Custom Turbocharged 330ci...

[Darth Maul]

So the thread probably made you think I had one, no. haha. Anyways, I was trying to look to see if anyone had custom turbocharged their 330ci by DIY, and not by having a shop do it. I am only asking this, because it seems the parts would be interchangeable with the E36? Like turbo manifold? It seems like the hardest part of turboing an E46 would be the tuning. Any other difficulties in turboing an E46, that anyone enountered? I'm starting to consider this. Also, the E46 seems to be cramped underneath the hood, how have you made everything work with out having to move stuff around, I'm looking for those DIY'ers oppinion on turbocharging their 330 or 325. I have the facelift so I think that's different too.

-Tony 330ci

[bimmerboi19]

horsepower freaks is coming out with a turbo kit for the 330. It can be done fitting it all under the hood, like you said tuning is the hardest part. check e46psi.com

[eurotekm3]

I would just wait for technique tuning kit .......fully bolt-on,great price, good software..:thumbsup:


http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=753364&highlight=technique

[E36graduate]

damn eurotekm3...that butt is looking nice...dinner is served !

[Darth Maul]

yeah but those prices are insane. I think a relatively more inexpensive kit could be had if you were to DIY with solid parts. TT Kit probably around 7-8k, HPF 14k, that's way too much, I think 3-4k tops minus tuning could be achieved. Even less maybe is possible, Anyone ever taken the DIY route on an E46, turbocharged?

[TxZHP04]

I think 3-4k tops minus tuning could be achieved.

Minus tuning, you have 3-4k worth of useless parts.

Don't underestimate the importance of (or difficulty in obtaining) a good solid reliable tune. You're certainly not going to DIY the tuning as there are only a handful of people truly competent to tune these cars properly, especially for a turbo setup. There's a reason turbo kits are just now starting to come to market for these cars and the prices accurately reflect what it's going to take to achieve something reliable.

There are very few turbo 330s out there period right now and I'll bet none of them were DIY projects - well, with the obvious exception of NickG's car.

[pei330ci]

Every year, around this time of year, a few curious minds bring up this topic. Here are the builds that resulted after pages of threads and well writen advice:

2004: None

2005: None

2006: None

2007: None

The only person I know of to build a DIY turbo on an M54 started the project, then asked for advice. Sure there are some bumps in the road doing it this way, but I believe it's the best way to see the project through.

[M3LTDOWN]

Oshin did it didn't he? And also Lay2Low?

[Activ3]

Every year, around this time of year, a few curious minds bring up this topic. Here are the builds that resulted after pages of threads and well writen advice:

2004: None

2005: None

2006: None

2007: None

The only person I know of to build a DIY turbo on an M54 started the project, then asked for advice. Sure there are some bumps in the road doing it this way, but I believe it's the best way to see the project through.
Must be Rito :)


Oshin02 I think his name is? had a turbo'd zhp, Lay2Low had a custom setup, and of course Daniel Cho had a custom one done as well. None of them posted a great deal of information on their cars though.

[pei330ci]

Must be Rito :)


Oshin02 I think his name is? had a turbo'd zhp, Lay2Low had a custom setup, and of course Daniel Cho had a custom one done as well. None of them posted a great deal of information on their cars though.

Yes it's Rito.:)

I'm not trying to taking anything away from the M54 turbo pioneers like Kromex, Oshin02 and company, however these were far from DIY builds. They were professionally built/professionally tuned cars, and I'm confident their total costs were more than the upcoming Technique Tuning kit for example.

[e34m5]

Just supercharge it. Several good DIY kits. I installed an ESS with no problems.

[HPF Chris]

For those willing to wait, we will be doing the E46 330 kits after we're done with our twin turbo M5 kits. We hope to have something available around the end of this year.

Take care,
Chris.

[Chr325is]

I bumped that Technique Tuning thread over at bf.c, the kit looks promising though.

[ice330ci05]

For those willing to wait, we will be doing the E46 330 kits after we're done with our twin turbo M5 kits. We hope to have something available around the end of this year.

Take care,
Chris.


i'm waiting........ for stage 3 :) ... one time, ALL OUT! :D


can't wait till the updates start :drool::thumbsup:

[Darth Maul]

hmm, still doesn't seem to tough to turbocharge an M54. I think the only headache would be the tuning, which I think any good tuner would be able to tune, no? I turbocharged my 95 M3, with some quirks, but my knowledge now, would have made it all that much easier to accomplish, now that I know exactly what needs to be done, it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to accomplish, as far as the hardware.

[HPF Chris]

hmm, still doesn't seem to tough to turbocharge an M54. I think the only headache would be the tuning, which I think any good tuner would be able to tune, no? I turbocharged my 95 M3, with some quirks, but my knowledge now, would have made it all that much easier to accomplish, now that I know exactly what needs to be done, it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to accomplish, as far as the hardware.

Darth... There are a lot of very time consuming and expensive problems you will have to overome with regard to turbocharging any BMW built after 2001. That is why noone has a production kit available for the E46 330 yet. And... you wouldn't be the first person or company who has tried. We designed an EMS that controls every E46 and E39 BMW and we program those cars on a laptop just like our M5 and M3. From an engine management and DME perspective we're done. We just need time to design the rest of the components for the 330 which include the fuel system, oiling system, turbo system, intercooler system and intake system. The main problem you'll encounter is keeping the DME happy while requiring it to deal with a boosted motor (which it wasn't designed for).

Back in 2005 when we started on our E46 M3 project, it seemed like a simple problem to overcome as well. After 2 years, and over $650,000 invested, we had a production E46 M3 turbo kit available. Now, many of the parts we designed were designed for extreme performance, exacting tolerances and long term reliability. A DIY'er wouldn't have to be this extreme, but even without those, I still couldn't imagine anyone spending less than $250K and a minimum of two people for one year to do it properly.

But.... if you're willing to take a stab at it, I wish you best of luck. Otherwise you can wait for technique tuning, or our 330 kit to be finished.

Take care,
Chris.

[325ifc3s]

maybe i am wrong here but for the tuning part why couldnt you just get a stand alone ecu and program and tune to your specific application? i know microtech and haltech both had stand alone ecus for my custom jdm cosmo 13brew motor into my 87 rx7 turbo2. both were in the 1500 dollar range. and my buddy just did a t3/t4 turbo on his 91 gti and then just found a company that custom tuned his ecu and sent it back to him, his car is perfect, just needs a boost controller now.

[HPF Chris]

maybe i am wrong here but for the tuning part why couldnt you just get a stand alone ecu and program and tune to your specific application? i know microtech and haltech both had stand alone ecus for my custom jdm cosmo 13brew motor into my 87 rx7 turbo2. both were in the 1500 dollar range. and my buddy just did a t3/t4 turbo on his 91 gti and then just found a company that custom tuned his ecu and sent it back to him, his car is perfect, just needs a boost controller now.

In the older vehicles, the computer that controlled the engine was generally separate from the computer that controlled the rest of the car. In these, the same computer controls the dash, drive by wire, vanos, engine and nearly everything else on the car. The tricky part is keeping the factory computer intact and happy so that it believes it is still controlling the engine so it will allow the rest of the car to function properly while your new ECU is controlling it. :)

[325ifc3s]

i see, i didnt realize that the bmw was like that. good to know that.

[zeshon]

God, I love having helpful, informed vendors that add to threads, not just fill them with crap or ignore them. Keep up the good work HPF, I hope to send you an M5 some day.

[HardPark'd TT]

God, I love having helpful, informed vendors that add to threads, not just fill them with crap or ignore them. Keep up the good work HPF, I hope to send you an M5 some day.

+1 :thumbsup:

[KromeX]

I have a daily driven turbo 330. I was able to remap ECU but that took hundreds of hours. I had access to all kinds of turbos to try out before settling on a street configuration. I tried 3 different types of clutch setups before settling on what I currently have but it's still not 100%. After 430RWHP, I looked for more so I built up the bottom end. I had access to a friend's shop who had all the tools necessary to build up my motor. Right now, the car drives fine at 16psi and I'm leaving it as is running on pump gas. I purchased my car in October of 2000. The odometer currently reads 32,xxx. The majority of the time that I wasn't driving my car, it was in the shop waiting for me to work on after my regular day job. I sacraficed counltess weekends and did countless all nighters even calling in sick just so that I can work on my car. I calculated I must have spent over 1000 man hours to get the car to where it is today. I did have access to a lot of tools and a dyno was especially helpful. If you had to rent dyno time on your own dime, I'd say don't even try. I didn't pay shops to work on my car. The shops that were involved lent me tools and a helping hand here and there but I did the majority of the work. If I had more time and this was my full time job, I'd probably be able to produce a kit. In the end, I felt as though I spent way too much time wrenching on my car and not enough time driving it. If I had to do it all over again, I'd wait for another company to put out a kit.

[RedBarron]

KromeX your car has been turbo'd for a while now, what 4 years or so?

Why did ATP decide not to come out with a kit?

Dang you put a lot of man hours in your car. Respect for the hard work.

[coolusername]

I have a daily driven turbo 330. I was able to remap ECU but that took hundreds of hours. I had access to all kinds of turbos to try out before settling on a street configuration. I tried 3 different types of clutch setups before settling on what I currently have but it's still not 100%. After 430RWHP, I looked for more so I built up the bottom end. I had access to a friend's shop who had all the tools necessary to build up my motor. Right now, the car drives fine at 16psi and I'm leaving it as is running on pump gas. I purchased my car in October of 2000. The odometer currently reads 32,xxx. The majority of the time that I wasn't driving my car, it was in the shop waiting for me to work on after my regular day job. I sacraficed counltess weekends and did countless all nighters even calling in sick just so that I can work on my car. I calculated I must have spent over 1000 man hours to get the car to where it is today. I did have access to a lot of tools and a dyno was especially helpful. If you had to rent dyno time on your own dime, I'd say don't even try. I didn't pay shops to work on my car. The shops that were involved lent me tools and a helping hand here and there but I did the majority of the work. If I had more time and this was my full time job, I'd probably be able to produce a kit. In the end, I felt as though I spent way too much time wrenching on my car and not enough time driving it. If I had to do it all over again, I'd wait for another company to put out a kit.

RESPECT :thumbsup: