MyE28.com

Hi guys, like to share my E28 M535i Turbo project here! Also my first post on this forum so quick introduction:

I'm Nick, 24 from Utrecht in the Netherlands, I'm studying Automotive Engineering, graduating in a couple of days if everything goes well.
Riding E28's for about six years now. Have my current M535i for about 4 years now. At the start of my study i was searching for a nice way
to bring the theory in to practice.

Because of the tax regulations in the Netherlands it was very interesting to drive the E28 on autogas/LPG with normal gas prices (RON95) rising up to 1,8 euro per liter at that time (would be about 8,2 dollars per gallon). So i dicided to convert my E28 to LPG. Didn't want a old fasion venturi system so went for a gas injection system with a Megasquirt MS3x standalone ECU which was also very interresting in combination with my study. This setup runned very well for one year with very nice gas mileage, but i wanted a new challenge now i had some experience with the standalone. Turbocharging seems like a good idea at that point .

This point is now about 2 years ago and the turbocharging project has gone around a couple of stages. I started with the stock M30B34 engine and builded a turbocharger system on it with capasity to go to 5~600hp in the future. First year i drove it on low boost, about 0,7 bars on the stock block. Still using the LPG, combined with normal gas to get enough fuel (staged injection). Very fun setup but off course it was time for some more power because the turbo (HX50) wasn't doing it's best . With the tax regulations changeing to LPG oldtimer cars (meaning regulations change from 0 euro to paying 1600 euro's of tax per year) i removed the whole LPG system en upgraded the normal petrol system. Also bought another daily (still using the E28 as daily to this point) because the E28 would become to expensive to drive on normal gas. This gave me the opertunity to get the engine out of the E28 to prepare it for some more power. As a student i don't have a mega budget so try to do it all as cheap as possible. The engine build was spring this year.

After the engine build had a lot of heat related problems with spark plug wires and some other things, but the problems are all solved now.
At this point the E28 is running 1,2 bars of boost on pump gas (RON98)

Putting out 464HP and 682NM (503ft-lbs)

Specs:
M30B34 with M106 Pistons
M106 Piston cooling jets
Stock Head Gasket
ARP Headstuds
150% clutch pressure plate (double diafragm)
Getrag 260/6 from E34
Megasquirt MS3x
Techedge 2J9 Lambdasensor
VEMS EGT
Bosch 044 Fuelpump
Siemens Deka 870cc Injectors
LS2 Coils
HX50 Turbo
50mm External wastegate
Twin 25mm Blowoff
4" Downpipe
3" Exhaust
Alpine style manifold with M50 Throttlebody

Very short recap of a project i wrote a lot about on dutch forum (unfortunatly all in dutch)

I will stop talking now and put some pics





































































And out again for engine build:
































And some video's (not alot since last dynorun)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVv0dy1cvsg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PmK8Yr8kLM

Super-impressive. Thanks for posting!

Nice work! I don't think I've every seen an oil drain in the lower timing cover.

Very nice, and all on a "low" budget.

Really nice job!
I guess you don't have a girl friend. Just kiddin I know you've got a lotta hours in that baby.
marc

Mind blowing. That's some craftsmanship right there, very impressive. SERIOUS power too!

Great build. How did you mount the coil packs? I saw some marked parts in the last engine shot but it was tough to make out.

Thanks for the nice reactions!

Quite a late reaction because off the busy period here around my graduation.

George wrote: I don't think I've ever seen an oil drain in the lower timing cover.

I hadn't either, but when i first designed/build my turbosystem i din't want to get the engine out only to put a drain in the sump.
So with some thinking i came up with this idea and actually i'm very pleased with it, working very well and routing the hose is very simple.
Would have been a lot harder to route it to the sump with the exhaust manifold. Running at a very nice steep angle:

Mark 88/M5 Houston wrote:Very nice, and all on a "low" budget.

Haha, could have been a lot more expensive But yeah, started with the low budget idea but over the years quite some money disappeard to this E28..
But don't think there is a cheaper way to own a car with this kind of performance and certainly one that brings more fun than a home build one
Also learned a lot from this project, absolutly worth a lot also.

marc79euro645 wrote:Really nice job!
I guess you don't have a girl friend. Just kiddin I know you've got a lotta hours in that baby. marc

Hahaha. Your guess is right, probably wasn't riding yet if i had
Building such a thing first time is indeed extremly time consuming, expecially thinking about how to do things and searching a lot.
If i had to build it again now it would be probably done within two fulltime weeks.
Have got a E30 also which already has a M50 in it, i'm in doubt to turbocharge that one as well. Maybe i should before i find a girlfriend

trevmmeister wrote:Mind blowing. That's some craftsmanship right there, very impressive. SERIOUS power too!

Thanks, nice to hear! Power is indeed quite serious. Most production cars with this kind of power are a lot heavier also.
I've got a very nice partime job at a luxury car dealer, so i know what some of the modern sport/supercars are capable of but
i don't know a lot of cars that feel faster than the E28. I've driven some Ferrari 458's (yeah it's a really nice job ) and they are definetly faster but don't actually feel like they are. Think the real performance of de E28 is between a Ferrari 360 and a F430.
Also at the time i dyno'd my car there where some problems with the calibration of the dyno, causing a los of about 20~25hp on most cars with
similar power, so my peak hp is probably around 484hp.

vandiesel wrote:Great build. How did you mount the coil packs? I saw some marked parts in the last engine shot but it was tough to make out.

The coils are mounted behind the main beam, didn't have a good photo of them here but the assembly you see on the previous photos is mounted vertically there. First i wanted to mount them on the valve cover but didn't want to roast them so this seems to be a better place. With good spark plug wires this setup is working very fine. Good sparkplugs are quite important though, i first had some quite cold NGK BPR7 Plugs but after a good 6000miles (10k km) they where giving big problems because they are to cold to burn clean. Changed them for BPR6 and running fine until now. (BPR5 is stock)Next is a photo of the spark plug wiring, can't really see the coils but for the idea:

Small update on this topic with a new video. Car is still running strong, only blew out the stock head gasket. I've put in a Athena Cooperring which is holding very good with 1,4bar boost now.
Also had some nice dragraces against a 2015 Porsche GT3RS, which is about exactly as fast

https://youtu.be/KyxGKUtbRYw

https://youtu.be/33yQ7FkvZx4

Toying with the porsche, love it! I wonder how things would turn out going wot from a roll.

Very nice! I love it!

love this build and I think I saw it is for sale ? Another project ?

Super talented.. !