[KnighTT]

Oh, side note. My rear turbo has a sloppy floppy wastegate. I mean that things just goes every which way. The front one was pretty decent and I'll adjust the arm.

The whole issue seems to be there is nothing keeping the outside arm stable against the housing of the turbo. I have ran across a few people that have had some serious success with inserting a e-clip between the arm and the housing. Essentially stabilizing the assembly as it inters the hotside housing. They have mentioned finding the right size and then grinding it down to be thinner. Thin enough to stabilize but not restrict motion. Afterwards, the waste gate arm still need adjusted.

I think I may give this a try.

[KnighTT]

Well, wastegate rattle after catless downpipes is no joke.

At first, I thought it was the DPs rattling on the car, which was true. These are the xdrive ARM DPs and they actually did need adjusted. The front turbo DP was mounted right against the lower engine mount bracket bolt. You could hear that clearly outside and while driving. After some trial and error, I got it moved around enough to give it about 1/4" of clearance.

The issue now is, the rear turbo has nasty WG rattle. I even got my hand down there and held the WG rod to make sure that was where the rattle was. I could feel it in my hands as the internal flapper rattled around.

So, this weekend I'm going to replace all of the vacuum lines. Then we will see what rattle is left. I think I'm getting much lower boost than normal so we will start with the basics and work from there.

[fastboatster]

I think it might be a new turbo time, i’m surprised you didn’t decide to upgrade them when the subframe was off

[KnighTT]

Indeed, after all of the mileage this thing has on it, turbos are going to happen. Now, to be honest, the turbos working 100% is not my priority right now. I bought this car to sling around the track and enjoy in the long run, but for right now, my goals are reliability and safety. Plus, I'm not going to put stock turbos in their place. We'll be looking more at a hybrid setup. Something like a FrankenTurbo or the like that can give me power options for however I am driving.

The truth is, when I drop the subframe again, it will be to do a full overhaul of that system. New pipes in and out, all new gaskets and seals, bots, nuts, everything. That way I don't need to rip that part of the car apart anytime soon, again. THat'll probably be at least $2k. I just dropped $2k in other parts that were more focused on reliability concerns.

[KnighTT]

Also, I wanted to drop some pictures of something I bought for the car I think is worth giving a solid recommendation.

I picked up a G-Plus intercooler from Amazon that had solid reviews and was worth trying for the price. Theory being that if it sucked, easy Amazon return.

The truth is, for $217, this is a bargain for the quality. It installed very easy. It was even easier than getting the stock intercooler back in there. Everything lines up great. There is a small plastic piece you remove from one side of the radiator(easy) and it just slides right in. Clip, clip, screw in, done. It also looks like it has the same capabilities of using the C clips for stock install as well as silicone when you move up to the next level. There is more than enough area to clamp a silicone hose to each side and get the proper seal.

Take a look at the quality.

[KnighTT]

Alright, second run of vacuum line came in so now have a good 18' to work with over the weekend. Goal is replace ALL of the vacuum lines over the weekend and see if that helps some of the boost issues.

Truth is, I am pretty sure that the turbos needs to be replaced. With a cheap app I have for ODB scanning on the fly, I saw that it looked to only be boosting to 3psi. Not that this cheap app is accurate, but I feel it is not too far off.

In any case, new vacuum lines is a good idea no matter what the turbo condition is.

[KnighTT]

*CHANGE YOUR VACUUM LINES*

I went through and swapped out ALL of the vacuum lines with 4mm silicone. $20 worth. First off, it's all pretty easy except the line that goes to the waste gate on the front turbo. Pull out the radiator fan and get to it from the front to put the new line back on.

Anyway, I'm not going to say this solved ALL of my issues, but the car definitely drives and accelerates much more consistently than before. I still have crazy waste gate rattle. The idle feels 20% better.

I did not replace the lines because I knew I had a leak. I just had heard it was a process that usually has a good outcome. Whether I had leaks or not, the car drives better. $20... just do it. I also did not get a 30FF(was inconsistent) when I got on it hard like I used to.

[fastboatster]

Originally Posted by KnighTT

*CHANGE YOUR VACUUM LINES*

I went through and swapped out ALL of the vacuum lines with 4mm silicone. $20 worth. First off, it's all pretty easy except the line that goes to the waste gate on the front turbo. Pull out the radiator fan and get to it from the front to put the new line back on.

Anyway, I'm not going to say this solved ALL of my issues, but the car definitely drives and accelerates much more consistently than before. I still have crazy waste gate rattle. The idle feels 20% better.

I did not replace the lines because I knew I had a leak. I just had heard it was a process that usually has a good outcome. Whether I had leaks or not, the car drives better. $20... just do it. I also did not get a 30FF(was inconsistent) when I got on it hard like I used to.

glad to hear this has solved some of your issues, at least partially.

[KnighTT]

Well, I have a good news - bad news update.

After getting the coolant taken care of and dialed in I spent a couple weeks driving the car and making sure everything felt alright. Noises, temps, leaks, idles, etc. This lead to dropping in some new Delphi coil packs as the Bosch ones matched but were all near a decade old. I also ordered a set of one step colder NGK spark plugs which have yet to arrive. They are going right back if they turn out to be fakes.

The coil packs and spark plugs are more for my peace of mind. I'd rather rule those out completely when troubleshooting anything to come in the near future. I can only guess on how old the plugs are and the coil packs were almost all original.

About a week ago I went ahead and flashed the car with MHD Stage 2+. So, some feedback is warranted.

- The wastegate rattle fix works pretty decent. Less rattle means a lot of lag, less lag still means some lag, but it definitely does decrease rattle. Especially down low where you don't want to be rattling away from stop light to stop light.
- The process was pretty easy. After all of the videos I watched over the last two years, I was still impressed that it is just as it seems to be. Tablet, cable, hit a button, 38 minutes, and there you go. What was impressive was this process vs the years of taking your car to a tuner and spending the day on a dyno and an hourly rate to some hopeful outcome.
- The car is much more spirited and fun to drive even just on the commute in. Even at just 35-45mph it still gives your senses more to talk about. It all feels much more responsive, keeping in mind that this is a 6spd MT, and it feels like it wants you to play much more often.
- I have a feeling my turbos are old and pretty worn out but the car still lets you know it has what it still has is much more than before it was tuned. I can only guess what kind of experience it will be once I put in a new turbo set. When all of the hardware works as intended, I am sure I will get a new boost to start upgrading the safety features and ready it for some track weekends at Road Atlanta.

The bad-

- Bye bye gas mileage. *Chuckles* Even just letting it ride to a higher rpm between shifts, to feel and hear it all, brings the mpg down.
- With the tune it is quite a bit more of a sports car feel during shifting and acceleration, so stop light and traffic comes with a cost compared to the tame stock settings.
- The ARM downpipes sit right against the lower engine mount bolt. I'm not sure if this can be heard above the wastegate rattle but it is there I am sure. I adjusted it away from the bolt but after a few weeks it worked it way right back. There is a bolt you can replace it with that sits much more flush to the mount but on the Xdrive this would require dropping the subframe enough to pull the DP back out. I'm not going to drop the subframe again until I need to replace the turbos.

The worst:

- There needs to be a support group for wastegate rattle. Especially when you know the car drives and sounds the way you want it to EXCEPT the rattle you feel everyone can hear. It's just terrible once you go to catless DPs. I even did the actuator arm adjust and its still bad. The stock cats definitely muffle the sound, you just don't know how much until you have the new DPs on.

For now though, I am going to enjoy the car. I have no engine codes after all of the updates. I'm hoping the new plugs will take care of the last 5% I don't like about the way it idles. The AC is cold and I feel like I can sit back and enjoy not spening the weekends under the car for a bit.

166k miles btw.

[KnighTT]

So, Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

I took it upon myself to peruse the black Friday sales, and after hundreds of hours of research over the last month, decided to hop on a set up new turbos from Dynamic Autowerx. Stage 2+ with the upgraded Garrett GTX high flow billet wheels.


Black Friday sale had then below $1,400....

I did have a conversation with the owner, Shawn, beforehand and he had some solid insights. I'll be changing a few parts in the next steps so I can make sure that these have the support they need based on his feedback. I had narrowed it down between these and the Pure600's. Now I had gotten solid feedback on the Pure's, as well as the others in their lineup, but I found myself finding the kind of feedback I was looking for for the Dymanic's to consider them both. At the end of the day, the 3 year warranty, solid feedback on longevity, and the price sold me.

Anyway, that will start my winter project. After doing some work on our other Odyssey van, I can now confidently retire this BMW to the third car, and furthermore, a weekend track build.

Let the fun begin.

[KnighTT]

So, the next steps:

- Order a M3 rep front bumper with the air dam inlets for brake cooling(no foglights). Truth is my front bumper got hung up on a small curb in a apt complex while attending game night. I went to back out and it clipped under the bumper just enough to rip it off. What I need is a front end that will benefit me at the track. Plus it has a good look to it of course. Not a lot of bumper options.

I wanted the 1M front end by why the heck are they $900?

- VSRF 3.5" street exhaust system. I'll also get get the race rear end. It will be nice to have a race set for the track and the muffler for the street.

I'm going to get the car off the ground for a while. I want to inspect everything again and take a deep look at suspension.

-BC Racing coil-overs are a must before I get it on the road courses. The stock feels OK but I know it is old and wors when you take a turn at a higher speed and hit any lump. The front and AWD causes it to it the bump-stop.

- 18x9.5 square setup. I need to get rid of the 17" wheels and tires that came with it. They are not the right size. So, I'm going to start looking for a good set of 18's with a square setup.

- Then I need to get rid of the play in the steering wheel and find out what I need to do to rid myself of the airbag light. 93AB i think is the code. I was thinking that was the pass side restraint but the code doesn't seem to get Google to nail it down.

- I also have a few color samples for a vinyl wrap. That will save me front painting body panels as I upgrade. Also, the wear and tear from track days are better for a wrap. If I have any damage, or wear, I just re-wrap a panel.

I am going to do a compression test before I start to tear anything apart. I want to make sure I shouldn't be looking at a different block before I start to do any real upgrades.

[Emilime75]

Originally Posted by KnighTT

Dynamic Autowerx...solid feedback on longevity...

Where can this feedback be found?

[KnighTT]

Reach out to the owner, Shawn. That would be my first suggestion for anyone with questions or concerns. I got the information I needed, based on my background and experience in engineering and high performance, for me to realize he had proper feedback, recommendations, and that he stood behind his product.

The truths that were given effect ALL upgraded turbos, of any brand. I'll put parts of my own experience and beliefs in here as well.

1. - the stock exhaust for the n54 reduces to a 1" inner diameter in some sections after the turbo. I say this as this has been sited, by rumor, that warranties have been denied if you ran these on stock exhaust and had a failure. Truth be told, I see a good majority of FBO and new upgraded turbo setups neglecting to replace the stock exhaust. You are adding more boost to stock turbos, or adding NEW turbos rated for +XXX more HP. Your going from a stock DP and ~1" exhaust, then you are adding full flow 3" catless DP to a still-stock exhaust that still has a great deal of restriction?

In most cases, people get a turbo rated for xxx and they immediately try to tune it for that same XXX amount of power. Any turbo is going to get beat up in all the back pressure. Also, if a setup is "rated" to 700hp, the sad fact is that a good deal of modifiers try to target that by any means necessary, or even beat it. They keep turning it up. Even it it "works" that doesn't say a cent about how long it will last.

You wouldn't build a 600hp crate motor V8 just to stick it back on the stock exhaust. It'll still haul, but its not going to last very long.

2 - I think people don't honestly KNOW if their oil system is getting the proper amount of oil in and out of the turbos. As well as a good deal of people have their own beliefs on what oil to use.

Ignore either of these issues and they will kill any brand turbo in a matter of ____ time. Truth is, if you actually use your turbo's for what they are designed for, they will need to be rebuilt from time to time. They spin faster than anything else in your engine and create the most heat. If they are not under the most perfect of conditions, they will start to fail.

2 things here that sunk in for me. DAW doesn't spend a lot of time online talking in forums and dropping Youtube videos, etc. They have been in business for a long time. Sold hundreds of setups. They just don't troll around the internet to market their products. Some of their re-sellers do. They have a 3 year warranty, and if you follow their rules of what supports their turbo's properly, you won't need to worry about the warranty if needed.

Now two "other" well known turbo companies do spend a lot of time online. Problem is, the things they have to say about their competitors comes off to me as highly unprofessional. If you have to sling mud at another company, it says a lot about you. If you have a superior product, let it speak for itself.

I was considering Pure's, as they do indeed have a good track record. In the end, the warranty, price, and honesty of DAW sold me. I mean they are $800 less...

Lastly, and this covers any brand, is that turbo's are a crapshoot. You can make a high quality piece of equipment and all it takes is a schmuck trying to get 30psi out if it 15 minutes after install. Now you have a Youtube video of smoke billowing out the back of his car, a 5 paragrah rant in a forum, and everyone thinks your product is garbage. Why, because 90% of those failure stories won't reflect on what they think they may have done wrong to contribute to a failure. For every 300 jobs done right, 1 job goes wrong and it'll be the guy that posts every little change to his car on 5 different message boards.

Even the best turbo money can buy are 90% installed on cars owned by people who don't post online about their experience AT ALL. Heck, most serious racers and consumers of high performance gear don't spend their time online talking about it.

For me, getting into road course racing, the real feedback will come from the guys right there. Putting all of the gear to the real test. There is a huge difference between parts that get your car down the 1/4 mile a few times, with huge numbers, and a part that will take you around a course for 30 minutes without failing.

Sorry for the rant. I've just got real caught up in how bad people have gotten with feedback on products. It is nearly never a personal experience. It's always on behalf of someone else, or what someone else said, or read.

[KnighTT]

Needless to say, I will do a full review here for the DAW stage 2+ setup and my experience moving forward.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free as we move along.

[Tambohamilton]

Originally Posted by KnighTT

Reach out to the owner, Shawn. That would be my first suggestion for anyone with questions or concerns. I got the information I needed, based on my background and experience in engineering and high performance, for me to realize he had proper feedback, recommendations, and that he stood behind his product.

The truths that were given effect ALL upgraded turbos, of any brand. I'll put parts of my own experience and beliefs in here as well.

1. - the stock exhaust for the n54 reduces to a 1" inner diameter in some sections after the turbo. I say this as this has been sited, by rumor, that warranties have been denied if you ran these on stock exhaust and had a failure. Truth be told, I see a good majority of FBO and new upgraded turbo setups neglecting to replace the stock exhaust. You are adding more boost to stock turbos, or adding NEW turbos rated for +XXX more HP. Your going from a stock DP and ~1" exhaust, then you are adding full flow 3" catless DP to a still-stock exhaust that still has a great deal of restriction?

In most cases, people get a turbo rated for xxx and they immediately try to tune it for that same XXX amount of power. Any turbo is going to get beat up in all the back pressure. Also, if a setup is "rated" to 700hp, the sad fact is that a good deal of modifiers try to target that by any means necessary, or even beat it. They keep turning it up. Even it it "works" that doesn't say a cent about how long it will last.

You wouldn't build a 600hp crate motor V8 just to stick it back on the stock exhaust. It'll still haul, but its not going to last very long.

2 - I think people don't honestly KNOW if their oil system is getting the proper amount of oil in and out of the turbos. As well as a good deal of people have their own beliefs on what oil to use.

Ignore either of these issues and they will kill any brand turbo in a matter of ____ time. Truth is, if you actually use your turbo's for what they are designed for, they will need to be rebuilt from time to time. They spin faster than anything else in your engine and create the most heat. If they are not under the most perfect of conditions, they will start to fail.

2 things here that sunk in for me. DAW doesn't spend a lot of time online talking in forums and dropping Youtube videos, etc. They have been in business for a long time. Sold hundreds of setups. They just don't troll around the internet to market their products. Some of their re-sellers do. They have a 3 year warranty, and if you follow their rules of what supports their turbo's properly, you won't need to worry about the warranty if needed.

Now two "other" well known turbo companies do spend a lot of time online. Problem is, the things they have to say about their competitors comes off to me as highly unprofessional. If you have to sling mud at another company, it says a lot about you. If you have a superior product, let it speak for itself.

I was considering Pure's, as they do indeed have a good track record. In the end, the warranty, price, and honesty of DAW sold me. I mean they are $800 less...

Lastly, and this covers any brand, is that turbo's are a crapshoot. You can make a high quality piece of equipment and all it takes is a schmuck trying to get 30psi out if it 15 minutes after install. Now you have a Youtube video of smoke billowing out the back of his car, a 5 paragrah rant in a forum, and everyone thinks your product is garbage. Why, because 90% of those failure stories won't reflect on what they think they may have done wrong to contribute to a failure. For every 300 jobs done right, 1 job goes wrong and it'll be the guy that posts every little change to his car on 5 different message boards.

Even the best turbo money can buy are 90% installed on cars owned by people who don't post online about their experience AT ALL. Heck, most serious racers and consumers of high performance gear don't spend their time online talking about it.

For me, getting into road course racing, the real feedback will come from the guys right there. Putting all of the gear to the real test. There is a huge difference between parts that get your car down the 1/4 mile a few times, with huge numbers, and a part that will take you around a course for 30 minutes without failing.

Sorry for the rant. I've just got real caught up in how bad people have gotten with feedback on products. It is nearly never a personal experience. It's always on behalf of someone else, or what someone else said, or read.

[KnighTT]

Well, I guess we are in a bit of a wait mode. I would imagine my turbos will be here in Janurary as black friday sales always lengthen things.

So, in the mean time, I have been doing a bunch of research.

- I think aiming for 500-550awhp with the DA Stg2+ setup will be fine. I have no desire to "see what they can do" so I'll stick with what they can do at 18-22psi and have a e85 and 93 pump map.
- Not sure who I will get to tune but I have heard a good deal about Wedge over the last couple of years. I'll do my research on those that are fluent with the n54 and these new hybrid turbos.
- I need to get an engine support bar. I'll be under the car for the next couple of months taking care of quite a bit.
- I got some wrap samples from Vvivid and Avery and I think I'm going to go with the Avery Gloss Dark Grey. It was weird. There is something about the Avery that actually makes you feel like you are holding a piece of paint. It comes off as being much more close to a paint you stretch on your car than any other wrap material I have seen. Plus it had much less orange peel effect.
-I'm going to pull the entire front end off, radiator, support, and drop the entire subframe for the rest of the work.
- New oil pan gasket
- Clean/replace front pulleys and belt. I think a couple are noisy from degreasing the prior OFHG mess.
- New rod bearings from King.
- New turbos of course
- Replace that lower engine mount bolt that rattles against the DPs with a more flush head. It makes contact with the pipe.
- Magnetic oil drain plug

That's what I can think of for now. The car won't be back together until summer I can imagine.

2" inlets
2" outlets
3.5" VRSF Street exhaust

[KnighTT]

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

How well did using the CRC cleaner work? And you used the brush method right? I'm considering DIY with cleaners instead of paying 450$ next time.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Originally Posted by Emilime75

Where can this feedback be found?

I agree lol. If none of these turbos have made at least 60k miles I don't think that can be considered feedback on longevity.

[KnighTT]

The CRC cleaner worked GREAT. I put an engine brush cleaning kit on the end of a corded drill and had at it. I would say it gets you about 95% of the same outcome as walnut blasting. If you had a few days to put into it, 100%

$50 total cost at the most. Best to do it the same time you drop in a new OFHG.

Before I drop the bottom end out and start to pull apart the engine, I'm going to run CRC through the entire system again. That way I get everything clean and spat out the current turbos and not after I put the new turbos in. I'll have a breather system and oil catch can before I run the new build.

*Initial Feedback on the DAW Turbos*
- High quality machining and attention to detail.
- Good packaging and fast shipping.
- Confirmed my suspicions that the main parts on this build look to be exactly the same as a couple other major brands that offer stg 2's.
- They are more than what I expected from an engineering POV.
- I paid less than $1,400....with the upgraded wheels.

It will be a while until I fire this up and can post a review.

A pro of the 3yr warranty is that I don't need to rush these into the car and worry about issues. If you buy a set with a 12mo warranty, and it takes you 6 months to really get them in and supported, well then you don't have much of a warranty eh?

More to come. I've got three sick kids and Christmas at my door, so it will be a while until I get back into it. Plus, I started to expand my garage to help give me some room for the future of this car and motorsports, so I may tackle more of that first.

[NoGuru]

Glad I found your thread KnightTT. I will be following. I was the one with the inlet that collapsed and killed my DAW Stage3+ turbos. Shawn gave me new turbos and I had them installed but it's cold here and I only drove it from the shop to my garage and parked it for the Winter. Seemed to pull hard and spool nicely.

Look forward to more results from your build

[KnighTT]

Thanks for chiming in NoGuru.

You may be the only person who had a negative experience and then shared what the issue was. Especially the feedback regarding how DAW responded. Most of the other posts about DAW have been 5th wheel rumors fueled by speculation and drowned in conjecture.

The reality is, no one has a long term review on these. It will take years for soemone to have 10k's of thousand of miles on these. I was looking at the Pure 600s and those are too new to have long term reviews either. We really wont know until we have them for a while. Just like anything new to the market. On top of that, I'm not looking for results from a daily driver doing highway pulls. I'm looking for track car reliability. How does it perform 20-30 minutes at a time over circuit runs at Road Atlanta.

That being said, no one else is even attempting a 3 year warranty. I have no issues at all doing what it takes to keep the warranty qualified.

What I would like to see more of is the results with custom tunes and reviews on the turnout. I'm looking at Wedge but I honestly need a tune for road course/time attack. Not drag racing. That could take some research.