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I'd like to see who's done water/air cooler setups on a top mount turbo system for their m30e28. I'm looking for some ideas as to the best solution for plumbing, heat exchanger and intercooler locations for my own build. Any ingenious and efficient solutions out there?

Christian is this necessitated by your RHD? I always wonder how you guys deal with the lack of room on that side.

Coldswede wrote:Christian is this necessitated by your RHD? I always wonder how you guys deal with the lack of room on that side.

It is indeed. I could convert to a steering rack, but its not something I'm interested in doing, however with the box on the RHS, it makes routing a dump pipe difficult, and impossible to run a low mount turbo. I'm yet to find an e28 m30 high mount turbo down here. It's been done in the UK, but most are pretty messy and are air/air setups for the cooler, whereas I want to minimize as much pipe routing as possible. It'll be quite a bespoke setup, so I'm looking for some good solutions before I finish purchasing parts.

Keep in mind that with A/W you will still need large heat exchangers in the front of the car. To get proper cooling they will take more space than a A/A intercooler. You will also need hoses and a pump. Plus a A/W intercoolers tend to be pretty large themselves.

Since you have to go top mount I would run A/A and possibly move the TB to the other side of the manifold. I have seen them done very clean and OE looking if done right.

Can be done quite neatly ... I've used a modified Miller Aftercooler, and a custiom 3rd radiator in the nose with good resultes in my e24 ...

Not sure how to post pics on this forum but yes, I'm in Melb and could arange a view of my car if you like ...

clongo wrote:Keep in mind that with A/W you will still need large heat exchangers in the front of the car. To get proper cooling they will take more space than a A/A intercooler. You will also need hoses and a pump. Plus a A/W intercoolers tend to be pretty large themselves.

Since you have to go top mount I would run A/A and possibly move the TB to the other side of the manifold. I have seen them done very clean and OE looking if done right.

This I've considered. I too have seen many flipped throttle turbo setups, and can attest to their cleanliness if done right. Basically, the primary reason I'd prefer to go A/W, is to avoid having a large front mount intercooler, and it's associated rad support modifying pipework, as this is not only something I'm against cosmetically (cutting factory sheet metal seems like a shortcut, I prefer to find logical solutions the hard way if necc. ), but modifying the chassic/body in any way is highly illegal here. It's unlikely I'd ever have any trouble with the law, as the car is on historic plates, however unless I get the car engineered ($$$), in the event the car is involved in a front end accident and they find holes cut for intercooler pipes on their assessment, the car will no longer be insured.

With a A/W heat exchanger, no holes have to be cut, the radiator itself can be slimline (although with no A/C I have plenty of room in the nose cavity for such things), and the water line diameters are far below that of the cooler piping. The only problem is the location of the cooler. My first thought was actually to run a A/W cooler on top of the valve cover ie. TCD, and swap the steering box for a rack and pinion to run low mount, but I like the m5 steering box, and prefer to keep this system factory. I've actually got access to an Alpina B7 Turbo inlet manifold, and if I'd thought about this build properly I'd have gone the Alpina route instead of the Hartge, as now it'd be sacrilege to have a Hartge cosmetic clone, with Alpina engine parts, so I need another solution. Perhaps depending on what size intercooler piping I end up going with, a front mount may be the best option. I am a panel beater by trade so I'll have no problem massaging rad support openings, it was just something I'd hoped to avoid if possible.

Unless I just run 7lb boost and no cooler, with meth injection..

zman wrote:Can be done quite neatly ... I've used a modified Miller Aftercooler, and a custiom 3rd radiator in the nose with good resultes in my e24 ...

Not sure how to post pics on this forum but yes, I'm in Melb and could arange a view of my car if you like ...

That would be rather useful. For pics, there's a tool here for uploading them onto this forum. Your car isn't perchance the black e24 that was built at MBM is it?

No ..not the black car ...

Interesting. I'd very much like to pick your brains and have a look at your setup sometime. You available this weekend? Where in Melbourne are you located?

zman, hot any pics of your manifold?

Was considering a TDC top mount .. but I thought I would have issues with access to plugs etc ...

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