some more Ess z4m Supercharger pics..VT2-500 upgrade done.

[Beedub]

hi guys, i know some of you were interested with my little z4m, finally managed to get all the upgrade parts on from ess to upgrade my s/c kit from stage 1, to the stage 2, she made 507bhp with agressive vanos timing and High octane fuel, after afew issues shes now back up and running perfectly.... The s/c was damaged during the upgrade which meant the car needed a new s/c unit, luckily my Ess warranty came to the rescue and i had a brand new unit fitted within a week, pulley changes must be done with real care as you can tear the inner seal on removing the s/c pullies, also one of my oil cooler o rings split leaving a nice pool of oil on my garage floor :-) Anyhow, new s/c unit fitted and new o rings fitted, i aso took the change to really go to town with the cleaning whilst all the bits were off. Luckily this is only a summer weekend motor so i was pleased to see its in fabulous as new shape....
The vt1 was a non intercooled kit and really struggled at the track after a few runs, the vt2 answered my want list so i pulled the trigger, the new fmic and setrab oil cooler are absolutly HUGE, nice to see all stock locations are kept and no drilling at all was done to the car. i also added some stack pro step gauges, with stack wideband AFR to really keep an eye on things, unfortunatly i had to order a gauge pod from japan at huge cost to house them as the A pillar option is just pants imo, ow well it looks Great and i can monitor things much better, boost is currently 8Psi. The customer service from Ess has just been mindblowing.... Sadly the first few issues i had made me miss 2 paid for trackdays which really was gutting, anyhow my pride and joy is back and better than ever, my household also has a new little boy :-) Great times. (apart from the late nights)

The car drives really nice and now makes some much needed Tq lower in the rev range, and the pull towards to top of the rev range makes me laugh out loud :-) The car with straight pipes, s/c noise and that lovely mechanical s54 noise is imo one of the best sounds Ever!!!

i also had change to experience the s65 m3 v8 kit...... holy st!! that was awesome. Hope you guys enjoy.
my first trackday with the new gear will be next month.

the front oil cooler and intercooler, oil cooler is about double the size of the stock unit


the offending leaky part, i torqued this as tight as i dared, new orings installed, note ALL this i relocated from stock, looks perfect


im a stickler for detail, i cut down some rubber to make a buffer for the oilcooler in the extremes of braking acceration.


setrab oil cooler


underside is CLEAN!!!!


conversion piece where the leak was/ hoping isnt anymore


mean


getting their now :-)


cleaned and blacked the undertray




looking good underneath


ess billet crank pulleys


up top now with small s/c pulley



cleaning wheel well with oil splatter



intercooler can flow 700hp


insanely expensive gauges and pod, 3d design pod with stack pro stepper gauges and stack wideband, i blew my budget here tbh but it paid off, o.e look, fit and i can monitor whats happening with my motor, note where ive located power socket :-)





finally......





p.s note, the top breather hose has now been replaced with some Goodridge braided hose, the s/c unit has now been replaced with a new unit (old unit was damaged during pulley change) which i had refinished to match the engine bay :-)

enjoy!!

Edited by Beedub on Sunday 5th June 18:00

Edited by Beedub on Thursday 9th June 20:35

[sinizter]

Awesome. Really nice arrangement on the gauges. How practical is the power socket ?

[Beedub]

sinizter said:

Awesome. Really nice arrangement on the gauges. How practical is the power socket ?

sinitzer, i have a mini pigtail that i plug in which allows me to use the power from a remote location, its location isnt ideal but i didnt want to loose the power socket, and also that panel is imo the best place to relocate to, it does work well in practice with the pig tail section.

thanksfor the comments Re the gauges, really proud of those ,that particualr arrangement took months to get in, i nearly caved and did something else but i wanted a completely o.e feel to what i was doing, this particular part really did push my finances to be honest but i feel that modding has to be done to the best standard or leave as is imo.

i love the Peak recall and warning functions on these units, really nice quality items.

Doing a trackday next month and then competing with the car in the sprint championship @ curborough, with my club SDCC.

Edited by Beedub on Sunday 5th June 18:24

Edited by Beedub on Sunday 5th June 18:33

[gerradiuk]

This warrants a big WOW! Thats's absolutely amazing ,well done

[Beedub]

gerradiuk said:

This warrants a big WOW! Thats's absolutely amazing ,well done

thanks very much for the kind comments, im really proud of her :-) its taken a LOONNGG time to get her where she is today.....

[Ruskie]

What figures are you running now?

Weight/Power to weight?

[Beedub]

hi ruskie

im not to sure on the weight of the vehicle ive spent alot lowering weight where i can, but these bits all add up also, the car made 507hp at the crank....... i think the figure was 450 wheel horsepower, its feels rather spritely to say the least :-)

i had the Most aggressive Vanos tune Ess do also and this makes a big low down difference off boost, but up in the rev range is where this car shines, the car is so much fun........

the rear PS2s are really struggling at the mo, i'll be putting on my Pilot super sport soon once i fry these at the next trackday.....

[david_h]

I admire your work and attention to detail.

However, the problems you cite with the supercharger having to be replaced, was this simply due to the need to change the pulley on the charger and at that point the oil seals were damaged beyond repair?

Can you describe the issues you had under the stage 1 setup with regard cooling? I'm surprised you didn't fit an intercooler with stage 1 given the car is used mainly for track days.

[Ruskie]

Beedub said:

hi ruskie

im not to sure on the weight of the vehicle ive spent alot lowering weight where i can, but these bits all add up also, the car made 507hp at the crank....... i think the figure was 450 wheel horsepower, its feels rather spritely to say the least :-)

i had the Most aggressive Vanos tune Ess do also and this makes a big low down difference off boost, but up in the rev range is where this car shines, the car is so much fun........

the rear PS2s are really struggling at the mo, i'll be putting on my Pilot super sport soon once i fry these at the next trackday.....

Nice one cheers for the info. I bet it's lively in the wet!!

[Beedub]

david_h said:

I admire your work and attention to detail.

However, the problems you cite with the supercharger having to be replaced, was this simply due to the need to change the pulley on the charger and at that point the oil seals were damaged beyond repair?

Can you describe the issues you had under the stage 1 setup with regard cooling? I'm surprised you didn't fit an intercooler with stage 1 given the car is used mainly for track days.

hi david, VT1 was a non intercooled setup which was great, but i found heat soak an issue after a while and the car slowed after repeated track use......... The S/c unit was damaged by my tuner who removed the pulley in a way which caused internal damage, we all learned a lesson on that day, but hey we all human and within 3 days i had a brand new s/c unit from norway on my door step, this was refitted by my tuner and were really great an apologetic...... i cant say fairer than that really...... they could have simply brought a 12quid oil seal kit and rebuilt the unit, they did the right thing and got me a brand new unit.... awesome custoemr service from the kit manufacturer and my tuner......

i started with the vt1 and again i can more than recommend that kit, for what i use the car for i wanted the extra cooling parts that came with the vt2-upgrade..... VT1 is however the perfect entry kit for this car.......

Edited by Beedub on Friday 10th June 16:07

[Beedub]

Ruskie said:

Nice one cheers for the info. I bet it's lively in the wet!!

thanks ruskie.....its abit of a handful with the shortwheel base + this power, in the warm ,dry, when the tyres can deal with the power the car is awesome fun......

[BuzyG]

Luv this Z. Good to read the latest installments. Sounds like you have used the right people for the work. Looking forward to more of your video's now she'd up to warp factor 5.

[Beedub]

BuzyG said:

Luv this Z. Good to read the latest installments. Sounds like you have used the right people for the work. Looking forward to more of your video's now she'd up to warp factor 5.

cheers buzy...... first shakedown will be happening very soon, cant wait to get some clips of it all......

[david_h]

Beedub said:

hi david, VT1 was a non intercooled setup which was great, but i found heat soak an issue after a while and the car slowed after repeated track use......... The S/c unit was damaged by my tuner who removed the pulley in a way which caused internal damage, we all learned a lesson on that day, but hey we all human and within 3 days i had a brand new s/c unit from norway on my door step, this was refitted by my tuner and were really great an apologetic...... i cant say fairer than that really...... they could have simply brought a 12quid oil seal kit and rebuilt the unit, they did the right thing and got me a brand new unit.... awesome custoemr service from the kit manufacturer and my tuner......

i started with the vt1 and again i can more than recommend that kit, for what i use the car for i wanted the extra cooling parts that came with the vt2-upgrade..... VT1 is however the perfect entry kit for this car.......

Edited by Beedub on Friday 10th June 16:07

Thanks for the feedback, all very interesting especially with regard to the heat soak.

Very good of your tuner to supply a new one. You use Simpsons yes? they have an awesome reputation.

Brakes are the next on my list.

[Beedub]

david_h said:

Thanks for the feedback, all very interesting especially with regard to the heat soak.

Very good of your tuner to supply a new one. You use Simpsons yes? they have an awesome reputation.

Brakes are the next on my list.

simpson are the only people that touch this car.... they are awesome....

Once you do your brake upgrade your car will be transformed, the confidence they inspire is heroic, consistant hard pedal and speed retardation..... you can really brake late into corners with these, also very interesting to note even with the considerable size difference the complete 6pot fr 4 pot rear with huge rotors weighted in less than the stock items overall :-)

[david_h]

I can't decide whether to pull the trigger on AP racing setup (£2k) or go for the cheaper 4pot porsche brembo custom setup (about £800 for the fronts).

I'm running performance friction pads and braided hoses all round with uprated fluid. Even then, pedal feel isn't great and I've cooked them once.

[Beedub]

david_h said:

I can't decide whether to pull the trigger on AP racing setup (£2k) or go for the cheaper 4pot porsche brembo custom setup (about £800 for the fronts).

I'm running performance friction pads and braided hoses all round with uprated fluid. Even then, pedal feel isn't great and I've cooked them once.

hi david, check out the z4m forum, i know you have an e46 but bear with me, their is a guy who is selling a FULL set of APs for 1500 quid!!, they do have some mileage on them and may need pads BUT... haggle on price, spend a small amount on pads and you could have a complete AP setup for 2k...... a New Full set will cost 3.5k plus

Dont forget the z4m items transfer directly over to the e46 m3.... :-)

[david_h]

thanks, very kind for pointing out, I'll have a look now.