Chadillac2000's 2008 135i Road Warrior Daily Driver Build Thread

[chadillac2000]

There's not much to report on overall, but no news is good news in this case. 4,000 miles has turned into 5,000 miles now on everything with no issues. They've been easy miles, but I've still put the car through its paces and in a variety of different situations in that time. She continues to be a damn near perfect daily driver in its current state.

Blackstone Labs just emailed me the latest report of the sample that I sent them. This is the second time I've used their services, and I think I'll start using it from here forward just to keep an eye on things. It brings the cost of an oil change up to around $100 each, but worth it in my opinion to keep a close eye on things.

I'd be interested to see someone with an N54 that had an unhealthy engine and what those numbers looks like. This sample was used for 3,500 miles and was the first I'd sent in while being single turbo. Everything seems to be in proper order, which is always a welcomed sight.

 

[chadillac2000]

Quick update: The car is still running perfectly as the odometer is about to turn 110,000 and will be due for another oil change here within the week. The ACF kit and all the components I recently installed are still working flawlessly.

As I touched on in prior posts, even at low boost on low amounts of ethanol, my fuel system was struggling to keep up. After looking around, it seemed to be tapping out much lower than similar builds. Others were able to run more boost on bigger turbos with more ethanol with only the addition of a stage 2 LPFP like I was running. The original HPFP on this car was changed back in 2011 with only 6,000 miles on the odometer -- which means my current HPFP is about 7 years old and has put in over 100,000 total miles with 50,000 of those on moderate ethanol blends.

My current goal for this build is to be able to run 20-23psi on E50-E60 fuel daily, which means I'll have to beef up and refresh my fuel system. I'm currently running a stage 2 LPFP from Fuel-It! with their upgraded tank to HPFP lines utilizing an ethanol sensor and their analyzer.

My new setup will start with a fresh HPFP.

To help out with the extra strain put on the HPFP by the added air of the single turbo and usage of ethanol blends, I picked up one of the recently released Phoenix Racing intake manifold with a full fuel kit from Fuel It! that includes 750cc injectors.

While the kit came with the fuel line with the t-fitting seen above, because I already had the ethanol sensor and upgraded lines, I went with the newer style Bronze line upgrade with Fuel-It's camlock fitting.

For controlling the new injectors, I decided to go with the JB4 PI controller.

While my LPFP is doing fine now, I'm sending my bucket off to Fuel-It! for the stage 3 treatment so they can stuff two Walbro 450s inside. I should be receiving that back sometime next week, and will be installing everything once I return from my honeymoon near the end of June.

 

[aus335iguy]

Great update mate - Any reason why you stayed with a bucket instead of going bucketless?

 

[chadillac2000]

Great update mate - Any reason why you stayed with a bucket instead of going bucketless?

I just prefer the bucketed setup for fuel starvation reasons. I don't track my car, but I do drive my car for long distances at a time and usually push the fuel tank to below 1/8th of a tank often. With a bucketless setup, while I'd increase flow and decrease cost, I'd always be second guessing getting on the throttle when the tank was getting low. I considered going bucketless and adding a few hydramats, but decided to just keep it simple. Plus, I won't be pushing the stage 3 bucket anywhere near its limits to where flow would become an issue.

 

[doublespaces]

I just prefer the bucketed setup for fuel starvation reasons. I don't track my car, but I do drive my car for long distances at a time and usually push the fuel tank to below 1/8th of a tank often. With a bucketless setup, while I'd increase flow and decrease cost, I'd always be second guessing getting on the throttle when the tank was getting low. I considered going bucketless and adding a few hydramats, but decided to just keep it simple. Plus, I won't be pushing the stage 3 bucket anywhere near its limits to where flow would become an issue.

I'm right here with you. I want a bucket with a fuel pickup that will take me down to stock fuel starvation levels. We need a custom bucket with this functionality but with increased flow capability. I don't know what is required to deliver this, but that is what I'm interested in right now. And no, I'm not interested in running mats, I bought to and got rid of them. I hear they clog up and for that kind of money you should be able to buy something better.

 

[chadillac2000]

It's now been 10,000 miles since switching to a single turbo setup, and I'm still daily driving without any issues. Temperatures have been in the high 90's more often than not lately and the 1er handles it with ease. For the past 5,000 or so miles I've been running 17psi on E20 fueling -- with great looking logs. No timing drops in any cylinders, no fuel pump drops (high or low pressure), and boost comes on hard and stays rock solid right at 17psi. Any more boost or any more ethanol, and my HPFP can't keep up. Everything else is holding up well and the Blackstone Laboratories reports keep coming back with good news.

With 110,000 miles on the odometer now, I've finally acquired all the parts to address my struggling fuel system. While my old parts worked brilliantly with a lot of ethanol on stock turbos, they simply couldn't keep up with all the newfound airflow. The new setup will consist of a Stage 3 bucketed LPFP (two 450s, the second on a 15psi Hobb's Switch) from Fuel-It! in the tank, flowing through upgraded Fuel-It! fuel lines into an ethanol sensor which is integrated into the JB4 Mobile App, into the camlock fitting y-line from Fuel-It! - one end flowing into the Phoenix Port Injection manifold with JB4 PI controller, and the other end flowing into the HPFP, which will be brand new.

Once I have all that up and running, I'll probably link up with a professional tuner to dial in something around 23psi on E40-E60 for every day purposes and continue to DD and maintain everything until the wheels fall off. Until I can install all this hardware and iron out all the kinks over the next month or so, here's some more photos:

 

[NoQuarter]

Hey Chadillac... great photos! Not from a camera phone?

 

[chadillac2000]

Hey Chadillac... great photos! Not from a camera phone?

I try to only use the camera phone in emergencies. Wasn't in a huge rush, and wanted to grab some nice shots for my build thread, so I broke out the D810.

 

[langsbr]

Are you committed to Blackstone? I was going to use them as well, but someone said they don't do true fuel dilution testing. With our car's seemingly common injector issues, I have decided to use oil analyzers as they do a true fuel dilution test.

 

[chadillac2000]

Are you committed to Blackstone? I was going to use them as well, but someone said they don't do true fuel dilution testing. With our car's seemingly common injector issues, I have decided to use oil analyzers as they do a true fuel dilution test.

Not in the slightest, but I have enjoyed their services so far. This is the first type of oil analysis I've ever gotten done, and I'd heard good reviews of Blackstone, so I went with them. Would love hear some feedback on some other services though if you decide to use them. It would be very informative if we could start to see an injector fail through oil analysis before it fully goes.

 

[MDORPHN]

lansbr -

I've used Blackstone for a very long time and their reports always include fuel dilution. What have you heard about it not being a "true" test?

Neil

 

[langsbr]

Apparently theirs is not a "true" fuel dilution test. I'm far from an expert in oil analysis, but what I've seen is that Blackstone uses flash point to determine dilution, which is not accurate. A proper fuel dilution analysis is from gas chromatography.

I have 2 Blackstone sample boxes that I was getting ready to use. I may send one sample to Blackstone and one to Oil Analyzers to see the difference. Would be interesting. Here's someone on the net that did the same thing:

http://renosyn.com/blackstone-labs-vs-oil-analyzers-inc-blackstones-fuel-dilution-issue/

 

[MDORPHN]

Apparently theirs is not a "true" fuel dilution test. I'm far from an expert in oil analysis, but what I've seen is that Blackstone uses flash point to determine dilution, which is not accurate. A proper fuel dilution analysis is from gas chromatography.

I have 2 Blackstone sample boxes that I was getting ready to use. I may send one sample to Blackstone and one to Oil Analyzers to see the difference. Would be interesting. Here's someone on the net that did the same thing:

http://renosyn.com/blackstone-labs-vs-oil-analyzers-inc-blackstones-fuel-dilution-issue/

That's interesting, indeed. Look forward to the comparison. Thanks.

Neil

 

[Torgus]

Apparently theirs is not a "true" fuel dilution test. I'm far from an expert in oil analysis, but what I've seen is that Blackstone uses flash point to determine dilution, which is not accurate. A proper fuel dilution analysis is from gas chromatography.

I have 2 Blackstone sample boxes that I was getting ready to use. I may send one sample to Blackstone and one to Oil Analyzers to see the difference. Would be interesting. Here's someone on the net that did the same thing:

http://renosyn.com/blackstone-labs-vs-oil-analyzers-inc-blackstones-fuel-dilution-issue/

Please post your results!

 

[fmorelli]

Better yet call Blackstone and discuss how they do it. Ask questions. They have a good reputation in the business. My blackstone reports come back with a written personal analysis. For the peanuts paid, it's a good deal. I'm sure they are more than happy to discuss fuel dilution measurements, techniques, pros, and cons.

Filippo

 

[langsbr]

Better yet call Blackstone and discuss how they do it. Ask questions. They have a good reputation in the business. My blackstone reports come back with a written personal analysis. For the peanuts paid, it's a good deal. I'm sure they are more than happy to discuss fuel dilution measurements, techniques, pros, and cons.

Filippo

I intend to. I know it's all over different forums, big rigs in particular, regarding the fact that Blackstone's fuel dilution method is "suspect". I have no dog in the fight, and haven't used Blackstone or Oil Analyzers yet, and have the prepaid jar for Blackstone as I fully intended to use them. It wasn't until I started reading on the way they do their fuel dilution testing, and saw that they even recommend further testing if their fuel dilution (flash point) test indicates excessive fuel. If that's the case, why not just go to a place that does chromatography from the start?

 

[chadillac2000]

Before I installed any of the fueling mods I'd acquired, I first needed to pass inspection in North Carolina. I passed last year as a FBO twin turbo car running catless downpipes and resonators in place of my secondary cats by flashing to MHD stock map 0, turning the JB4 to map 0, and getting inspected in the small window in between achieving readiness and throwing a code for not having cats installed.

In 2018 however, I had transitioned to a single turbo setup and still had no cats. For weeks I struggled to get readiness. I flashed the MHD stock 0 map (not enjoyable on a single turbo car), turned the JB4 to map 0, disabled auto clear mode, and monitored readiness with the MHD app. For weeks I couldn't achieve any type of readiness no matter which map I was running. Through research, mostly reading v8bait's posts, and watching Budget Bimmer's video on the topic, I discovered that as long as your state allows 1 not ready, like North Carolina, that passing inspection should not be a problem. More than 1 not ready, or an illuminated check engine light on the dash, and it's a fail.

Using TunerPro software + the Budget Bimmers video as instructions, I activated EVAP and deactivated the secondary cat codes within the BMS BEF I was using, made sure not to touch anything else, saved the tune, and flashed it to the car. This theoretically would allow me to keep the car in map 2 at 17psi on my preferred BMS pump gas single turbo THR tune, and still be able to pass smog testing. Unfortunately I was still having issues achieving any type of readiness across the board.

Just as I was really starting to get frustrated, I remembered I had unplugged the rear o2 sensor connections within the JB4 harness when I was working out o2 sensor gremlins months back. I went back inside the ECU box, reconnected these. I had essentially already coded them out using TunerPro, so they wouldn't cause a CEL, but now they could achieve readiness. Sure enough, a few drive cycles, and we were showing readiness everywhere except catalyst. Knowing I could still pass with that one not ready, as long as it wasn't a fail, I headed to the small gas station down the street that I've been going to for the past few years, and it was quickly pulled into one of the bays for inspection.

10 minutes later and I was ready to go until summer 2019 with passing colors. It's nice to know that I won't have any problems in the future running single turbo, with 0 cats installed, and running a JB4 + BMS BEF combo.

Fueling mods and more boost are scheduled for early August, but until then, I'll continue to beat on her daily.

 

[langsbr]

How does a single turbo setup pass? Do they not worry about visual inspection? I'm in SC and we don't know what emissions testing is.

 

[chadillac2000]

How does a single turbo setup pass? Do they not worry about visual inspection? I'm in SC and we don't know what emissions testing is.

For NC at least, as long as there is no SES light on the dash, and no more than 1 "not ready" status, even catalyst, you pass. There is no visual inspection, just OBDII check and a lights/signals/bulb check. The hood of my car has never been popped and no one has ever gotten underneath to look during an inspection.

I don't think South Carolina requires emissions inspections at all.

 

[Torgus]

For NC at least, as long as there is no SES light on the dash, and no more than 1 "not ready" status, even catalyst, you pass. There is no visual inspection, just OBDII check and a lights/signals/bulb check. The hood of my car has never been popped and no one has ever gotten underneath to look during an inspection.

I don't think South Carolina requires emissions inspections at all.

We have the same inspection in MA. It is WONDERFUL.