My HMT e30 now with a burnout video
 

Well, I have two year old thread on my B16 build. I ended up blowing that engine in early May. So I built a stock ls/vtec with ARP hardware and raped on that till June and sold it. I just got done fabbing up my e30 kit and got it running on MegaSquirt 2.

I haven't gotten to drive it much and I hope to have some burnout vids as soon as possible because that's all I really want this car to do. It won't be as fast as my old Civic but it's RWD for one and with 2.93 rear end gears it will be fun.

For now this is what I've done..

Holset HX40 turbo.

Ebay manifold, I added a T4 flange and external wastegate elbow.

Synapse 40mm wastegate

Turbosmart BOV, some special edition bullshit for Evos. It was 100$ unused so I love it.

Home made intercooler piping.

Ebay backdoor intercooler. It works great because my intercooler pipes are just two 90* bends.

Oil filter relocation. Fucker costed like 200$ because i needed swivel 90* 3/8 to 10an fittings.

Home made crank position wheel set up and bracket.

Home made wiring harness for MS2.

MegaSquirt v2 using a 3.0 board.

Stock fuel pump and injectors for now... just waiting on the new stuff.

Innovate LC-1 wideband. I swear by these things. I use them in all of my builds.

That's as much as I can think of right now. I'm sure there's a few odds and ends I'm forgetting.. But yeah as soon as I can finish tuning the thing I'm going to burn several sets of tires off and make sure to get some ripper vids.


If anyone has any questions on MegaSquirt feel free to ask!

http://i35.tinypic.com/2pq6v0k.jpg
http://i36.tinypic.com/29asl6a.jpg
http://i33.tinypic.com/29b09si.jpg

And the old hatch.

http://i33.tinypic.com/2llkltz.gif

Re: My HMT e30
 

Nice! How is spoolup with the holset ? Waiting for video's

I always regret selling my e30 when I see how much fun those things are when boosted...

Re: My HMT e30
 

Pics of whole car O0

Re: My HMT e30
 

Haha, I can see your foot on the first engine bay pic lol

There is a BMW on the way to school at 1000$, but I don't know what model, I want it :P

I'm impress of this settup, oil filter realocation is badass!

Re: My HMT e30
 

The spool up isn't bad at all. About 2700 RPM and it's ready to haul ass. The turbo itself sounds ------- mean. It's all you hear, even over the open downpipe.

I'll get pics of the car and some videos this weekend. Through out this whole process I didn't take a single picture and I'm pissed I didn't.

Over the winter I'm doing Bosch 42lb injectors, a fuel pump, a 288/286 cam, mls headgasket and ARP studs.

The motor has 170k on it with nearly no blowby. I'm going to see how much horsepower I can get out of it before the 20 year old motor decides it's had enough.

Re: My HMT e30
 

I like the way you think, give that motor hell. :6

Re: My HMT e30
 

Haha it's what I do with all my builds. My stock b16 cracked ringlands at 17 psi on pump gas.. really quickly..

My built b16 held 20 psi strong until a spiral lock came out of the piston and the wristpin scored the cylinder wall, i got massive blow by, pushed all my oil out into my catch can and engine bay and i spun a rod bearing.

the ls/vtec is still running on 14psi. the kid drives it daily.

as for the e30.. I think i can get about 450 out of it for a little while.

Re: My HMT e30
 

good luck dude... those motors are stout like paul bunyans cock

Re: My HMT e30
 

True that... the rest of the car, however, may not hold up quite as well. Watchout for electrical gremlins and random suspension parts ;)

Re: My HMT e30
 

Yeah that's why I chose the e30. Inline 6, RWD, LSD rear end, loves boost..

As far as wiring gremlins I made my own wiring harness for the MegaSquirt. It was actually super ------- easy. I'll take a picture tomorrow of how I'm running it all. Of course you can see the wiring harness in the engine bay, and then I've got everything hooked up to fusible power blocks..

It's been smoking a bit.. I think it's valve seals. I tapped my -4an feed line and put a set screw in there with a 1/16 hole drilled through it for an oil restrictor and I'm using I think -12an hose for a return.

Re: My HMT e30
 

Do ALL e30's come with a LSD or just the 'winter package' ones? Is that a 3.15 diff? Vids!

Re: My HMT e30
 

i think your mistaking these for vw/audi

Re: My HMT e30
 

Unfortunately not, E30s are kind of known for electrical problems too. It's too bad, I still like them though. For about five years my parents both drove 325e's, and both of them always had some bullshit little problem. My Dad finally just sold his, at the time most of the gauges had stopped working due to a bad ground design, and shortly after the car was sold the crank angle sensor went out and left the new owner stranded. Can't recall the electrical problems my Mom's e30 had, but her's was an automatic and the transmission took a ---- at about 120k, and so it's sat for the last couple years.


Wouldn't mind a 325is turbo project someday, but it will probably never happen. Too many other project I'd like to do, too.

Re: My HMT e30
 

how hard was it to tune with ms?
also do you have to have a laptop? or could you just use a desktop in the garage and get a base line tune, drive it for a little bit at varing engine speeds,loads,and throttle positions and bring the car back plug it in and see what was going on during the drive and adjust a bit drive it again and keep doing that until you have it rite?

i know this is a stupid question as it would just make it a pain in the balls i just don't want to spend $450-1200 on a laptop for my car i won't even buy one for myself because i have a desktop (yes i know if you use a laptop to tune a car it's not nessicarily just for tuning but if i did get a laptop for tuning i would just tune on it that way i don't get a viris or anything)

Re: My HMT e30
 

Yes all BMW's come with LSD rear ends. My car has a 2.93 ratio in it. My friend has a turbo 325is. I don't know what tranny and rear end he was using but it does nearly 115mph in third gear.

And like I said before I built my own MS harness it's super easy. If you can handle matching colors together than you can get the harness from diyautotune.com for like 70$.

As for the gauge cluster the only thing that still works is the fuel gauge since MS takes place of the Motronic. You can use the proto area on the MS board to drive gauges though.

My car uses the flywheel teeth for a tach signal so I had to get the variable reluctor wheel from a 325is as well as the sensor and fabricate my own bracket.

When doing that always fabricate it so the sensor is too close and shim it with washers..

As for the transmission, the manuals at least, are pretty much bullet proof. So far the only things I've seen break are the shift forks.

As for the laptop thing.. For a while I tuned with a desktop but I got sick of burning chips for my Honda.. Laptop is definitely the way to go. I got mine on sale for 350$ it was a 800$ laptop.

MS is pretty easy to tune. The way everyone goes about it though is ridiculous. They make it extra hard on themselves buy starting the map lean and using different enrichements to achive a drivable map. I just tune it like I tune Hondas. Set it up so the car gets its main fuel from the map and use enrichements to adjust certain points of the map like cold start, after start, acceleration, etc.

Re: My HMT e30
 

ok, thanks i think i might build a ms board myself then

Re: My HMT e30
 

Nice.

Re: My HMT e30
 

Very cool.

I have been wanting a RWD toy as of late. ----.

MS + Holset + RWD terror == something I want to do some day.

:6 :6

Re: My HMT e30
 

I'll have updates tomorrow since I'll be tuning the car completely. Along with more pics and some videos.

The only thing is the ------ thing smokes a bit. I'm not positive but I think it's oil..

I have a -4an line to the turbo with a set screw tapped into the the feed fitting, with a 1/16 hole in the set screw.

I have a -12an braided for a return line. I think the return sits half way under the oil level, but there's no positive pressure on the return side. And as long as the turbo sits above the oil sump it will return oil. It's if you have too much oil pressure going in, then it will start smoking..

It didn't smoke before the turbo set up though.

And at the same time it could be fuel, it only smokes above 3000rpm and I've only tested it idling..

I'm high as hell. I hope that made sense.
I

Re: My HMT e30
 

one of your earlier posts said valve seals, they leak oil when sitting and you notice smoke for the first few seconds of startup. then the oil is burnt off and no more smoke until you turn it off and let it sit for a while. if you have smoke that is constant, at a certian rpm and above, i would safely say you can rule out valve seals

vids are a must

Re: My HMT e30
 

I'm not sure yet since I haven't driven it much, just down the road and back. What I have noticed though is the smoke isn't thick and it's not constant. It doesn't even smell like oil. All you can smell is fuel. It takes a couple tries to get it to start in colder weather because I'm not using any idle control, just a turned throttle plate screw. It puffs smoke for about 3 seconds and it's clean. When you gradually increase rpms it doesn't smoke but if you crack it wide open really quickly to say 3000rpm it smokes then clears up...

I've never ran a car on batch injection before so I just got an idea that maybe it's unburnt fuel smoke? I know it's not nearly as efficient or clean as sequential injection at lower rpms.

Re: My HMT e30
 

well im not sure about all this, if i were there driving the car i could give you a better idea. as far as 'cracking' it wide open, take a look at any old carbed v8 and watch them spank the gas. usually a decent puff out of the exhaust when they get on it, thats just some carbon that had built up somewhere in the cyls. a big puff for 3 seconds at initial startup and idle sounds a lot like valve seals to me. this beast use any oil?

Re: My HMT e30
 

Nope it has just as much as I put in it a couple of weeks ago.

I'll have to figure it out tomorrow.

Re: My HMT e30
 

Ok. I have an update...

I didn't finish tuning the car because I've been to busy having my mind blown by the tuning features of MegaSquirt. It's freaking amazing. I've never used an EMS with wideband EGO control. It's almost like closed loop mode with a narrow band. Only you use a wide band and target AFRs instead of a narrowband and target voltage. The target AFRs are set up like an ignition or fuel table and MegaSquirt uses an algorithm between the what the sensor reads and the AFR cell in the table and adjusts accordingly.

I know it still uses "target voltages" but it's not on a linear scale like a narrowband. You can leave the WBEGO control on constantly, you don't need to have it deactivate at a certain TPS% or MAP%.

I did some testing with the EGO control. And this is risky and stupid of me, but I set my boost AFRs to 13.5:1 and with the EGO control on and a target of 12:1AFR the EGO corrected the fuel in three pulls.

I was able to autotune my crusing and light to medium throttle within twenty minutes.

I'll have more updates this Saturday along with videos etc. It's supposed to be getting pretty ------ cold though so the car should love it. I've been meaning to get more ---- up here for you guys to look at but by the time I get home it's already ------ dark.



So what I'm saying is if you haven't used MegaSquirt yet.. do your self a favor. It's incredible.

Re: My HMT e30
 

Autotune typically turns your fuel maps into hamburger. Manually setting AFRs isn't the hard part about tuning. Purely routine, and it's always better done by hand.

Feel free to ask any specific questions because based off of what you just said I think you need to go real slow and do a lot of research before you try to extract any power out of your car. Not trying to be a dick, I tune for a living homey. There are no secrets here so feel free to ask anything you need to, I'm pretty good about giving solid tech advice and determining something that might be e30 specific/out of my experience, etc.

Re: My HMT e30
 

do you have any picks of you adapter from t3 to t4 with the ex wg elbow

Re: My HMT e30
 

Nah, you're not being a dick man I can see where you're coming from. The whole EGO correction and autotune thing was just an experiment.. A long while ago I was talking to one of my teachers about wideband sensors and variable closed loop function and how it would be cool to actually see. So when I saw megatune had the option I had to try it.

It's actually sad how much research I do. It's not wasted time because I gain something from it but ---- I spend a couple hours every day just reading.

I've actually been tuning for about three years now but I mean it's a hobby, I don't do it for a living or anything. If someone comes along with an EMS I've never used before I don't even charge that person I just want the learning experience from it. It sucks that car season is almost over now.. Next spring I'm gonna be tuning a 300zx with an RB25 swap, single turbo. I think the kids gonna be getting a HX40 as well.

I just filled the tank up and spent the last half an hour or so making the car drivable. MS is different than Crome, Hondata, AEM, blah blah, but it's all relatively the same ----. I pretty much got the AFR's situated as far as crusing goes I want to wait till tomorrow to do some WOT pulls. I think it might be a bitch because the gearing is so long. I'll need to find a nice open stretch on some back roads.

With MS you have to make your own timing map. It took me like an hour to fill in the 144 cells but it drives really well. It's a bit on the conservative side for now, about 18* at 10psi with I think 9:1 compression.

So I mean, I know my stuff and all but I'm always open to learning new stuff and I'm always asking questions. ---- I've been a member since 06 and I've barely posted here..

And there you have my life story.. yeeapp..

And as for the T4 adapter all I did was hack off the T3 flange and welded a T4 on there. And the wastegate I just used my drill press and a hole saw and took a hole out of the collector. Then I welded an elbow with the wastegate flange on there. I can't really take pics because it's a top mount and all.

Re: My HMT e30
 

Sounds like you have all the building blocks, you'll be fine.

The car thing is supposed to be about helping people out so - we got your back, holmes. And thanks for bringing some fresh content to the site. :)

Re: My HMT e30
 

Hell yeah man. This site is what got me into forced induction. Back when I didn't really know much I always thought it cost thousands of dollars to turbo a car. Then I saw some ---- with like dryer duct intercooler piping and it was ------ on.

Re: My HMT e30
 

Ok, well I did some more tuning. I have soot in my wastegate outlet so it is opening but I think it's creeping. 200kpa is two atmospheres, 29psiA, 14.7psiG. My stock injectors max out at 160Kpa apparently and the car starts to lean out. The wastegate should be fully opened around that area, 7.7psi, but it's not. I wonder if a single 38mm gate is too small for a 2.7? I have a whole bunch of more work to do.

The car is pretty much situated up until it starts to lean out. It goes awful rich for a second as soon as it goes over 100kpa and I can't seem to figure that one out. I think I may have the enrichment coming on too strong.

I was about to go record some videos when I noticed the car was running hot, about 220 degrees.. ----.. For the seconds goddamn time the alternator fan blades cut a hole in my radiator hose and pissed coolant all over the ------- place. So now I have to hunt down another hose which took me almost a ------- week last time this happened.

Other than that the car pulls like a son of a bitch for what I've got done too it. Hopefully I can pick up another hose and keep tuning tomorrow.

Does anybody know whats the biggest size injector bosch makes? All I can find on ebay are 42lbs wich is I think 440cc.

Re: My HMT e30
 

I run closed loop on my MS, but i make sure not to give it tomuch authority. I basically just use it for cruiising afr correction, a fellow once also told me that if it needs to correct more tnan 5% you prolly need to dial in your VE table some more.

Re: My HMT e30
 

I tuned it some more today. My wastegate might not be opening for some reason, either vacuum source or it's just kinda stuck. Or it's creeping like ----. I got a nice fuel ratio up untill 160kpa at which my gate should be fully opened but it keeps climbing up to almost 14psi then it starts to lean out with 19lb injectors.

I get clutch slippage at the top of either 3rd or 4th gear i cant remember.

But it does what I want it to. Really nasty burn outs. Here's some pics, I have some videos but they sound like ---- cuz of my phone so I'll try again later.

http://i36.tinypic.com/2al0te.jpg
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Re: My HMT e30
 

I blew a pinhole in my upper radiator hose. The ---- was smoking everywhere. I thought I lifted my head but it seems ok.

So now I'm dealing with clutch slippage in 3-4th.. All I can seem to find is SPEC clutches for my car.

Re: My HMT e30
 

A friend's 2002 used to munch upper radiator hoses,too. Wierd design on that alt mount, rubber bushings IIRC.

I have no love for Spec clutches. They are known for painted stock PP FTL.

Re: My HMT e30
 

no xtd clutch for you on ebay?

and dude... stock injectors?

Re: My HMT e30
 

Yeah coolant got all over my alternator belt and ---- coolant all over the place. It's a mess.

And yeah stock injectors. I've tuned it to a 12:1 fuel ratio for now at 8psi. When I was getting spikes due to a poor vacuum source my air/fuel was constant until 10psi then it leaned back out. I should have my 42lb Bosch injectors in soon but if that falls through then I gotta find out if DSM 450's will work. I'm not trying to spend a bunch of money on injectors.

As for clutches I've heard a bunch of negative things about SPEC. I've searched most of the big clutch companies but haven't found much.

Re: My HMT e30
 

i sold my spec for the m50, picked up a ltw fw and stg4 clutch kit from xtd for the same price and it takes more abuse then you would believe, see if they got one for ya on ebay

42's are the way to go dude...and i had the same hose ---- my ---- up, ---- bimmers

Re: My HMT e30
 

One thing I read about the Holsets is they spec a max of 80psi on cold starts, 10psi at idle, and ~30psi minium under load. Basicly what you get with a smaller feed line unrestricted on a Honda. They also run a minium 25psi in trucks, so you may need a little less oil pressure if you're being a ----- with just 10psi. :P I think the HX40 uses fully floating bearings, so pressure thats WAY TOO low will hurt them.

The holsets are known to be practicly bulletproof, but also rebuildable. As long as the journal bearings are fine, you just have to replace the piston seals. Worst-case you need a new CHRA. Since the intended use puts them at far more miles per year, Holset supplies plenty of CHRA's.

Re: My HMT e30
 

Huh? I'm talking about boost pressure man. Not oil pressure. But for an oil feed I'm using -4an hose and fitting with a set screw tapped and threaded into the 4an fitting with a 1/16 hole in it for restriction.

Re: My HMT e30
 

i think some people relate boost pressures to how much oil pressure the turbos gonna want