After putting in proper coolant and bleeding the system my fan has now been working properly for a few hundred miles and I haven't had any issues since! Hopefully it stays that way
Inspiration for the future of my 1990 325i. Great car. By the way, coolant/antifreeze also provides lubrication and the protection that lubrication gives. I've done just water and it was ok for temp control, but no good for those metal guts.
@@MkII-cw3rw I did only water a long time ago in my stock e30 325i, and the needle never passed the middle, which is where it spent most of it's time. Then I took the temp sensor that activates the fan, and used it to activate the aux fan. At that time I put a temp sensor that activated the fan clutch at a lower temp. The temp gauge still remained about the same, but I think it is able to handle extreme situations better. The car has been garaged for about ten years now.
@@ImJoel do you have an aftermarket triple pass radiator with a set of silicone coolant hoses and upgraded oil cooler? Maybe it will calm down the overheating? 🤔
A year after, Im glad it still works. Those little problems that occur are just normal stuff... Ive had overheating problems with my E30 as well... The most important part here is answered, it is reliable. We are talking about turbo build you did. All of those minor problems you had could occur on a NA engine as well. Cool car and a great work what you did. Greetings from Croatia!
Hey bud...that's why I did a custom wiring when I installed the Fueltech 550 on my e34. Your build is just awesome and it hurts to see you having issues due to old stuff. Keep up the good work, and you did prove that your build is 100% reliable!!!! Cheers
maaaaan watching this was therapeutic as I've experienced the same issues turbocharging my E36 M3. some things I learned too: adding distilled water will help with cooling, and you can go down to 20% antifreeze, 80% water on a street car. also I was having horrible cooling due to lack of airflow so I added the clutch fan back and it's been chillin.
amazing work dude! i love your knowledge of BMW engines! only a true BMW will know what you talking about M50 M52 S50 S52 M54 M20.. etc looking forward your next video!
Hey and another thing , use distilled water only for your cooling system otherwise regular tap water will corrode your cooling passages in engine in all of cooling system
Rapid Spool Industries 😂 I met the Owner/creator of RSi bout 10 years ago at a BMW meet in Pembroke Pines Florida. Older Gentleman who definitely know his way around e30’s and 24 valve BMW engines (although when we met he was running a M30 engine with a huge turbo off a diesel truck 😂)
I had the same Problem with the after start like you. My solution was to turn up the Priming Pulse an close the IACV more when the engine is hot by reducing the PWM Duty Cycle Hope that helps a bit!
Loving the content Bro keep up the nice work, I had the same issue for the fan that wasn't turning on in time so now I have it also cabled to a switch in the dashboard to switch it on when I want, it helps a lot! I anyway hope that you can find the problem and resolve it!
Mentioning the OBD2 port as the reason of the difficult tuning problems has be wondering if it's not so much the type of port as it's the type of hardware you are using for running the car. You mention something called "Vems"? I wonder if you could switch out that hardware (and subsequently the software) you would have a much easier time. But I really can't know as you are the builder of it and know much better than I could. But to me if you had the money to buy a different system to run it on through the OBD2 it would make much more sense. But as I said I really don't know. Great car and build! LOVE IT! Thanks!
u should have a screw somewhere in ur cooling system which u can open while changing fluid so air can get out easier and that way it will suck up the new fluid better instead of u waiting the whole time
This is how I know you're in CT. Take one turn off of a main road and you end up on a rally course through the hillside forest. It's great in an SUV but shit otherwise LMFAO. Awesome car as always.
What sized tires are you running on this setup? I'm about a month and a half away from finishing my working prototype turbo e36 and will have to start prepping for the actual power portion of the build here soon which includes my reinforcements, suspension bracing, and wider tires.
You heat soaked it thanks for showing you choke it helps teach me although I learned the hard way like you... My plastic therm Housing cracked, Regardless BMW's 3 Series suck at bleeding everything including slave cylinders XD those car's are weird.. Regardless you gotta make a long ass neck with the over flow tank I had a shitty drift car with a phone cord attacking it to the radiator & I'd lift It too my chest to bleed it in massive gulps instantly. Lol you're bleeding it now. As Im was writing the shits. Also move the relay foo
Not very hard. Once you’re off the throttle you just push the clutch in, blip the throttle up to the RPM that you think 1 gear lower would be at at that specific speed while also shifting the car down 1 gear, then let the clutch out
m50 heads have 3 ports, the m52 heads had 2 ports since the later e36's integrated the cluster and ecu temp senders. The third port is definitely handy for running coolant to the turbo. Looking forward to seeing this car rip more!
Hey Joel, I supply the vems standalone and work closely with one of the best vems tuners, happy to help regarding your after start tuning or any other issues you need to sort still. Thanks indy 👌
Speaking from experience the engine stuff alone, if you're doing a bottom mount and scavenge pump setup, will set you back around $1200 before even getting into the electronics to make it work at higher boost levels. You'll also need to do reinforcements, ensure all safety equipment is functional or removed, make sure your drivetrain is in good enough condition to run higher power, replace all bushings and preferably upgrade to poly or delrin, and highly consider lowering your center of gravity on coils and improve handling with adjustable sway bars and strut braces. All in, including a custom exhaust an no interior work, you're getting in around $4k for anything above 4psi. If you stay at 4psi you can technically be turboed for around $1500.
@@ThatWasSketchyy I understand but I'm trying to give you a starting point. Interior work isn't cheap but it isn't anywhere near as expensive as the mechanical stuff; bodywork if needed is going to be the biggest variable in numbers.
That overheating situation at the end of this vid later turned out to be a broken engine unfortunately. But at least now you'll be able to make a reliability video with the same title as this one 😁 Reliability after 1 year
Hey Joel, get a thermostat that makes your engine run lower than the OEM 92 degrees. Bimmerworld has retrofit options at 71, 75 and 80 degrees celsius.
for the oil leak, it's an E30... NORMAL things hahaha ! Mine got a m20 2.5l turbo cheap build (custom oem piston, oem rods, oem head studs, ebay deka 660cc ect ect) even with a all new gasket everywhere, it's still leaking some oil, not so much but it's due to the blow by into my bloc, it's pushing the gasket of the block back oil return from the head (m20 shitty conception) an mess everything to the left side of my engine, and of course finish on the ground ! but to the reliability, my m20 overpass all my expectation, 14psi from over 2 years, no major issue, so much fun driving this car, and too much surprised guy with a "big" cars hahahaha, that's for me the most enjoyable moments about it. Our build are gone to the same time i thinks, so i love to follow how your's is runing today too! Regards from France.
Hey Joel. I built a e30 sort of like yours. 87 325 2.93 diff with m52 aluminum block, m54 crank, rods and pistons. New bearings and rings. S52 cams but naturally aspirated. I kept the 5 speed getrag 260. It looks like I may need to upgrade the g260. It’s starting to act up. Can’t get into gears and making crazy noise and vibration when I’m driving hard. What transmission do you recommend? I’m thinking zf320?
OBD2 harness is > OBD1 harness. I'm entirely biased, but OBD2 rear mount crank sensor never goes bad and lets you run an M54 damper, OBD2 open element IAT actually reacts to temp changes, ETM is better for doing swap harness wiring mods. You can still run a Link E36X PNP ECU if you buy a 413 ECU connector and repin your harness to what the link expects. I guess you could also repin the same MS41 ECU connector but you need to mod the plug. With either harness there's a ton of stuff that isn't used, biggest difference is you'd need to buy a cam sensor. Also if you want to clean up that coilpack connector/wiring, run it out the other side or back of the valve cover, can even hide it in a 318 firewall cover if you want.
I had a stock m20b25 e30, and it was always overheating and throwing wather out of it. I just blocked the overflow, and problem solved. The oem system cant handle some more pressure you need now.
Distilled water is bad. All other elements have been removed and so the water wants to leach them from the block making it brittle. Normal water is correct if it’s not hard.
Lower cost and... Wattabout labor? If you're willing to wrench, you could throw the low end of an m54b30 (crank, rods n pistons) into your motor then top it off with s52b32 cams and an m50 intake. Gives you: Sweat +displacement +compression = +HP +++smiles. And, depending on your dickering skills, for around a dime.
Great build! Dear sir I have some questions as I would like to build a m54 and I am a DIYer such as yourself. First of all what’s the engines compression ratio with the new piston setup?? Over or under 10:1? Also how much boost are you running and what fuel are u using ? What’s the most boost you can run using pump gas without having knocking ?
I picked one line once from Chip Foose (that sticks with me)..he said :' the most important thing of any build & swaps for success is heat managment & cooling'..he said ;'you will not enjoy your dream car if you cannot control that heat' (especially N/A to turbo)..being able to manually control cooling & extractor fans from the dash is better also.(heat louvers are useful too)...stuck on a hot day at a red light ,flick the switch..,don't wait for that ECU to decide..'installing heat sensors in the bay with gauges on the dash also is helping)..love your car ,great DIY job..,but please keep that left foot off that clutch between gears..it ain't a foot rest..!!!
