[Dross50]

First off, I have to say something about this community. I came from the world of Jeeps and diesel trucks... I that that community was great (which it is), but the vendor support within the BMW world is amazing. Huge, huge shout out to all the guys at BMS, Fuel-It!, and VRSF. They've all been there for me at weird hours and have amazing products.

Now that I'm done with the pleasantries, here's what I'm running. BMS intake, VRSF catless downpipe, Fuel-It! Stage 2 LPFP and platinum port injection kit, VRSF's new race intercooler and charge pipe, and last but definitely not least JB4 w/ewg. Running 100% E85. Stock turbo.

I'd attach logs but apparently this board doesn't like .csv. See first post for them here: http://www.n54tech.com/forums/showth...955#post508955

As far as the intercooler goes, I have to say I'm pretty blown away. The log you'll see after the install is a 0-160 run, and it took a long time to actually see a rise in initial temps. For most pulls I do dicking around the highways my end IAT's are actually lower than when I started... I have to do a pretty prolonged run to actually see an increase... and even with that we're talking about a 50 degree drop from where I was before the install. 50 degrees! As expected with a bigger intercooler there is an increase in turbo lag, but don't mistake me saying it's noticable for it being bad. Trubo still lights off like a banshee. The stock intercooler is actually about the same size as just the stepped part of the intercooler when you look at them side by side. As far as fitment goes I was terrified when I first put it under the car but it couldn't have been simpler. I just yanked out the shroud that sat in front of the stock intercooler and it bolts right in with no issues or cutting required. If you're looking to buy an intercooler I would honestly say you'd be a fool to not buy this thing.

On to the numbers. I feel like I still have some tweaking to do and my avg ign has been slowly coming down over the last few weeks, but having said that I made 393 HP and 469 TQ. Here's the graph:



And for those of you that like youtube videos, here's one of the pulls:

Now I'm just watching the market waiting for a big turbo kit to show up at a reasonable price :drinking:
Also I need more rubber :lol

[jmwilson125]

Hey man awesome number! I got a couple questions for you as i am currently fbo and was looking for the next step.

What map are you in? And did you need a bed, or does it run just fine on jb4 maps?

My thoughts were to do pure stg 2, and then upgrade fueling down the road. Any thoughts on why going fueling first may a better idea?

Lastly did you do the install yourself? Anyone know how difficult the install would be? I watched a video on the lpfp and it did not look too hard to replace.

[Dross50]

Originally Posted by jmwilson125

Hey man awesome number! I got a couple questions for you as i am currently fbo and was looking for the next step.

What map are you in? And did you need a bed, or does it run just fine on jb4 maps?

My thoughts were to do pure stg 2, and then upgrade fueling down the road. Any thoughts on why going fueling first may a better idea?

Lastly did you do the install yourself? Anyone know how difficult the install would be? I watched a video on the lpfp and it did not look too hard to replace.

I run in map 7. I honestly haven't played around with other maps yet.

Are you running ethanol? If you are then my vote is to go the same route as me - fuel before turbo. I'd say the point would be more arguable if the big turbo market were more open but here's my thought process:
We have the option to either go with the PS2 or a 600hp+ big turbo. The two big turbo options that I know of are insanely expensive, but the PS2 (while still a great turbo) is now underpowered. I imagine by mid next year we'll see prices drop as the vendors recover their losses from the R&D and realize that they'll have a greater demand at a lower price, more competitive with the PS2. You could buy a PS2 but you know you're limited to 500hp and shortly after you install it you'll want more power and kick yourself for not saving up a few more bucks. Having said that, you're going to need more fueling for either turbo. Installing the port injection now will give you a small gain but you're good to go for either turbo in the future. I can rest easy knowing that I've done everything I can for the current turbo and I can sit and wait for the next move as if I were playing chess.

As far as the LPFP and port injection go; both are pretty easy (relative to their complexity). The LPFP is pretty much just as easy as Steve makes it seem in the install video. Wiggling the pump in and out is a little tricky. Steve has obviously done it a million times so he knows exactly how to manipulate it - but it isn't difficult at all. Be sure to do what he says and let the engine kill its self with the power to the pump disconnected, then put a couple paper towels on the top of the pump when you disconnect the line and you won't have much fuel come out. Aside from that there aren't too many tips I can provide. I had a bit of a tough time getting the pump out but I realized one of my locking tabs was bent down a little from the factory - I just pried up on it with a screwdriver a tad and it came right off.

The port injection install gave me a few hiccups but it wasn't too bad either. The most difficult part is routing the new fuel line to the pump. The easiest method I found to do it was borrowed from how I route wires through walls for home theater. First you want to disconnect the blue fuel line from the connector where it comes down from the engine bay. After that you can disconnect it from the pump and it'll drain the fuel instead of spraying into your car. Once you have it disconnected and pulled off of the rubber buffers underneath the car you can pull it out. I chose to pull from inside the car as the fuel line has a 90 degree angle connector that could get caught if you pull it from underneath the car. The method I chose that I previously mentioned is to tape a piece of rope to the tail end of the fuel line (the side closer to the engine. Here's a picture of the new fuel line taped to the rope, just imagine it's blue and it'll be the same thing haha.



When you do this you have a few things to consider - how much tape you use and what type of rope to use. You need to use something that can handle some serious pulling as well as moderate abrasion. We'll get to the tape in a second. The fuel line runs along the length of your car until it gets around where the rear seats are. It then goes up, takes a 90 degree turn across to the driver side, then goes up again to the fuel pump. The stock line is a hard plastic line and is molded into shape so it's tough to get it to bend through this passage. It'll take some serious pulling at some points. Don't worry though, it'll come out. I was worried at some points but eventually it comes. Once you get to the end it'll look like this.



At this point you can cut the rope and tape the new line to the same rope you pulled through, it'll look like the first picture. This is where the tape consideration comes in. Not enough and when you pull, the rope and new line can come apart. Too much and it becomes very difficult to pass through the tight channel that the original line was in. What I did worked but I probably used more than I needed to. Also the tape I used is nuclear grade duct tape, I don't have specific numbers for how much better it is than your standard duct tape... just don't skimp on it. If it separates, you're shit out of luck and will probably have to drill a new hole in your car to run the line - or drop the fuel tank and figure it out from there. Once you get it pulled all the way, it'll look like this.



At this point you can remove the tape, attach the fitting supplied by Steve, and you're good to go on that end.

The rest of the process isn't terribly bad. The other tricky point for me was bolting the intake down with the port injection manifold in the middle. The supplied alignment studs helped a little but you still have to make small adjustments, and that's no simple task with the fuel line attached. It isn't very forgiving. Just get one bolt loosely installed on each end and the rest will follow.

As far as the wiring goes, Steve posted a wiring guide on his site that tells you what to do. Make sure you use his supplied OBDII cable, the one that comes with the JB4 doesn't have the RPM wire installed.

That's about all I can come up with off the top of my head, but feel free to ask any more questions.

[Drpoomanchu]

How is your throttle response with this race IC ? How much of a difference do you feel with the new IC. Wanted your opinion... thinking about buying it soon. BTW great #'s ..!

[Dross50]

Originally Posted by Drpoomanchu

How is your throttle response with this race IC ? How much of a difference do you feel with the new IC. Wanted your opinion... thinking about buying it soon. BTW great #'s ..!

If someone taps my shoulder I notice it but it doesn't hurt. That's the best analogy I have for the change in throttle response. I think I noticed a difference (it could even just be the engineer in me expecting it) but it isn't enough for me to consider it a negative factor. Honestly looking at the numbers I see no reason not to. On lower speed pulls my IAT's are always lower than when I started. On 100+mph pulls (which are usually long duration) my IAT's aren't much higher than where they started and they're significantly lower than before. My turbo is much happier now!

[ABPReader]

Great setup , thanks for sharing !

[Dylan86]

Awesome news, thanks for sharing! Reconfirms my already approved purchase of the 6" Race IC from VRSF.

D

[M-terkait]

I have wagner intercooler and IAT at best is 30*C if ambient is 18-20*C if stuck in traffic or low speed its around 37-38*C.

Not sure if it would be worth going for vrsf vs wagner intercooler.

[Tiago@VRSF]

Great review, thanks so much for taking the time! Glad you're enjoying it!

[mike@x-ph.com]

Thank you for the review OP