S55 turbos on N54?

[bantam]

I have been seeing the core prices for the s55 turbos drop significantly since the cast upgrades have started to become more common on that platform.

I was thinking that the turbos would be a nice “stage one” like upgrade on the N54 and be something with proven reliability and simplify my air to water charge/intake piping.

Does anyone know if they would bolt up to the engine?

Does anyone like twisted tuning or Motiv know if there is a way to control the turbos (assuming that they do not run on vacuum)

 

[Rob@RBTurbo]

Tons of work to make this happen. For starters they do not bolt up to the head, and it is literally a domino effect of fitment issues on every connection point thereafter. Then even if every hurdle is jumped, they'd still need upgraded. They have nice housings, but the internals aren't great and the wheels are much smaller than what we offer even on our RB Twos.

Rob

 

[bantam]

Well, if they won’t bolt to the head, I suppose there is not much value.

 

[Rob@RBTurbo]

Well, if they won’t bolt to the head, I suppose there is not much value.

Well anyone could argue about making adapters/redrilling flanges/etc/etc, but wow the amount of effort is just not worth it unless you are just trying to prove a point sort of thing. Anything is achievable, if there is a will there's a way, but definitely not worth it with the amount of obstacles in the way.

 

[bantam]

Yes, I agree, it seems like the number of integration issues outweigh any potential benefit. Thanks for the response

 

[aus335iguy]

What about using the n54 manifolds, using the s55 centres....is that a bolt up proposition? Bantam already has an m3 charge cooler ... soon you’ll have a whole m3 lol. That’s not a bad thing. My take on it is that the N54 was BMWs test bed for jumping into twin turbo 6 production after a brief flirtation with v8s.

 

[Rob@RBTurbo]

What about using the n54 manifolds, using the s55 centres....is that a bolt up proposition? Bantam already has an m3 charge cooler ... soon you’ll have a whole m3 lol. That’s not a bad thing. My take on it is that the N54 was BMWs test bed for jumping into twin turbo 6 production after a brief flirtation with v8s.

No, the concept is truly just a lost cause. It has also been discussed numerous times.