I don’t know what day it is, but it is post finish install. But we’re not done plugging everything up. The meth system is in, but not, well, bolted down, more just cushioned, in a metal box. with no actual meth in it, nor any lines plumbed- we have the “L” fitting we needed, but we’ve had bigger issues to contend with. Well, the crankcase breather/oil separator thingamajig was stuck due to the car’s lack of movement and cold temperatures. I’m sourcing a new valve cover gasket to replace the currently blown one. When I blew it, it lost a quart in a few seconds, the cloud behind me was a thick 800-yard super fog of smoke. The plugs are swimming, I would attempt to suck it out with something- if i had such equipment, but i think my options have left it to just soak with shop towels.

by tomorrow, it should be going again.

serious vids soon to come

more coming soon

Day 22
I’ts alive!! We got the transmission, driveline, and everything back on, and took her for a ride. Vids are available under the video tab.

Mid day 21
I’m back to where I was last Thursday, but this time with a throw-out bearing installed. And yet, last thursday I got out of class at 5, this month I get out of class at 9
The transmission is fully fastened as of this morning. I blew a professor’s shitty lecture off to finish this part. I could’ve gotten out of bed earlier, with class starting at 1, but last night was late, and i wanted plentiful sleep. GGGGGOOOOOOODDDDDDD!!!!!!! My life sucks. I hate this video class. This is the third in a series, this is by far the most arbitrary project by the most retarded professor. At least the two previous professors had a sign ‘n ditch sheet. I hate this lecture, everything he says is useless…. I skipped half of the lecture and it wasn’t enough! I can’t wait to actually do something in lab.

Day 20
We finished the throw-out bearing install. The transmission is mostly on, and some of the bolts are holding it to the motor, but it is largely still on the jack.

mid day 20
So this morning I walked to the garage. Determined to overcome the beast. I didn’t come dressed for it, largely because I didn’t think I was strong enough. I wrestled with that fucking oil line, my fingers are in pain, the side of my index finger is bloated and red, but it is out. I’m not sure that I can torque it enough to tighten it, I really can only hardly get the wrench on it. Hopefully David will make a quick recovery from his ills. I just got my jack back. So later today, when I return from school this night i will have the transmission off, and hopefully back in.

mid Day 19
I began the transmission removal steps. Driveshaft is off. David’s roomate borrowed my small jack and hasn’t returned it yet. I need it to support the motor. But, really I don’t need it till David can come by and undo my oil line, I tried, I undid the throttle body pipe and tried to put a wrench around that oil line. I have no clue how he does it, but he’s done it several times now. And I would consider the oil line the bitch of the install because of its difficulty and repeated removal, but the throw out-bearing takes it. The throw out bearing has caused all these steps backwards; including one more oil line off, oil line on.

day 16-18 skipped fully

End of Day 15
EPIC FAILURE! I’m an idiot, I don’t need to hear it. I know it. I have the transmission fully installed. But, I neglected one part, I just realized. Well, I was attaching the reverse light line- after the driveshaft was reattached, the trans crossmember was on, the turbo oil feed line was reattached and the throttle body pipe has been put back into place. I thought I was about to drive the car, in maybe an hour, I was wrong. I couldn’t imagine seeing the drivetrain coming together so nicely, all my new sweet shit. I forgot to install the throw out bearing- it hits me deep in the gut, and I feel cold. FUCK!!1!!1!!11!!!11!!
I’m not touching this bitch for a while

Mid Day 15
So I have afternoon classes, so before classes today, I finished the bellhousing transmission install. It’s not on mounts yet, but the shifter is also in place. I beat the new cv joint into the back of the driveshaft with a screwdriver. I chose a plastic-handled screwdriver to avoid metal-metal of hammer on a piece that should not be deformed in any way. After a solid half hour of hand-destruction and still 1/16th inch away, a hammer tapped everything onto place in a few seconds.

Day 14
So it hasn’t been a happy few days of photography. But we’ve done a fair amount, especially considering our lack of foresight. So we destroyed the original oil feed line to the turbo when removing the transmission. I thought, it was due to our lack of care and forgetfulness. It was, but it’s also impossible to put the bellhousing into place with that line there. So all the piping I carefully put into place, an secured fully, well, the throttle body pipe had to go, to undo the oil line under the manifold. But now the transmission is in, nearly. All but a few bolts, namely the very difficult passenger side bolt.

Day 13
So last night we finished the turbo install, again, sorta. David and Chris owned the oil line, and the turbo has been refastened, to everything. The belt drive system is reassembled, power steering pump is back in. We made a lounging area in the “Garage of non M” by leaning my old backseats against the wall. Dinner break!
No clutch alignment tool? I think tomorrow we’ll have better luck sourcing one. No, BMW nor any clutch maker includes the zhp 6 speed clutch centering tool.

Day 12
So tonight I got that oil line off of the turbo, as we await the new one from Nick. Tyler pretty much had the AEM Meth setup wired, we just need to mount the pump and tank somewhere and clean up the wiring so it’s somewhat hidden. Julio got the clutch/flywheel off, and we’re at a waiting point for parts. He’s going to pick up a new rear main seal from the stealership tomorrow, and we’re expecting the clutch disc and new oil line to be in as well. If all goes well we can have the car up and running by tomorrow night.. hopefully. Here’s a few pics from the last couple nights

torn nitrile gloves after wrestling with the transmission

5spd vs. 6spd

tranny off, m5 clutch and uuc flywheel

meth bung welded on to the TB charge pipe

where it will be installed, in case you’re wondering, the top extension is for the idle control valve

clutch and flywheel off

the UUC clutch/flywheel combo, VERY light flywheel, but a VERY heavy clutch.. evens out I guess

a buddy we heard in the bushes outside of the garage.. haha some armadillo action

Day 11
Like an idiot, I forgot the turbo oil feed line was around the back of the head, when pulling the tranny, it got caught. And so, it may still function but I have no faith that the oil line will support it with the precious oil of life it needs, reliably. So, I purchased a new line from Nick and am awaiting its arrival. On another note, Tyler, with his wiring prowess, has helped me, by wiring the gauges. I threw in a hand where applicable. Also got some work done sealing some vents on the roof for the drain for the sunroof, little things i never addressed. Finally, since welding my roof brace on, I have my b-pillar supports in. My pillars and headliner are ready to go back in, I’m just waiting on silicone to dry. The interior is still slightly torn apart from the wiring, and me compulsively disassembling to clean. So some reassembly is necessary. David was attacked by some evil Wendy’s- so he was out. I’m still waiting on my Spec clutch disc, everything else for transmission install is ready.

Day 10
So the turbo install is pretty much complete, save the fact that we need to find a 90 degree fitting for the meth bung.

Now the transmission. Julio bought a 6spd from a zhp, as well as a JBRacing flywheel, and a spec clutch. We’ll be getting these in, switching the driveshaft to the 6spd one, and mounting the new shifter. Once this is done we’ll continue installing the AEM Methanol setup, along with the AEM gauges and the ATI epod mount.

We got the transmission off last night, after some wrestling, and called it a night at that LOL. Clutch/Flywheel will be off today

more coming soon

———–Day 9
So, we didn’t actually walk into the garage, but that doesn’t go on to say that no progress was made. I made a trip to Tavares, to visit JB racing- thanks Stan for driving me an hour each way. They were really cool, volunteered to give Stan and I a tour. Awesome shop. Furthermore, I had Exhaust depot weld in a bung for meth in my aluminum throttle body pipe and another bung for AFR monitoring in the downpipe. I’ll post pics later. Day 10 should see the completion of the turbo kit, minus downpipe, as the transmission wont go in until Monday at the earliest. UPS broke a ear on the mounting bracket of the trans to the crossmember, I ordered a new one, as UPS is not responding to my claim. But it was fairly cheap, though I have yet to pick it up. That and Spec sent me the wrong clutch disc, I want a sprung clutch disc for my single mass flywheel! The clutch disc should arrive today. But before the transmission is in, there’s plenty more to do between gauges, and meth.

———–Day 8
Day 8 cont. The camera was a bit neglected, but due to my superb internet connection in this complex, I wasn’t able to get all of the pics uploaded last night. SOOO, here are the rest. I was able to get the injectors and PCV plumbing all done while Julio got the pre-intercooler charge pipes installed. BPV is on, and really all we need to do is tighten up the wastegate pipe (ratcheting 12mm wrench would be God for this, and with the countless trips we’ve made to the local Autozone, I think we’ve paid their rent for the month!), get the wastegate on, and then install the charge pipe to the TB. Charcoal filter is on, along with the vacuum line going down to the bpv. So yeah, we’re done, save a few little things here and there.

PCV plumbing

‘

Fuel Rail, pcv plumbing done etc

Charcoal Filter

Some Charge piping exhaust side

BPV location underneath the car with some more charge piping

Filter and Charge pipe fitment

The pipe that needs the meth bung welded in will go here and connect the idle control valve and obviously the TB

Piping from the intercooler up to the TB (none of this is tightened yet, just test fitting)

David and I accomplished a lot. In, fact there’s very little left. We plumbed all of the vacuum lines. I revised the filter installation as I kinda cocked it up last night; I asked Nick if it was correct, by the pics, it wasn’t. Also, the turbo to oil pan line has been shortened to minimize kink. All of the pre turbo piping is on and tightened, all of the turbo-intercooler piping is in and tightened as well. Before installing the throttle body pipe, I need to have a welder put in a bung for meth injection, so the intercooler to TB piping is loose and missing the throttle body pipe. The HID ballast on the drivers side needs relocation; I think it’ll be content inside a plastic airbox. The BPV is in place, though the vac line to it needs to be trimmed, it’s plumbed. The injectors are in… to give you an idea of the attention to detail of this kit, the spacers that move the fuel rails up a fraction of a half inch, are anodized black. The downpipe will go on later as I’m doing a clutch/flywheel/transmission job next. My gauges and ATI pod came in today all of that plus the methanol injection are upcoming as well. sorry for the poor documentation today, we really got into the install and kinda neglected the camera.

———–Day 7
David did his homework, dutifully; as he should… and fully neglected the greatness of my car in the garage. But luckily, a friend dropped by to help, Tyler. (I much prefer to chat while working, especially with someone who can help, “give it a try” or have first hand second opinions) Tonight, we got the turbo bolted to the exhaust manifold, and we plumbed some of the pre-turbo piping. Not all the clamps are tight yet, to make sure we can adjust for more piping that will be running from the turbo to the intercooler.

———–Day 6
Day six didn’t really happen as day 5 wasn’t supposed to. Day 6 died for day 5. Today, I had a massive project due for school. Instead of putting the turbo on the backburner like I should have, I went into it full-force as far as effort yesterday. And stayed up all night finishing my school work, It’s about 9pm est, and I just woke up since leaving class this afternoon. I expect big things of day 7, though.

———–Day 5
Tonight we didn’t do a whole lot, we just cleaned up more of what we accomplished before. And both David and I needed to catch up on homework neglected over the weekend.

Tonight we attached the intercooler. Nick’s manual directs the deletion of the front shrouding, as with the kit, it is functionless. Functionless for all purposes, but we kept it to maintain a more stock appearance.

Tonight we ended after getting stuck in a small installation complication we expect to have ironed out shortly- we need Nick’s input, we might be doing something wrong, and I’m sure he’s done for the day already. He’s been a great help with any questions we’ve had.

———–DAY 4

So tonight we got back to work a little while… still a bit to go, but we’re definitely making progress!

The oilpan was full of shavings after drilling/tapping, and a good hour was spent cleaning it out. Julio has the VAC baffle kit installed, which made it quite difficult to get it cleaned properly.

With the headers off we were able to install the new provided studs, as well as clean and re-tighten the old ones in prep for the manifold install. Our buddy Chris was peaking from up above.. lol

We spent a while putting the manifold on (it is ceramic coated, extra charge but definitely worth it in our opinion)

note the markings on the side of the block, this engine was stamped by the yard that it came from.

The kit includes a new engine mount in order for the charge pipe plumbing to clear properly. Here it is with the engine mount bushing installed. Oh, and the shoe!

We ended the night with the oil pan reinstalled, along with the new engine mount. At this point we were able to reconnect the front steering rack and control arms as well. Yes, the shield is a bit distorted, but we’ll be cleaning everything up of course.

The biggest accomplishment of the day was fastening the engine mounts, the oil pan and being able to move that cumbersome engine hoist out of the way. We now have room to work!

———–DAY 3, Homework + Gville drag day
———–DAY 2

Tonight the installation process has progressed a bit. Due to my need for more tools and some parts such as the oil pan gasket, we got started pretty late.
BTW, all the pics aligned left can be clicked on for supersizing.

Since NickG’s kit comes with very detailed, very good instructions, we don’t feel the need to provide you with step-by step directions with photo representation, that already exists. But instead have chosen to chronicle what we do as we go, later we’ll organize all our pics to match the steps we followed from Nick’s manual. We are doing this install by subject as outline in Nick’s manual, though not always in the exact right order, but very close.

Headers must make way for turbo cast exhaust manifold!!!

see the hex head just above the wire? Apply magic to get it to sit the right way, or a few tries. With the latter, I predict success. Not a fully resolved project. We really wanted to finish tapping the oil pan, and we did.



David pulled these in record time!

—————DAY 1

Nick is a master of packaging, if there’s a consideration for boxing care, have no fear with this kit. Everything came meticulously bubble wrapped or otherwise very carefully taped, peanuted, insulated in six packages, considering the carelessness of shipping companies very thoughtfully.

Tonight we started the install of the TT turbo kit for the 330 on Julio’s car. It may be taking us a while longer than others, but we’ve decided to remove the entire oil pan in order to tap the turbo oil line without any shavings, as well as to replace a previously broken oil pan bolt. We’re also replacing the power steering pump, due to a faulty bearing… This page will be updated daily as we make progress! tomorrow will be a busy day!

The kit

Bumper off

Engine supported!

Remove the Metal Shield

Front subframe that holds the steering rack needs to be loosened to remove the oil pan, it’s secured by 4 18mm bolts, after those are out it will hang

Oil pan revealed, drain it

Remove the million little 10mm bolts holding the oil pan on, there are also 3 e12 torx in the transmission that need to be removed