Adam Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 (edited) well, as of now its just talk... but i have a turbo sitting in my garage, and one day i want to turbo my bmw... but i also have my horribly underpowered pathfinder sitting in my driveway doing nothing... i want to pick up a welder, and try my hand at fabricating. i have a general idea of how turbo's work, and what all is needed to run to the turbo(ie coolant and oil, vacuum lines), and my turbo has an integrated wastegate, so its not too complex... i know it'll need a blow off valve, and i'll likely have to make my own header, unless i want to remotely mount the turbo, but i don't think i will. i was thinking of using an intercooler off of an isuzu npr, pretty popular and cheap... i've got experience with mig and tig welding, though its been about 7 years since i've done either... but if i remember correctly, the wire fed mig welder was what i was most comfortable with... is a mig welder a viable option for this project? some questions i have, i found a post by 88 saying the stock bottom end was good to about 15psi, i'm planning on under 10, turbo i have is only good to ~350hp and thats running it to its limits... but is the stock maf setup good for a turbo, or should i run a map setup? i'd likely do this with a megasquirt ecu, as i don't think the stock ecu is gonna work for this... are there any base maps around for the vg30de for a megasquirt? this project would also be my first experience with the megasquirt... what size are stock injectors? can the stock auto handle the power associated with a turbo? or would it be a better idea to switch to the 5 speed? would the stock cam work for turbo applications? or would something aftermarket be in order? also, what about ignition timing? does the stock distributor advance at all? or should i go another route for ignition? where can i tap in to to feed the turbo with oil? where can i get a set of flanges to make custom headers? or would i have to get them machined? lots of questions, thanks in advance Edited May 30, 2007 by Adam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yozsi Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 whoo boy here, you gotta long way to go ol' buddy. what kind of turbo is it? why run coolant lines to it? what year pathy is it since it has a dual cam engine? i would make a y pipe off the stock manifolds instead of using headers, maybe z31 300zx turbo manifolds might work. I would stick with the stock computer and maybe get one of those rom writers or something to adjust the fueling and advance curves. Man, in my opinion, keep the pathy road worthy and turbo the bimmer. its a truck, not a sports car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted May 31, 2007 Author Share Posted May 31, 2007 whoo boy here, you gotta long way to go ol' buddy. what kind of turbo is it? why run coolant lines to it? what year pathy is it since it has a dual cam engine? i would make a y pipe off the stock manifolds instead of using headers, maybe z31 300zx turbo manifolds might work. I would stick with the stock computer and maybe get one of those rom writers or something to adjust the fueling and advance curves. Man, in my opinion, keep the pathy road worthy and turbo the bimmer. its a truck, not a sports car. bimmer isn't paid off, i'm not gonna be turboing it till it is. and it gets 30mpg, i'm not going to go back to 15mpg with the pathfinder, screw that. and i definately know i've got a long ways to go, but its something i've wanted to do for a long time, and i think i can pull it off... its a 90. megasquirt is a very good route to go for an ecu, its build it yourself, its cheap, and its powerful. the pathfinder doesn't get driven, and it may not be a sports car, but it sure is a slug. not sure the real specs on the turbo, used to have the compressor map, but i've had it in the garage so long, i don't have that anymore... it flows like a T04S, nothing huge, but nothing tiny like the stock t3's you see on so many cars... i don't think a 300zx's turbo manifolds would be the right route to go for this project either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jj big shoe Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 There's a lot of info about the Megasquirt ECU's at www.diyautotune.com including links to other people's base maps that may get you going. They'll even help you build the right ECU for your application once you figure out the mechanical stuff. If I were trying to fab a turbo setup I wouldn't be looking for how to do it here (no offense to the great guys and girls at NPORA, but turbos ain't the focus on this board), I'd be checking out sites like Hybrid Z and other boards with members who have done it... a lot. Look for threads that apply to what you're trying to do and copy what they did as far as engine mods. FWIW, Lee from L&P reported the stock auto trans seemed to handle the power from his S/C VG30 without problems (he was using a roots-style M90 blower), but I have no idea how long he's been running the blower or the condition of the trans now so take that for what it's worth. Most roots-style blowers yield about a 40% HP gain, so he was prolly pushing about ~230HP or so with the other engine mods added in, I'm guessing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted June 1, 2007 Author Share Posted June 1, 2007 There's a lot of info about the Megasquirt ECU's at www.diyautotune.com including links to other people's base maps that may get you going. They'll even help you build the right ECU for your application once you figure out the mechanical stuff. If I were trying to fab a turbo setup I wouldn't be looking for how to do it here (no offense to the great guys and girls at NPORA, but turbos ain't the focus on this board), I'd be checking out sites like Hybrid Z and other boards with members who have done it... a lot. Look for threads that apply to what you're trying to do and copy what they did as far as engine mods. FWIW, Lee from L&P reported the stock auto trans seemed to handle the power from his S/C VG30 without problems (he was using a roots-style M90 blower), but I have no idea how long he's been running the blower or the condition of the trans now so take that for what it's worth. Most roots-style blowers yield about a 40% HP gain, so he was prolly pushing about ~230HP or so with the other engine mods added in, I'm guessing. thanks for the info, never seen that diyautotune before, so that will definately help. and i'll check out the hybrid z forum you mentioned. my auto trans has maybe 15k on it, so its fairly fresh, and i figure itd be strong enough, but if, after i do this, i get tired of only having 2 pedals, i'll swap then lol... appreciate the input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88pathoffroad Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 Lee ended up swapping to a manual tranny and then his crank broke. It was running N/A when the crank broke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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