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BMW 3-Series (E90 E92) Forum > E90 / E92 / E93 3-series Powertrain and Drivetrain Discussions > N54 Turbo Engine / Drivetrain / Exhaust Modifications - 335i > 2008 E61 Wagon Hybrid Turbo Build



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      06-26-2018, 02:43 PM   #1
sloweste9x
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2008 E61 Wagon Hybrid Turbo Build

Fellow car enthusiasts,

I recently began the process of upgrading the turbos on my 2008 BMW E61 535XI wagon.

Recently, I had a 2007 E92, and did the turbos as well as a few other basic bolt ons, and the car was quite fast.



The car was torquey and ran well, however it wasn't quite practical enough for my needs. Even with some of the most aggressive snow tires on the market, it wasn't an ideal vehicle for me, as I often drive up very steep mountains in the snow, or drive home from work in the middle of the night before the streets are plowed. Not to mention it wasn't great for transporting mountain bikes/surfboards/fun stuff.


The car:

2008 BMW 535XI wagon, 6AT



On the way to the shop after a very bad valve cover gasket failure. So bad that the oil would ignite after just a few minutes of idling, let alone driving!




Fire:

https://flic.kr/p/28yiikB

Upon arrival at the shop, Northeast Autobahn in Walpole, MA, we found the compression on my engine in the car wasn't ideal (90-110psi across the deck without oil, 115-120 with oil), even though the car had just 58k on the drivetrain/body. Disappointed, we pushed on.

This running engine and all accessories will be for sale soon! The engine had no issues other than the compression. Lmk if you're interested in any parts.



Max Cabrera from Northeast Autobahn could not have been more helpful during this entire project. It was truly an uphill battle, but he found new and creative ways to move through the issues he ran into, and the car could truly not have been in better hands. If you are in the Boston/Eastern Mass area I highly recommend stopping by for any maintenance/performance related tasks. I am so glad I decided not to attempt this install myself. The 6MT RWD E92 was hard enough, but the 6AT AWD 5 series is an entirely different game, and with the issues along the way, the car was much better suited in a professional's hands.


The RB Next Gen +:



VRSF 7.5" FMIC, AR Design Catted ***, New Valve Cover:


VERY tight fitment on the E60/E61:




Changing the oil pan gasket on the "new" engine:




Valve cover gasket/intake cleaning:





The "new" engine all put together:





Going back in:




The big heavy XHP flashed 6HP21:




As for now, this is what she looks like:





The VRSF 7.5" Race intercooler fit fine, but it did need some trimming of the fan shroud as well as rerouting of the transmission cooler lines.

Initially I was planning to wrap this car, install coilovers as well as some aftermarket Niche wheels, however I daily drive my car in all sorts of conditions, and really enjoy the excellent soft, yet agile stock suspension composed of the rear air springs and the tradition front strut assembly. Additionally, I think it would be kind of cool to leave it "beat up" on the outside, and surprise a lot of unsuspecting people. After all, this is a daily drive vehicle first, and a fun vehicle second.

All she needs now is a new transmission cooler and thermostat and she'll be good to go. Please ask me if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Once again, many thanks to Northeast Autobahn in Walpole Massachusetts and Max Cabrera for taking on this project. Just a few years ago when I called around to see who would do the turbos on my E92, many shops flat out refused, as it wasn't in their best interest, however Max agreed to do so, and actually encouraged me to try it out myself on my 335, as the job isn't as tricky as the 5 series. He's always there for mechanical advice, has plenty of experience with motorsport, especially the N54/N55 platform, and is one of the most patient/honest people I've ever met. I highly recommend his services.

Last edited by sloweste9x; 06-26-2018 at 09:15 PM..
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      06-26-2018, 02:52 PM   #2
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Sweet project dude...thanks for sharing. When are you looking to get out on the road?
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      06-26-2018, 09:16 PM   #3
sloweste9x
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bimmer_Engineer View Post
Sweet project dude...thanks for sharing. When are you looking to get out on the road?
Thank you. At this point we're just waiting on the transmission cooler and the tstat/fittings to come in and we'll be all set. Hopefully some time this week the car will be all set, and the tuning will begin.
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      07-03-2018, 04:14 PM   #4
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Current set up:

She's running and driving, and the turbo whistle sounds awesome. Next up: fueling/tuning.

Last edited by sloweste9x; 07-03-2018 at 06:53 PM..
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      07-08-2018, 11:58 AM   #5
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Well well well. It's been a few days and a lot has happened. First, I picked up the car on Thursday and got to drive it. She's really fast. Much quicker than my buddies E9X M3, and much faster than my E92 335.

I hung with a 991.2 Carrera yesterday easily. These RB Turbos rock, and they're on low boost (base tune).

IMG_9325

The car needed an alignment badly, and shortly after this video I had one done which resolved the AWD/DSC errors.

I put about 170 miles on the car and then changed the oil yesterday. Late at night under load while driving, I began smelling transmission fluid and then suddenly a the gear indicator came on, followed by the car being locked in park (frightening!). Fortunately I was about half a mile from my house, and was able to limp the car home only keeping the gear selector pressed into drive, at about 5-10 mph. I didn't know what was leaking, but I knew that one of the transmission lines had broken, which was causing the massive leak.

After scanning the car with XHP, this error was present:


Upon further inspection the leak came not from any of the AN fittings/oil cooler, but the OEM push-lock fitting directly above the outlet of the intercooler as shown below:



Pulled down so you can see which line became disconnected:



I managed to reconnect the lines until they "clicked", but I am worried this will happen again. Are these lines known to "burst" or dislodge from each other under load?

The car is locked in neutral even though there are no error codes present in from either the DME or the TCU. My guess is that I lost so much fluid the car is locked in some sort of failsafe mode to protect the transmission, and thus will not let it out of park. I activated the emergency neutral switch to load her onto the flatbed, and off she went to the shop.



My questions: How can I prevent these lines from becoming disconnected again? Is the transmission/mechatronics okay?
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      07-18-2018, 12:40 PM   #6
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Update on the build:

The lines came undone (by themselves, how odd), causing an acute massive ATF loss, damaging the atf pump, the torque converter, the clutch A drum, as well as the mechatronics and the mechatronics seals.

This was a tragic and expensive loss, and has been quite frustrating for me as well as the shop to figure out why what happened happened, and how to fix it accordingly.

We ended up deciding to replace the entire transmission, as unfortunately that was the cheapest solution to this problem.

I was surprised how bad the transmission really was; check out this video and you will see the inordinate (and slightly horrifying) amount of material found in the atf after the pan was dropped.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/AbM9QRJ5TK0






The transmission was sourced from the same supplier as the engine, and ironically it seems like the transmission is from the same donor as the engine. Financially disappointing (should've just bought a donor vehicle) but at least the two will be united, working together once more!

The real challenge will be coding the new transmission, setting up the adaptations, and installing XHP correctly.

Last edited by sloweste9x; 08-02-2018 at 10:01 PM..
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      07-19-2018, 04:35 PM   #7
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I have a 60k 6hp21 out of a 2008 535xi that's useless to me, $500. My girls in Wrentham, I could of worked out something for ya.
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      08-04-2018, 10:59 AM   #8
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In this week's update I spent some time cleaning up the car, and making it more visually appealing.

The first thing I did was install a set of gloss black kidneys as well as wrap the bottom piece of silver trim in the front bumper gloss black.

Please excuse the crappy photos, I could not have chosen a worse time to take pictures (very harsh light):




The black kidneys look 100x better than the OEM chrome ones, and the black trim looks much better than the silver trim as well. Maybe I'll wrap the window trim this week.



Anyways, next I installed the low pressure fuel pump with the help of a different mechanic, these guys don't do much performance work but they know so much about these cars. Without the lock ring tool we did the lpfp installation in about an hour and a half (much easier with two people vs by yourself).




I had a little less than a 1/4 tank, however our E61s have 18.5 gallon tanks, maybe even 19, so we used an old lpfp attached to a hose and some long leads (safely away from any fumes) to pump out the rest of the gasoline before I stuck my entire arm in the gas tank.


Having the new lpfp is so nice. The car is making great power, the rail pressures are higher and more consistent, and my confidence is overall boosted. My old pump's performance was sporadic. It would spike from 60-100lbs, this one is much more consistent and makes more pressure. Thank you http://www.eurotuninggroup.com

Lastly, I decided to clean up my MHD situation. Previously, I had just plugged in the phone via the OBD and balanced it on my leg, however under hard driving this is obviously not a great solution.

First I disassembled the trim:

My DIY snake:


I needed a way to ensure the OTG cable does not become dislodged from the OBD cable, and I did not want to glue anything, so here was my short term solution using high temperature electrical tape:



Much cleaner!




I don't like how far out the OBD portion sticks out. Maybe I can modify the cable to have a smaller OBD housing or find one already available. The OBD end has a few strips of Velcro on it as well as that piece of black trim right on top of it, so when it's not plugged in it's neatly adhered to its little "ceiling".

Lastly, I wanted to clean up my side indicator housings. Eventually I will replace the entire housings as well as the bulbs, but for today I just sanded and polished:



One of those little clips that holds the side indicator housing into the car fell off in the car. I didn't want to spend 30 minutes disassembling components to even have a hope of finding it, so I took a heat shield from my E92 (that I never put back on during a turbo swap) and cut a small portion of that to be used as a clip. Worked out better than I expected.





I am looking into wheels, coilovers, and wrapping the entire car, but in the short term I will be wrapping the window trim and possibly modifying my transmission cooling system.
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      08-04-2018, 11:00 AM   #9
sloweste9x
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JuniorB View Post
I have a 60k 6hp21 out of a 2008 535xi that's useless to me, $500. My girls in Wrentham, I could of worked out something for ya.

If only I had known!
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      11-18-2018, 11:51 AM   #10
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0-60mph, no brake boost, 93:

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      11-18-2018, 02:50 PM   #11
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Curious as to how your running the walbros 450, it looks like it's running outside the bucket??
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