LMB 650 is coming alive

[JohnDaviz]

Let me make this TLDR

Management Summary: I love it but we are currently in marriage counseling. She is also on a Diet.

I wanted to share my project with you way way earlier but you will figure it made no sense until now. This is my first project car and by the memes I have seen I seem to be doing very well timewise.

Also, I have no idea how structuring a story works nor do I have the slightest idea of how to structure this in a Thread. So please bear with me.
I would like to make this a complete documentation although the stuff I actually want to show you is happening now. But I think a complete picture might be nice.

Prologue:

We have September/October 2018
My dad owns a beautiful e92 335i DCT and he asks me if I want to have the car. (I wonder if anyone would say no..)
Since he had this car from 2010 (it is a 09/2009) I was fascinated with it. Twin Turbo 3 Liter Straight Six from BMW.
Some of you will understand what this car means to me. The day my father bought it I was with him and we collected it together. And now he passes the keys to me. It means the world to me.

By the money I am shoveling up her throat it only can be emotional value rather than what it actually is worth. I will never sell that car and have something to remember what my father and I experienced with that car until I die.

For the time the car was in the hands of my dad it was all stock and we thought it was well maintained … It was 100% serviced by BMW in his ownership.
My dad did everything BMW wanted him to do so i would never blame him that the engine was actually leaking from every fucking hole and had leaking injectors for probably a very long time. We both had no idea. And as there was never oil on the bottom of the garage there was no reason for us to look into the engine bay. We thought BMW would take care of that.

But it looked like this:

During his ownership we installed a JB4 and threw it away shortly after. I was new to this and there were no ten minute drives without a CEL.

In 2019 we went to the Nordschleife once in a while and we knew that this car is capable but everything around the wheels was.. let's say not ideal for going fast around corners. Not a tiny bit to be honest. I think a Civic handles better. It was really frustrating how heavy this car is understeering and performing in general on a stock setup. But we had fun.

Damn. Look how the body rolls. Dads right arm was sore after that lap for three days

Something had to change and I decided to start with the most obvious thing. Suspension and front control arms. (tbh i forgot to order the rear M arms)
I also ordered H&R Sway Bars but only the front is installed currently.

In my 20s and early 30s I was into Race Bikes and had a proper S1000RR (with HP Race ECU) Track Bike. Before that I had a RN09 and a 1k GSX-R K5.

It was finished to my dream spec and had an amazing Öhlins suspension.
Don´t know where it has this nickname also but in Germany in the bike racing scene it is called “Sweden Gold”. The TTX suspensions are basically a monopol.

Sold the bike right after finishing the rebuild as I really wanted to focus on the car.
Side Note: A track weekend with a 1000cc race bike and targeting podiums on the Sunday races costs a few Index 12 injectors at their current price.

So what do I get for the car? … Yes. Öhlins Road and Track (can´t afford the TTX)

But before getting to that the car was still running with that oily engine and old injectors.
It was not long until the car started to misfire on a cold start and for the first few hundred meters it ran very rough. It even stalled once during slow driving.

Yep.. Take my money.

It would be a few months later that we realized that the injectors were leaking for quite some time and the car was driven short distance for a very long time. Oil dilution heaven. But at that time we all were happy ppl and wanted to prepare the car for faster Nordschleife driving.


So besides the suspension parts, I figured that the stock intercooler is made for an engine half the size so I started out with my first Alibaba special. 5” FMIC (VRSF from China)
It was also too small from the start on but at that time I had no experience or knowledge about this platform.

The small FMIC was replaced within 12 months. With another China VRSF copy.

It is somewhen in 2019 and I was as happy as I could be. I love this car.

I think about six months into ownership I was on MHD Stage 2+ (i think) and was in discussion with Ken (Wedge) that TQ Limiter 4 or something is always visible during shifts in my logs. On a test drive I did a nice long pull while logging. Who would knew that I would log rod knock at 150mph

 

[JohnDaviz]

So of course.. Rebuilding the engine.

Six months later I was in a lawsuit against the engine builder. Car was unavailable for one year but I finally kind of won the case.

Gave the car to a known company and they fucked up also A lot of stuff was fishy on that as I had some custom requirements and they didn't give me any warranty for that. After a long time I even figured that they didn't even fit my crankshaft into the engine but another one…
Winning a case for bad engine build is something you win 1 time out of a 100 times. I experienced this first hand with the first trial.

In that rebuild they installed the N53 cams for me.

So in sum I had the car for about six to eight months running in the period of 2020 to 2022 in my possession.

Let's go quickly through that period and forget it existed.

I installed an inline 255 china pump. Honestly PQY stuff works.

This works perfectly fine until today!

I did some research around the whole catch can setup and learned that the high side catch can is actually useless and it is the low side that wants some attention.

As you may see.. I am stingy as a Scotsman. Google gives me that phrase. Don´t know if it is a thing.
In Germany we would say “Geizhals” (scrooge?) oder "Schwabe" (Swabian? It means scrooge german).

I looked for the low side kits. Not only are they already expensive in general but if you want them in Germany, it gets stupid. Also i wasn't impressed by one single kit and why I should pay a premium for it instead of making my own. Especially because it is really not difficult to make your own kit.

On Top there are a few out here who did this and documented it for others to have inspiration. Like @fmorelli (thanks for the inspiration)

One piece from VTT is needed and the rest comes from … yep… China

And look at the picture. That is all you need + a PCV valve.

I also installed 16T china turbos but they lasted like 1000 miles. So i won´t talk about those fuckers.

As i wanted to stay with Twins and thanks to this thread:
https://www.spoolstreet.com/threads/hydra-performance-official-product-release-thread.4371/

There was no other comparable option for me and I decided for the 650s. Rest assured. Right decision

These turbos gave me a shitton of fun for around 10.000kms.
6.3s - 100-200 km/h and an amazing drivability.
Sadly the head bolts had different plans and I experienced a headlift.
I think I drove with this damage for 2-3k kms of those 10.

I used the time to figure out what I want to do next. Selling the car is no option for me.

I found a dirt cheap complete engine for 320 USD.

 

[JohnDaviz]

Main Story Part 1

Yeah okay. Suspension probably was Part 1.. But it was done before I even owned the car. So it doesn't count

Engine:

Since 2018, when we drove the first laps on the Nordschleife, I started to consume everything I could find about the N54 platform. As I wanted to track the car I also looked left and right how to make a car fast on the track.

One of my main goals was to learn tuning on my own. I reached out to @V8bait and he agreed on helping me with my first steps into learning how to tune an N54.

In parallel I created a now 200 page long document with every single useful information I could find and thought might be of use for me in the future.

My v8bait spreadsheet is now 8 times the size of the standard document

I really spent a lot of my working hours on research, tuning and research again. Should I tell my employer that I can do my work in a fraction of my paid time?

But the most important thing I wanted to do was to build my own engine.

Must haves: Everything changed

I will simply go from the top of the engine until we reach the oil pan.

Cams:
N53 cams

Valvetrain:
Stock as it is the same as in the S55.

Cylinder head:
I was intrigued by the N53 Head conversion. The N54 Head is a piece of shit when talking about flow.

But the conflict here was that I already had 650s for my N54 head. Secondly I wanted to do my own thing.

During talks with HCR for a closed Deck conversion I talked to them about head porting and during that time they sent their head to EMT Workshop.

We immediately started discussing what I wanted. I think the results are not so far away from what a ported N53 Head is capable of. (At least I think so)

In Short:

1. Intake ported
2. Combustion Chamber reworked
3. Exhaust Valves +1mm (we found fitting original BMW Valves)
4. Exhaust port size increased to delete the bottleneck between Cylinder Head and Turbo manifold

Point 4 is probably the most important one to me.
The stock head ports have a diameter of 32/33mm. The N53 head has 38?39?
We were able to go all the way to the turbo manifold with 36mm.

I really love the results:

Turbo Manifold:

One thing I knew I had to work on was to get the manifold ports which connect to the head as big as possible. But you are limited to what you have so I measured a little bit.
The manifold is designed for mass production. So one thing that basically has to be that way is how they designed the small area where the gaskets sit on.

This way the manifold also has around 33mm at the beginning before the diameter increases a little bit.

I was able to increase the opening also to 35mm.
The only downside was that the gasket installation became annoying.

The job was done by a local engine shop and they also installed Bunges for EGT probes.

Headgasket:
Athena Cutring Gasket

Block:

• Closed Deck
• Crank Hub revised version with Loctite 648. Hub and the two gears will never separate again from each other. If you want to find out more, read the Technical Data Sheet.
• Mahle Forged Pistons
• FCP Rods balanced to 0.01gr
• 11mm Studs all around (outer 4 are 11mm Bolts for now)

The Heat issue on old I6 engines

Cylinder Cooling of long 6 cylinder engines has always been a topic. The N54 is a thermal disaster when tracking and Cylinders 6 and 5 run hotter than the rest. By Design. BMW seems to have eliminated that issue with the B/S 58 platform.

@V8bait and his friend Aaron figured that topic and in one of his pictures I found a weird hose going to the back of the engine. I contacted Justin and discussed with him what they did there. I was fascinated and was told what to do. Yeah. I did it a little differently. Who would have thought..

To actually feed the block at cylinder 6 with an additional water hose we needed to have a source for cold water which we found in the main coolant hose which feeds the block.

Let me give you some hints where I feed the water to the engine

Oil Pan:
Nothing fancy. Only added a VAC baffle to hopefully get less oil pressure issues during cornering.

 

[JohnDaviz]

First Engine Start 15th of May in 2022:

So the engine was fitted and I was nervous as hell. Please run.

It ran. But hot as hell and with a rod knock sound during start.
Once in a while the car ran fine but as soon as oil hit exactly 80°C it knocked as hell above 3k rpm.

I was so happy I wanted to run in a Chainsaw at full throttle. I was so down, I just didn't know what to do.

First thoughts were that there has to be an oil pressure issue. I changed to way thicker oil and see what. No knock sound on startup and actually running perfectly fine.

No.. Nothing was perfect. Car ran fine until oil now hit around 100°C.

Took an oil pressure gauge and hello. Nearly no oil pressure at odle. When the oil reaches 80°C at idle the oil pressure goes below 0.5 bar with 10W-60!!

How on earth can that be?

Main Bore out of Spec:

The answer is easy. During Main Bore repair the shop made a mistake and the Bed Plate was not in line with the Block. There was a weird misalignment.

The time to figure that out was many moons and was found by a very well known Shop here in Germany. Luckily they have a good relationship with the shop who did the main bore job and everything was repaired for free.

I do not blame the shop as the dowels were out of spec and shit happens. They still took the responsibility and I am good with them. Although it meant I lost 12 months and had another engine rebuild with needed investments.

All parts were pressure tested and checked. I was told that this is the root cause for my issues. I trust those ppl and so I closed this chapter for good.

 

[JohnDaviz]

Second Engine Life 2023:

Everything was sorted out and the engine got assembled again. No problems or hiccups in that process.
I hope that I can focus in this chapter of engine life now less on the actual engine and more on getting to the performance stuff I want to do for three years now.

So hopefully last words about engine assembly and running it in…

Except for the Cams and Ledges the whole engine is brand new. Well it was brand new already when it failed in 2022. But a few bits here and there were reused like the hydraulic lifters and rocker arms. While I was in there the reused parts were also replaced.
No Drama. No problems. Car drives like a charm. Actually it drives so well I can´t believe this is real.
Yeah. When the engine is cold there are some stuttering issues for the first minute or two. But after that. Perfect.
The S55 Flywheel makes some noise on idle but I increased idle to 800/850 and there is barely any noise once the engine (or the trans?) is warm.

Very interesting to actually hear how the flywheel is more stressed on idle than it is when the engine (trans) is warm.

But the current relationship is not an easy one. I have severe trust issues with the car and was thinking about a divorce. Seriously. I put all the money into her and she just didn't give back. She was only taking. Never giving. I am still feeling that I should give her another chance so we are thinking about going to marriage counseling.

So to this day I drove around 1000 miles. But really pushing her? Barely.

I started with 12 psi to figure timing and if Vanos adjustments are needed.
Way more timing and some Vanos adjustments needed as I was experiencing some kind of VTEC effect from 5k rpm.
I am now at 16ish psi and the car is alive. Really alive. I am very very happy.

FYI. I am (currently) not targeting anything above 600/650 at the crank. But who knows what happens in the future This is supposed to be a weekend track warrior.

If you ask yourself why I took all the efforts just for power a stock engine can do?
Because I wanted to do all the stuff in the first place as that is my nature as an engineer.
With all the research I did and conclusions I made, I got to the point where I said to myself “I have to do this!”. Some may understand that if i would have skipped some steps I would never have been happy. Most things were something that were deep in me and I would always hate myself if I wouldn't do or try it.

As a bonus I think everything will now be more efficient and robust for long term abuse on the track at my power goals.

Another important thing is that in my head all those things would lead to an engine where in partial load, time to torque, responsiveness and overall “handling” the engine would become more lively and simply.. better.

My personal experience currently is that responsiveness is really really wild now.
In comparison to the last map I wrote on my old engine I had to decrease the torque request in the low load areas heavily because the car jumped forward when I only touched the throttle above 5k rpm. What most felt when Throttle Response Tables became a thing, this comes on top.
It never came to my head to achieve this but now I am happier I could ever be to having achieved this (by accident).

I have to admit. I am a huge huge fan of the RB26/28/30 DETT Platform. And there is one video that is so deep in my head that I can tell you every second of what is happening during the presentation of that MINES R34 GTR.

If you don't know the video. You are missing History. Probably one of the greatest GTRs ever built.

It was burned into my brain what Mr. Niikura prayed. I always thought he was right but never thought that my car can get a better responsiveness. Well luckily I was wrong.

And let me tell you. The character has changed completely. I am based. I know. But for me this engine is a monster now. It is so aggressive now. Just phenomenal. Sorry for bragging but I am so damn happy after nearly two years of problems.
I think with 16 psi the car is now faster than it was when I had the 650s at 21 psi on the stock engine.
But here we get to the point where the car is at its current state.


Main Story Part 2023 and what is going on

Currently the car is sitting like this.

I installed this some time ago but for the readflow I thought it makes only now sense to show.

The E92 M3 has an underbody stiffening plate on the subframe which stiffens the front and it was a simple and fast upgrade.

Bought the E92 M3 underbody stiffening Plate in 2021 and also installed it. I think that was a 15 minute job. I think to myself I can feel the difference….

I also bored the holes in the struts to allow more camber. I was at 1.7 degrees camber and now I am substantially more. 2.5?3? I actually have no idea but the car was turning 100 times better on the Nordschleife.

This was all during the pre-rebuild and I couldn't do fast laps on the Nordschleife as the Head lifted one third into the round on 15psi.

Fast forward to 2023 I am now finally into the things I actually planned for a long time.

I went into our playground for grownups and started to figure where my coolers can go.

In the last weeks I started to install two oil coolers on the driver side in serial connection sitting behind each other.

I did this with cardboard design and the end goal is to install a SPAL sucking fan on the rear.

Can you see the dick? I am sorry. You are gay now. I need the space for the headlamp washer. I don't know why it ended in that shape.. Really.

So this is all just for mockup.

My target is to have a closed chamber between the front and the rear cooler. But there is really not a lot of space.

I need to replace the horn. Important part in Germany.

It fits. I had to work on the front bumper but it just fits 100%

I really like the look. I ordered some material to make a mesh and secure the cooler from damage.

On the other side it becomes way more complicated.

On the passenger side I want to use the stock oil cooler as the DCT oil cooler and put an additional water cooler from the S55 into that place.

I placed the cooler and figured. That will be a tough project. It could sit at the rear where the oil cooler sits but further forward… nope.

This will be realized once I know how to make a chassis mounted diffuser. And also this cooler will get an additional water pump from the F-Series.

And the horn on that side needs to move also.

Germans need horns!

Another thing is that I have a G80 Brake. This going in! Not sure how yet but look!!!

Stock

G80 M3/4 Brake

Fucking hell. THIS IS AMAZING!

But the wheel doesn´t clear I am missing 1-2mm. Okay I need wheels.

Is it only me? But Fuck me! This looks sexy.

I had the luck to get a 3rd party strut brace. Installation took only 2-3 hours as it was bend as hell

I will respray it in black as I don´t like the white color.

Also I fitted the Nexsys Oil Pressure sensor.

And here we are.

This is the current state of my car.

I bought a subframe which is now lying around here and I will fit it with monoballs and PU subframe bearings and adjustable arms next.

I hope I didn't steal too much of your lifetime for my shitbox project and you slightly enjoyed what i am doing!

 

[SLOWESTN54]

is it weird that i can tell your an engineer? Good Read Happy i came back to see this!

 

[JohnDaviz]

is it weird that i can tell your an engineer? Good Read Happy i came back to see this!

hehe thank you. Indeed i am an engineer. Thank you you like what i do.

 

[CalvinNismo]

Awesome thread, following along!

Could you place the horns in the middle of the crash bar like a 135i with PPK2? Not the best photo, but you get the idea.

I’m intrigued by your stacked side coolers, hope you can make it work.

 

[JohnDaviz]

I really have not thought about where to put them as i acutally do not care.

But thanks for the pic!! that is a great inspiration as i currently have no idea where to put them.

 

[wheela]

Great thread! Thanks for posting your story and build, excited to watch in progress Very inspiring. Fellow engineer here, I totally get hating yourself if you'd not have done it your way!

 

[fmorelli]

Well done!

 

[jzx_andy]

Nice thread.

A lot of love and persistence has gone into this, and you should be proud of carrying on. A build like yours seperates the boys from the men.

Very envious with what you've done with the engine!

 

[JohnDaviz]

Nice thread.

A lot of love and persistence has gone into this, and you should be proud of carrying on. A build like yours seperates the boys from the men.

Very envious with what you've done with the engine!

Thank you for the kind words!
Now let´s hope that the engine will last!

I actually have a question to you. I mean maybe you know by chance Or anyone else.

CMP sells "Subframe Raising" Bushings

E8X/E9X Solid Subframe Raising Bushes

Fits: All E8X 1 series & E9X 3 series Non-M's , E9X M3, E82 1M Benefits:-Solid mounts the rear subframe to the chassis (Braces the chassis)-Stiffens the rear end feel (driver feedback)-Provides consistent suspension geometry (stability)-Increases driveline stiffness (control)-Raises the subframe...

cmpautoengineering.com

Do you or anyone have any idea how far they raise the subframe? I mean it only can be like 10mm max?! Probably not even so much.

 

[CalvinNismo]

I actually have a question to you. I mean maybe you know by chance Or anyone else.

CMP sells "Subframe Raising" Bushings

E8X/E9X Solid Subframe Raising Bushes

Fits: All E8X 1 series & E9X 3 series Non-M's , E9X M3, E82 1M Benefits:-Solid mounts the rear subframe to the chassis (Braces the chassis)-Stiffens the rear end feel (driver feedback)-Provides consistent suspension geometry (stability)-Increases driveline stiffness (control)-Raises the subframe...

cmpautoengineering.com

Do you or anyone have any idea how far they raise the subframe? I mean it only can be like 10mm max?! Probably not even so much.

I actually emailed them the other day to ask, and also about prop’ shaft angles, here is what they said.

Our latest design raises the subframe by 6mm.
We do have 2 of our old design that raises the subframe by 10mm if you’re looking for a more significant change.

The 10mm design was superseded as it required the positive battery conduit beneath the car to be elevated slightly in its cable tray to clear the rear sway bar. This was something we didn’t have confidence every installer would follow and reduced the raise for the sake of safety. Our latest shims also alter geometry by 6mm to match.

Regarding prop angle, raising the subframe reduced the misalignment between the gearbox and diff.

By raising the subframe, the spring acts as a pivot so the ride height will change by ~42% of the raise height.

If you would like to order, please let me know when it is placed and I can make notes to pack the greater raising bushings if you’d like.

We are currently closed for the next 2 weeks due to overseas commitments so we’d be dispatching all orders placed from this point onward on Monday the 20th.

Edit: Grammar.

 

[JohnDaviz]

I actually emailed them the other to ask, and also about prop’ shaft angles, here is what they said.

Dude you are my missing brother from another mother

 

[ShocknAwe]

Horns: when I did my 1M widebody I found two holes behind the crash bar and screwed the horns straight in. I think it's like 1/3 from the drivers corner. Grain of salt it's a E82.

Stiffening plate: does this fit all E82/E9x? I want that.

Interested in that rear coolant line. Did you do this because of the sealed deck?

 

[CalvinNismo]

Stiffening plate: does this fit all E82/E9x? I want that.

Yeah man, as long as you’ve got a hydraulic rack. Please see my below shameless self plug.

How to Fit the E9x M3 Belly Pan to the E8x

This is how to fit the structural M3 belly pan to your 1er. The benefits of this are increased structural rigidity of your front end, with better suspension performance as a result. There will be 2 ways of doing this, the full belly pan and the front only trimmed belly pan. YOU MUST HAVE A...

www.babybmw.net

I believe Biginboca was the first to do it on the E9x. It’s about halfway through the thread.

Building the E92 328csl

Building the E92 328csl

www.e90post.com

 

[JohnDaviz]

Interested in that rear coolant line. Did you do this because of the sealed deck?

Nono. I found this here on Spoolstreet in V8Baits Thread. I talked to him and he said they did it because rear cylinders run hotter.
I then did some research and indeed also found some ppl who had engine failures around cylinder 5 and 6 when being driven on a racetrack.

 

[fmorelli]

Nono. I found this here on Spoolstreet in V8Baits Thread. I talked to him and he said they did it because rear cylinders run hotter.
I then did some research and indeed also found some ppl who had engine failures around cylinder 5 and 6 when being driven on a racetrack.

Kind of interesting that no one has made such a part available in the aftermarket - good profit margin on that.

 

[JohnDaviz]

Kind of interesting that no one has made such a part available in the aftermarket - good profit margin on that.

Never thought about that either but you would need to drill a feed hole into the block. Probably a thing 90% already don´t want to do.

Used the day to press out the stock outer bushings from my spare subframe. Took about three hours. The smaller ones are a pita to press out..