Build Docs: My E90 Single turbo Widebody

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I figured I'd share my build here. Much of it is already done but I think it makes for a nice chronical to see how it has evolved over time. I'll be posting additions, though it takes time to format it properly, etc.

I had left the N54 community for the S65 community. Enjoyed it thoroughly but realized the power ceiling was going to be very hard and expensive to break through. I had a ~580whp E93 M3 and had yearned for something more. I didn't want to build another M3, I wanted to go back and do a sweet ST build.

The car
The new baby was a 2008 E90 335i 6MT that I got for a steal. My goals for this car are to have a car that can do many different events well. I want something I can go drive to Sebring and run at a HPDE, or drive to a runway event to do roll-ons, drive to the dragstrip and run great times, and to be able to drive to work whenever I want and function as a daily road car if I feel like it.

I found the car for sale locally and it had just the right amount of options. I didn't want nav or leather. All I wanted was the sports package and a 6MT. This car also came with the full projector/halo conversion headlights and a new JB4 G5. It's got some miles on it (100k) but recently had the HPFP and turbos replaced under warranty prior to the 82k mile limit. Interior and exterior wise it is in great shape. Nothing but very very minor blemishes, never wrecked and the interior is spotless and in very good condition.




The only issues are/were a bad PCV valve (burning oil on full vacuum at decel in gear) and a bad right-rear wheel-bearing. Currently cooling the axle down so I can pop it back into the knuckle. Bearing made the hub so hot that the axle rusted itself into the spline and so I had to remove the knuckle to get the c-clip out. New PCV is on the way. I also discovered the leaking oil around the turbos due to the bad PCV coked up on the waterpump outlet and cracked it. But I was already intending on replacing it anyway once I did my planned mods.

Planned Mods

So for this car, I'm able to leverage the same kind of mod money I threw into the M3. Obviously that's going to yield some 'fun' mods.

I've already placed a downpayment on a VM Topmount kit with a 6466g2 turbo along with a BMW PI kit and Fuel-It Stage3 with the FPR and return line with @fastgti69 . Payam has been great to work with as a vendor. He always responds with good answers, even when I'm just asking for input or advice.

I've got a SPEC Stage 3 and SMFW from MFactory on the way as well. Power plans are a solid and conservative 700whp with a stretch goal of 800whp. I've got full access to E85 about 2min from my house now, making a daily-driver with pumpgas making insane power a potential reality.

Widebody
One of the things I really liked about my M3 was how much tire I could fit under it and how good it looked even when understated. I want to expand upon that with my E90 and go even further. I'm going to be doing a custom E90 widebody. The place doing it will be a local bodyshop that specializes in classic and late-model BMW and Porsche customization. They even do work on Buzz Aldrin's E92 M3 (which I raced by accident in my E93 and put an asswhipping on without knowing who he was, I'd never have run him otherwise out of respect for the man).

So for the widebody, I'll be going about double the flare that the M3 body provides and going for a full LCI upgrade sans headlights; this is about 60mm (about 2.5 inches). I'm still contemplating on what wheel setup to run as you can see in my pics above, I have a set of Volk TE37SLs running 315/30 Rival rubber in the rear (a really badass set of tires) and I think they'd look great on the E90 once they actually fit lol. But since the fender will be so wide, I'd have to run serious spacers to make them flush. Which puts me on the fence about them. I'm contemplating on selling them and buying a set of Forgestar F14s in a crazy offset and width (18x11f+11 and 18x12r+20) with crazy wide tires to match.

Suspension
So on the this build I wanted to build the suspension up a bit. Nothing crazy, but enough to make it HPDE worthy. This means a decent set of coilovers, beefed up subframe bushings, diff bushings, LSD, M3 LCAs and various minor mods. The suspension would be dealt with after power mods and the widebody were done.

Brakes
For brakes, I'm going to be doing the F30 M-performance brake swap and the 135i rear hub swap so I can fit the rears as well. The subframe will be getting solid mounts and delrin diff mounts. Eventually I'll get a decent set of coilovers and do all the M3 link upgrades. I'll be hunting for an entire subframe out of a DCT E9X M3 so I can just do the LSD upgrade at the same time.

This might change in the rear depending on how I feel when I get there. I may go with the E39 rear brakes for a more drag-oriented setup and move to another car for a HPDE build. I dunno yet.

 

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Progress
Current state of progress is most of the top-parts moved for the VM ST kit to get installed. Everything but the compressor outlet pipe has been pulled from the top.



As you can see here on the rear, I've removed the entire knuckle from the car and had the bearing pulled and replaced at a local machine shop.


Parts
I still need to order a FMIC and a N20 TMAP sensor. And I've just ordered enough parts to get a full 4" single exhaust built just like @Ak335i did for his car. Everything else besides body parts are on order. I will be going with an M3-style rear bumper with a 328i exhaust outlet. It will be pretty unique looking.


NLS/2-step, Anti-lag, and TMAP conversion harnesses are on order from @Terry@BMS. I'll be going with a MHD-flashed JB4 back-end flash for single turbos.

Update
The widebody look I'm going for is similar to this. But will be keeping it white and LCI.

 

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Update
Got knuckle, axle, and other $#@! back on. Pardon the rusty rotor but I'll be doing the F30 upgrade on these soon enough.



Compressor outlet pipe now off, vacuum canisters and DVs off.


VRSF Chargepipe (I know, but I wanted a Tial Q flange), new N20 MAP sensor, and BMS pigtail

 

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Rear of the car is now on the ground. Loosened all the manifold bolts while I had access then got the engine support frame installed. Put the car way up in the air, should have plenty of room to do the subframe removal and turbo removal. Might just do the clutch install while I'm under there.


Updates
Exhaust parts are in. Have 3 3' sections of 4" pipe and flex section as well as the U-bends and muffler in pic. @fastgti69 is making the downpipe outlet at 3.5" so I can step it up to 4" and run it all the way back like @Ak335i


Spec3+ clutch and smfw from MFactory are in too. No pics yet.

E90 LCI tails on order. Found out my CF E90 LCI CSL trunk has been pushed back until december from ECSTuning. Their piece is one of the few CF E90 LCI CSL trunks and the price on it is outstanding so I guess I'll push the widebody off a while.

And cracked a rib at the gym so haven't been able to put much torque on the front suspension bolts until it heals up a bit more. http://www.bummerboost.com/images/smilies/icon/sad.gif

 

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Created a howto video.

 

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Updates

Subframe is out. You can see in the first pic how the turbos have been leaking a $#@!-ton of oil; the front seems to be leaking more than the rear one from what I can see. Second pic shows after a mild cleaning with degreaser and weak powerwash.



Oil coked up on the waterpump outlet hose and ended up eating a hole in it (which is where the coolant leak came from). I bought a new waterpump with all new clamps and such; so all of that will be replaced. I'm tempted to powerwash the front part and side of the block just to get all this nasty-ass grime off the motor.

Waterpump is out, downpipes/exhaust off, turbos off. Everything is ready for the VM kit. It should be here Friday or Monday and the Stage3 Fuel-It kit should be here Friday.

Regarding logistics, it looks like I'll have to get my widebody stuff done before fully tuning the kit. Since I'mgoing with the 328i-style bumper for the 4" single, I've got to get that painted and installed before getting the exhaust built. Might as well do the whole widebody if that's the case. Rear bumper arrived today, front bumper should be here Monday. Gives me most of next week to get the turbokit installed and running. Hopefully can drop the car off for bodywork on Monday 11/23. Going to have to find the hood before then.

 

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Huge update

So lots of stuff has happened, I've been diligently working on the car during my off-time and on the weekends. It was tough going through a lot of it as I was waiting on small stuff often due to the condition of my E90.

I went about cleaning the side of the motor prior to receiving the kit. Unbeknownst to me, the headgasket protrusion is VERY VERY sharp. Like razor blade sharp. I was cleaning with a paper towel and ran my finger across it and sliced off a small part of my fingertip! Needless to say, this bled for hours and involved a zip-tie tourniquet and lots of liquid bandage (and lots of pain).

Clean exhaust side


Just the tip


After this point I had my finger bandaged up tight for the next week. Then my birthday arrived and my gf surprised me!


Here's some pics of the kit as it arrived from @fastgti69 and after I finished doing an amateur wrapping job on the parts. My thoughts on this were to not go super tight in order to avoid any possible cracking, but still go tight enough to keep the heat out of the engine back. Downpipe was wrapped more tightly than the manifold.


At that point I was still waiting for the waterpipe gasket and some other parts. Once those finally came in, I was able to begin installing the kit. This included a new waterpump, tstat, and other associated hardware


The last issue was how to handle the PCV problem that this car had when I bought it. The owner didn't know that smoking was bad so he never got it checked out. PCV failure caused pressure in the crankcase which caused the turbos to blow their seals and leak oil everywhere (downpipe, intake side, and on the ground). All of this cascaded and just got worse; which is why everything was so damned dirty. Taking a play from @fastgti69 's playbook, I pulled the VC and tapped all the inlet holes. I then plugged them with the allen screws and installed a new VCG. I capped that off with installs of the AD Engineering PCV and Flapper delete connectors thanks to @andy_divers for getting those out promptly.



I had to wait for turbo install until I got the subframe in and aligned as my motor had shifted to the passenger side causing the turbine housing to hit the shock tower. Got the subframe in and motor on the subframe. Then I proceeded through the rest of the install.

 

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I finally got everything together and now have the car running on an open downpipe. Here's the first crank!

I finished the rest of the install and ran into a few small snags with a small oil leak and an issue hitting boost targets in Map2. Thanks to @fastgti69 and @Terry@BMS, I was able to work through them and now am hitting 17psi in Map 2 no problem. My only leaks are now the bit of oil seeping from the rear-main seal (another item that was blown by the previous owner). I've still yet to install my Spec clutch and MFactory flywheel so I will do both of those at the same time.

I was also able to code out the mat sensor issue and the LCI tail-lights. My first coding job! Woot!

Car is scheduled to hit the bodyshop on the 21st for a widebody conversion and my exhaust should get done sometime this week. Finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel

 

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Updates
Car is currently getting the exhaust built at the shop. It's going to be a slick 4" single on a 328i bumper. Looks like I have to relocate the charcoal canister to the 328i position. Looks like it can be stretched over, but I'll have to check it out when I have time. I've got to get under the heatshields and such anyway as I'll be doing the rest of the Stage3+ fuel-it install (trigger wires, fuel line/return, etc).

Once of the issues I ran into was getting the coolant expansion tank mounted properly. And this came down to the tank sensor jutting into the wheel well forcing it to sit funny. I found that the sensor could not be turned to face the engine as there was a key in the sensor plug itself that prevented that. It also could not be installed backwards.

Here's a pic of the sensor as it plugged in. It would not rotate towards the engine (where my fingers are). Only towards the tire.


One would think you could plug it in backwards. But the keys on the sensor head are of different sizes. Notice how the right side is slightly larger than the left. This prevents it from being plugged in backwards.



So I discussed this with @fastgti69 and decided that I should try dremeling the sensor head just a small amount to make them (roughly) the same size. You can see here my amateur dremel technique



It worked beautifully! I was able to plug the sensor in backwards and rotate it towards the engine. Now it sits just level in my E90 engine bay!


Here's some other pics I've taken in recent days:

Since the bodyshop pushed my date back to the 21st, I went ahead and got the bumper installed so I could have the exhaust done in the meantime.


I mounted my TE37SLs for fun using 12mm spacers in the rear to get them clear of any suspension parts. These are 315/30s in the rear and 275/35 in the front in M3 fitment wheels.

 

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Update:
Dropped the car off yesterday for a full widebody job. Will be done the right way with metal! Keeping the Alpine White color, but will have a M-style LCI front and M-style 328i rear painted/installed along with a LCI hood. Should gain about 60mm over stock body, making it about double the M3's width gain (around 30mm). Going to take a week or so and I'm going to stop by the shop and take pics. This is the first work I've had done on my car, so I'm pretty nervous. I hope it turns out well!

 

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I'll post bodywork process as I get more time. It ended up taking a LOT longer than a week (especially when I had to take it back in!) Stay tuned lol

 

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I love this build man. The single exit exhaust is pretty awesome.

 

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I love this build man. The single exit exhaust is pretty awesome.

Thanks man. It gets so much hate lol. It's very polarizing for sure haha

 

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Created a howto video.

LMAOOO

 

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Where did you pick up the bumper anyway?

 

[SingleTurboE92]

Love the build, I want to wide body my car too eventually. I might reach out to you for some tips when it comes time.

 

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Where did you pick up the bumper anyway?

The front bumper is an M3 rep from ebay. Same material as oem. But the edges are parts of my OEM bumper cutoff and plasti-welded to the new bumper. Then smoothed in. Looks pretty rad in person.

Love the build, I want to wide body my car too eventually. I might reach out to you for some tips when it comes time.

Sure thing man, you let me know and I'll give you a good brain dump

 

[SingleTurboE92]

Well I have all the same suspension mods, finishing my VM top mount install soon. I can only fit 275s in the rear and I'm sure I will need more tread back there!

 

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Update:

Car has been at the bodyshop for about 2 weeks. They didn't get much work done on it the first week as one of their main employees just up and quit after the holidays and they have been slammed. The head guy that I've been discussing the build with has now taken the project himself to ensure it gets done soon and correctly. He doesn't want any of their new guys to touch it.

As I'm writing this, the rear metalwork should be done and work started on the front. The two pictures I'm going to share are WIP, but it will be gaining 2.5" at every corner and maintaining the OEM bodyline. The rear bumper and mounting bracket was able to be moved outward so they were able to flush fit it to their planned fender extension. It looks really good in person. After metalwork is done front and rear, he'll begin to fill everything in and smooth it out. The rear will get a smooth transition up to the crease. Going for maintaining the OEM bodylines as much as possible with smooth transitions to the flares. Should be about 30mm wider than an M3 with even more clearance in the wheel well. Should be able to run 28" tires without any issue, making a set of bias ply drag radials a possibility in the future.

Updated

Finally got the car out of the bodyshop! The flares, especially the front, are a bit wilder than I expected. But I still really like it. Having a few fitment issues, most notably the front tires are a bit too tall (275/35) and so they rub on the rear liners a tad when at about 80% lock. Car is still running stock suspension, so its possible that it will clear when I lower the car a bit. I had to go down to a 15mm spacer in the front instead of a 30mm spacer (like the rear) because of this. So the front will be tucked in a bit further than I wanted.

I've still got oil leaks and am now convinced it is primarily the OFHG causing the issues. I've got those parts off the car and have brake-cleaned the $#@! out of the front of the motor. New gasket and belt going on today. It may still be leaking out of the RMS or oil pan gasket, but there's a pretty big leak on the OFHG and there's a small amount of oil in my coolant reservoir because of it.

Here's a mini-collage of the bodywork as it progressed.

My requirements were a 2.5" flare on each corner. Over time I've become less of a fan of a lot of the other widebody kits out there. I think the curves in those flares a bit to sharp and flat, so I requested 911-style smoother curves. I feel that it fits the rear-end better than the typical triangular-flare that most others have gone with. The fronts are a bit more swoopy, but I'm going to see how much I like it over time. I think it looks really good and has a great presence. The front tires poke a bit in the front and rear, but I like it a lot.

So here's the car in the shop while still getting buffed/aligned after paint. This is an LCI front-end conversion minus headlamps.

Until I get coilovers, I'll be using an extra set of Eibachs that I had laying around, can't have the front end that high off the ground lol.

Here's one of the customs this shop was working on. There was also a custom-restored 68 Lotus in the paint booth. Was glorious.

Got it home and took a couple rear shots

Here's my new ECS Tuning E90 LCI CSL CF trunk (lots of acronyms!).

Here's the trunk installed and where I stopped before I began pulling parts off the motor to stop these oil leaks.

Once I've got the car running around again, I'll be doing a lot of detail work to clean everything up plus the springs. Lots of work left to do, but damn the car looks so good right now!

Picked up a 2010 Silverado work truck in the mean time

 

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At this point the front end looked pretty whack. They ended up firing the guy over it and some other stuff. He was a new hire that just totally sucked. The main guy decided to handle my issue and that's when all the new stuff happened to fix the front end and roll the fenders properly.

Original Post detailing it:
Wanted to make an update. Took the car back to the bodyshop to get the front redone, wasn't happy with how it looked or sat on the tire. Once I got the springs on the car, the tire was impacting the bumper/fender edge under load; and i wasn't very low at all. Plus that was with no spacer, so its like I didn't gain any clearance at all.

The owner is doing it himself and will be modeling the front based on a 18x9.5 -8 (my front te37sl with a 30mm spacer). So hopefully it comes out bette