[Mike]

For anyone interested in using an M52TUB28 and meeting a dead end with EWS delete, I contacted an incredibly knowledgable guy in USA who has installed an M54B30 (basically a stroked M52TUB28 with drive by wire) in an E30.

I asked Steve:

There are a number of guys in UK who would like to use the European M52TUB28 engine (aluminium block with steel bores) in cars we are building. I currently have the M50TUB25 in mine, as it was the last safe engine (in Europe) before EWS became impossible to delete. (We had problems in UK with early M52s with aluminium blocks with Nikasil bores wearing due to high sulphur): The M52TU upgrade replaced the nikasil bores with steel bores and added dual vanos. ( making it very similar to your US M54B30 specification without stroked crank and drive by wire)
I would like to run an M52TUB28, as it offers 210ft lbs maximum torque at 3500revs, compared to my M50TUB25's 184ft lbs at 4200rpm.
I am looking for a low revving tourer, with plenty of low down torque, and am not too concerned about the ultimate maximum bhp at high revs.
Also, because of the EWS delete issue, it is possible to find low milage M52 TUB28 engine/gearboxes at cheap prices in UK.

In Europe we have the MS41 ECU/DME fitted to early M52s which it is possible to delete the EWS from. (Is this the same as your 413 ECU?).

Assuming this as our starting point, it appears that your Vanos controller can take care of the exhaust vanos and allow us to finally use the M52TUB28 to deliver standard levels of performance as originally intended.

Having read your blog - (I am in highly impressed with your electrical knowledge!) - I see you have moved on to Megasquirt 3. This is way beyond my electrical knowledge. I, and many like me, would like a plug and go Vanos controller, or at least one with a set of very explicit instructions, which will allow the engine to run as if in the stock set up, without requiring hours of expensive dyno time.

Based on what you have achieved, are our expectations achievable with your vanos controller?

Steve's Reply

Assuming the MS41 is similar to the US 413, the VANOS controller would work. I will assume that the MS41 controls the earlier VANOS which was only on the intake and "on-off" with no variable position.

I haven't assembled a VANOS board in at least a year although I still have the technical capacity to do so. The biggest issue for me is that since I convertd my car to Megasquirt I lost the capability to test the completed board directly on the car. 99% of the time if I can load the firmware into the processor then everything will function correctly, but the performance of the MOSFETS and such is best checked in an operation environment.

The other issue is that the MS41 will be tuned for a different engine. When you are running the M52TUB28 engine on an ECU meant for a 2.5litre engine, it won't be tuned for the larger injectors and won't play well with the increased volumetric efficiency of the improved VANOS. I had to rely on The Racers Market, a shop based in Atlanta, GA, to update the tune on my 413 when I started. It was frustrating to do and I never got to see how the tune was changed and certainly don't own that tune. You would be on your own to tune the MS41 to the new motor.

With the Megasquirt, I can freely distribute the tune.

So, I know the Megasquirt seems like a daunting prospect but I promise you it would be worth it. I've done all of the legwork on it and it wouldn't be very difficult to plug one into your harness. You will learn a great deal from it and it's the LEAST RISKY path to follow... I can't guarantee how something designed for the M54 is going to work on the M52.

Think about it and I can help you either way.

r, Stephen

Has anyone any experience using a Megasquirt?