Author Topic: M42/M44 ITB Kit Design  (Read 298418 times)

lambertius

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Re: M42/M44 ITB Kit Design
« Reply #30 on: October 01, 2014, 06:05:54 AM »
This is awesome .  Any idea on price? Or still to far away to tell?
Keep us updated! 
-Tg

I asked but he isn't sure yet. I'm sure he will know soon enough though.

Excellent project. When you have your final product ready, will you be publishing flow bench information and such? Dyno plots from M42's in various states of tune? Although I dropped $ on a fancy resonance-chamber M42 intake manifold when I had my 2.1L engine built, I have sort of been wanting to look into ITBs. My main concern was that they would hurt mid-range power, but it looks like you are addressing that! The engine pulls well from 2000RPM, and solidly from 3500-7700RPM as it is, and if these could open it up a little more in the top without hurting lower RPM torque (when I am in traffic) that would be excellent! And...the sound ITBs make is just the best thing ever.

We'll be testing it on my car which has the M44 engine - but the point will be to prove that there is an improvement, and that will be relevant for the M42 also. That said, I think we will test it on an M42 as well. I don't know if he will show flow bench results, but Dyno plots will be part of it as well.

As for Mid-Range, Rama used some simulation software for cam timing and showed me that the default cams will apparently generate most of the power in the mid-range due to some magical resonance thingy... We won't know for sure till it is tested though. From previous results on his other engines he has made across the board improvements due to good design, and Rama is fairly confident that he will see gains like that again.

If you head over to http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?2124470-M42-M44-ITB-Kit I've been running a clone thread, and that one has some dyno charts from one of his other engines, and you can see the way everything improved. Most of the good information is here though, but yeah I never posted the Dynos here.

There is also a dyno a user put up of his Dbilas ITBs which showed an across the board loss, so if you were ever wondering how those performed, now we know!

Some good news as well, we have ordered some 3D-printed parts for test fitting, provided everything goes well with that we'll move onto the first castings!

Tgoode318

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Re: M42/M44 ITB Kit Design
« Reply #31 on: October 01, 2014, 08:28:41 AM »
Which dbilas itbs did he use the standard or the race version? What kind of plenum did he use? Which injector set up? and what tuning? The only way i could see an across the board loss is if every thing was set up very poorly.
-'94/05 M42 Convertible
-2001 330CI M Package
-2016 M4 Competition

Froos

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Re: M42/M44 ITB Kit Design
« Reply #32 on: October 01, 2014, 09:42:54 AM »


SNIP

The 'ideal' ITB set up is very extensive. You would have dual stage injectors, with one on the port side of the butterfly, and one on the intake side. You can generate significantly more power by injecting fuel further from the port, but this only works at WOT and high RPM otherwise the fuel won't get carried all the way into the engine and you can get a flame-out into the engine bay. You would place your ITBs with about 100~150mm distance from the valve to allow a smooth laminar transition into the valve profile.

This smooth transition is very very important, and it should highlight why I'm not keen on products like the dbilas ITBs. In the simulations I just posted up, a change in curvature that changed dimensions only a few mm results in a 1% reduction in efficiency. If you look at dbilas their kit has a sharp kink with no curved transition, which would have a very significant effect (I'd be willing to wager 10% or more) on reducing mass flow. You encounter the same issues when using an adapter plate. You would need to make an adapter plate 25~50mm thick to get an appropriate transition to maintain laminar flow - which would end up having defeated the purpose of putting the ITBs close to the port in the first place. It would be different if the butterfly was the same shape as the port, but it is circular and you need to accommodate that change in profile.
Hi there,

Im currently building (well since 5 years) my m42 with ITBs. I only used the dbillas intake flange as I preferred other brand itbs for personal reasons. The interesting thing is is that both the flange as the itbs have openings for injectors. I was planning on custom ecu to get ride of the barndoor air meter. This would allow me to use dual injectors per itb. One close to the butterfly and one close to the intake valves. Can you/anybody calculate (is that possible) from which starting point the programmer should start opening and closing each injector per rpm?
Im using catcams which open sooner and lift more
itbs are 45 mm
total lengt intake per itb is 250mm from intake port to cone trumpet
1st injector is at 10mm from intake port
2nd injector would be at 110mm distance
butterfly is at 120mm distance
« Last Edit: October 01, 2014, 10:03:56 AM by Froos »
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Tgoode318

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Re: M42/M44 ITB Kit Design
« Reply #33 on: October 01, 2014, 10:08:46 AM »
I just went and looked at your other thread and read about the guy who posted those dbilas number's. I wouldn't put to much stock in them as they are very unscientific. He guessed on most of the variables! You really need to go to a real dyno and take a before and after run On that dyno the same day with the same/similar atmospheric conditions/temp's. And then if he showed a loss after that one would also need to know the things i posted above ^^. It is a good point though if the data is correct. Poorly set up ITBS will only Shift your power band with out gaining you bhp. They must  be properly tuned with a properly set up plenum that is resonance tuned to the engine & proportionate to its flow characteristics .
-Tg
-'94/05 M42 Convertible
-2001 330CI M Package
-2016 M4 Competition

MrPhatBob

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Re: M42/M44 ITB Kit Design
« Reply #34 on: October 01, 2014, 02:49:15 PM »
With ITBs you can really see the effect of inlet track on the torque curve, you'll see that an incorrect length causes the curve to take on a sinusoidal character as the engine responds to the harmonics of the inlet tract.

Froos

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Re: M42/M44 ITB Kit Design
« Reply #35 on: October 01, 2014, 03:27:57 PM »
Something a good dynoguy/enginebuilder will sort out while making a ecu depending on a variety of different variables the engine at hand has
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lambertius

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Re: M42/M44 ITB Kit Design
« Reply #36 on: October 03, 2014, 03:00:10 AM »
So, yeah... I guess this means people are reading the thread!

Something a good dynoguy/enginebuilder will sort out while making a ecu depending on a variety of different variables the engine at hand has

Not really, a good dyno guy might be able to smooth the curve, but that would just mean you're writing off power peaks as well as having a terribly inefficient intake. If your hardware isn't working, it isn't working and software can't fix that.

With ITBs you can really see the effect of inlet track on the torque curve, you'll see that an incorrect length causes the curve to take on a sinusoidal character as the engine responds to the harmonics of the inlet tract.

Exactly! Rama ran a simulation and I could see some of the effects he was talking about in that. We'll be testing a range of trumpet lengths for this reason.

I just went and looked at your other thread and read about the guy who posted those dbilas number's. I wouldn't put to much stock in them as they are very unscientific. He guessed on most of the variables! You really need to go to a real dyno and take a before and after run On that dyno the same day with the same/similar atmospheric conditions/temp's. And then if he showed a loss after that one would also need to know the things i posted above ^^. It is a good point though if the data is correct. Poorly set up ITBS will only Shift your power band with out gaining you bhp. They must  be properly tuned with a properly set up plenum that is resonance tuned to the engine & proportionate to its flow characteristics .
-Tg

Yeah I'm not sure what the deal is with the dyno plots the guy was using - really weird.

A few thoughts though:

-I know for sure that the kink in the Dbilas manifold will have a significant negative effect on VE, from the simulations that I ran I know that for sure.
-Rama has convinced me that the ITB diameter is too large for the engine, so I am willing to believe for the moment that it at best won't help.
-Even if the absolute values are incorrect, the shape of the curve is terrible which does show it dropping power later in the curve
-Poorly setup ITBs won't just move the curve, they will lower the power and torque output
-So far as I can find, this is the only dyno of the Dbilas ITBs, so as bad as it is it is at least something. At its best it indicates there is room for improvement, at its worst it indicates they are damaging engine output. From what I've learned doing this, I would be inclined towards the latter.



SNIP

The 'ideal' ITB set up is very extensive. You would have dual stage injectors, with one on the port side of the butterfly, and one on the intake side. You can generate significantly more power by injecting fuel further from the port, but this only works at WOT and high RPM otherwise the fuel won't get carried all the way into the engine and you can get a flame-out into the engine bay. You would place your ITBs with about 100~150mm distance from the valve to allow a smooth laminar transition into the valve profile.

This smooth transition is very very important, and it should highlight why I'm not keen on products like the dbilas ITBs. In the simulations I just posted up, a change in curvature that changed dimensions only a few mm results in a 1% reduction in efficiency. If you look at dbilas their kit has a sharp kink with no curved transition, which would have a very significant effect (I'd be willing to wager 10% or more) on reducing mass flow. You encounter the same issues when using an adapter plate. You would need to make an adapter plate 25~50mm thick to get an appropriate transition to maintain laminar flow - which would end up having defeated the purpose of putting the ITBs close to the port in the first place. It would be different if the butterfly was the same shape as the port, but it is circular and you need to accommodate that change in profile.
Hi there,

Im currently building (well since 5 years) my m42 with ITBs. I only used the dbillas intake flange as I preferred other brand itbs for personal reasons. The interesting thing is is that both the flange as the itbs have openings for injectors. I was planning on custom ecu to get ride of the barndoor air meter. This would allow me to use dual injectors per itb. One close to the butterfly and one close to the intake valves. Can you/anybody calculate (is that possible) from which starting point the programmer should start opening and closing each injector per rpm?
Im using catcams which open sooner and lift more
itbs are 45 mm
total lengt intake per itb is 250mm from intake port to cone trumpet
1st injector is at 10mm from intake port
2nd injector would be at 110mm distance
butterfly is at 120mm distance

Sorry man I can't help you with placing a second fuel rail. I only know the rules in the 'general' sense. What I know is that they are usually put on the intake side of the butterfly and not the port side, and they are usually placed one of the resonant lengths away from the valves for the RPM of interest. On the default unmodified M44 that is ~13inches from the port for ~5500~6500 RPM. The intake you have is too short for that anyway, so I doubt you would see any real improvement by implementing dual injection.

Which dbilas itbs did he use the standard or the race version? What kind of plenum did he use? Which injector set up? and what tuning? The only way i could see an across the board loss is if every thing was set up very poorly.

As I said earlier in the post - from everything I've learned so far, I would be inclined to believe that the Dbilas kit could institute an across the board loss. I can't confirm it, and I'm not pretending I know the answer definitively, but I would be inclined to believe that there would be very high vorticity in that manifold among other issues.

The most interesting item in that thread is the dyno chart where reducing ITB diameter for an M20 engine improved output across the board, but otherwise there is a lot more genuine interest and discussion here.

wazzu70

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Re: M42/M44 ITB Kit Design
« Reply #37 on: October 03, 2014, 10:12:16 AM »
This is my favorite thread on any forum FYI. I love the research instead of just slapping things together and hoping for the best.

I have always wanted ITBs, but with a standalone I was running the stock TB with just a filter which I figured was nearly as good for next to 0 cost. I always though the options available were not good enough to show any improvement...you have me rethinking that!!!
-Nick
91 E30 M42 with VEMS

lambertius

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Re: M42/M44 ITB Kit Design
« Reply #38 on: October 05, 2014, 04:28:51 AM »
Well I hope we get some results to back up the work! Rama seems to think 15% is a reasonable expectation for crank power, and that would be something that you would notice. Hopefully it works out!

Anyway, I have some new pictures for you - Rama has received some 3D-printed parts for testing hood clearances as well general spacing. Now before anyone comes in with 3D printing accuracy remarks, these prints are accurate +/- 0.1mm which is enough to let us know whether or not we're on track or really messed up, and this is a lot cheaper than making that mistake with a cast!

Enjoy!







Also, I feel like sharing this image because the results are silly. One of my friends (in the picture) was teaching me how to detail and glass-coat my car. The results are ridiculous, my car's paint was not in spectacular condition when we started...

« Last Edit: October 06, 2014, 05:59:23 AM by lambertius »

wazzu70

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Re: M42/M44 ITB Kit Design
« Reply #39 on: October 05, 2014, 11:33:54 AM »
Nothing wrong with additive manufacturing/3d printing. I can't tell what method you used for the proto, but some materials available for SLS machines are used to make motorsport manifolds. Some of the windform materials are used for the manifolds.
-Nick
91 E30 M42 with VEMS

MrPhatBob

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Re: M42/M44 ITB Kit Design
« Reply #40 on: October 05, 2014, 02:50:30 PM »
How close are my drawings for the M4x ports? They should have been +1mm smaller than the ports so that the head bloke could port match when he did the porting.

thebrelon

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Re: M42/M44 ITB Kit Design
« Reply #41 on: October 05, 2014, 11:49:45 PM »
WOW! me want!!!  :o

keep on guys you're doing a great job!
Vince
'91 318is 230000km stock

Froos

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Re: M42/M44 ITB Kit Design
« Reply #42 on: October 06, 2014, 05:38:08 AM »
3D prints look good, did you test hood clearance yet? What volume for airbox (if any) are you going to use?
318i saloon base,lowered 40mm, alpinweiss2,535i rubbers,powerflex all round,6 for 6 goodridge, M3 caster rubbers, elec fan, carbon stud braces, CatCams, 8,4Kg flywheel ,ITB\'s, 3:73LSD

lambertius

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Re: M42/M44 ITB Kit Design
« Reply #43 on: October 06, 2014, 06:11:07 AM »
How close are my drawings for the M4x ports? They should have been +1mm smaller than the ports so that the head bloke could port match when he did the porting.

Rama ended up making his own measurements from a wrecking yard, and verified them with yours as well as some others I found lurking on the web. In general we found them withing a fairly tight range so we figured it was fair to assume that it was withing the variance in manufacturing+human error in measurement. He has experience with sand-casting so he would've adjusted them to his expectations for casting tolerance. From memory that 1mm was nearly the variance on the intake port sizes, which is apparently to be expected for cheaper mass-production castings. Thanks for the drawings though, I wouldn't have started up this project at all without them!

3D prints look good, did you test hood clearance yet? What volume for airbox (if any) are you going to use?

I haven't received the parts yet, Rama is overseas from me so this is entirely being done via correspondence until he returns to Australia sometime next year... The parts are still on their way to me, and I will be trying to convince a wrecking yard to let me test fit them onto a range of wrecked models so that I can make sure clearances match across a range. Plus, I would seriously like to avoid dismantling my car just to check if it fits...

On that note...  if anyone in Sydney has an M2/4 engine wreck I can test fit some parts on, let me know!



Froos

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Re: M42/M44 ITB Kit Design
« Reply #44 on: October 06, 2014, 07:03:37 AM »
If not and I dont know where your buddy is shipping from, Im in EU and happen to have an engine installed without the intake side fitted since Im going the ITB route as well....
dont have the degrees of the DBilas flange here, you probably do know, but with some maths you could calculate the clearance from what I have....ill be using a 20L airbox.
again Im only using the dbilas intake flange and not their tb's or airbox
318i saloon base,lowered 40mm, alpinweiss2,535i rubbers,powerflex all round,6 for 6 goodridge, M3 caster rubbers, elec fan, carbon stud braces, CatCams, 8,4Kg flywheel ,ITB\'s, 3:73LSD