i_love_cars Posted February 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 31 minutes ago, Chris Welter said: Its not as bad as it looks. I think I had my subframe dropped in about 3 hours (my first time doing it) and I have Xdrive. I think the whole turbo removal process took me about 4 for what its worth. that's what it seems like. Honestly after 2 hours last night for where i'm at - all we're talking about at this point is the engine mount bolts, subframe bolts, and the 2 bolts for the steering rack. I'm about to head out now to get started for the day. More photos to come. Chris Welter 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_love_cars Posted February 21, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2016 progress continues steadily. Subframe is now out of the way, engine mount/bracket removed, thermostat is off with WP soon to follow. I ended up just using my jack to support the subframe and rotate it counter clockwise along with the steering rack. I gained miles of room to work on the turbo but I also don't need to futz with jockeying the subframe back over the steering rack during re-assembly now. the $80 harbor freight engine support brace seems to be working well so far but to be sure I put a jackstand underneath the transmission bell housing right where it bolts up to the block. The car is shored up pretty well though. There was no movement from the engine when I disconnected the mounts and subframe. Chris Welter 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_love_cars Posted February 21, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2016 clear to the turbo and inlet pipe now. Just have to disconnect feed lines and such and will be able to pull the stock turbo out. Calling it a night for now. Also, +1,000,000 for working on cars without rust. Chris Welter 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_love_cars Posted February 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2016 More updates. Turbo is out. Now I wait for parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaiserRolls Posted February 22, 2016 Report Share Posted February 22, 2016 Nice! I don't envy the lack of room in those cars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B C Posted February 22, 2016 Report Share Posted February 22, 2016 That is a very busy block casting. The manifold flanges and bolt pattern are interesting as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suspenceful Posted February 22, 2016 Report Share Posted February 22, 2016 Looks like you snapped off a stud on the right side of the manifold area? Glad you got everything out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunMetalGrey Posted February 22, 2016 Report Share Posted February 22, 2016 4 hours ago, Snap said: That is a very busy block casting. The manifold flanges and bolt pattern are interesting as well That was the first thing I saw when I looked at the pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_love_cars Posted February 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2016 1 hour ago, suspenceful said: Looks like you snapped off a stud on the right side of the manifold area? Glad you got everything out. Yeah the nut brought the stud with it. I was pretty upset because it was the ONE nut that I couldn't get with a T47, which I'm 100% sure is why it brought the stud with it. I had to use an 11mm open wrench to break it loose and turn it because the upper coolant line was in the way and while I was able to unplug the line from the block, i absolutely could not break it free from the turbo. No good point of leverage and it was fucking ON there. I talked to Dan about it and he said that he usually just removes the lines at the block and then takes them off the turbo when it's out of the car. Given what I saw with the oil lines and coolant lines, I agreed with that logic but the one drawback was the aforementioned with the open wrench. A little pb blaster and some finesse application of vice grips and the nut came off pretty easily though. Thankfully during re-assembly that won't be a problem and I will have clearance to properly torque. I kept telling myself that to keep my sanity as I was turning my wrench 15% of a turn at a time with a cramping hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suspenceful Posted February 22, 2016 Report Share Posted February 22, 2016 43 minutes ago, i_love_cars said: Yeah the nut brought the stud with it. I was pretty upset because it was the ONE nut that I couldn't get with a T47, which I'm 100% sure is why it brought the stud with it. I had to use an 11mm open wrench to break it loose and turn it because the upper coolant line was in the way and while I was able to unplug the line from the block, i absolutely could not break it free from the turbo. No good point of leverage and it was fucking ON there. I talked to Dan about it and he said that he usually just removes the lines at the block and then takes them off the turbo when it's out of the car. Given what I saw with the oil lines and coolant lines, I agreed with that logic but the one drawback was the aforementioned with the open wrench. A little pb blaster and some finesse application of vice grips and the nut came off pretty easily though. Thankfully during re-assembly that won't be a problem and I will have clearance to properly torque. I kept telling myself that to keep my sanity as I was turning my wrench 15% of a turn at a time with a cramping hand. Gotcha. Glad it came out in one piece and you'll be able to thread it right back in there. I know how tight that area is on the 135i. I'm sure it helps that the subframe is dropped, but still. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_love_cars Posted February 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 Just ordered a JB4, flex fuel wires, Fuel-It stage2 LPFP, 3.5 Tmap sensor & adapter, cooler plugs, and fluids for refilling the car when it's all back together. Going to shoot for somewhere in the 60-70% range of E85 and see if I can be at 20-21 psi without meth. Methanol injection is really the only missing piece of the puzzle for the car right now and if I can even approach 500 whp without it, I'll probably leave it off the table. If push comes to shove and I really need it to hit my power goals, I'll cross that bridge when I get there. suspenceful 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B C Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 N5X folks turning the volume up to 11 around here Chris Welter, suspenceful, i_love_cars and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_love_cars Posted February 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2016 well the odyssey continues. Turbo arrived today: I transferred the wastegate over to the new turbo, built the forge diverter valve, and started taking lines off to swap those and quickly realized I would be better off buying new lines. All the parts I needed sadly aren't in stock for 3 days so my progress on the installation is halted until early next week, however, by that time I should have everything I need in entirety. I'm currently waiting on parts from 3 different sources. Chris Welter 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Welter Posted February 24, 2016 Report Share Posted February 24, 2016 Just ordered a JB4, flex fuel wires, Fuel-It stage2 LPFP, 3.5 Tmap sensor & adapter, cooler plugs, and fluids for refilling the car when it's all back together. Going to shoot for somewhere in the 60-70% range of E85 and see if I can be at 20-21 psi without meth. Methanol injection is really the only missing piece of the puzzle for the car right now and if I can even approach 500 whp without it, I'll probably leave it off the table. If push comes to shove and I really need it to hit my power goals, I'll cross that bridge when I get there. FYI no octane benefits over E60. I think I can run close to 20psi with port injection and pump gas FWIW as well. 50-60% e and No meth should be fine I'd think on 20-21 easy.. Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk i_love_cars 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_love_cars Posted March 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 Update: turbo is installed! There was a significant delay in receiving the new hardware and lines for the turbo that I required. Finally arrived yesterday so I got everything back together and filled with fluid, primed the water pump, and then today TJ stopped by right as I was priming the turbo so he got to be the first witness to the car starting up. Everything appears to be in order - no leaks, no unexpected noises/grinding/explosions/fire, and no warning lights. I've gone through a couple cooldown cycles of the engine over the past 6 hours consecutively idling for 2 minutes, 15 minutes, and 30 minutes (just finished the 30 minute run). I'm calling it good. Things still to be done: -Re-install subframe and hook up suspension bits and get the front of the car back on the ground. -install JB4, colder spark plugs, flex fuel wires, N20 3.5 tmap sensor, and Fuel-It stg2 fuel pump -map appropriate tune. -get to Big Bear Tire on April 8th for an alignment suspenceful and patsbimmer1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_love_cars Posted March 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2016 I got bored last night at about 9:30 so I went out to the garage to get the passenger side engine mount as well as the subframe in. All in all wasn't too bad, but I did have to improvise at one point, lol. I spent probably 45 minutes working to get the subframe lined up perfectly straight. This is a critical part of the process so that you don't cross-thread the bolts. For anyone who wants to do a turbo on a car like this, I will say this was probably the part requiring the most patience. I got it to the point where I was able to just freely use my hand to thread all 6 subframe bolts all the way in. Great. Then I go to grab the 4 bolts (2 for each engine mount) that need to go through holes in the subframe and into the threads on the engine mount. Rut-roh. Forgot to line those up! I was so focused on making sure the subframe bolts themselves were lined up that I forgot about these other holes. I had already torqued the subframe bolts to 80 ft lb so I was not interested in re-doing any of that. I was able to reach the 4 bolts that attach the passenger side mount to the block, so I i loosened them enough to the point where I could wiggle the engine mount to line it up with the subframe and get the bolts in. On the driver's side, other than the 2 subframe-to-mount bolts, the engine mount is only secured by a nut on top which I was able to get from the top side of the car with a 2 foot extension. So I loosened the nut on that one as well and was easily able to shimmy it to line up with the subframe. So now I just need to re-attach the control arms and I'll be able to put the car back on the ground. Total time spent was 2 hours which I think is pretty good considering I had to raise the subframe with my jack and align it by myself (much easier if you have two people). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_love_cars Posted March 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2016 Time for an update. I've been busy with all 3 cars basically fucking me in the ass repeatedly. If this is what prison is like, I'm really glad I chose college. The bad news is that not only does the piece of shit Miata I bought need to have the engine torn down and rebuilt, but 2 days ago the turbo on the Subaru died. Luckily I was close to home and it wasn't smoking - seems like shaft, possibly bearing. No check engine lights or abnormalities other than no power and awful clanking/scraping sounds. New turbo is on its way. The good news in all this is that the 1er has been back together for almost 2 weeks and hasn't blown up yet. I put about 150 miles on it with a Stage 1 OTS map (low boost) until I could get PTF to send me a backend flash for the Cobb. Terry over at BMS does not provide a BEF for my DME version. Awesome. So I paid PTF to basically dial in my BEF, and then dial in a JB4 custom Map 6. A few days ago I got the first revision of the BEF tuned for E50. For 10 glorious minutes, the car pulled like an absolute freight train. It was disgustingly fast. Then all of a sudden with the pedal matted to the floor in 3rd, I got a boost leak code. It wasn't in full limp mode, just cut boost out. Data logging showed peaking around 5 psi. Fekkin shit I hate leaks. Verified that it is indeed a large boost leak after comparing actual load to requested load in the data logs, and the wastegate duty cycle is where it should be. I checked the hot side charge pipe as that was the only boost-related pipe I removed during the install. Things seemed legit. My fear of my shiny new DV+ diverter valve being the culprit was looming. I may have forgotten to lube the piston in the DV+, and I may not have tightened one of the bolts enough. So tonight I pulled the water pump so I could get the DV+ out, rebuilt it PROPERLY this time, and tightened it down the right way using a ratchet with a hex bit instead of a janky hex wrench. Picking up coolant tomorrow morning and will re-test the car. If still leaking, well, I already have an N55 pressure leak test kit coming in the mail. I figured for 35 bucks I should probably have one anyway because I drive a doomsday devi - i mean an N55. suspenceful 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B C Posted March 19, 2016 Report Share Posted March 19, 2016 Best of luck on your weekend endeavors. Im still not convinced that college was the right choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_love_cars Posted April 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2016 Brian post the vid! I need validation that my car actually works now. btw I checked the logs when I got home tonight - we were only running 17 psi. Plenty more boost to be had as the tune gets dialed in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suspenceful Posted April 4, 2016 Report Share Posted April 4, 2016 Videos? I wanna see! KaiserRolls 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B C Posted April 4, 2016 Report Share Posted April 4, 2016 30 ROLL https://vimeo.com/161447646 patsbimmer1 and suspenceful 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaiserRolls Posted April 4, 2016 Report Share Posted April 4, 2016 2 Wibimmers dudes sharing a ride. Only audible words "this guys gonna get his ass rammed" Pretty standard Car sounds great patsbimmer1, i_love_cars, Bassboy3313 and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suspenceful Posted April 4, 2016 Report Share Posted April 4, 2016 1 hour ago, KaiserRolls said: 2 Wibimmers dudes sharing a ride. Only audible words "this guys gonna get his ass rammed" Pretty standard Car sounds great ...while listening to Justin Timberlake's "You Got It On". The car sounds fantastic underneath that bridge. Can't wait to see in person. i_love_cars 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patsbimmer1 Posted April 4, 2016 Report Share Posted April 4, 2016 I'm glad to see you guys didn't end up in a fiery ball on the side of the road. i_love_cars and SteelBlue 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B C Posted April 4, 2016 Report Share Posted April 4, 2016 2 Wibimmers dudes sharing a ride. Only audible words "this guys gonna get his ass rammed" Pretty standard Car sounds great ...while listening to Justin Timberlake's "You Got It On". The car sounds fantastic underneath that bridge. Can't wait to see in person. Nice catch [emoji23][emoji1303] i_love_cars 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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