MatthewMay1's SUPERCHARGED Build Thread

That's correct. When I was taking the transmission out I remember having to disconnect it

 

It was pretty easy, so I must have replaced the downstream

 

Tore apart the fun car today. Doing a slew of of those “might as well do this while I’m in there” types of items.

 

Supposedly when this car was built, the hood was the largest single molded piece of metal fitted to any production car yet. Doesn’t surprise me. This hood is freakin huge!



I replaced the two hard plastic coolant lines that run underneath the intake manifold. They are known failure points in the coolant system and I’m glad I replaced them because one was brittle enough to break off in the engine. (That was fun to extract). Now I’m pressure testing the system and all seems to be holding well. I’m going to let it sit for a couple hours to be sure.

 

I just finished my engine refresh today on the Bimmer. Under the hood I did:

CCV kit and associated hoses from Bimmerbum
Vacuum lines
DISA rebuild from German Auto Solutions
VANOS rebuild from German Auto Solutions
VANOS oil line (mine had developed a leak and was the main driver of this whole project)
Valve cover gasket & gromets
Intake manifold gasket
The two hard heater lines under the manifold
Coolant line from top of expansion tank to top of radiator
Spark plugs
Oil & filter change

Outside the hood:
Brake pads all around

In the coming days:
Coolant flush
Brake Fluid Flush
Diff oil
Fuel Filter

I was very relieved when it cranked right up with no alarming sounds!

 

Yesterday:
Coolant flush

Today:
Brake fluid flush
Diff oil
Transmission fluid
Fuel filter

Took the car for a test drive tonight and it drives like a dream! Fresh transmission fluid shifts like butter. The trans is quieter and smoother now. I love it!

 

Back to Tacoma things....



It has begun.



Today I replaced the valve cover gaskets and spark plugs. That was actually way easier on the BMW. Who’d of thought?

 

More progress today! I stripped the tensioner bolt so I've got to track a new one down before I can even think about trying to run it.

 

Sooo jelly of the supercharger.

 

You could have one too, it only takes money!

 

Got the majority of the URD 7th injector kit installed today.

I was an idiot and forgot to wait to start this project with an almost empty tank of gas so I ended up wasting hours siphoning fuel out of my nearly full tank so that I could drop the tank to replace the fuel pump. Finally got the tank dropped, new fuel pump installed and tank back under the truck.

I then set out to replace my fuel filter but realized I didn’t have the correct size line wrench to get the fuel lines off the filter. They’re very tight and I was afraid of rounding them off with a combination wrench, so I’ve ordered some metric line wrenches from Amazon and I’ll get the filter changed when they arrive.

I then moved to the engine bay to continue with the 7th injector kit. I cut my high pressure fuel line and installed the T connector and new fuel line to go to the 7th injector. I got that all installed and then moved on to the interior of the vehicle to find a place to mount the control module.

After racking my brain for hours and removing interior panels, I came to the conclusion that I had no real good place to put the module. I ended up riveting it into the inside top of the glovebox and drilling holes in the side of the glovebox for the wiring. I’m not thrilled to be losing the storage space in my already-tiny glovebox, but it’ll be worth it when I hear that supercharger whine! Tonight I learned that my soldering skills are terrible, but I think I got solid connections on the ECU wire taps/splices for the 7th injector kit. That was nerve racking at first, but after I cut the first wire the others were easy peasy.



That’s where I left it today and I’ll get the wires to the 7th injector itself soldered up tomorrow, along with running the vacuum line to the control module. After that, the 7th injector kit will be fully installed and I can move on to the Innovate PSB-1 gauge. I think I’ll leave the Transgo shift kit for last.

Oh, and I've got the Gates belt on order. It's well documented that all other supercharger belts (including the Toyota one) suck.

 

Today I completely finished the 7th injector installation and began setting up my PSB-1 gauge. I got the new O2 sensor bung welded on the exhaust and the wires for it ran into the cab. I got the MAP sensor mounted on the firewall for the boost pressure and ran that wire in to the cab as well. When I took the exhaust apart to weld the O2 bung, the catalytic converter gasket crumbled to pieces in my hand so I’m going to have to find a new one of those before I can put the exhaust back together.



I pulled a dumb move and wired in the boost gauge without putting the wires through the pillar pod first. Oops. At least I know the gauge works though. I am going to need to paint my pillar pod gray to match the interior of the truck. Does anyone have any idea what paint I need to use to match?

I tried to replace the fuel filter today but one of the fuel lines would absolutely not come off. I sprayed it down with PB blaster several times over the last few days because I anticipated it to be pretty stuck on there. Evidently that wasn’t enough because even with using the correct size line wrench, the flare nut rounded off. I then tried to use vice grips to untwist the fuel line, and those wouldn’t work either. I decided to abandon that idea for the time being because I was afraid that I would destroy it worse or crush the line if I continued messing with it.

 

Today I got my exhaust reinstalled and zip-tied all the wiring in the engine bay for the O2 sensor. I also installed the 2.2 pulley. I was surprised with how heavy the stock pulley was in comparison to the new aluminum one. I still need to paint my pillar pod, but am trying to avoid going into stores due to the virus....so finding paint is becoming difficult.

Still waiting on my tensioner bolt and Gates belt, then I’m ready to test run.

 

Alight, now I’m pretty mad. I got 2 new tensioner bolts (one to have as a spare just in case) and as I was installing the tensioner with my new gates belt, the new bolt stripped out in the exact same place the old bolt did. I’m starting to think the hole on the block must have rusted out or something. Now I’m not sure what I can do aside from helicoil the block. I’m using grade 8 bolts and am nowhere near the torque spec of 40 ft-lbs. it’s stripping at about 10 lbs, and that’s after threading it in all the way til it stops by hand.

 

Or tap it for the next size up and get a bigger bolt. I had to do that on one of the bolts for the valve cover on my daily driver. Whoever had been in there last cross threaded 3 of the bolts.

 

If I did that I'd have to drill out the hole in the bracket and the hole in the tensioner....Gotta helicoil it

 

Ah, yeah. Not an option in that scenario.

 

Haven’t worked on the truck in a few days, so no news to report on the blower. I did however get a new phone and played with the camera today. It’s awesome!

 

Love the Z3 man. I had an 04 325xi and my parents had a convertible E30 back in the day. One for my dream stable has always been a Z4 M Coupe.

 

Those Z4 coupes sure are expensive! I love the Z3 coupes, but they’re so much more expensive that the Roadster. I’ve got a hard top coming for my car so it’ll be as close to a clownshoe as I‘ll get