekend.

So many little bits of string, all being pulled to the one end

[buster]

mark
got the metric blues today,cost me $80,only $30 for the bolts the rest for shipping but still cheaper than ARP bolts.They look good all blue !!

I ordered them from the link given in the turbo FAQ on the e30 tech forum.

[e30_Turbo]

Managed to cut and fit the intercooler at the weekend, planned the wiring for the MS, but it was too hot to spend the weekend laying in the front footwell!!

[Sjoerd320i]

very nice m8
looks just like it's supposed to be there from new