2004 325xi auto -> 5speed turbo with megasquirt
gonna revive this thread. i've more or less finished my supra (for the time being, until the bmw runs).
i've received a bunch of PMs since i've posted this thread about stuff. unfortunately, I lost all the original build pictures with the bottom mount, and the struggle for topmount.
i'll post some pictures here with progress, and update the first post for those interested.
i have no idea what's written in the thread anymore, so i'll simply repeat it:
I picked up the car sometime in 2007, 2004 325xi automatic.
it was comfy, but kind of gutless.
the automatic trans really didn't help either:
fastforward a few years ago, i decided to turbo it.
first attempt was with a straight forward bottom mount turbo on an ebay cast manifold, but who cares, bottom mount was a pain in the ass. the oil scavenge pump made me super nervous, and it just sucked to work on.
intake plumbing was also a massive pain due to the crazy stock intake maifold with the throttle body being hidden away below runner 3-4. the only neat thing about that manifold was how easy it was to get to the injectors. i ended up managing the engine with megasquirt3 and terribly hacked up stock harness. the automatic transmission was slightly modified to hold a bit more pressure, but i really didn't push it that much, only about 9 psi was all it ever saw.
the automatic transmission was managed with MegaShift, another megasquirt project that handles the auto transmissions, that was a massive pain as well, code was buggy and just a bad driving experience, so the decision to swap to a manual was made. then i let it sit for 3 years in the garage, or so.
here's all the juicy bits that people will likely want to see:
top mount turbo:
some of the downpipe pieces, the exhaust is vband from a pipe that's attached to the turbo (it's an ebay 5 bolt flange), vband was the only way to make this work. it's 2.5" due to space.
the manifold is a TCD unit made for m50 or m52 engine, mounted upside down, The manifold has a T4 flange, and one of the standard wastegate flanges. To get the turbo up to where it is, there are 2 extenders, a T4 to T3, and T3 to T3
it was the most straightforward way i could get it to mount, and it fits quite nicely.
naturally, with top mount, oil feed is easy:
and oil return is also, easy, as it's gravity powered.
the transmission is a 5 speed ZF (i think), bonus transfer case (non X-drive) bolted to the transmission already (on the top)
when i got it, 5th would not engage, it turned out that the 5th notch piston was completely frozen, perhaps cause it was cold, so i pulled them out, and now waiting for that mechanism replacement to ship from pelican.
clutch disk, cover, and flywheel are some sort of M3 items:
there's obviously other manual swap bits, new pedals, master/hydraulic lines, shifter, new bushings for everything. etc, i won't bother with those as you all have seen that stuff.
now, one of my annoyances when working on the old setup was the intake manifold, so i looked around and got one of those thai M50/M52/M54 manifolds, and it actually fits !
here are some pictures of the new intake manifold, fuel rail bracket, and cable throttle holder bracket:
and mounted on the car, for test fitting:
it is a stock deadhead (returnless-ish) fuel rail with some 660cc MSD injectors with the right connectors to use with stock harness. mount points have been changed, and i made that nifty fuel rail bracket to hold it all down. but a different fuel rail fits (with entry and exit). using the stock fuel pressure regulator/filter that comes with e46 and mounts under the car (boost-referenced)
now, for the management.
originally, when the car ran on megasquirt3, i had rushed the installation, and tapped all the wires under the hood at the harness, soldered to them, cut them, made it look gross, and basically had a really shitty mess of wires that was a pain to diagnose. ms3 worked perfectly fine, however, even ran both VANOS solenoids with tuning for that. I had J&S ultrasafeguard that managed knock, stock coils were ignited using some sort of toyota camry igniter, that megasquirt ran. as far as tuning the engine to run well, megasquirt was amazing, the wiring I created was not.
this time around, i'm doing it slightly different, i'm taking a stock ecu, tracing where stuff goes inside of it on the connector, and putting connectors on the outside that megasquirt will plug into
here is the ignition transistors taken over and wires soldered to the current-limiting transistors.
there is a small surface mount resistor near each transistor that the stock CPU controls these transistors via that has been desoldered.
the same thing has been done to the injector drivers here:
there are two automotive driver ICs with 20 legs each, that control 3 injectors each. legs have been lifted, and i soldered to the bottom of the connector.
same will be done to the vanos solenoid drivers, fan driver, fuel pump driver, idle controller, knock sensors, and whatever else comes up.
the whole point of this is to use a stock engine wiring harness without having to modify it.
i likely missed a thing here or there, if you have questions, let me know, and i'll go take pictures of what i've done, or explain what the plan is.
more here: http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=773653&page=14#278 <--- go here
gonna revive this thread. i've more or less finished my supra (for the time being, until the bmw runs).
i've received a bunch of PMs since i've posted this thread about stuff. unfortunately, I lost all the original build pictures with the bottom mount, and the struggle for topmount.
i'll post some pictures here with progress, and update the first post for those interested.
i have no idea what's written in the thread anymore, so i'll simply repeat it:
I picked up the car sometime in 2007, 2004 325xi automatic.
it was comfy, but kind of gutless.
the automatic trans really didn't help either:
fastforward a few years ago, i decided to turbo it.
first attempt was with a straight forward bottom mount turbo on an ebay cast manifold, but who cares, bottom mount was a pain in the ass. the oil scavenge pump made me super nervous, and it just sucked to work on.
intake plumbing was also a massive pain due to the crazy stock intake maifold with the throttle body being hidden away below runner 3-4. the only neat thing about that manifold was how easy it was to get to the injectors. i ended up managing the engine with megasquirt3 and terribly hacked up stock harness. the automatic transmission was slightly modified to hold a bit more pressure, but i really didn't push it that much, only about 9 psi was all it ever saw.
the automatic transmission was managed with MegaShift, another megasquirt project that handles the auto transmissions, that was a massive pain as well, code was buggy and just a bad driving experience, so the decision to swap to a manual was made. then i let it sit for 3 years in the garage, or so.
here's all the juicy bits that people will likely want to see:
top mount turbo:
some of the downpipe pieces, the exhaust is vband from a pipe that's attached to the turbo (it's an ebay 5 bolt flange), vband was the only way to make this work. it's 2.5" due to space.
the manifold is a TCD unit made for m50 or m52 engine, mounted upside down, The manifold has a T4 flange, and one of the standard wastegate flanges. To get the turbo up to where it is, there are 2 extenders, a T4 to T3, and T3 to T3
it was the most straightforward way i could get it to mount, and it fits quite nicely.
naturally, with top mount, oil feed is easy:
and oil return is also, easy, as it's gravity powered.
the transmission is a 5 speed ZF (i think), bonus transfer case (non X-drive) bolted to the transmission already (on the top)
when i got it, 5th would not engage, it turned out that the 5th notch piston was completely frozen, perhaps cause it was cold, so i pulled them out, and now waiting for that mechanism replacement to ship from pelican.
clutch disk, cover, and flywheel are some sort of M3 items:
there's obviously other manual swap bits, new pedals, master/hydraulic lines, shifter, new bushings for everything. etc, i won't bother with those as you all have seen that stuff.
now, one of my annoyances when working on the old setup was the intake manifold, so i looked around and got one of those thai M50/M52/M54 manifolds, and it actually fits !
here are some pictures of the new intake manifold, fuel rail bracket, and cable throttle holder bracket:
and mounted on the car, for test fitting:
it is a stock deadhead (returnless-ish) fuel rail with some 660cc MSD injectors with the right connectors to use with stock harness. mount points have been changed, and i made that nifty fuel rail bracket to hold it all down. but a different fuel rail fits (with entry and exit). using the stock fuel pressure regulator/filter that comes with e46 and mounts under the car (boost-referenced)
now, for the management.
originally, when the car ran on megasquirt3, i had rushed the installation, and tapped all the wires under the hood at the harness, soldered to them, cut them, made it look gross, and basically had a really shitty mess of wires that was a pain to diagnose. ms3 worked perfectly fine, however, even ran both VANOS solenoids with tuning for that. I had J&S ultrasafeguard that managed knock, stock coils were ignited using some sort of toyota camry igniter, that megasquirt ran. as far as tuning the engine to run well, megasquirt was amazing, the wiring I created was not.
this time around, i'm doing it slightly different, i'm taking a stock ecu, tracing where stuff goes inside of it on the connector, and putting connectors on the outside that megasquirt will plug into
here is the ignition transistors taken over and wires soldered to the current-limiting transistors.
there is a small surface mount resistor near each transistor that the stock CPU controls these transistors via that has been desoldered.
the same thing has been done to the injector drivers here:
there are two automotive driver ICs with 20 legs each, that control 3 injectors each. legs have been lifted, and i soldered to the bottom of the connector.
same will be done to the vanos solenoid drivers, fan driver, fuel pump driver, idle controller, knock sensors, and whatever else comes up.
the whole point of this is to use a stock engine wiring harness without having to modify it.
i likely missed a thing here or there, if you have questions, let me know, and i'll go take pictures of what i've done, or explain what the plan is.
more here: http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=773653&page=14#278 <--- go here