My lil project and some ESS questions

[Piper1]

So this has been compiled over the last few years and was finally clean enough to be deemed pic worthy.

First off the suspension
Koni yellow adjustables with eibach springs
adjustable camber plates
ultra racing strut brace
K Sport F&R BBK
Square stance 18x9 Apex EC7 et31
255 35 18 Toyo R1R

Fresh headlights and black wrapped the chrome border of the kidney grills

Sparco fixed pos seats Evo US for the passenger and the Corsa for drivers

From Diffs Online I had them build me a 3 clutch 35/60 ramps LSD with an upgraded 4.10:1 gear ratio and there's a pic below for those interested on max mph in each gear that's pretty darn close from the calculator I found online along with rpm at cruising speed so you can compare to stock 3.64 or 3.46

ESS VT1 kit and I was wondering if anyone has taken this kit to a stage 2? And if so what results were gained? I've not seen an intercooler kit anywhere for this particular kit, has anyone else? Or something custom that anyone's built?

The boost gauge I chose was a p3 that went right in the vent for a clean stockish look plugging right into the OBD2. Since I've never been able to find a PSI listing on this kit compared to the TS series ESS has for those interested max boost I'm getting is 7.4.

Some winter projects lined up:
All interior brushed aluminum will be wrapped gloss black

debadge the 2.5I, still have no idea why they are where they are....

I have a 1M look front bumper that's been in the basement for 2 years now finally going on...does anyone know about brake cooling ducts for this?

Also I'm looking for an exhaust kit to be less restricting and was looking at either remus or eisenmann racing versons. I'm a fan of how The Jaguar F-Type sport mode exhaust sounds, would one of these get me close or would there be another option out there?

and now for the pics:

 

[Beedub]

i bet thats damn quick.....

How are these engines coping with boost, im sure you've researched??? The hardware install looks flawless as always...

 

[Piper1]

Thanks yeah it’s a big improvement over stock. Every build I’ve ever read on boosting these motors and talking with ess the consensus has always been they’re built to handle more. Ess was confident that I’d be ok with the ts series at my 104k milage which is what I initially intended but to save any excess strain through lower rpm range through any daily driving I opted going with the VT instead.

I used to run machines that cut teeth in ring and pins for the Ford mustang so there was some meaning behind my madness in going with the 4.10. Since the vt builds boost later than the ts series, when you get on it with the 4.10 there you stay no less than 4-5psi after shifting the next gear because of hitting a higher rpm beginning the next gear than lower gearing so power is really felt and maintained in the mid to higher rpm power band and each gear just brings wider and wider of a smile.

 

[MACK]

Some ones been busy! Very impressive, you must be very pleased with it.

 

[GuidoK]

How is the supercharger behaving?
Any problems with the tuning or is it flawless?
Does it come with different injectors or does it use the stock injectors?

 

[Piper1]

Hey Guido

I just put the 2500 break in miles on it when I put it away for winter. The initial tune has been spot on compared to maybe posts you’ve seen from a few years ago about getting better software sent after the first tune was done and everything feels so smooth through the whole power band.

The kit still has more generic instructions so it’s still back and for with ess as to what in the kit is different for the z4 so still expect time communicating back and forth. It does come with larger injectors which do sit higher causing the cowling to also sit higher and can cause the issue that I have pending your strut brace as the brace does contact the cowling now.

Prior to the bbk and the adjustable camber plates I had a strut reinforcement plate that sandwiches the strut tower with the strut brace. I’ve seen so many 240s blown out strut towers from too stiff of a set up I wanted some extra rigidity and now with the camber plates of course those reinforcement plates don’t fit so I plan on fitting those as a spacer to lift the strut brace up enough to give space to the cowling.

The only other issues from the kit I’ve encountered have been hose clamp related. First few hundred miles in the throttle body hose slipped off the throttle body so had to tighten that a touch more and no issues since. Also pulled out the tab crimped in to the hose clamp on the lower bov spot so had to replace that clamp. With having my 87 Supra I got used to having extra hose clamps on hand.

From looking at idle seems a touch more vibration when looking on the hood and had my maf plug back out enough and threw a code. I replaced my pcv and all hoses a few years back in winter and broke the hold down tab on the maf but never had the plug back out before. I think with the little extra vibration it backed out just enough so that’ll get replaced this year but wasn’t a kit related issue.

How has the ts kit worked out for you?

 

[GuidoK]

It does come with larger injectors which do sit higher causing the cowling to also sit higher and can cause the issue that I have pending your strut brace as the brace does contact the cowling now.

Prior to the bbk and the adjustable camber plates I had a strut reinforcement plate that sandwiches the strut tower with the strut brace. I’ve seen so many 240s blown out strut towers from too stiff of a set up I wanted some extra rigidity and now with the camber plates of course those reinforcement plates don’t fit so I plan on fitting those as a spacer to lift the strut brace up enough to give space to the cowling.

Do you have a picture of the injectors and one of how they now fit in the car?
I'm just very curious what type/brand of injectors they use in the stock manifold.

With the twinscrew manifold you get bosch style injectors (but the aluminium manifold that comes with it is very different). Red ones like these:


I dont know how many cc injectors they are though. Some say 315cc/min but ESS removed the partnumbers from them so ESS want to keep that a secret.

 

[Ed Doe]

I do find it hilarious how people think the N52 is a fragile engine in the UK, when the guys in the states are slapping a cheeky borg-Warner turbo on a totally stock engine and making 500+whp :lol:

 

[Darkangelv2]

So this has been compiled over the last few years and was finally clean enough to be deemed pic worthy.

It certainly is picture worthy! Lovely looking car and sounds like a lot of fun too!

 

[Beedub]

It does come with larger injectors which do sit higher causing the cowling to also sit higher and can cause the issue that I have pending your strut brace as the brace does contact the cowling now.

Prior to the bbk and the adjustable camber plates I had a strut reinforcement plate that sandwiches the strut tower with the strut brace. I’ve seen so many 240s blown out strut towers from too stiff of a set up I wanted some extra rigidity and now with the camber plates of course those reinforcement plates don’t fit so I plan on fitting those as a spacer to lift the strut brace up enough to give space to the cowling.

Do you have a picture of the injectors and one of how they now fit in the car?
I'm just very curious what type/brand of injectors they use in the stock manifold.

With the twinscrew manifold you get bosch style injectors (but the aluminium manifold that comes with it is very different). Red ones like these:


I dont know how many cc injectors they are though. Some say 315cc/min but ESS removed the partnumbers from them so ESS want to keep that a secret.

i always wondered why these cars have such low CC fuel injectors.... how does that work, unless the fuel pressure is insane i guess, but im not sure. you'd think they wouldnt be able to flow enough fuel for the power required!

 

[Machine monkey]

Really nice work.
I am loving the fact there are some nice clean fast non Ms out there. I think the non M car is overlooked as a track weapon. Obviously some things need changing. Much of the same stuff the M needs to be a true track beast. And this is look very well done with some really nice kit.

 

[Smartbear]

I do find it hilarious how people think the N52 is a fragile engine in the UK, when the guys in the states are slapping a cheeky borg-Warner turbo on a totally stock engine and making 500+whp :lol:

This guys car is an m54 though and not an n52? :?
Rob

 

[Beedub]

Really nice work.
I am loving the fact there are some nice clean fast non Ms out there. I think the non M car is overlooked as a track weapon. Obviously some things need changing. Much of the same stuff the M needs to be a true track beast. And this is look very well done with some really nice kit.

id guess the above car is quite abit quicker than ///M now.... prob around the same power but with way more TQ.

 

[GuidoK]

i always wondered why these cars have such low CC fuel injectors.... how does that work, unless the fuel pressure is insane i guess, but im not sure. you'd think they wouldnt be able to flow enough fuel for the power required!

They have low cc fuel injectors because they dont need more.
With any fuel injected engine, fitting fuel injectors bigger than the requirement is bad for the engine.
A bigger fuel injector has worse atomisation than a small one which results in less power, worse burn cycle and more carbon pollution in the system.
Of course you musnt go over a certain percentage of duty cycle (and probably every tuner or manufacturer has his own idea how much that should be; 80%, 85% 90% whatever), but the best injector is the injector that comes about to that maximum duty cycle at full throttle.
Thats why the 2.2 and 2.5 still share an injector but the 3.0 has a different one. Thats not because of cost (a bigger injector is not more expensive than a smaller injector; the cheapest injector is the one from which you buy the most), its because of performance/efficient burn cycle. Thats also why in my opinion one should skip tuning/turbo/compressorsets that dont come with new injectors. Especially with the transition from NA to FI, as the pressure differential will be all mixed up.

I also think the bmw injectors arent that small; porsche uses a lot of the same injectors, and I'm sure audi/vw too. Typically german cars either have a bosch or a Siemens/VDO style/brand injector. Most german brands tend to have the same consensus about that.

 

[Machine monkey]

Really nice work.
I am loving the fact there are some nice clean fast non Ms out there. I think the non M car is overlooked as a track weapon. Obviously some things need changing. Much of the same stuff the M needs to be a true track beast. And this is look very well done with some really nice kit.

id guess the above car is quite abit quicker than ///M now.... prob around the same power but with way more TQ.

It’s not just the S/C either. Diff brakes suspension. And all for probably what an M would cost. But a much better set up track car than any standard M. So it makes perfect sense to me you want a z4 track day car and don’t have spare 20k buy the non M and spend 10k you will end up with a car that’s quicker anyway? Would take some good deals to get all this done for 10k i know and a lot of work yourself. But doable i think in the UK.

OP do look into changing your steering from electric to Hydraulic. I have done it and only had a very short drive in the car since. But I can promise you won’t regret the money spent and time doing it.

 

[Monkeydonkeyratmagic]

I'm going for the ESS in spring. Not splurging out like 10k just going for the standard kit and a set of KWs. OP that looks like a very meaty install you've got there. How are you finding it going about day to day trips?

 

[Ed Doe]

I do find it hilarious how people think the N52 is a fragile engine in the UK, when the guys in the states are slapping a cheeky borg-Warner turbo on a totally stock engine and making 500+whp :lol:

This guys car is an m54 though and not an n52? :?
Rob

Serves me right for my cursory look at the photos - you're quite correct! :lol:

 

[Machine monkey]

I'm going for the ESS in spring. Not splurging out like 10k just going for the standard kit and a set of KWs. OP that looks like a very meaty install you've got there. How are you finding it going about day to day trips?

My coment was brakes ess suspension a diff and a z4 for about 10k you could just about do all that.

 

[Monkeydonkeyratmagic]

I'm going for the ESS in spring. Not splurging out like 10k just going for the standard kit and a set of KWs. OP that looks like a very meaty install you've got there. How are you finding it going about day to day trips?

My coment was brakes ess suspension a diff and a z4 for about 10k you could just about do all that.

Yes sure. I wasn't disagreeing with you. I'm just saying I'm not going all out like that. Be way too easy to spunk a few K on brakes and diff. I'd rather burn through 5 sets of regular pads and discs than spend it on a nice big fancy set .

One thing I am wondering is how well standard wheel width holds up or should I chuck a bigger set of CSLs on to cope.

 

[Machine monkey]

I'm going for the ESS in spring. Not splurging out like 10k just going for the standard kit and a set of KWs. OP that looks like a very meaty install you've got there. How are you finding it going about day to day trips?

My coment was brakes ess suspension a diff and a z4 for about 10k you could just about do all that.

Yes sure. I wasn't disagreeing with you. I'm just saying I'm not going all out like that. Be way too easy to spunk a few K on brakes and diff. I'd rather burn through 5 sets of regular pads and discs than spend it on a nice big fancy set .

One thing I am wondering is how well standard wheel width holds up or should I chuck a bigger set of CSLs on to cope.

There are cheaper brake options out there. You just have to be creative. I have alfa 156 Brembo 4 pot callipers on the front of my car. Same part number as used on the rear of a Ferrari 360 (old but good) I paid £75 for them and then made them fit. Upgraded the discs to 330 touring discs. And they are a great. Not hugely more powerful. But better initial bite and they feel more solid. And they just dont fade.