E89 Z4 35i Turbo Replacement DIY

[General.Massacre]

Ah was waiting for this thread to come up, wasnt present for the first half of the strip down, but damn, this job was big, and we sweated bullets for a few parts near the end, but this car came together well.
have to commend Nick about his OCD about placing the bolts and screws and nuts in their places and keeping seperate cups in order of them being used.
this allowed not a single bolt or nut being left over.
plus everything being torqued correctly meant actually not a single leak on the start up like Nick said. i was super impressed with what we accomplished in the space and time we had available.
Listening to the car start especially on the first turn was sublime, and noting no drips on the floor of oil or coolant was even better.
this is how a car should be put back together, with Finesse and a degree of OCD. nothing worse than a come back to have stuff done a second time that should of been done correctly the first time.

We both learned a tonne with this, thanks Nick for the opportunity to help and assist with your beast. this car is going to be strong.

 

[Clint@MMS AUTO]

Hey Nick, Awesome work buddy... Glad the thread king managed to get that sucker out... The workmanship is impressive and you really cleaned up well.

Thanks for also offering to help me out last minutes thursday night! you are a legend sir! :bravo:

 

[ZANMANWP]

Great work Nick and thank you for the kind words :smilebounce:

 

[osiris]

Thank you for all the kind words guys, and thanks for all the support to everyone that helped me out with parts ZANMANWP and General.Massacre for all the help.

Replacing the engine mounts saved you from many future repairs. Consider doing the right side engine mount too.

Thanks man. I did replace Left and right engine mounts so that is sorted :thumbs:

And that is a proper DIY. Well done gents.

Mods please sticky this thread.

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk

Thanks dude, would be awesome if this was stickied :ty:

Nice write up, care to share the costs of some of the parts and speciality tools you had to purchase for this project?

Thanks man, I will get all the invoices together of what all of this cost me in total. It wasn't cheap though.

 

[BeemerFanatic]

Wow this is brilliant work and such a good write up. Well done Nick!
:thumbs::thumbs:

 

[NBN]

Thank you for all the kind words guys, and thanks for all the support to everyone that helped me out with parts ZANMANWP and General.Massacre for all the help.

Replacing the engine mounts saved you from many future repairs. Consider doing the right side engine mount too.

Thanks man. I did replace Left and right engine mounts so that is sorted :thumbs:

And that is a proper DIY. Well done gents.

Mods please sticky this thread.

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk

Thanks dude, would be awesome if this was stickied :ty:

Nice write up, care to share the costs of some of the parts and speciality tools you had to purchase for this project?

Thanks man, I will get all the invoices together of what all of this cost me in total. It wasn't cheap though.

I'm my mind, it's more about the piece of mind of having the job done properly versus paying someone a big amount and then still having dodgy work/shortcuts etc etc. I'd personally rather invest in the 'speciality' tools than paying someone to do a job...This is way beyond my mechanical aptitude hence kudo's to you for under taking such a mammoth task.

 

[Woodies]

Wow, proper job, great workmanship and an amazing write up! So good to see things being done the 100% correct way. If only the BMW workshops took this level of pride

 

[osiris]

Hey Nick, Awesome work buddy... Glad the thread king managed to get that sucker out... The workmanship is impressive and you really cleaned up well.

Thanks for also offering to help me out last minutes thursday night! you are a legend sir! :bravo:

Thanks man, yea I was stressing bullets about that stud being stuck in the motor! :thumbdo:

Always a pleasure but glad you managed to come right in the end. :thumbs:

 

[UpNcOmiNg!]

raise:

Amazing work mate!
Really is fantastic what you were able to achieve there considering the limitations!
I would be well out of my depth taking this on!

Out of interest, what engine cleaner did you use?

 

[kingh135]

:bravo:

 

[ZaynM]

Awesome Work done!!

My garage is the same size, and has the same floor as yours. This is really inspiring.

Thanks for sharing.

---

Oh, and the biggest item that caught my attention, was your garage door. Same as mine!

 

[Diesel]

Well done. raise:

 

[osiris]

raise:

Amazing work mate!
Really is fantastic what you were able to achieve there considering the limitations!
I would be well out of my depth taking this on!

Out of interest, what engine cleaner did you use?

Thank man. Appreciate the kind words.
Here is the engine cleaner I used. I also used the blue one which is water based. The red one in this pic is solvent based.

 

[individj]

i think many people would be surprised at what they could do if they committed to doing it....to me the important bit here was the correct tools and planning...but also storage of bolts and parts etc. Well done again.
i would bring up that "i upgraded my turbos myself" convo every single chance i got hahahahahahhaha
"oh sorry did you say gerbil...i thought you were talking about my turbos...which i did myself"

 

[K0dAx]

Amazing work! raise: Now this is what I call DIY goals :thumbs:

 

[osiris]

i think many people would be surprised at what they could do if they committed to doing it....to me the important bit here was the correct tools and planning...but also storage of bolts and parts etc. Well done again.
i would bring up that "i upgraded my turbos myself" convo every single chance i got hahahahahahhaha
"oh sorry did you say gerbil...i thought you were talking about my turbos...which i did myself"

Thanks man. I can definitely agree with you on that one. Its all about the planning and sorting methods. I know I'm overboard OCD but I swear it helps with a job like this. I use a tool and once I'm done I get up and go put it back in the tool box in its little compartment and this made life so much easier as I was always able to find the right tool. Drives me nuts when a socket is missing cause its rolled off behind the toolbox or something.

That last bit :roflol: I must agree though, I always said in the past that this was the one job I won't take on with my car. So I'm quite happy I did and I hope my write up helps guys out there to try this on their own!

 

[Shuaib1]

Great write up man :bravo: Makes me want to do mine when the time comes. How does the new turbos perform? I am really interested in this upgrade.

 

[osiris]

Great write up man :bravo: Makes me want to do mine when the time comes. How does the new turbos perform? I am really interested in this upgrade.

Thanks man.

So I’ve been driving the car for roughly 2 weeks since doing this and I must say the car feels great. Better than it’s ever felt by quite a long shot. I think that has allot to do with the engine mounts though as the overall ride quality just feels great. I have no changed upper and lower control arms as well as both engine mounts.

Onto the turbo. Firstly with the inlets this car is like drugs, the sound from the turbos and inlets is completely addictive so there is that. Then the power I’m feeling is also allot better, midrange and top end the car just keeps pulling where it used to die at the top it now just pulls harder and harder.

So far I am very happy with everything. I had a few issues at first with regards to some knocking sound that I thought was the subframe but actually turned out to be my radiator being loose. So I’ve sorted that out and the car is 100% now. :smilebounce:

 

[osiris]

So its been roughly around 7 - 8 months now since this job was done and I thought I would come back to this thread and report on how the car is doing since all this was done.

The car is performing well and driving well. Hasn't skipped a beat since other than a leaky injector that was replaced last week along with a valve cover gasket that needed replacing as I was having a bit of a leak in the middle of the valve cover and oil was dripping into a spark plug well. Turns out the previous mechanic (Autoworx) who I used when I first got the car and didn't know any better, Decided that using ten tons of gasket sealant was a great idea. We replaced the gasket without a drop of sealant and no leaks in sight!

Other than that the car has been used daily since this job was done, it makes great power and runs flawlessly.

I will be doing an oil change this weekend again to keep her nice and healthy!

 

[PLV]

Great stuff as always bud!

raise: