-
Read the WELCOME ALL BMWFANATICS post.
2009 Z4 35i Let the DIY and slight cosmetic modding begin.
- Thread starter osiris
- Start date
osiris
///Member
So Another relatively big update, well in terms of feel its massive.
for a long time I have had a very strange misfire problem on my car on cylinder 1 and 6, mostly cylinder 6 and I could never figure out why. I have revision 12 injectors. in 2020 I replaced one of them as it was leaking and while replacing it we noticed one of the injectors had a metal tab missing but didn't think much of it as the injector felt solid in the engine block. Little did I know...
So it wouldn't show itself on the stock map on stock boost/power settings but as soon as I up the boost and start doing 3rd or 4th gear pulls I would get these missfires, I replaced all the plugs to 1 step colder NGK Laser Iridium Plugs and gapped them correctly to no avail. I bought a brand new set of Delphi metal sleeved coils from BMW last year too, no fix. Fitted port methanol injection as well as charge pipe methanol injection to no avail, had the valves wallnut blasted in late 2017 or early 2018. Replaced o2 sensors I think 4 times, post cat and precat. This problem just persisted and no one could figure out why. I think I may have fixed it now finally.
Engine covers all off:
Airbox off:
Stuff covered to protect paint etc:
New Coils removed and still in pristine condition visually:
Lighter in the photo but in person a nice light brown so seem to be burning perfectly:
My buddy General.Massacre popped over to help out with his awesome Injector removal tool, He actually helped out allot as I hurt my back last week so did basic cover removals and coil removals and cleaning of all the injectors etc, he removed and refitted the injectors. Then we both refitted all the fuel rail lines etc and put everything back together.
for a long time I have had a very strange misfire problem on my car on cylinder 1 and 6, mostly cylinder 6 and I could never figure out why. I have revision 12 injectors. in 2020 I replaced one of them as it was leaking and while replacing it we noticed one of the injectors had a metal tab missing but didn't think much of it as the injector felt solid in the engine block. Little did I know...
So it wouldn't show itself on the stock map on stock boost/power settings but as soon as I up the boost and start doing 3rd or 4th gear pulls I would get these missfires, I replaced all the plugs to 1 step colder NGK Laser Iridium Plugs and gapped them correctly to no avail. I bought a brand new set of Delphi metal sleeved coils from BMW last year too, no fix. Fitted port methanol injection as well as charge pipe methanol injection to no avail, had the valves wallnut blasted in late 2017 or early 2018. Replaced o2 sensors I think 4 times, post cat and precat. This problem just persisted and no one could figure out why. I think I may have fixed it now finally.
Engine covers all off:
Airbox off:
Stuff covered to protect paint etc:
New Coils removed and still in pristine condition visually:
Lighter in the photo but in person a nice light brown so seem to be burning perfectly:
My buddy General.Massacre popped over to help out with his awesome Injector removal tool, He actually helped out allot as I hurt my back last week so did basic cover removals and coil removals and cleaning of all the injectors etc, he removed and refitted the injectors. Then we both refitted all the fuel rail lines etc and put everything back together.
Attachments
Last edited:
osiris
///Member
Pack of injector seals and seats from bmw.
First injector out:
Seals stuffed, leaking past the seals causing combustion and boost to leak past the injector seal, this really isn't a good sign:
Injector 6 seal stuffed and metal tab missing and tip badly caked, this is in the cylinder that gives the most misfires:
The tab that should be on the above injector:
How badly caked it is and the scratches in the metal from wobbling around, I will be ordering a new injector tomorrow from BMW as this is no good.
All injectors and coils etc removed and ready for new seals and cleaning:
Another bust seal on one of the other injectors.
After allot of elbow grease to get these things cleaned properly, I used engine degreaser and a microfiber towel:
Seating the new seals the correct way and fitted the new crusher washer thingamajig lol
First injector out:
Seals stuffed, leaking past the seals causing combustion and boost to leak past the injector seal, this really isn't a good sign:
Injector 6 seal stuffed and metal tab missing and tip badly caked, this is in the cylinder that gives the most misfires:
The tab that should be on the above injector:
How badly caked it is and the scratches in the metal from wobbling around, I will be ordering a new injector tomorrow from BMW as this is no good.
All injectors and coils etc removed and ready for new seals and cleaning:
Another bust seal on one of the other injectors.
After allot of elbow grease to get these things cleaned properly, I used engine degreaser and a microfiber towel:
Seating the new seals the correct way and fitted the new crusher washer thingamajig lol
osiris
///Member
A good soaking of all the tips for cleaning for around an hour or so.
So the outcome of all this after refitting is day and night, the car has never felt this good before, the throttle has become extremely sensitive now and it idles incredibly smoothly. The drive is so much better and the car seems to surge with power I would imagine this is due to no boost escaping past the injector seals and the cleaning of the injector tips which would clean up the spray pattern allowing it to atomize a bit better. All in all a great fix, we did multiple pulls to test the car out back to back and got no more cylinder 6 misfires and the car pulled smoothly all the way to redline.
I am going to order a new injector tomorrow though and a new oil cap as mine seems to be leaking a bit.
A big shout out to General.Massacre for the help as always and as always its great to work on my car with a good buddy and its always a good outcome as we are both incredibly OCD so we do everything properly and to the book and torque everything to spec.
More updates to follow soon.
So the outcome of all this after refitting is day and night, the car has never felt this good before, the throttle has become extremely sensitive now and it idles incredibly smoothly. The drive is so much better and the car seems to surge with power I would imagine this is due to no boost escaping past the injector seals and the cleaning of the injector tips which would clean up the spray pattern allowing it to atomize a bit better. All in all a great fix, we did multiple pulls to test the car out back to back and got no more cylinder 6 misfires and the car pulled smoothly all the way to redline.
I am going to order a new injector tomorrow though and a new oil cap as mine seems to be leaking a bit.
A big shout out to General.Massacre for the help as always and as always its great to work on my car with a good buddy and its always a good outcome as we are both incredibly OCD so we do everything properly and to the book and torque everything to spec.
More updates to follow soon.
General.Massacre
///Member
Yo yo yo. The car is pulling so smooth.
Always a pleasure working on the car dude. It amazing the confidence and the outcome when you have have the right tools for the job and not Bush mechanicing sh!t.
As you showed, Cyl6 injector without the locating tab may be wobbling inside the port, but can't be sure if it's previous damage or not. I don't believe it's caused damage to the head.
Look forward to having us both work on the E92 soon and get us both having pristine running cars.
Enjoy the smooth running man. Shout when you get the new Injector and I'll come fit and Code it.
Always a pleasure working on the car dude. It amazing the confidence and the outcome when you have have the right tools for the job and not Bush mechanicing sh!t.
As you showed, Cyl6 injector without the locating tab may be wobbling inside the port, but can't be sure if it's previous damage or not. I don't believe it's caused damage to the head.
Look forward to having us both work on the E92 soon and get us both having pristine running cars.
Enjoy the smooth running man. Shout when you get the new Injector and I'll come fit and Code it.
osiris
///Member
Thanks man, Yea it was pretty astonishing as to how smooth the car became after this. Tomorrow the new injector arrives so I can replace that dodgy Injector with the missing tab and have piece of mind!
LOL @ "Bush mechanicing sh!t"
"Look forward to having us both work on the E92 soon and get us both having pristine running cars."
Yup we need to time-lapse it this time, know anyone with a GoPro?
osiris
///Member
Thanks man, yea its been quite the journey that's for sure! It's never ending but now days its mostly fixing things like the above which is very seldom or aesthetics and general upkeep.
osiris
///Member
Ok so here comes another relatively big post this has been a very busy weekend, Justin (General.Massacre) and I were up till 3am last night with the intake and methanol install of a second solenoid. But first lets start with the easy stuff that made a big difference to my car too.
So first up my bonnet shocks have been driving me crazy, they held the bonnet up but every time less and less till it was barely able to hold the thing up. One day it was going to fall on my head for sure.
New shocks curtesy of ABM BMW:
old shocks out, this was a really really easy job that took me less than 5min, just a flat screwdriver to remove the metal clip and it pops right off.
installed!
It lifts itself open now even
Next up steering wheel! I actually upgraded to an msport steering wheel a while back, it wasn't in a bad condition at all however when I was at MD house yesterday I saw another one and it was in very good condition so I snatched it up. I will show the state of my current steering wheel which was actually just dirty and I did clean it afterwards and will have it up for sale but let the pics do the talking:
How shiny it was....I HATE shiny steering wheels!
The back of it! I thought this was worn leather but its just dirt!, after cleaning this thing it came out really well. but wait till you see the new one
When I found it. In its non shiny state I was already sold. I walked back to my car and then thought no, z4 e89 msport steering wheel is Heins teeth I'm buying it!
Did some cleaning
I mean this is the new wheel and look how manky it is haha, but I really wish I took a photo of my current steering wheels water after cleaning, it was absolutely disgusting to say the least!
and now onto how good it has come out and after fitment! in the next post due to image number limitations.
So first up my bonnet shocks have been driving me crazy, they held the bonnet up but every time less and less till it was barely able to hold the thing up. One day it was going to fall on my head for sure.
New shocks curtesy of ABM BMW:
old shocks out, this was a really really easy job that took me less than 5min, just a flat screwdriver to remove the metal clip and it pops right off.
installed!
It lifts itself open now even
Next up steering wheel! I actually upgraded to an msport steering wheel a while back, it wasn't in a bad condition at all however when I was at MD house yesterday I saw another one and it was in very good condition so I snatched it up. I will show the state of my current steering wheel which was actually just dirty and I did clean it afterwards and will have it up for sale but let the pics do the talking:
How shiny it was....I HATE shiny steering wheels!
The back of it! I thought this was worn leather but its just dirt!, after cleaning this thing it came out really well. but wait till you see the new one
When I found it. In its non shiny state I was already sold. I walked back to my car and then thought no, z4 e89 msport steering wheel is Heins teeth I'm buying it!
Did some cleaning
I mean this is the new wheel and look how manky it is haha, but I really wish I took a photo of my current steering wheels water after cleaning, it was absolutely disgusting to say the least!
and now onto how good it has come out and after fitment! in the next post due to image number limitations.
Last edited:
osiris
///Member
Removal was very simply, I have gotten this down to a fine art, takes me literally less than a a minute to get the air bag off. Remember for anyone trying this themselves please disconnect the negative terminal from the battery and leave the car for at least 30min to be on the safe side, setting an air bag off will put you in hospital and if you don't set the air bag off you could cause the airbag light to come on and that will be a ball ache to get rid of.
New steering wheel after cleaning! Damn she is beautiful!
Oh she is beautiful, the car looks new inside and feels new too, this was before I stuck the msport badge onto the wheel which I took off the old one.
Right now that the bonnet shocks and steering wheel is out the way, onto the important stuff!
New steering wheel after cleaning! Damn she is beautiful!
Oh she is beautiful, the car looks new inside and feels new too, this was before I stuck the msport badge onto the wheel which I took off the old one.
Right now that the bonnet shocks and steering wheel is out the way, onto the important stuff!
osiris
///Member
So as I explained previously I have had funky missfires in cylinder 6 and 1, 6 was due to a funky injector due to the metal tab missing causing it to sit too far in the cylinder which causes bad spray and bad carbon buildup on the head of the injector and if left for too long, along with a bad decoupler can actually cause damage to the head, luckily this wasn't the case with me as the decoupler was alright so the head is still perfect and the new injector went in with a very nice tight snug fit and since then no missfires in cylinder 6 again, not once!
Now Cylinder 1 had another issue that was hard to narrow down but I thought outside the box and used some common sense and came to the conclusion that due to only having one solenoid for the methanol system which was controlling flow to the port distribution block and then also the charge pipe injection which is at the end of the distribution block which holds the 3 pipes going into bank 1. I was having misfires in cylinder 1 if the car went into vacuum once the pedal was at zero throttle and if brakes were pressed which automatically puts the manifold under vacuum. If no solenoid is at the end of the distribution block then under vacuum the remaining methanol in the lines is being pulled into bank 1 and especially cylinder 1 causing strange pops and bangs and flames out the exhaust which sounds nice but it isn't supposed to happen under these circumstances.
So I ordered another solenoid from coolboost who I have been using for years with phenomenal support, Brendan and his team always come to the party for me and always help me out even on a weekend when I need a part he will open the shop and help me out so a big shout out to performance products SA for all the help over the years. Postage was fast and prompt!
Right now onto the big work as this was a monster of a job to say the least as General.Massacre and I spent from around 15:30 to 03:15am busy with this as we went all out making this an incredible install and also making sure that its 100% plug and play so that we can easy remove the entire manifold next time without cutting any wires etc, so I built plugs for everything (water proof plugs obviously as I do like to keep my engine bay clean).
Prepping the car! Thank goodness for the new bonnet shocks else this job would have sucked!
Airbox and throttle body removed and all other things like tmap sensor wires etc.
Manifold off!
Front on view of everything removed.
Almost 5 years later and my intake valves are still in immaculate condition, I really think all N54 owners should install port meth for this reason alone! Don't need to tune for meth just have it installed so that you don't cake up your valves with gunk every 15 - 30k km, The proof is in the pudding guys! You can go back to previous posts in this thread and have a look at how bad my valves were before the carbon clean in 2017.
I wish I installed methanol sooner cause these would look brand new still if I did. And I do not have an oil catch can! nor do I want one!
How incredibly clean my intake runners are due to the methanol injection too, this compared to my old manifold is a joke!
Current setup before installing the seconday Solenoid on the other side of this distribution block!
Cutting and soldering wires to create plugs for easy install and removal.
Plugs sorted, will wrap in conduit as you will see in the following pics.
Now Cylinder 1 had another issue that was hard to narrow down but I thought outside the box and used some common sense and came to the conclusion that due to only having one solenoid for the methanol system which was controlling flow to the port distribution block and then also the charge pipe injection which is at the end of the distribution block which holds the 3 pipes going into bank 1. I was having misfires in cylinder 1 if the car went into vacuum once the pedal was at zero throttle and if brakes were pressed which automatically puts the manifold under vacuum. If no solenoid is at the end of the distribution block then under vacuum the remaining methanol in the lines is being pulled into bank 1 and especially cylinder 1 causing strange pops and bangs and flames out the exhaust which sounds nice but it isn't supposed to happen under these circumstances.
So I ordered another solenoid from coolboost who I have been using for years with phenomenal support, Brendan and his team always come to the party for me and always help me out even on a weekend when I need a part he will open the shop and help me out so a big shout out to performance products SA for all the help over the years. Postage was fast and prompt!
Right now onto the big work as this was a monster of a job to say the least as General.Massacre and I spent from around 15:30 to 03:15am busy with this as we went all out making this an incredible install and also making sure that its 100% plug and play so that we can easy remove the entire manifold next time without cutting any wires etc, so I built plugs for everything (water proof plugs obviously as I do like to keep my engine bay clean).
Prepping the car! Thank goodness for the new bonnet shocks else this job would have sucked!
Airbox and throttle body removed and all other things like tmap sensor wires etc.
Manifold off!
Front on view of everything removed.
Almost 5 years later and my intake valves are still in immaculate condition, I really think all N54 owners should install port meth for this reason alone! Don't need to tune for meth just have it installed so that you don't cake up your valves with gunk every 15 - 30k km, The proof is in the pudding guys! You can go back to previous posts in this thread and have a look at how bad my valves were before the carbon clean in 2017.
I wish I installed methanol sooner cause these would look brand new still if I did. And I do not have an oil catch can! nor do I want one!
How incredibly clean my intake runners are due to the methanol injection too, this compared to my old manifold is a joke!
Current setup before installing the seconday Solenoid on the other side of this distribution block!
Cutting and soldering wires to create plugs for easy install and removal.
Plugs sorted, will wrap in conduit as you will see in the following pics.
Last edited:
osiris
///Member
New solenoid fitted in the perfect location to allow perfect clearance, so this basically means that when the solenoids close no vacuum from the manifold can pull from the throttle body pipe or anything due to a complete blockage of the system.
Wiring after soldering and now heatshring, so heatshring over the individual wires and then heatstrink over those to further protect the wires.
Applying conduit and neatening things up nicely.
Final cleaned up install of wiring and piping, We tested both solenoids via a battery charger supplying 12V to make sure both function perfectly.
Here is General.Massacre busy holding the charge pipe nozzle in a bottle while I prime the system and he checks inside each port to make sure all nozzles are spraying correctly!
Further final adjustments of each pipe and nozzle.
A cool little video of the system priming to show how well its working, I should have filmed inside each runner to show how it sprays inside but it was getting messy lol but its working beautifully!
A nice neat install of the flow sensor and wiring as you can see the plugs are nicely hidden away but easily accessible, I also took old O2 sensor sheething and placed it over the methanol pipe closest to the block to protect from heat not that its needed I'm just OCD about stuff like that.
And after everything is all fitted and done!
We took the car for a drive and did quite a few 3rd to 5th gear pulls to test and the car now runs flawlessly! what a difference!
I have now also ordered the coil overs from Shaheen at the Wheel shop so this should arrive in the next few weeks and if I can I will buy a front lip from Firi at rennzport which will really give the car its final touches.
But for now this car is amazing to drive, its incredibly smooth, the power due to the fixed up methanol setup is very linear and smooth and Sheheen fixing the buckled rims on the left have made this car a pleasure to drive. The steering wheel well....That was just the cherry on the top.
Big shout out to General.Massacre again for coming over and helping out. Guys we will be putting up a huge Turbo install DIY on the forum soon for his car so keep a look out for that too.
Wiring after soldering and now heatshring, so heatshring over the individual wires and then heatstrink over those to further protect the wires.
Applying conduit and neatening things up nicely.
Final cleaned up install of wiring and piping, We tested both solenoids via a battery charger supplying 12V to make sure both function perfectly.
Here is General.Massacre busy holding the charge pipe nozzle in a bottle while I prime the system and he checks inside each port to make sure all nozzles are spraying correctly!
Further final adjustments of each pipe and nozzle.A cool little video of the system priming to show how well its working, I should have filmed inside each runner to show how it sprays inside but it was getting messy lol but its working beautifully!
A nice neat install of the flow sensor and wiring as you can see the plugs are nicely hidden away but easily accessible, I also took old O2 sensor sheething and placed it over the methanol pipe closest to the block to protect from heat not that its needed I'm just OCD about stuff like that.
And after everything is all fitted and done!
We took the car for a drive and did quite a few 3rd to 5th gear pulls to test and the car now runs flawlessly! what a difference!
I have now also ordered the coil overs from Shaheen at the Wheel shop so this should arrive in the next few weeks and if I can I will buy a front lip from Firi at rennzport which will really give the car its final touches.
But for now this car is amazing to drive, its incredibly smooth, the power due to the fixed up methanol setup is very linear and smooth and Sheheen fixing the buckled rims on the left have made this car a pleasure to drive. The steering wheel well....That was just the cherry on the top.
Big shout out to General.Massacre again for coming over and helping out. Guys we will be putting up a huge Turbo install DIY on the forum soon for his car so keep a look out for that too.
Last edited:
General.Massacre
///Member
Dude... the install went flawless. And Holy hell your car just pulls, and pulls and pulls. It's frightening.
Definitely the cleanest (well... OCD does that to a person lol) and most well maintained cars on this forum.
I'm going to say one of the strongest too.
Always lekker to get my hands dirty with you buddy. Thanks for the opportunity.
Nick we met shortly after you purchased this cab at a dyno day. From where it was to where it stands today, it chalk and cheese bud.
Great to see the amount of work and passion put into it. Truly remarkable.
Keep it up guys
Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk
Great to see the amount of work and passion put into it. Truly remarkable.
Keep it up guys
Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk
osiris
///Member
Thanks guys, was an awesome little project to work on again and the car is driving even better and the irritations caused by not having a second solenoid at the end of the distribution block are now completely erased.
Will keep the updates coming, I am thinking of maybe doing an F30 Msport brake upgrade for the front brakes as the back is a major mission due to the ebrake. But will see how that goes.
Will keep the updates coming, I am thinking of maybe doing an F30 Msport brake upgrade for the front brakes as the back is a major mission due to the ebrake. But will see how that goes.
