MadaboutKitcars

Andy (ericholm) asked about turbocharging his BMW Z3. I thought I would start a thread about the different options and potential problems.

There are kits available from the States but with shipping and fitting you will not get much change from £3500.

However there is this kit available.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BRAND-NEW-BMW-E36-325i-328i-M3-T3-T4-Turbo-Charger-Kit-92-99-/190589769072?hash=item2c60091570

Now I've done some turbo conversions in the past. You will notice missing from the kit is the oil feed return to the sump.

The hardest part is the return. The turbo spins at very high speeds and needs a good clean oil supply flowing through the bearings which support the shaft. The outgoing oil needs to be returned to the sump. This means to do it properly the sump has to be removed and a pipe bolted or welded on. Then a quality hydraulic type hose made and fitted. You don't want this coming off or wearing through!

This is not a simple bolt on conversion like a supercharger.

Hi Richard,

The other conversions I found on my trawls through the tinterweb were:

GKD sports cars do a supercharger for the M42/44, bloody good price as well.

Elite developments also do an interesting turbo kit, I would have gone for it if I could have fitted an intercooler on the Kobra.

I have also found a stroker kit that will take the 2.8 out to 3.5, but I am not quite ready to mortgage my house just yet.

Lumpy.

GKD Supercharger kit is well priced but doesn't include a supercharger or updated engine management.

Still £950 for the plumbing and brackets + a few hundred for the supercharger + ?? for the engine mapping doesn't seem too bad and Superchargers are better than turbos when run with automatics I understand

Thanks for starting the thread Richard! its going to make interesting reading I am sure.

I was reading about a kit from VF this morning thats about £4k for a supercharger for Z3 2.8/3.0 that adds approx 86bhp and can be fitted in 10-14 hours, so for me that's about 80 hours with my limited engine knowledge (Escort Mk2's mainly, from a long time ago). It also needs an ECU remap.

I like the idea that you can bolt something on to get more power, rather than major mods.

As I have changed to large wheels acceleration has deteriorated slightly, so it would be good to mitigate that with some extra power.

I saw estimates of £4-6K to supercharge mine which is what put me off.

That is why the GKD kit caught my eye. Approx : £1,000 for the kit, £500 for Supercharger, £500 for ECU and other bits. All done except the fitting for £2,000 and probably some change left over

You may be better off with a remap, should give you 30-40BHP and more torque for £275 or less.

Hi Lumpy

I have a man who wants to meet you. His name is Gaz and he runs the zroadster.org forum. He lives very close to you in Newbury. Can I pass on your number?

Hi Richard,

Of course you can.

Regards,

Darren.

lumpy<-

Think you've posted this on the wrong forum mate. Looking for Grindr rather than angle grinder?

Just googled BMW remapping and got a link to a local company http://www.southamptonremapping.co.uk/contact.html

The website states just 10bhp and 30 tourque increase. No prices shown but I will pop down there later and ask.

I was hoping for a bigger increase than that. Any choppers anyone can recommend that will give bigger increases without blowing the car apart?

What about a standard m50 manifold swap? You get pretty substantial power gains. A friend of mine did it to his drifting z3, it took it from 170ish at the wheel to almost 200.

There's a good thread on it here:

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?544874-Official-M50-Manifold-Swap-Thread

Thats very low figures, not sure why. Perhaps they are being conservative. My 3.0i Kali went from 231BHP to 259BHP. With the CAI and straight through exhaust it should be now 270-275BHP. However the public can't see you properly at speed so I tend to cruise around, the tart that I am!

What about a standard m50 manifold swap?

Already done that :-)
+K&N Filter and CAI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fARuk-nx3Pw
Go to about 53 seconds for relative improvements

Just watched it again and realised I didn't test after the Inlet swap. Might try that today also. If the private road is still available


They quote :
Z3 2.8 24V Original 193 hp Chipped 205 hp Original 280 NM Chipped 310 NM
Z3 3.0 24V Original 231 hp Chipped 245 hp Original 300 NM Chipped 325 NM
I will be heading down shortly to talk to them. What sort of price should I be looking for?

Interesting conversation. The Chip Kit is £225 fitted.

The 2.8 only gets about 10bhp because of the restrictive air intake system. The gains for the 2.5 and 3.0 are bigger proportionately as they are not so restricted.

My 2.8 has the air intake from a 2.5 so he reckoned it won't suffer as much so more power. Comparing number it should be 20-23bhp, maybe more with the CAI.

For easy match £225 = 22.5 extra BHP or £10 per bhp which seems quite tempting

Hi WCA,

A K&N CAI kit is around £100 on Ebay, most forums comments seem to suggest this is the easiest gain for BHP, I guess £ for £ though the chip/remap is better value. Can't think I would just gain 10bhp for a filter change (£10/bhp), although happy for someone to tell me this is the case! haha just saw you video of the flower pot, so I get 5bhp from adding the K&N sticker, yay!

My kid brother chipped his golf and blew the engine within 5k miles as the fitter didn't make an engine mod also, so I'm nervous about just doing a chip/remap without knowing all the consequences and/or knowing someone who has had it done already and driven it around for sometime, especially for a 3.0 variant.

Cheers.

You're vastly over-selling the benefits of a remap on any un-supercharged motor there Richard.

Eric you're MK area if I remember right? Superchips HQ is in Buckingham and they do fitments on site there if you are concerned about the quality of the installer. But chipping it on a non turbo car gets minimal results compared to a specialist rolling road remap.

chipping it on a non turbo car gets minimal results compared to a specialist rolling road remap

Guys - I might have misled you a bit by sloppy wording. £225 is for an ENGINE REMAP. I assumed this was normally achieved by replacing the standard ECU chip with a remapped one so I have been using the terms interchangeably. I might be wrong.

Also agree that turbo/supercharging gives far greater scope for turning up the power but will also need the remap/chip. The boost pressure is a big parameter in how much power you get (and engine life expectancy). Check out Mighty Car Mods to see what they do to their Honda S2000.

Thanks Jones! yep in MK and on Buckingham side of MK, in fact just returned from a fantastic Ruby at Buckingham fort. Great to hear there is a reputable dealer/fitter close by, however mine is a non-turbo so maybe not a good spend for me atleast :-(

Gentleman by golly stop!

I remember the conversation about a 4 cylinder vs a 6 cylinder. Now all this talk of turbo and superchargers

Where will it all end?

I'm not jealous anyway my VW 1.4 TSi is a beast.

Dave

I had mine dyno-ed at Clifford Cox engineering in Reading, they said it was the biggest gain for a 3.0 bmw they had even seen. I'm not saying they will all get this..I can only comment on mine?
My fuel economy was vastly improved also strangely

I'm not sure where or when you can make use of all this extra power . I would have thought the 2.8 or 3.0 cars had more than enough go in a standard state of tune. Come to that, all the six cylinder cars are good on power for road use.