M42B18 E36 Budget Turbo planning

[TomSkarsts]

Firstly, Hello guys!

Secondly, I'm sorry if my English isn't good enough, not a native speaker. However, hopefully everybody will understand me. And hopefully I'm in the right forum making this topic and noone will get mad or somehow offended that I haven't found something that has already been here or something like that.

I've been reading many forums for some time. Slowly improving on my knowledge about cars and stuff, got my E36 few months ago and making next summer plans - Turbo got in my head instead of swapping 2.8L engine.

So the thing is, I'm gonna start with the fact that I'll be probably running a stock ECU with some chip/tune and my aim is something close to M50B25/M52B28 power if that is possible(hopefully we will find out that later on).

So with my little knowledge, I tried to make some list what would be a minimum to set up a Turbo for 0.5bar/8psi:


Turbo - as I know, HL is bigger(has bigger lag probably) and has a twinscroll(manifold has to be made differently)
TD04L from Subaru Impreza WRX 2.0
TD04HL from Volvo
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Manifold - all I know is that you need stainless steel, but I have no idea how thick, long, diameter etc. As i 've read - 'tubular' and 'equal lenght' should be the style of the design of the manifold.
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Intercooler
Probably from Volvo or TDI BMW
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Intercooler's tubes - stainless steel again. No idea about the sizes.
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POD Filter - to complete the cold air intake system
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LSD - (well this is additional, but who wants an open diff with some more power )
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Fuel Pressure Regulator
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Blow Off Valve
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Exhaust tubes - stainless steel, sizes? Diameter about 2,5-3"?
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ECU chipping/tuning

I hope that someone will tell me if I am missing something and if it is actually possible. It's is the fact that it can't go very expensive at the beginning, but I don't want to kill my engine with cheap parts as well as it is my daily driver.

Thank you for your answers!

[Darky]

Hi

First of all your English is excellent, please it's better than mine and it's my only language!!!

There are m42s around here that put out more than m50s without forced induction. It's bore stroke compression valves cams.

But forced induction is another animal, your turbos look good, equal length exhaust manifold to turbo is nice but not really necessary don't get to hang up on that.

Inter cooler go as large as you can good for power and the engine. Cooler air
With the inter cooler and your pipe size you want large cooling capacity but small volume as this is the cause of the lag, takes time for the compressor to charge the system. 2.5 ish
Lsd is the easy part median case clutch type gearing not sure e36 uses different gearing than what I'm use too.
Fuel pressure regulator might not need to be changed depending on your injectors. Have a look at one get the serial numbers and will be able to go from there.
Exhaust 2.5 will be fine at that boost level the turbo acts like a resonator so it smooths out the exhaust pulses and gives it a even flow.
Ecu your existing one will probably do. Just a new chip will be required.

Cheers Rohan

[E36-italia]

forget the E36 tdi intercoolers, they are very small!

Volvo intercoolers are good, but expensive (V70 R AWD owner) .. a mishimoto is better option, price wise and with the dimensions.
You can mount it below the radiator, use the lower opening in the bumper for the airflow.

[TomSkarsts]

So I am not missing anything in my plans for the build?

[Darky]

It all depends on how much power your aiming for? With regards to pipe sizes, stock engine?
Left hand drive?
I hate pod filters much prefer stock or the best I've seen is the e30 m3 dtm style!