Jake's Epic BMW 135i Build Thread! (5+ Years of Ownership)

[suspenceful]

Earl said:

Nice work=) Have you don't any suspension upgrades or a refresh on this yet? I can't imagine how original bushings would feel with all of this power 

Nope, all stock. It's lowered on springs, but that's the only "upgrade". I plan to do rear subframe inserts soon because people say really good things about them. A full suspension overhaul is definitely something I want to do, but probably won't happen for another year or two.

[Earl]

Were the bushings ever done before you? I can't see them being in all that good of shape now if not

[B C]

Green coolant tastes rather nice.

Those pictures scare me, but my ideal car would have 6 feet of clearance on every side of every fastener.

Nice work digging in there!

[wasnt m3]

Any plans for an LSD?

[suspenceful]

Earl said:

Were the bushings ever done before you? I can't see them being in all that good of shape now if not 

Not that I'm aware of. I'm sure the car could definitely use a refresh...

Snap said:

Green coolant tastes rather nice.

Those pictures scare me, but my ideal car would have 6 feet of clearance on every side of every fastener.

Nice work digging in there!

Sadly, this was the blue stuff. Doesn't taste nearly as good, but thanks!

wasnt m3 said:

Any plans for an LSD?

Eventually, yes. I'm sure it will need one. Probably a winter project - I'm tapped for funds right now.

[Jdesign]

I'm really surprised the one series don't have a factory LSD besides the 1M? Is it available as a factory option at least?

[suspenceful]

Jdesign said:

I'm really surprised the one series don't have a factory LSD besides the 1M? Is it available as a factory option at least?

It really needs one, even in stock form. But they had to do something to set the 1M apart since it has the same motor 

I'm not sure if it's a factory option, I doubt it because I've never seen anyone post about having one.

[suspenceful]

Made a little more progress last night. Got the turbos out and all oil/coolant lines off. Unbolting the manifolds was the easy part. Removing the coolant and oil lines from the block and from the turbos was a painful, tedious process since I planned on re-using the lines.

I started to remove the PS pump/pulley so I could remove the oil pan, but didn't have a large enough torx bit to loosen the tension on the belt. I'll grab one today and get back after it tonight. I'd like to drop the oil pan and clean everything up while replacing the gasket. Then I'll do the oil filter housing gaskets and start putting things back together!

[i_love_cars]

Never re-use those oil and coolant lines. They are cheap shitty rubber. Replace all of them, especially at your high mileage, and especially while you still have the turbos out and hopefully haven't re-installed everything yet. 

Once you have the car back together, in case you do not know the proper priming process for turbo replacements on N5x cars: (Assuming you have relieved fuel pressure and disconnected the fuel pump fuse and ran the car until it died prior to starting this project like you should have) - crank the engine (push the start/stop button) 7 times for 7 seconds each time to prime the turbo with oil. Reconnect the fuel pump fuse. Then run the car for 2 minutes at idle, giving it no revs at all, then shut it off and let it cool. Once cool, start again for 15 minutes, again at idle with no revs. Shut it off and let it cool. Once cool, do a final run at 30 minutes, at idle, no revs.

[Earl]

i_love_cars said:

Never re-use those oil and coolant lines. They are cheap shitty rubber. Replace all of them, especially at your high mileage, and especially while you still have the turbos out and hopefully haven't re-installed everything yet. 

Once you have the car back together, in case you do not know the proper priming process for turbo replacements on N5x cars: (Assuming you have relieved fuel pressure and disconnected the fuel pump fuse and ran the car until it died prior to starting this project like you should have) - crank the engine (push the start/stop button) 7 times for 7 seconds each time to prime the turbo with oil. Reconnect the fuel pump fuse. Then run the car at WOT for 20 minutes before hopping on the highway and challenging everyone to a 60 roll.

[bk335]

Jdesign said:

I'm really surprised the one series don't have a factory LSD besides the 1M? Is it available as a factory option at least?

No factory option. The first modern non-M car to get an optional LSD was the M235i.

[GunMetalGrey]

i_love_cars said:

Never re-use those oil and coolant lines. They are cheap shitty rubber. Replace all of them, especially at your high mileage, and especially while you still have the turbos out and hopefully haven't re-installed everything yet. 

Once you have the car back together, in case you do not know the proper priming process for turbo replacements on N5x cars: (Assuming you have relieved fuel pressure and disconnected the fuel pump fuse and ran the car until it died prior to starting this project like you should have) - crank the engine (push the start/stop button) 7 times for 7 seconds each time to prime the turbo with oil. Reconnect the fuel pump fuse. Then run the car for 2 minutes at idle, giving it no revs at all, then shut it off and let it cool. Once cool, start again for 15 minutes, again at idle with no revs. Shut it off and let it cool. Once cool, do a final run at 30 minutes, at idle, no revs. 

I'm all for priming oil but what is the reason behind idling it for a combined 47 minutes? Are these engines prone to air bubbles trapped in the oil?

[suspenceful]

i_love_cars said:

Never re-use those oil and coolant lines. They are cheap shitty rubber. Replace all of them, especially at your high mileage, and especially while you still have the turbos out and hopefully haven't re-installed everything yet. 

Once you have the car back together, in case you do not know the proper priming process for turbo replacements on N5x cars: (Assuming you have relieved fuel pressure and disconnected the fuel pump fuse and ran the car until it died prior to starting this project like you should have) - crank the engine (push the start/stop button) 7 times for 7 seconds each time to prime the turbo with oil. Reconnect the fuel pump fuse. Then run the car for 2 minutes at idle, giving it no revs at all, then shut it off and let it cool. Once cool, start again for 15 minutes, again at idle with no revs. Shut it off and let it cool. Once cool, do a final run at 30 minutes, at idle, no revs. 

Ugh, it's like $500 for all new lines. That's a nice chunk of LSD money. I'll be cleaning them up, blowing compressed air through them, and inspecting them. I want to replace them, but was very careful about removing them. We'll see.

I didn't relieve fuel pressure and let the car die. I was planning on disconnecting the injector harness and letting the engine crank over to prime the turbos.

[i_love_cars]

GunMetalGrey said:

I'm all for priming oil but what is the reason behind idling it for a combined 47 minutes? Are these engines prone to air bubbles trapped in the oil? 

You could probably get away with less (just a single startup of the car) but the reasoning is that the oil takes forever to warm up in these cars at idle, although it's summer so Jake's car may cycle faster. Mine took a long time to warm up due to ambient oil temp being so much lower cuz I did my install in winter. 

2 reasons - first is making sure you get the turbo bearings lubricated fully at normal operating oil viscosity which is safer at idle. Driving the car which is prone to accidentally getting into boost puts you at risk of damaging those brand new bearings before everything is properly lubricated. Secondly, you want to make sure that there's absolutely no leaks anywhere at normal operating temperatures before putting subframe and everything back in because taking it all apart again would be....frustrating to say the least. 

I think you know these things already - it's really just the fact that oil takes longer to warm up on these cars so the idle times seem very long. Having a cold oil cycle for a couple minutes followed by another medium-length cycle is just iterative testing recommended by the BMW techs I talked to before going through the install myself. Personally I wouldn't be concerned as long as the car is allowed to cycle to full temperature at idle before putting it on the street

[B C]

Did Ben get a temp gun yet? If so, borrow Ben's temp gun

[patsbimmer1]

Great to see progress!  Keep it up!  When's the murder box going in the passenger seat?

[suspenceful]

patsbimmer1 said:

Great to see progress!  Keep it up!  When's the murder box going in the passenger seat? 

Thanks man! I'm not quite sure what you mean by murder box in the passenger seat though 

[GunMetalGrey]

suspenceful said:

Thanks man! I'm not quite sure what you mean by murder box in the passenger seat though 

I've also been trying to figure out what it could be...

 

Snap said:

Did Ben get a temp gun yet? If so, borrow Ben's temp gun

What's a temp gun?

[patsbimmer1]

suspenceful said:

Thanks man! I'm not quite sure what you mean by murder box in the passenger seat though 

GunMetalGrey said:

I've also been trying to figure out what it could be...

I need both of you to please watch Death Proof.  Basically, Kurt Russel plays a murderous stuntman who builds cars to intentionally crash and kill either the passenger or others while he remains alive.  If you have any interest in Tarantino you'll like it.

[suspenceful]

I got the oil pan cleaned up and re-installed with a new gasket. Having an industrial parts washer at my work helps. I also washed the subframe.

Then I began to swap all the lines over to the new turbos but ran into a bit of an issue. While it was my own fault, I feel like I should share for any other MMP3 owners. As Mauricio notes, you must use small washers on the bolts when reattaching the oil feed and coolant lines to the new turbos. Otherwise you will bottom out the bolt and pull the welds off that hold the mount on. Ask me how fun it is to find out the hard way.

Luckily I had a buddy who helped me weld the stainless mount back to the cast cartridge housing. It looks like it should hold just fine, but I haven't re-mounted the line yet. I might have to re-clock the turbos first. More progress tonight.

Also, if anyone wants to watch a 10 minute vlog-style video of the first day I worked on the car, check this out. My buddy @SteelBlue put it together for fun. We're curious to hear some feedback on it or if we should scrap the idea. Not a whole lot of "useful" content, but I thought it was interesting.