(Relatively) Low cost Big Turbo upgrade for E89 N20 versions

[Anonymous]

Following on in the theme 'cause I can, I present the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Big Turbo Upgrade for N20 engine variants, supported by a Wagner EVO 1 stepped intercooler, 2015 onwards turbo oil feed line and uprated oil to mitigate the stresses!

I thought after my re-map and de-cat travels plus the revisit to get the inlet ports cleaned followed by a dyno re-run that I had exhausted upgrades on the Yellow Peril.

Covid-19 has a lot to answer for, as being mostly on furlough I've had plenty of time to ponder and browse.

I was fascinated by the recent set of re-mappers of N20 engines and the results and in discussion with the guys at the Performance Centre in Sunderland mused as to what limits any engine and specifically the N20 in terms of power production.

I then re-re-stumbled accross BimmerWorld web site where they were preclaing the virtues of their new MHI turbo for the N20s..

MHI N20 Turbo Upgrade - BMW F30 328i, F32 428i, F22 228i, X3/X4 28i

A full bolt-on high flow Big Turbo rated at 300hp+ for N20/N26 turbo engine

www.bimmerworld.com

Taking into account those and other inputs I decided to take the plung and give it a go!

THe kit doesn't mandate an intercooler upgrade but since this was going to be my final push I hought I'd do the whole 9 yards.

So along with the turbo, I've gone for the biggest straight fit intercooler from a well regarded supplier, Wagner, along with a post 2015 turbo oil feed line that addressed the issue of some N20 turbos smoking on start up due to oil pooling in the exhaust area.

Finally, after lots of reading, I've chosen Redline 10w40 oil as it appears to be the best posisble oil you can buy, providing yoh have a decat as its metal content is very high and would posion a ceramic cat..

Hope to get it all fitted and then tweaked in a few weeks time by the boys, they want it for a week or so to do lots of rolling road work.

What possibly could go wrong!

 

[enuff_zed]

since this was going to be my final push

Yeah, yeah. As if. :roll:

 

[iankun]

Subscribed with great interest.

 

[Anonymous]

Booked in for the week of 21st September so about a week later we should know.. :driving:

 

[enuff_zed]

Booked in for the week of 21st September so about a week later we should know.. :driving:

Should overcome your roof down drag issue anyway.

Looking forward to seeing the results.
Given the change in figures after 500-odd miles of your last remap, are you planning to return for a further check after it's all settled in? Assuming you're not airborne by then

 

[Boltz]

Pete, stop it !!!!! I was looking at some really nice M3 alloys currently up for sale but you are making me spend money on other stuff as I want my car to be as sorted as the yellow peril, I’m looking at Wagner intercooler nowYou could say I am yellow with envy and not green

 

[brillomaster]

Swapping out the turbo and intercooler?!? Now we're talking

be interested to see what this makes when its all installed, do you have any expectations/targets in mind?

 

[Anonymous]

Booked in for the week of 21st September so about a week later we should know.. :driving:

Should overcome your roof down drag issue anyway.

Looking forward to seeing the results.
Given the change in figures after 500-odd miles of your last remap, are you planning to return for a further check after it's all settled in? Assuming you're not airborne by then

I’m hoping that this move will place us in the ‘adequate’ camp...so no plan at the moment to go back...depends how it goes with the yes I guess...still not sure it will me to keep up with the NA sixes though? :tumbleweed:

 

[Anonymous]

Pete, stop it !!!!! I was looking at some really nice M3 alloys currently up for sale but you are making me spend money on other stuff as I want my car to be as sorted as the yellow peril, I’m looking at Wagner intercooler nowYou could say I am yellow with envy and not green

Yes but you need..

Quaife LSD
E90 M3 steering bits n bushes
Bilstein B8 shocks
H&R ARB
New cam chain / tensioner /oil pump drive
1kw 8 channel DSP/amp/speakers
Rear diffuser
Rear spoiler
Big brake kit with matching 35i rear brakes
De-cat

Etc etc :tumbleweed:

 

[Anonymous]

Swapping out the turbo and intercooler?!? Now we're talking

be interested to see what this makes when its all installed, do you have any expectations/targets in mind?

Bimmerworld claim 340bhp at the crank compared to 275bhp where we are at the moment and 500nm torque assuming the ZF8 speed will let it happen...it shuts the DME down at 450nm at the moment...

I’m hoping for 330bhp ..

 

[brillomaster]

Do you know what gearbox you have? Guessing its the 8HP45, but might be the 8HP50... latter would be better!

But either way, best of luck with it, 330bhp would put you up past a 35i, and well past an N/A six!

 

[Anonymous]

Do you know what gearbox you have? Guessing its the 8HP45, but might be the 8HP50... latter would be better!

But either way, best of luck with it, 330bhp would put you up past a 35i, and well past an N/A six!

All E89s autos were either the earlier 6HP or later the 8HP45..

Most pundits claim that with suitable programming the 8HP45 can run much larger torques..

Interestingly on most ZF8HP upgrade /flash sites the E89 version is concious by omission..

We'll see..if its flat rated at 450 nm torque till about 4000 rpm ish it won't be the end of the world..

As I said a bit of an odyssey but the problem is im a curious person..was my rellies at Chernobyl who pulled those levers to see what would happen! :tumbleweed:

 

[MACK]

In for a penny and all that
That didn't take long, I thought you said the turbos were out of stock for a while.
The software for the autobox can be remapped/programmed to take out the limiters etc, is this something that the Performance Centre also offer? If so you might as well go the whole hog while its there

 

[Anonymous]

In for a penny and all that
That didn't take long, I thought you said the turbos were out of stock for a while.
The software for the autobox can be remapped/programmed to take out the limiters etc, is this something that the Performance Centre also offer? If so you might as well go the whole hog while its there

Yes it was a pleasant and unusual surprise that they beat their predicted delivery date

I’ve asked then to remove the auto box limiters if they can...as I said some..Celtic don’t list the 8HP Z4 box in their de restrictive list..

Will see what gives...I’m finding that already in damp conditions that the Quaife lsd is earning its keep..

 

[MACK]

In for a penny and all that
That didn't take long, I thought you said the turbos were out of stock for a while.
The software for the autobox can be remapped/programmed to take out the limiters etc, is this something that the Performance Centre also offer? If so you might as well go the whole hog while its there

Yes it was a pleasant and unusual surprise that they beat their predicted delivery date

I’ve asked then to remove the auto box limiters if they can...as I said some..Celtic don’t list the 8HP Z4 box in their de restrictive list..

Will see what gives...I’m finding that already in damp conditions that the Quaife lsd is earning its keep..

Not that we're Celtic's friend's after what happened with you and particularly their radio silence on it . But I think it's probably another case of the Z4 being the forgotten relation in the BMW family.

They seem to list pretty much every other BMW 8 speed auto model (link below) and I imagine the software is very similar in all the ZF boxes. When it comes to the E89 I'd have thought this is particularly true for N20 powered models, unless they're X Drive.

BMW ZF8 – GEARBOX TUNING

Pioneers in ECU Remapping, Diesel Tuning, Economy Tuning, Engine Tuning and Chip Tuning. Worldwide dealer network with the best performance gains in the industry.

www.celtictuning.co.uk

 

[Anonymous]

In for a penny and all that
That didn't take long, I thought you said the turbos were out of stock for a while.
The software for the autobox can be remapped/programmed to take out the limiters etc, is this something that the Performance Centre also offer? If so you might as well go the whole hog while its there

Yes it was a pleasant and unusual surprise that they beat their predicted delivery date

I’ve asked then to remove the auto box limiters if they can...as I said some..Celtic don’t list the 8HP Z4 box in their de restrictive list..

Will see what gives...I’m finding that already in damp conditions that the Quaife lsd is earning its keep..

Not that we're Celtic's friend's after what happened with you and particularly their radio silence on it . But I think it's probably another case of the Z4 being the forgotten relation in the BMW family.

They seem to list pretty much every other BMW 8 speed auto model (link below) and I imagine the software is very similar in all the ZF boxes. When it comes to the E89 I'd have thought this is particularly true for N20 powered models, unless they're X Drive.

BMW ZF8 – GEARBOX TUNING

Pioneers in ECU Remapping, Diesel Tuning, Economy Tuning, Engine Tuning and Chip Tuning. Worldwide dealer network with the best performance gains in the industry.

www.celtictuning.co.uk

Yes I agree, it should be the same / similar..as you know sometimes E89s are just omitted by oversight, the issue though sometimes is they just do something just slightly different...we’ll see what the Sunderland boys do..so far I’ve got more faith in them than Celtic..

 

[R.E92]

Very interested to see what power these get you to. If your limited by torque at the gearbox then I'd expect the power curve to be nice and progressive towards the line. Should be a good measure of the tuner too, new turbos usually need big changes to the wastegate control and torque limits.

Keep a close eye on the engine timing and throttle position if they have monitoring for it, you want the throttle to be fully open throughout and the timing to be smooth and rise slowly towards the line, any sudden drops will likely be torque limitation.

Have you contacted xHP to see if they can do anything for the 8HP45?

 

[Anonymous]

Hello R.E92..thnx for the notes..when they re-did /re-set /re-mapped my Celtic tune I saw them looking through and pointing out various parameters such as asked for and actual throttle position, boost presssure, AFR, AIT etc so since they are having it for a whole week I'm hopeful they will do a good job, I'm paying for a lot of dyno time so they are not under time pressure from me..

330/340 BHP at the crank and 450-500nm is the stated expectations from Bimmerworld and others that have done this version..we will see..

xHP do not list the E89 ZF8HP box..as Celtic as well do not..

 

[R.E92]

A lot of tuning shops will use xHP as their transmission tuning tool.

Just send an email to [email protected] about your specific gearbox. They support most of the newer ZF boxes so there's nothing stopping them from a technical standpoint. They just prioritise the ones that are likely to sell the most so you might get lucky and already be on their radar.

 

[Anonymous]

Well fresh back from the Sunderland guys with its new (slightly) bigger turbo..plus Wagner Evo intercooler..

Given the hype from the Americans slightly disappointed in the absolute power gains but..

The boys explained that they had spent way more hours on it than they thought they would have to..

Getting the pneumatic waste gate to function properly in place of the already fitted electronic waste gate was quite a faff.

They played with it a lot but decided this version was the best trade off between strain on the engine, turbo and auto box.

They did say that you could get more but then it could be quite variable and be pone to various issues, temp, humidity etc..

This version they said was rock steady, would improve a bit as it settled in and didn't need the box to be tweaked to cope.

As well as the usual guys the chap that writes the actual software was there and clearly a mine of information.

They said that running at 22psi boost was the best trade off and the slightly larger compressor shows a bit of lag compared to the OE part as part of attempt to flow 20% more air but the high compression ratio and shorter duration e/lower lift exhuast cam (compared to the version used on some models) ultimately limited power whilst keeping all parameters in the 'green zone'..

So there we go..clearly the law of diminishing returns has arrived..but heh..that was the experiment..

Should keep up easily with a stock 35i but not a re-mapped version..