Agreed, I could have gone bigger. With the turbo sizing, I was trying for the fastest possible spool while not choking out the top end. Ironically enough, a larger rear housing would spool up just as fast and I appear to have sacrificed about 30-40lb-ft of torque with the 0.82.

Here is what the prior owner of this exact same engine got out of it with some different setups, using BC264's as well:

Red line is HX35 with Rev9 manifold
Blue line is G30-900 1.06 with Artec Manifold



Thanks - I'm hoping it doesn't feel too laggy. I do put about 8000km of street use on it each season so I wanted something balanced with a useable powerband.

The replacement turbo arrived today and we are swapping it over this evening. Working though the list of finishing touches and hopefully the car is back in my driveway by the weekend and I can finally drive the thing.

 

The new turbo was swapped last night. I got very close to needing engine #4 as the compressor wheel did touch the housing the some tiny bits got worn off the end of the blades. Found a few very very small metal flecks in the intercooler couplers, dumped the oil with a cheesecloth rag folded a few times and no metal was found in the oil thankfully. The retainer and oil restrictor being out of orientation caused the oil seal to fail. If we didn't stop as soon as we heard this, I'm fearful for what the outcome would have been. Shop agreed the car should probably go for tuning again with the replacement turbo considering what was found.

 

I got the car back last week and drove it home for the first time in many many months. I know it needs a retune, but I immediately felt something wasn't right. There was a misfire on idle occasionally and the engine just isn't as smooth as a 1J should be. The car is absolutely useless below 4300rpm which was disappointing. The head is also pretty noisy for just having 264's and springs.

I pulled the valve covers to inspect everything and didn't find any cause for alarm. I measured all the valve clearances 3 times. According to imperial specs, two of are barely in spec, but according to the metric measurements they are a touch out. (0.254 fit one intake valve & 0.381 almost fit on one exhaust valves). Coil packs tested OK and plugs are new. I finally decided to look down when the cam marks were lined up and found this:







Thank god non-vvti is non-interference. I've got it back at the shop now and we suspect the belt is stretched (Greddy with less than 10,000km, shouldn't be) or the tensioner is faulty. Ordered a new belt from Rockauto and a new tensioner which both came today.

I hope to report back soon with improved response and a much better driving experience.

 

She's happy again. The Greddy belt was loose compared to a new Continental belt, also the tensioner was suspect.

I drove it for about 40 minutes last night and everything was still bang-on when I got home and spun it by hand a few times. It's smoother and quieter than before, reaches boost threshold sooner and spools better too.

I also got back a report from Blackstone on the oil that was in it post-dyno for the first street miles. I did mention the turbo issue, the new cams, and that I found what appeared to be a few tiny flecks of metal with the valve covers off. Overall everything looks fine and I'll send another out after I run it for 500km, then 5000 to establish normal trends. I'm going to try to put 500km on it this weekend and put in fresh oil for the re-tune.



Pic is from before the timing belt change, but the bay is mostly back together and starting to look complete again. I still need to reinstall the strut tower bar and want to clean up some wires and vacuum lines a bit more. My intake manifold coupler was slipping with the clamps on the Goleby's kit but some T-bolt clamps fixed that.

 

I've put 2000km on it since my last post, the car is being driven and enjoyed as much as possible before winter storage (1-2 weeks, the end is near!). I took it on a cruise with a local group up north near my cottage and have been driving just to drive every single night the roads are dry.





Unfortunately the re-tune on the dyno never happened. The car before me was testing a K24 ITB setup and had one issue after another and I couldn't get on the rollers. The tuner did plug in his laptop and did some further logging and refining on the street mainly using 3rd gear pulls. Some adjustments were made to the idle and now it's just like OEM both hot & cold. The good news is the timing belt jumped after the initial tune so his maps were still on target. He told me everything looked good so I asked for a bit more revs and boost. We have the car setup for 20psi and 7425rpm redline currently.

I found a few vacuum leaks and have been over all the intercooler piping and clamps a few times. Response is now better, it will build positive boost under 3K (0-5psi), wakes up at about 3600 (7-8psi) and the boost gauge just flies to peak around 3900. I'd still like it to come on 2-300rpm sooner but I don't think I can expect too much more from a non-vvti 1J and a 0.82 A/R. The added range up top helps keep it in the powerband between shifts. I really want to see the power curve on the dyno now that it's sorted and also plot boost versus rpm.

I finally have 2 foglamps again. My old intercooler kit was made for 94-95 Soarers only, so I've had a left foglamp and duct on the right for the past decade. The new piping clears so I was finally able to re-install my right foglamp again. I just have to reconnect the wiring and get some new 3000k blubs. For the past 2 years, my M340i has been the fastest vehicle I own. It's very satisfying to say the the Soarer has now regained that title. I got on the M340 in 4th last week and thought to myself - is that it?





Last pic I'll share for now - My buddy Aaron told me to stand next to my car like I'm proud of it. That's the look of relief and satisfaction after a 3-year ordeal!

 

Glad you were able to get it tuned just enough and put some pre-snow miles on it! The Soarer is looking great and the your report on the revised boost response in the low to midrange sounds very good!

 

Thanks @KahnBB6, I'm really enjoying having it back. I can now confirm my report because I had an opportunity to go back out to the tuner yesterday.

Final Numbers @ 20.5PSI:

Dynojet WCF: 602hp/540ft-lbs
Mustang Dyno: 544hp/488ft-lbs

He programmed boost by gear, 1st is wastegate pressure (14psi) for traction, 2nd is 18psi, 3rd and 4th are 20.5psi. It was pretty cold last night on the way home so it did hit the programmed boost cut (23.5psi) twice. Some further refining of the duty cycle on the solenoid may be needed bit I'll see if it hits cut in spring conditions.

The performance of the Turbosmart & 6Boost combination has really exceeded my expectations. It performs better than the Garrett G30-900 & Artec setup that was formerly on this engine all over the curve with 2lbs less boost. It's on by 3800 and just keeps pulling to redline. The torque hit is very satisfying now and the car just spools and goes.

 

Excellent and impressive results, so glad to see it all come together. I'm curious why do you have a front license plate on your Soarer but nothing on the front of your M340?

 

Thanks! My front plate rule is if the bumper isn't drilled, I run without until I get a warning. I bought the M340i out of Montreal and Quebec doesn't have front plates. My luck ran out last week after 2 years without one so I finally bought a mount. When I got the bumper done on the Soarer, I managed 2 seasons before getting noticed as well.

My season may be officially over because we got our first snowstorm this past weekend. I put the Chaser in Storage Saturday and was shoveling on Sunday. The Soarer lives in my garage at home over the winter and it's supposed to rain and warm up again, so I may get a few more chances to get it out.




After having it back for a while I realized I've made the car a bit too harsh and I want to get the NVH back in check. I regret doing the Strongflex yellow subframe differential bushings. There's too much differential whine and the car just isn't smooth over 135km/h since having them installed. I'm planning on ordering the Strongflex red ones with the softer durometer and installing them over the winter.

Second item that's affecting NVH is my Parts Shop Max coilovers. I was really disappointed with the damping and overall harshness and the tag that comes with them recommends using only 6 of 32 adjustment steps depending on the spring rate. After reaching out to their tech department, the tags are misleading and they encouraged me to set them to full soft then go up from there. I set them to 12/32 front and 8/32 clicks rear and it actually feels pretty damn good for a budget coilover. I only got one drive before storage with them backed off but they're much much better now.