[McGyv3r]

Originally Posted by perezr10

How many miles does your car have now?

Right now it's about 106,500 miles. I bought it with 92k on the clock.

[McGyv3r]

After several long days of driving, the cross country drive from SF to Philly was mechanically uneventful. It seemed like I burned about 1/2 to a full quart of oil over roughly 7,000 miles. That seems a little excessive, but hopefully not a big deal. I took the car to VAC here in Philly to get an overdue oil change and a Blackstone report.

On to the cooling system work.

The first hose to replace was the Micky Mouse flange (VTT-VTTCOOLANTHOSEFLANGEBLACK). Just as expected, the plastic broke off when I tried to remove it. I'm REALLY glad that I didn't drive with this! The hose looked fine, so I just installed a new billet Vargas Turbo flange with a hose clamp. Rein also makes one, but I liked the black anodizing on Vargas'.

Apparently I forgot to take some pictures, but I also replaced the upper radiator hose (REIN CHR0596), the expansion tank crossover tube (BMW-17128570061), and the radiator (NISSENS 60816). The stock radiator is apparently a Valeo. I bought a Nissens, which has been doing just fine so far.







Once that was done, I put the drive belt (CONTINENTAL 8K1390) on and made sure the tensioner (INA FT40433) and idler (CONTINENTAL 50069) pulleys were torqued. (I was trying to avoid getting coolant on the belt)



This left me with my last headache: Turbo coolant pipes. I'm guessing the heat from the turbo cooked the o-rings (11537590575), allowing coolant to leak, and caused a mess. The turbo oil drain line looked swollen from the leaks. I decided to change both turbo coolant lines () and the oil drain line. To make room, remove the expansion cross-over tube, then unbolt the expansion tank and kind of rotate it out of the way so you can work from the top. I use a little bit of Sil-Glyde lubricant on the rubber bits to make them easier to slide into place.



The oil drain (CRP-TRP0311) was pretty easy. Just undo a torx at the turbo and another at the oil pan. Then slide the drain line out. I went with a rein to save money. All of the reviewers were correct when they said it doesn't fit the mounting point on the oil pan. So I had to ream out the hole to get it to fit. It was a minor inconvenience to save some cash.

The coolant lines were miserable. There is one torx bolt holding them into the turbo. The bottom (11538602578) is the supply and the other end is held in place with a hose clamp. The top (11537583903) is the coolant return and it holds the supply line in place. The other end has a flange under the intake manifold held with another torx bolt. This flange is basically out of reach when a tool is in there. Both were baked into the turbo and the return was stuck to the head. They were really hard to remove, but not impossible.

I was able to get the correct coolant return pipe, but the supply pipe I got was probably for an f10 with an n55. I didn't have time to wait for a new one, so I had to clean up the old one and reinstall it.





Here's the view of the return pipe to the head from under the car. (hose right in the middle)



*****PRO TIP*****
I sliced 4 or 5 of the o-rings trying to slide the coolant return into the head. You'll find out when you start to fill the car with coolant and have a steady leak. YOU HAVE TO PUT THE RETURN PIPE INTO THE HEAD BEFORE THE TURBO. Doing the turbo first won't allow you to square the return flange to the head, and you WILL slice the o-ring.

Getting the bolts to stay on your torx bit is also a huge pain. So use a little masking tape and a locking extension. Also, be VERY careful when screwing the steel torx bolt into the aluminum head. It felt like I cross threaded the bolt, but I was able to get enough torque on it that it should be fine to stay there. It would be a HORRIBLE place to have to insert a Helicoil or NutSert.



I buttoned it all up, cleaned off all the coolant and oils, and drove it for a few days. No leaks!



The final job was to mess with the clutch again. I had used a pressure bleeder for the brakes and clutch, but I was concerned that fluid only came out of the clutch slave when I hit the clutch pedal. (I may not have had the bleeder open enough) I knew the fluid was flushed, but I was worried about air bubbles.

So I grabbed a 50ml syringe from work and some tubing for the tip. The process was to suck fluid out of the reservoir, then push it into the slave bleed nipple. I did this twice and was very happy with the results. The hydraulic clutch system from master to slave should hold less than 50ml. So 50ml should be enough to fully replace all the fluid/bubbles.



Of course it's critical to have a buddy with you while you work.

[McGyv3r]

Second post in one day, CRAZY!

Today's post is all about getting ready to pass an emissions test, because that's what I'm doing.

As a quick recap, my car has a 7" FMIC, CP, DP, and a 93 Octane Stage 2 BM3 tune. All these things would fail a CA inspection for visual and the plug in scan.

From what I know, PA is only checking the emission monitor status. I probably SHOULD fail a visual for mods, but I've heard it isn't really enforced.

Lets talk about tunes and emissions. I downloaded a copy of ISTA+ for diagnostics. This is the same software that BMW techs use. After you run a full scan, you can go to 'Vehicle management' --> 'Service functions' --> 'Power train' to see some interesting info. Look on the right side and see the red dot inside my star in the row for 'Checking engine tuning'. This will alert the tech that some parameter of your tune has changed.



To learn about how to set the emissions monitors, you can select 'OBD scan tool' on the left pane, then 'Petrol engine Readiness Codes' on the right pane, then 'Display' on the bottom. This tells you about the tests the car performs and the conditions to set the monitors.






From the previous screen, you go into a test function to display some interesting info. Select 'OBD scan tool' on the left pane, then 'OBD scan tool' on the right pane, then 'Display' on the bottom to get to the next screen.



Lets talk about why tunes fail the CA Smog test. Select 'Read out vehicle information (CAL ID/CVN)' and hit 'Continue'. Over the past several years, the CA BAR and CARB have been cataloging the Calibration Verification Number for every OBDII car. Based on my VIN, they know what all the 1s and 0s for my control unit (0x12) should add up to in hexadecimal. In my case, the correct value for the CAL-ID is E2C3797B. My value was "FC64018F". They don't know I'm on BM3 with a stage 2 93 octane tune, but they do know SOMETHING has been changed. So I would fail.

To illustrate this point, I wanted to remove all pops and burbles from my tune. I did that and reflashed the tune, and now my CVN is "3113B4D1". They don't need to know what you did, they just need to know the sum of 1s and 0s doesn't match the CAL-ID. So you fail. That's why you HAVE to flash back to stock AND lock the ECU.



Great, you flashed back to stock. Now all your emissions monitors got reset. Follow the drive cycle tests above to get them ready for the test. To check them, go to the 'OBD scan tool screen' and select 'Read out OBD Readiness Codes', then hit 'Continue'.

You'll get a list of monitors. 'Support: / yes' means your car supports the test. 'Check: / Concluded' means the monitor is ready. Check with your DMV to figure out how many of these are needed to pass the test. 'Support: X no' means your car doesn't support this test, so ignore it.





No to wrap up, lets talk about Downpipes and emissions. No catless downpipe will pass emissions without some other trickery. Most catted downpipes are enough to keep the car from thinking it has a serious problem (no Check Engine Light), but it will not set the Readiness Monitor. Several companies (I have an Active Autowerks) sell 49-state compliant downpipes. This will fail the visual in CA, but was enough to set the monitor. Assuming I had flashed to stock, locked the ECU, and had an inspector that would pass my visual, I could pass the computer test in CA.

I'm going to get my monitors ready on the stage 2 tune and see if it will pass inspection here in PA.

[F30_320D_UK]

What a ball ache to drive a modded car in CA it seems. Don't the authorities have real work to do apart from failing cars in emissions checks? Kudos to you for going through all this trouble to pass the test though

[McGyv3r]

I just got this Blackstone oil report back for Maude. This is after ~7000 miles of driving, almost all of it on the highway. I've got alarmingly high amounts of copper and silicone in the oil.

I used Liqui-Moly 5w30 Special Tec LL oil. There could be some silicone introduced from putting Sil-Glyde on the o-rings for the turbo oil drain. I used aluminum (silver) anti-seize on the spark plugs. I just cant think of where the copper could come from.

From what I've read, the early n55s had connecting rod bearing issues. But I thought that was isolated to PWG engines up to 2013. I thought the EWG engines from 2014 had updated bearings. Should I be worried?

[McGyv3r]

Well, both cars are now fully legal in Philly!

The f30 went through safety and emissions inspection with a bm3 Stage 2 93 octane tune, FMIC, CP, and AA downpipe. All of the emissions monitors were ready, so I fully expected it to pass.

The e30 was just as simple. I told the service writer to be careful because the car is really low. When he came back he said, "Man, you're car is REALLY low!" I laughed at that one.