Turbo 2003 z4 build

L

lonewolf1828

Member
This is my first European car ever, i come from an oldschool muscle car background so this is something new to me. Ive always had a desire to add more power and cant sit still. Anyways, here is what ive been researching and any help or adjustment is awesome.

Im using this kit as a basis for the turbo manifold and the piping.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-E36-92-99-Turbo-Kit-Turbocharger-T3-T4-318i-325i-328i-6-cyl-M50-M52/271657423599

the turbo is immediately going to be tossed and a nice size garret thrown on. Did i get the engine correct? our cars have the m52 i think...

next will be meth injection with head bolts and ill leave it at that. Ill have my tuner do a low boost setting such as 6 psi for around a 60hp gain to putt around town with and a 16 psi tune for straight line racing and possible autocross. (dont really like alot of boost kicking in when im canyon carving or autocrossing). This is where the head bolts and meth injection shine so i dont blow out the heads and cause pre-detonation.


Thoughts? Not sure how you guys feel about stupid builds here but i think it might be fun to build a little rocket.
nice meeting everyone!
 
Have you brought that already? If not message me and I can help out. Also what are you doing for engine management? What ECU do you have I bet it’s an ms45 if so? You will need a stand-alone or swap to an ms43.

Oil feed is easy. Oil drain can be an issue.
 
mac27040 said:
our cars have an M54 engine not an M52
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It should still fit kind of. But there are much better manifolds out there. And as your ditching the turbo and the manifold is questionable. And it hasnt got an ECU soloution? What your buying is pipe and conectors. seems like a masive waste of cash.

PM me i have a few tips for you.
 
Machine monkey said:
mac27040 said:
our cars have an M54 engine not an M52
Click to expand...

It should still fit kind of. But there are much better manifolds out there. And as your ditching the turbo and the manifold is questionable. And it hasnt got an ECU soloution? What your buying is pipe and conectors. seems like a masive waste of cash.

PM me i have a few tips for you.
Click to expand...

Have u finished ur turbo build yet MM?
 
lonewolf1828 said:
so im assuming the reason for swapping ecu's is for the tuning capability, are there no tuners that can do the ms45.1 ecu?
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No not really you may find one?! But it dubious and has not got he support that the 43 has.there are loads of forums FB groups that can help with the 43.

I went stand-alone as the swap was going to cost a fair bit in the UK and I got a great deal on a my standalone. To swap from ms45-43 you need the ECU engine harness and the MAF
Google it it has been done before.
 
lonewolf1828 said:
does the powergate 3 solve any of the ecu issues?
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No idea what that is. But if it’s a piggyback type thing just don’t bother it won’t work right. I have one I tried it’s just wouldn’t let me do what was needed.
 
Chris_D said:
Machine monkey said:
mac27040 said:
our cars have an M54 engine not an M52
Click to expand...

It should still fit kind of. But there are much better manifolds out there. And as your ditching the turbo and the manifold is questionable. And it hasnt got an ECU soloution? What your buying is pipe and conectors. seems like a masive waste of cash.

PM me i have a few tips for you.
Click to expand...

Have u finished ur turbo build yet MM?
Click to expand...

I am so very very close!! But no unfortunately!
 
lonewolf1828 said:
What did you end up going with for your ecu? Is it plug and play?
Click to expand...

Yeah its plug and play from a company called SCS delta hear in the uk. Its an amazing bit of kit but its about £1300 worth every penny.
Dont exspect a turbo build to be cheap. If you go cheap exspect problems. Dont forget its engine managment. Not just to get it running. But to protect your engine. Its probably the most important part of your build. Way more so than the actual turbo.
 
A few things to note:

1. I haven’t looked at the kit, but M52 manifolds are not a straight swap onto the M54. The intake ports aren’t the same shape, ICV is different, and DISA valve would need to be coded out. It’s doable but requires some labor.

2. Our cars use MS45.0, not MS45.1. MS45.0 uses narrowband prinary O2 sensors, which provide limited information and aren’t desirable in high boost applications. Essentially you’ll have to sacrifice a lot of performance for a margin of safety, and you won’t have good AFR feedback unless you manually add it later.

3. Definition files for the Z4 are lacking, but fortunately I have a line on a pnp standalone ECU that uses wideband O2’s. Once it’s released I’ll be converting and tuning myself.

4. You want an MLS head gasket and head studs, not head bolts.

5. On 6 psi you should have a 40% gain in power. On 16 psi, you should double your stock power.
 
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